How to play

An album is your complete forecast of the tournament-every group order and every knockout winner, all the way to the trophy. You build it once, seal it, and share the link. Here's each step.

1 · Order the groups

The 48 teams are drawn into twelve groups of four (A through L). For each group, you set the finishing order from first to fourth by tapping the teams in the order you expect them to finish. The top two of every group advance automatically, so this is where you make your first big calls — who wins the group, and who scrapes into second.

2 · Pick the best third-placed teams

2026 has a twist: the eight best third-placed teams also advance to the knockouts. After you've ordered all twelve groups, you choose which eight of the twelve third-placed sides go through. The other four are eliminated. This is the trickiest judgement call in the whole album-a strong team that finishes third in a tough group can still go deep.

3 · The round of 32

Your group results feed a fixed bracket, so the round of 32 matchups are generated automatically from your picks. You simply choose the winner of each tie to advance. No extra setup-just call the upsets.

4–6 · Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals

From here it's a straight ladder. Pick the winner of every round of 16 tie, then the quarter-finals, then the semi-finals. Each pick narrows the field until you have your two finalists. A wrong call early ripples all the way up, so this is where albums really start to differ from one another.

7 · The final

Choose your champion. This is the headline of your album-the team whose name sits at the top of your page and travels with every share.

8 · Seal it

Add a handle (and optionally your country), then seal the album. You get a permanent link and a shareable image. Once sealed, your album appears on the table, where other people can rate it.

Live scoring

Once the tournament kicks off, every album is scored against the real results and the table re-ranks by accuracy instead of votes. Points are round-weighted-deep, correct calls are worth far more than a tidy group stage:

• 1 pt per team you place in the right group position
• 2 pts per correct best-third qualifier
• 3 / 5 / 8 / 12 pts for each team you correctly send to the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final
• 25 pts for calling the champion

Your album page tracks all of this live-which picks have hit, how many of your final eight are still standing, and whether your champion is still alive. Scores grow as results land, so it's worth checking back each match day.

After you seal

• Ratings. Visitors give each album a thumbs up or down. Before kickoff the community rating is what ranks the table-bold but well-argued albums tend to rise.
• Compare. Put any two albums side by side to see your exact percentage of agreement, group by group and round by round.
• Share. Post your link to settle the argument before a ball is kicked.

Want the lay of the land first? Read the tournament guide for a group-by-group preview of all 48 teams, or just start your album now →