Longshots tips

The public homepage, the launch post and Balls.ie all say the same thing: a rarer correct answer scores from further out. “Obscure to you” is not enough. The answer has to be valid, and it has to be less likely than the name the crowd will type first.

The one rule

A 20-second routine

1. Read the constraint: club, competition, country, era.
2. Name three answers you are sure are valid.
3. Cross out the first name a casual fan would type.
4. If two people share a surname, try the first name as well. Players reported that once; it is not a published rule.
5. Shoot before the clock ends. A tap-in beats a blank.

Question shapes we have actually seen

The public archive on 6 November 2026 showed the first three tags of past days, not the full seven. Match day 1: World Cup hosts, Liverpool Premier League scorers, Premier League clubs. Match day 2: Bundesliga clubs, Arsenal Premier League scorers, World Cup nations. Match day 3: FA Cup winners, Chelsea Premier League scorers, World Cup final scorers. Players also described a Premier League hat-trick question and a La Liga question on match day 3. I call this “what we have seen”, not a complete list of question types.

Worked examples that are not today’s answers

• Ballon d’Or winners: Joe Gilmore said Messi is the 6-yard answer. A deeper cut has to be someone who won it and whom fewer people will type. I will not name a yardage for a specific deep cut.
• Manchester United Premier League scorers: Balls.ie contrasts Wayne Rooney with Mame Biram Diouf. Rooney is the crowd answer. Diouf is the shape of a deeper cut. I do not assign him a band.
• Premier League clubs: the famous clubs may be popular answers if the question is “name a club”. A club with fewer seasons in the league is the direction to think. I do not promise a keeper’s goal for any club.

When a correct name is rejected

Gilmore said the answer lists were still being completed and asked people to report valid answers that get rejected. The terms say to report that from the team sheet. North Stand Chat reports conflicting experiences with Evan Ferguson on a hat-trick question: one player was prompted for a first name, while another still received Blocked after adding it. That single thread does not establish a dependable name-order rule.

After the round, read the team sheet. It shows every valid answer by band and the share of today’s players. The 100-yard line stays hidden until tomorrow, so you cannot study the rarest answer on the day you play it.