Every roster game has a score. In All 22 Football the score is a record, and the record that matters is 17-0. The challenge is simple to state and miserable to complete: fill all 22 starting jobs — 11 on offense, 11 on defense — from the full 1,025-entry National Dex, then hand the finished board to a 17-game season simulator and watch the schedule get meaner every week. One loss ends the run.
The rules of the 17-0 challenge
The challenge is a discipline test, not a puzzle with a trick answer. There is nothing to unlock and no bonus that makes the perfect season easy. The rules fit on an index card, and every one of them removes an escape hatch.
- Fill all 22 slots. The simulator refuses to run until quarterback, running back, both receivers, tight end, five linemen, kicker, two edge rushers, two defensive tackles, three linebackers, two cornerbacks and two safeties are all staffed.
- Duplicates are legal, and the ceiling build uses them. Nothing stops you dropping the same Pokémon into two slots, and the highest-graded board in the pool does exactly that — one immense body fills all four tackle and guard jobs. A purist run (22 different names) grades a few points lower and wins about half a game less per season, so play however you enjoy it, and say which version you posted.
- No mid-season fixes. The season runs in one pass. Whatever your board grades before the first snap is what plays all 17 weeks.
- One loss ends it. There is no playoff berth to fall back on and no wild card. A 16-1 board is a great team and a failed attempt.
- Same calendar for every board. The 17 opponents, which week each one is played and the home-and-road pattern are fixed — only a couple of points of game-day form differ between runs — so a record can be compared fairly against any other.
If you want to learn the position weights before you take the challenge seriously, spend a few minutes on the all 22 positions explained page first. The board punishes guesses faster than it rewards famous names.
The schedule is the real opponent
A 17-0 run is decided by two things: how good your board is, and whether it survives a schedule shaped to punish weak slots. The simulator hands every board the same familiar shape: the first weeks are the soft part of the calendar, the middle is a coin flip, and the last five weeks are a wall. Opponent ratings run from 38 in week 1 to 76 in week 17 with a little game-day noise on top, and they do not move when your board gets better.
| Weeks | Opponent rating | Win rate — 69-rated board | Win rate — 56-rated board |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | 38 to 44 | 97% down to 94% | 89% down to 79% |
| 5–8 | 46 to 52 | 93% down to 87% | 75% down to 61% |
| 9–12 | 54 to 60 | 84% down to 73% | 56% down to 39% |
| 13–17 | 62 to 76 | 68% down to 31% | 34% down to 10% |
Read the two percentage columns together and the whole challenge appears. The two boards are fourteen points apart in overall rating and the gap compounds: early weeks are a formality for both, then weeks 9 to 12 separate them completely, and by week 17 the elite board is still winning a third of its games while the average board is winning one in ten. Winning the coin flips late is the difficulty.
Every point of overall rating is a point you keep
Opponent strength is fixed. The league does not get harder because your board got better, so rating you add is edge you keep for all seventeen weeks. Measured over 4,000 simulated seasons per row:
| Overall | How the board was built | Average wins | Perfect seasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 69 | Best-fit body at all 22 jobs | 13.2 | 0.6% |
| 63 | Always pick from the top three | 11.7 | 0.07% |
| 59 | Always pick from the top ten | 10.3 | Never seen |
| 56 | Always pick from the top twenty-five | 9.2 | Never seen |
| 51 | Always pick from the top sixty | 7.5 | Never seen |
| 45 | Whatever is left at the bottom | 5.3 | Never seen |
- The curve is monotonic, not flat. Every tier of board wins more than the tier below it. There is no plateau above which extra grade stops mattering — the two highest rows differ by six rating points and by 1.5 wins a season.
- Small edges decide the perfect season. Between the 63-rated and the 69-rated board, average wins move by 1.5 — but perfect seasons move from one in about 1,400 to one in about 170. The undefeated badge is bought with the last few points of grade.
- A board that ignores the thin positions cannot recover. Edge rusher, center and kicker have the shallowest pools. Miss the two or three bodies that clear 65 grade at those jobs and no amount of stacking at receiver or running back pays it back.
The practical rule is to clear a real grade at all 22 jobs before chasing ceilings anywhere. A 62-grade kicker and a 74-grade tackle live on the same board, and both are worth more than a 74-grade receiver sitting behind a 40-grade edge rusher, because the team rating is an average — every slot pulls.
Why most boards fail
Failed runs are almost never failed at quarterback. They fail at the four or five jobs where the pool has no depth, and they fail because the board was finished rather than built. These are the recurring causes.
- The edge spots get one body. Only one player in the pool grades 65 or better at right edge, and the left edge list is not much deeper. Filling one edge with a real pass rusher and the other with whatever is left is the single most common way a run dies.
- The line is three tackles and two warm bodies. Five offensive line jobs are graded separately. Grading at center reads defense and sp. attack more than weight, so the best center is not the same body as the best right tackle.
- Famous names in wrong jobs. A 20 m, 950 kg dragon is a fascinating pick and a below-average receiver. Popular picks with the wrong height and weight band lose more grade than an unknown body that fits the range.
- Receivers stacked too early. Receiver is the deepest premium position in the pool, so two of the first three picks spent at receiver buys grade that was going to be there in round six anyway.
- The kicker slot gets the leftovers. The kicker slot grades on HP and defense with a tiny body sweet spot. It is the cheapest job on the board, but a warm body at 40 grade still costs games.
The 17-0 run is a build test first and a luck test second. Fix the five thin positions before you fix the flashy ones — the 17-0 blueprint walks through the roster rules in pick order, and the roster rules guide covers the size and typing rules the grader actually reads.
What a 17-0 board looks like
The best board the pool allows is not a team of the most famous Pokémon. It is a team that clears a grade floor at all 22 jobs, with the extra points spent where the pool is thin. Here is the ceiling at every job, taken straight from the grading model, so you can see how high each slot can realistically go.
| Job | Highest grade in the pool | Best fit | What the grade reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| LT / LG / RG / RT | 74 | Avalugg (2.0 m, 505 kg) | defense, HP, attack |
| DT1 / DT2 | 73 | Avalugg, Aggron | defense, HP, weight |
| WR1 / WR2 | 72 | Zeraora | speed, sp. attack |
| C | 72 | Avalugg | defense, HP, sp. attack |
| MLB | 70 | Cloyster | defense, attack, speed |
| QB | 68 | Deoxys Normal | sp. attack, speed |
| LOLB / ROLB | 68 | Iron Leaves | attack, defense, speed |
| LE | 67 | Volcanion | attack, speed, weight |
| RB | 66 | Annihilape | speed, attack, HP |
| SS | 66 | Genesect | speed, attack, sp. defense |
| TE | 65 | Slaking | attack, sp. defense, HP |
| RE | 65 | Crabominable | attack, speed, weight |
| FS | 65 | Tornadus Incarnate | speed, attack, sp. defense |
| CB1 / CB2 | 64 | Ogerpon | speed, sp. defense |
| K | 62 | Marshadow | HP, defense, speed |
Build the five offensive line jobs first
Tackle and guard ceilings are the highest in the pool at 74, and only three bodies clear 65 grade at left tackle. Take the linemen while they are there.
Then both edge rushers and both defensive tackles
Four interior jobs and two edge jobs, graded on mass, HP and attack. Aggron, Snorlax, Great Tusk and Glastrier are the names that clear the floor here.
Take the quarterback when the board allows
Only two players grade above 65 at quarterback, but the job grades sp. attack and speed rather than size, so elite special attackers stay on the board longer than raw linemen.
Leave the kicker until the last pick
The ceiling is 62 and the tenth-best kicker still grades in the mid fifties, so the kicker slot is the one job you can safely fill last. Marshadow, Shuckle and Toxapex are the accurate ones.
Run the challenge on the real board
The board below is the game itself, not a demo. Tap a job, pick a body, and watch the offense and defense grades move. When all 22 slots are full, hit Simulate the season to run the 17-week schedule and see whether the board is a contender or a rebuild.
The challenge ladder
Records are not evenly distributed. Most boards land in the middle, a good board pushes into the low teens, and the perfect season sits alone at the top. These numbers come from running the highest-graded board in the pool through the simulator over and over.
| Record | Rough share of runs | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 11-6 or worse | About 1 in 8 | A slot or two never cleared a thin position |
| 12-5 to 13-4 | About 2 in 5 | A contender that dropped two games it should have won |
| 14-3 to 15-2 | About 2 in 5 | One or two late road games went wrong |
| 16-1 | About 1 in 20 | Everything built right, and one Sunday still slipped |
| 17-0 | About 1 in 130 | The badge. Post the card. |
Boards on the wall
Every finished season can be exported as a lineup card: 22 names, the shape of the offense and defense, and the final record. Here is what other players are posting after their runs.
Take your shot at 17-0
Fill all 22 slots, settle the thin positions first, and simulate the season. The schedule does not care how famous your board is.