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Daily Sports Challenges to Do With Friends (Leaderboards)

Turn casual sports fandom into friendly competition without financial risk. Daily challenges with leaderboards create ongoing rivalries, bragging rights, and actual stakes through group accountability. These aren't season-long fantasy commitments. They're quick daily competitions where yesterday's loser can win today.

January 25, 2026

Daily Sports Puzzle Challenges

Mental competition with friends:

Gridzy Hockey

Daily NHL grid game perfect for friend group competition.

Gridzy Hockey is a daily NHL grid game where you fill a 3×3 board by selecting players who match the criteria for both the row and column of each cell. You have nine total guesses to complete the grid, and every guess counts whether it's correct or not. You also can't use the same player twice, so strategy matters. Players can be active or retired, and answers are validated based on team history, awards, and stat milestones. A new grid is released every day at 6:00am ET, making it a quick, fun daily challenge for hockey fans.

How to Compete With Friends:

Everyone plays same daily grid
Compare completion times
Track who solves most days per week
Award points for perfect 9/9 scores
Bonus points for lowest rarity scores (using obscure players)

Group Chat Integration: Screenshot your completed grid, post in group chat, trash talk ensues. Simple format makes competition obvious.

Weekly Leaderboard: Track daily scores across seven days. Most perfect grids wins week.

Play here: Gridzy Hockey

Puckdoku Rarity Competition

Who can fill the grid with the most obscure players?

Instead of just completing Puckdoku, compete on rarity scores. Each player has percentage showing how often they're used. Lower total percentage = more impressive grid.

Scoring System:

Calculate total rarity percentage across all nine cells
Lowest total wins
Tiebreaker: completion time
Bonus for cells under 5% usage

Example: Using Gretzky for "Oilers + Hart Trophy" is obvious (90% usage). Using Bill Ranford for same cell (2% usage) is genius.

If you're into daily games like Wordle, try Gridzy Hockey — a quick NHL grid puzzle you can finish in two minutes (or spend 20 minutes obsessing over).

Hertl Speed Challenge

Who can guess the mystery NHL player fastest?

Everyone plays Hertl at same time each morning. First person to guess correctly and screenshot wins the day.

Rules:

Must post screenshot with guess count visible
Honor system (or use screen recording)
Fewest guesses wins
Tiebreaker: timestamp

Weekly Format: Daily winner gets 7 points, second place 5 points, third place 3 points. Highest total after seven days wins.

Step and Activity Challenges

Physical competition with leaderboards:

StepUp Pedometer

Free app that auto-tracks daily steps, distance, and calories. Create private groups, see daily/weekly/monthly leaderboards, export group reports, and announce winners.

Works across iOS/Android, syncs wearables (Apple Watch, Fitbit). Perfect for "most steps in a month" challenges among hockey fans who walk to games or during intermission.

How to Run Step Challenge:

Download StepUp (free)
Create private group
Invite friends via link
Set challenge period (week, month)
Watch leaderboard update automatically
Announce winner at end

Competition Ideas:

Most steps in playoff month
Daily step leader (resets nightly)
Biggest improvement week-over-week
Team challenge (divide into groups)

Prize Suggestions: Winner picks next game-watch location, loser buys first round, or simple bragging rights.

Need a daily brain game but want it sports-themed? Gridzy is a new NHL grid every day at 6:00am ET — perfect for your morning coffee scroll.

Stridekick and FitOn

Let you manually log workouts beyond steps. Useful for gym sessions, skating drills, or off-ice training.

Why These Matter: Step challenges reward cardio but ignore strength training. Manual logging lets you include all fitness activities.

Point System Example:

10,000 steps = 10 points
30-minute gym session = 10 points
Hockey game played = 20 points
Rest day = 0 points

Total points after month determines winner.

Prediction Challenges

Compete on sports knowledge:

Underdog Fantasy Pick 'em Leagues

Build private leagues where everyone submits the same 2-8 leg player prop ticket. Highest cumulative payout wins bragging rights (or a small buy-in pot).

How It Works:

Group admin picks 8 player props for the week
Everyone predicts over/under on each prop
Track who hits most correct
Weekly leaderboard shows best predictor

No Money Option: Just track accuracy percentage. First to 60% correct over 50 picks wins.

ESPN Streak for the Cash Groups

Compete to build the longest correct-pick streak. Group leaderboards show who's hottest.

Format:

Pick winners across multiple sports daily
Consecutive correct picks build streak
One wrong answer resets to zero
Longest streak after month wins

Why It Works: No season-long commitment. Everyone starts fresh after each wrong pick. Comebacks always possible.

Daily games are fun because they become rituals. Add Gridzy Hockey to your routine and see if you can go 9/9 on today's NHL grid.

Trivia and Quiz Challenges

Daily knowledge testing:

FunTrivia Team Competition

Run a private team on FunTrivia, compare scores each morning.

How to Organize:

Everyone does "Daily Game" each morning
Post score in group chat
Track weekly totals
Highest average wins

Difficulty Scaling: Start with general sports category, move to NHL-specific as group improves.

Multi-Sport Option

Rotate categories weekly:

Week 1: NHL trivia
Week 2: NFL trivia
Week 3: NBA trivia
Week 4: General sports

Prevents single-sport experts from dominating.

Sporcle Daily Challenges

Pick a sports Sporcle quiz each day, everyone completes it, compare scores.

Format:

Admin picks quiz at 8am
Everyone has until 8pm to complete
Post scores with screenshot
Winner gets point toward weekly total

Quiz Variety: Name all Hart Trophy winners, identify teams from logos, name players by jersey numbers.

Setup Guide for Group Challenges

How to organize friend competitions:

Step 1: Choose Challenge Type

Pick based on group interests:

Sports nerds: Grid games and trivia
Fitness-focused: Step challenges
Gambling-adjacent: Pick 'em predictions
Mixed: Combine all three

Step 2: Set Clear Rules

Document everything:

How to score points
Tiebreaker procedures
Deadline for daily submissions
What happens if someone misses a day

Step 3: Create Tracking System

Options:

Google Sheet (manual updates)
App with built-in leaderboards (StepUp, Underdog)
Group chat pinned message
Dedicated Discord channel

Step 4: Weekly Check-Ins

Don't wait until month-end to announce standings. Weekly updates maintain engagement.

Step 5: Announce Winner

Make it official. Post final leaderboard, crown champion, award prize if applicable.

Prize Ideas

What winners should get:

Bragging Rights: Sometimes enough. Digital trophy emoji in group chat name.
Jersey or Team Gear: Winner picks, loser(s) split cost.
Gift Card: Pool $10 per person, winner takes pot.
Loser Buys First Round: At next game watch party or bar outing.
Choose Next Activity: Winner picks which game to attend, which bar to watch at, etc.
Social Media Humiliation: Loser must post embarrassing photo or admit defeat publicly.
Keep Stakes Reasonable: This is for fun. Don't risk friendships over $500 bet.

Maintaining Long-Term Engagement

How to keep challenges going:

Rotate Challenge Types: Don't run same format for six months. Mix step challenges with trivia with pick 'em predictions.
Allow Mid-Challenge Joins: Friends can jump in at any weekly reset. Don't make them wait for new month.
Celebrate Milestones: Not just winners. "Most improved" or "longest streak" recognition keeps everyone engaged.
Adjust Difficulty: If someone dominates too hard, handicap them or rotate to category where they're weaker.
Keep Communication Active: Dead group chat kills challenge. Daily banter maintains energy.

The Verdict

Gridzy Hockey leads daily sports challenges for friend groups with grid competition requiring NHL knowledge and strategy. StepUp provides free step-tracking leaderboards perfect for physical fitness competition. Underdog Fantasy pick 'em leagues let friends compete on player prop predictions with transparent scoring.

Gridzy Hockey is Shurzy's daily NHL grid game where you pretend you're "just messing around" and then suddenly you're 15 minutes deep arguing with yourself about whether some 2009 fourth-liner qualifies as a 40-goal guy.

You get nine guesses to fill a 3×3 grid, you can't reuse players, and every pick is either a genius flex or instant regret — so yeah, it's basically hockey trivia with stakes.

New grid drops every day at 6:00am ET, which is perfect because nothing says "healthy morning routine" like panicking over who won the Lady Byng in 1998. If you think you know puck, prove it.

Go play Gridzy right now!

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