Why Does This Happen?
When Buybacks are enabled, the system automatically:
Locks Entry Lives = 1
Prevents increasing lives while Buybacks are active
This safeguard exists to prevent conflicting settings that could unintentionally break your contest structure.
How Buybacks Work
Buybacks allow an eliminated entrant to re-enter the contest before a specified revival deadline.
By default:
The Entry Revival Deadline is set to Day 2
This means:
If a player is eliminated on Day 1, they may buy back in before Day 2 (if enabled)
Why Entry Lives Must Be 1 When Buybacks Are On
If Entry Lives were set to more than 1 (for example, 2 or 3 lives):
An entrant would not be officially eliminated until multiple losses occur
By the time they are fully eliminated, the revival deadline may have already passed
This would make Buybacks ineffective or unusable
In other words:
The contestant would never reach true elimination before the buyback window closes.
To prevent this structural conflict, we automatically lock Entry Lives to 1 when Buybacks are enabled.
As Kyle explained internally:
It is essentially protecting the user from creating settings that could unintentionally break their contest.
What Happens If You Change Entry Lives?
If you want to allow multiple lives:
Turn Buybacks OFF
Adjust Entry Lives to 2 or 3
If you then turn Buybacks back ON, the system will:
Automatically adjust the available revival deadlines
Only allow deadlines that occur after entrants would realistically be eliminated
For example:
If you change Entry Lives from 1 to 2
Then re-enable Buybacks
The earliest available revival deadline will shift to Day 3 or later
This ensures:
Entrants can actually be eliminated
The buyback window remains valid
Your contest logic remains consistent
Why We Lock the Setting
This safeguard prevents:
Buybacks that never trigger
Revival deadlines that pass before elimination
Commissioners accidentally creating a broken contest structure
Confusion or disputes once the contest begins
It ensures your Survivor contest works exactly as expected.
Summary
If Buybacks are enabled:
Entry Lives will automatically be set to 1
The setting cannot be changed while Buybacks are on
If you need multiple lives:
Turn Buybacks off
Adjust Entry Lives
Then re-enable Buybacks (revival deadline options will adjust accordingly)
This system protects both commissioners and entrants by keeping contest mechanics aligned.