Document GP-DOC-14: Racing

Official Brackets & Matchmaking

Every official race is five entrants, five tickets, one prize pool. The payout split is 65 / 25 / 10 % of the net pool (1st / 2nd / 3rd; 4th-5th: nothing), and the operator's rake is displayed in the lobby before anyone pays. The map is revealed before registration; the entry price and prize structure are known before registration. Nothing about a race is uncertain at the moment money moves.

The tier table (v0)

Structural notes:

• Third place pays less than the ticket in every tier (0.44 < 1, 2.25 < 5, …). Only the top two are profitable: there is no grinding a low podium without skill.
• Both gates apply: active division = min(account grade, creature class). See Ratings, Grades & Creature Classes.
• Protected zones close from above. T0 refuses accounts ≥ C3, T1 refuses ≥ C4 (placement and recalibration races excepted). Beginners' lobbies are structurally unreachable by veterans; playing with novice friends goes through private lobbies.

The poker-room invariant

Σ payouts ≤ Σ tickets - rake

Prize pools are funded exclusively by entry tickets. No emission, no subsidy, no operator position on any outcome: the rake is a posted organization fee, not a margin on results. This single inequality is enforced in code and audited continuously; see Economy.

The weekly Major

Saturday 18:00 UTC. A series of 5 maps across multiple biomes, cumulative time, heats of five followed by a global leaderboard. Across five different terrains, no single specialist build can carry a weak pilot: skill dominates the series statistically. Top 10 % are paid, first place taking 25 % of the total pool with harmonic decay below.

Matchmaking

• Exact-MMR pairing (the grade is display; the queue uses the number). Initial band ±75, widened +25 every 10 s, capped at ±250 (T1-T2) and ±200 (T3-T4).
• Ready-check 15 s. The ticket is debited only when all five confirm: nothing is collected while the race is not certain to take place.
• Rookie pool: accounts with fewer than 50 paid races are matched preferentially with each other in T1.
• Discovery allowance: each of the first 10 T1 races finished off the podium credits 30 SCRIP, soft currency only, never a USDC rebate.

Low population: deferred pools, never disguised bots

A deferred pool is five seats on (hour's map × tier × MMR band). You race immediately against the ghosts of the pool's real previous entrants (exact replays, free thanks to determinism); empty seats display "AWAITING REGISTRATION", never a fake human. Resolution at 5 entrants or at H+57:

Late entrants see the ghosts but not their final times before their own finish. Paid races are never filled with bots or ghosts counted in the money.

Private lobbies: "Contractor Trials"

The social product. 2-5 players, lobby created for 20 SCRIP, invite-only. The creator sets the ticket (0 for fun, no on-chain step, or 0.05-50 USDC), the map (current hour or any historical seed), and the payout: default winner 100 % of the net pot, optional 70/20/10. Rake 3 %. Custom races are not rated: zero MMR movement, zero drops, zero catalysts: anything farmable in a closed loop between accomplices must be worth nothing.

Player-visible caps:

Collusion between accounts is monitored by transaction-graph analysis across lobbies and wallets; every custom race goes through the same server re-simulation as official races; there is no "private mode" outside integrity. Effort profiles from re-simulation also expose deliberately sabotaged runs.

Post-race drops and field currency are specified in Race Drops & Field Rewards.