Showdown Community Update - 20 September

October 13 is the date

Everything we're building right now points at October 13. That's when Season Zero ends, the leaderboard resets, and Showdown moves out of testing: tournaments with guaranteed prize pools, at a bigger scale than what you played in May. If you mark one date in your calendar this quarter, mark that one.

Tournaments are ramping up before then

Show Points daily tournaments went live last week. Late next week we switch on real-money tournaments in testing mode — freerolls for a few dollars alongside regular buy-ins. Stakes stay small on purpose: the point is to stress-test the format before the prize pools get serious.

Season Zero was a test, and it worked

We were never trying to maximise player count this season. We wanted enough activity to gather real feedback, and we got it. The flip side is simple: whoever is grinding now is building an edge over the wave of players arriving in October.

Economy: rake and rewards

Today 100% of a tournament buy-in goes to the prize pool. From October 13 a rake is introduced, and with it a reward program that pays on two things — your activity, and the players you bring in. Refer someone who registers for tournaments and you earn a cut of their rake. We're also rebuilding the referral system so it's automatic and easy for whole communities to plug into.

Ranks get harder in Season One

Elite was deliberately easy to reach in Season Zero — we needed enough players holding the rank to see Elite features working in the wild. That ends in Season One: expect roughly double the wins to climb, with each tier extended from five steps to ten.

Deposits by credit card

The feature that unlocks scale. Real-money tournaments only work if getting funds in is simple, so card deposits ship for October 13. We expect it to bring in a lot of new players.

Unity to JavaScript

The engine migration was the biggest change of the last few weeks. Two things it buys us: the wallet page now sits inside the client, so logging in and depositing no longer sends you outside the app, and animations run far more efficiently. New animations are shipping unpolished on purpose (the showdown animation isn't where we want it yet), because seeing them in action is the fastest way to get them right.

Finishing the move to Solana

In October we migrate the last pieces off MegaETH, starting with NFTs — we're still checking the MegaETH network for them today. On settlement: zero issues since we moved to Solana. No failed money matches, no manual refunds, no incidents. In May on MegaETH we were patching problems by hand here and there. From a tech standpoint we've never been better prepared for a launch.

Mobile

App Store work is a focus now that we have a cleaner path to doing it properly. The Android and Seeker app lands in November, and we're aiming to pair it with a Seeker campaign in the spirit of the MegaETH one from May — play, earn rewards.

Streaming and the creator program

Showdown's Twitch channel is linked directly in the app, and it will restream community channels playing Showdown. We're putting together a streaming schedule and a creator program, with details in the next week or two. If you have a setup, or want to build one, talk to us — we'll amplify you as hard as we can. Showdown is a good game to play and a good game to watch, and the audience arrives in October.

Card balance

On the Draw card question: based on current data it isn't breaking the meta, and it's creating enough deck variety to stay. We track win rates on every card. River-heavy decks were a real problem before — three cards down and your opponent lands Misty or Cyclone — which is why counters like Drought and Favoritism exist. Most players are still on pre-constructed decks, so the competitive picture is incomplete. Card changes are coming before October 13, once the data says which ones.

Team

Mozaiiic has joined the team to work across growth, community, social media, taking over several of the areas previously handled by Barry. He's spent years in the Solana ecosystem and worked in online poker, so Solana questions go to him. Aieto is also returning ahead of the October launch, so your community manager is back for the full launch.

Feedback

Before October 13 we'll send a questionnaire with specific questions on what's shipped. Some of the more divisive changes will become settings you can adjust yourself. In the meantime: tell us what's bothering you, and tell us what you like — the second one is just as useful.

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