Game Rules: How a Match Is Won

Last Updated: November 4, 2026

Tournament Runner is a real-time arcade platformer. Every player in a tournament plays one shared match, and one player wins the Skill Tournament Prize. You can try it for free in Practice before you pay.

1. Two roles

  • Jumpers (everyone but one) run, jump and dodge on a moving belt that carries them toward the left edge of the field.
  • The Wave Master (one player) moves up and down and fires obstacle waves across the field at the Jumpers.

The Wave Master is chosen by a published rule, not by chance: a player who asked for the role gets it when no one else is due, otherwise it goes to the player who has been Wave Master least recently. Every player is told why they got their role.

2. Elimination

Obstacle waves knock Jumpers back, and the belt keeps pulling them left. A Jumper carried or knocked past the left edge of the field is eliminated. Staying alive takes timing and positioning: running against the belt, jumping and double-jumping over waves, and landing on them.

3. How the match is won

  • When only one Jumper is left, a 10-second final timer starts. If that Jumper survives it, the Jumper wins.
  • If every Jumper is eliminated, including the last one before the timer ends, the Wave Master wins.

4. Fair play built in

  • The match runs on our servers. Your device sends only your button presses; it cannot send a position, a hit or a result.
  • The same rules apply to every player in every match, and the game has no element of chance: no random numbers, draws or hidden timers. The Wave Master’s special deadly shot has a fixed 3-second reload, the same in every match; the Wave Master sees it count down on the Deadly button, and it is not shown to Jumpers.
  • A Wave Master who stops attacking is warned after 8 seconds and replaced after 15, so a match cannot be stalled.
  • Repeated or out-of-order inputs are rejected, so replaying or flooding commands gains nothing.
  • Every event in a match is recorded in a tamper-evident log, and each result shows whether it was verified by the server on Recent Wins.

5. Before the match

After you authorize your entry fee, you wait in the tournament’s lobby. Once three players are in (the minimum), a 60-second grace period lets more players join, then a 10-second countdown runs, during which the lobby is locked. If the lobby fills first, the countdown starts at once. Your entry fee is only a hold until the countdown ends; then it is charged and the match begins, and everyone presses Ready. You can leave the lobby until the countdown starts, and your hold is released. If the tournament has not started within 24 hours of its first entry, it is cancelled and every hold is released, so nobody is charged. Entry fees, prizes and eligibility are covered in the Competition Terms.