Entry Fees, Prize Pools & Donations
This page explains the money side of Contests — how gems flow in and out.
Entry fee
The entry fee is what each player pays to join the Contest. It's paid in gems from your wallet, the moment you click Join.
Entry fees are set by the host. Common ranges:
Low (10–50 gems) — casual, accessible to most players.
Medium (50–250 gems) — competitive, more serious participants.
High (250+ gems) — tournaments, high-stakes events.
Hosts can set any entry fee, including zero. A free Contest still grows a prize pool if someone donates.
Prize pool
The prize pool is the total gem reward distributed when the Contest ends. It grows from three sources:
Entry fees — every player who joins adds their fee.
Host boost — the host can seed the prize pool from their own wallet when creating the Contest.
Donations — anyone can donate gems to increase the prize pool.
Example
A host creates a Contest with:
Entry fee: 50 gems
Host boost: 100 gems
Four players join (50 gems each = 200 gems). Two community members each donate 25 gems.
Final prize pool: 100 + 200 + 50 = 350 gems (the 100 boost, 200 in entry fees, 50 in donations).
How that 350 splits at the end depends on the Contest type.
How the prize pool pays out
The payout depends on whether the Contest is a Battle or a Bounty, and which reward distribution the host picked.
Battles (leaderboard)
Battles rank players by score. Common distributions:
Winner Takes All
100% → #1 ranked
Top 3
60% / 25% / 15%
Top 5
40% / 25% / 15% / 10% / 10%
By Participant Count
Auto-scales based on joiner count (default)
A Battle has a single ranked outcome — the leaderboard locks at the end and payouts flow top-down.
Bounties (objective-based)
Bounties pay based on whether you hit the objective. Common distributions:
Winner Takes All
First player to hit the objective takes 100%. Pure race — Bounty ends immediately.
Equal Split
Every player who hits the objective during the window splits the pool equally.
By Participant Count
Auto-scales based on joiner count.
This is why Bounties can have multiple winners while Battles have a ranked single-or-Top-N outcome.
See Battles and Bounties for more on each format.
Donations
You can donate gems to any Contest's prize pool — even if you're not playing. This is a way to:
Boost a friend's Contest to make it more attractive to joiners.
Sponsor a community event.
Cheer on a Contest by pumping up the prize.
How to donate
Open the Contest's page.
Click Donate.
Enter the gem amount and an optional message.
Confirm.
The Contest's prize pool updates instantly, and the host gets notified. Your message is visible on the Contest page.
Donations are public — your username shows on the Contest page next to your donation amount. Good for shoutouts.
Are donations refundable?
If the Contest gets cancelled before starting, all donations are refunded along with entry fees.
If the Contest runs to completion, donations go to the winners — they're not refunded.
Refunds
Entry fees and donations are refunded automatically when:
The Contest is cancelled by the host before it starts.
The Contest expires without starting because it never met its minimum participant count.
You leave a Contest before it starts (entry fee only — donations are non-refundable to the donor).
Refunds appear in your wallet within seconds.
Auto-claim vs. manual claim
Hosts can configure rewards to auto-claim — meaning winners get their prize automatically deposited as soon as the Contest ends. This is the default for gem prizes.
For side rewards (gift cards, cosmetics, game codes — Pro feature), the host can require manual claim, where the winner has to confirm the reward to receive it. You'll get a notification with a claim button.
Transaction history
Every Contest entry fee, donation, win, and refund appears in your Wallet → Transactions page. You can filter by:
Contests you joined
Contests you hosted
Donations you made or received
Wins and payouts
This is your full audit trail. If a balance ever looks off, start here.
Tips for setting a fair entry fee (for hosts)
Match the time commitment. A two-hour race shouldn't cost the same as a 30-day Battle.
Consider the audience. Friends-only Contests can have higher fees because everyone trusts each other. Public Contests should start lower to attract joiners.
For Bounties, calibrate to the objective difficulty. A platinum that takes 200 hours shouldn't have a low entry fee — the prize pool needs to feel worth the grind.
Add a host boost if you want guarantees. Seeding the prize pool makes the Contest look more attractive even before joiners pile in.
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