The Daily Tournament

The idea in one minute#

There is one tournament per UTC day. Everybody races the same track in the same conditions. You buy a ticket, race against the clock, and your best time of the day is what counts. Nobody sees anybody's time or position until the entries close. Then a World-Cup style draw puts the drivers in groups, the best of each group go to a knockout, and the prize pool is paid by how far you get.

You find it through the Tournament chip in the garage, which shows the countdown to the close.

The day, in clock times#

As soon as entries close, the next tournament opens. No attempt can start in the last 5 minutes before the close, because it could not finish in time. A run must also finish before the close.

Tickets and attempts#

• 1 ticket = 1 attempt (one run). The screen shows "Tickets today: N of 3".
• At most 3 tickets per player per day, all at the same price. Limit: 2 accounts per person; using more to get extra tickets is against the rules. If you share a home or a connection with another player and hit a limit, ask in Discord #support.
• The ticket costs the equivalent of US$ 2 in TORQ at the game's reference rate (in the beta, a test price). The price is fixed for the whole day at the rate of its opening.
• Your best time counts. A faster attempt replaces a slower one; a slower attempt never hurts you.
• The conditions (grip, wind, launch window) are the same for everybody and appear at the green light.
• Your car races in the shape it had when you started the attempt, at full condition (it uses a snapshot, so the tournament does not wear your car).

Which cars can enter#

Each day's rule is shown on the tournament screen. At launch the rule is any car, every day: a Common can enter, and so can a Legendary. Remember that the better car is faster on the clock, so your driving and your car both matter.

A car that is listed on the Market cannot enter: cancel the listing first.

Quitting and lost attempts#

• Leaving a run before the finish ends that attempt at once. You get no time for it, the ticket stays in the prize pool, and you can buy your next ticket right away if you have any left. Your earlier best time still counts.
• A run that never finishes, that finishes after the close, or whose time is far off the pace of a real attempt is also a lost attempt.

Hidden until the close#

While the day is open the game shows you only: how many drivers entered, how many tickets were sold, the prize pool, the countdown, the names of the drivers who have entered (names only, no times), and your own attempts and best time. There is no live table, no rank, and nobody can watch your replay. Nobody can copy a rival's time or style.

After the result, everything becomes public: every group with all times, every match of the knockout, and every replay.

The result: groups and a knockout#

At 00:07 UTC the day is resolved from everybody's best recorded time.

1. The draw#

Drivers are shuffled into groups of four (some groups of three when the numbers do not divide) by a random draw that anyone can verify:

• When the tournament opens, the game publishes a seal: a fingerprint of a secret number (the seed). That seed also fixes the track and the conditions, so nobody can pick them after seeing who entered.
• When entries close, the seed is revealed. Anyone can check that it matches the seal, recompute the draw and see that nothing was rigged.

2. The group stage#

Inside each group, the two fastest times qualify.

3. The knockout#

The qualifiers go into a World-Cup style bracket fixed by group position: the winner of group A meets the runner-up of group B (A1 × B2), B1 meets A2, and so on, up to the final. Every match is decided by the two drivers' recorded best times: the faster one goes through. If the number of groups does not fill the bracket, the best third-placed drivers by time enter as wild cards; if there are still not enough, the best qualifiers get a bye.

Small fields#

• Fewer than 3 entrants: every ticket is refunded in full, with no fee.
• 3 to 7 entrants: one group of everyone; the top 2 race the final.
• 8 or more entrants: groups and knockout, as above.

Prizes: by stage reached#

The prize pool is all the tickets sold that day minus a 6% fee (4% to the daily pot, 1% to the treasury, 1% burned). It is paid by the stage you reached; the table shows the share of the prize pool that each player eliminated at that stage receives:

Drivers eliminated in the group stage receive nothing. Amounts are rounded down and any leftover goes to the champion. These percentages are launch values the team can tune.

You get a notification with your result, and the results banner at the top of the tournament screen shows the latest day, where you finished, who the champion was and a button to see the whole bracket.

The car lock#

A car you used in a tournament attempt stays locked in your account until that day's result (00:07 UTC after the day ends). While it is locked it cannot be scrapped for parts or listed on the Market. It can still: race the world tour, be serviced, tuned and rebuilt, and be used in the Arena. The garage shows a lock badge on it.

Fine print#

• The beta is wallet only, and the tournament runs wherever the Arena runs: it can be closed in some countries.
• Bots, scripts and exploits are against the rules of fair play (see Safety).
• If a day cannot be resolved normally, the team can refund every ticket.
• Test TORQ has no value. The result comes from the times you drive: there are no dice in the race, and the group draw only decides who you share a group with, never who is faster.