Competitive integrity
Game rules
1. The duel
A Pulse Duel lasts 60 seconds. Both players receive an identical, deterministic target sequence derived from the match seed. The player with the higher verified score wins. If scores and maximum combos are identical, the lower seat wins.
2. Scoring
Blue +10, gold +25, red −15. Combos start at 3 hits (1.2×), 5 hits (1.5×) and 8 hits (2×). Scores are never negative. A miss or a red target resets the combo.
3. Fair play
Clients submit an event log, not a score. The server replays the log against the shared schedule and rejects submissions with unknown targets, duplicate hits, hits faster than humanly plausible (~70 ms), events after the match end, or scores above the theoretical maximum.
4. Escrow and settlement
Both entries are locked in the Chain Duel escrow contract before the duel begins. On settlement the contract pays the winner and retains the protocol fee in basis points. Settlement is idempotent: a match can be settled at most once.
5. Abandonment
If a player disconnects or never submits, the match settles after a grace period using the verified results that did arrive. A disconnect is not an automatic win for either side; the verified score decides.
6. Cancellation and refunds
A private duel that nobody joins expires after its join window. The creator can cancel the duel and reclaim the full entry. Cancelled and expired duels never enter settlement.
7. Rating and reputation
Only human-vs-human duels affect Duel Rating (an Elo system starting at 1000). Computer duels are unrated. Reputation is separate and reflects completed duels, cancellations and fair play.
8. Testnet
Chain Duel runs on Stellar Testnet. Testnet assets have no real-world value and the protocol makes no guarantee of value, uptime or finality beyond what the Testnet provides.