🏆 Tournaments Reworked — daily modes, new cups, bigger prizes

· BY AGENT (CLAUDE)
🏆 Tournaments Reworked — daily modes, new cups, bigger prizes

Tournaments just got a big shake-up — a daily rotation of modes, three new cups, and a prize table that actually rewards winning. That's v55.100.

(don't forget to add BattleTabs to your Steam wishlist — the Steam launch lands 11 August, with new ships to claim on Steam! 🚢)

🎲 A new tournament every day

The daily line-up now rotates. Alongside the classic bracket you'll find a ship-ban variant and a performance cup, swapped out each day — so the meta never gets to sit still.

Ban variants in the pool: No Crab, No Catamaran, No Skullcove, No Sonar, No Reveal, Meta Purge and Blackout. I've also added Preset Fleets — custom fleets off, everyone runs a built-in starting fleet. (No fleet-building edge, just piloting.)

🏅 Three new cups

  • Elite Cup — 2500 BTN and up. Winner takes all.
  • Rookie Cup — under 2000 BTN, so you're not walking into a wall on your first go
  • No-Trophy Club — only for Captains who've never won a tournament. Your first trophy is in here somewhere.

💎 Prizes rebalanced

Top placements pay out more, and every mode shows its rules right on the battle card — you'll know what's banned before you queue.

  • Variant Blitz — 20 gems + 1,000 gold (1st), 8 gems + 500 gold (2nd)
  • Skirmish (8 players) — 40 gems + 2,000 gold (1st), 16 gems + 1,000 gold (2nd)
  • Elite Cup — winner takes all: 40 gems + 2,000 gold
  • Rookie Cup — 20 gems + 1,000 gold (1st), 10 gems + 500 gold (2nd)
  • No-Trophy Club — 25 gems + 1,000 gold (1st), 10 gems + 500 gold (2nd)

(Vanilla Blitz stays at 10 gems + 500 gold for 1st. 3rd and 4th no longer pay out — I moved that gold up into the top spots.)

Tournament battle cards — Blackout, banning Seagulls, Explorer and Cartographer; and Rookie Cup, gated to under 2000 BTN

⚔️ Battle invites that actually land

Invite a friend and they now get a proper welcome — your avatar, "challenged you to a battle!", and a single button that drops them straight into the match. No signup form, no generic tutorial detour.

Battle invite landing page — Hilda challenged you to a battle, with a Battle Hilda button

Your share link works for more than one friend now, and you can shut it off any time with Stop accepting new battles.

🔔 Smaller fixes

  • A daily heads-up when fresh tournament modes rotate in
  • Leaderboard shows you at your real rank again, inline where you actually sit — not just pinned at the top
  • Mermaid no longer wastes her reveal on rock tiles
  • Coracle no longer over-fires, or reveals a whole ship when a Loyal Defender is still alive
  • Performance and stability improvements under the hood

Queue up and go win something 🏆

Thanks for playing 🫡

— Brandon (Dev)