How a run goes

The tournament starts once an even number of players are waiting and half a minute passes with nobody new joining. One runs at a time, and a full group that forms while one is being fought keeps its place and enters the moment the arena frees up.

Pick one of the 7 classes at the start. Each comes with a full loadout and 2 special attacks, which sit in the first two hotbar slots and are spent with a right click. Spent specials come back at the start of the next round, so there is never a reason to save one for a fight you might not reach.

Knockout, so a loss ends the run. Every round hands your kit back to you whole, which means a semifinal is decided by the semifinal rather than by what the quarterfinal cost you.

Win a bout and you are lifted up to watch the fight that picks your next opponent, then set back down and healed. You choose an upgrade in the corridor and walk the rest of it yourself, and the upgrades are strong enough to swing the fight at the end of it.

A bout can be drawn into any of these:

• Flooded
• Veined with lava
• Islands over the void, losing their floor as the fight drags on

• A run holds you until it is over: no building, no teleporting out, and no command but /crucible.
• Ender pearls cannot carry you out of an arena, and /crucible leave forfeits.
• Your own inventory is held safe the whole time you are inside, even if you disconnect, and leaving hands it all back at the exit.
• Players already in combat are turned away at the entrance.
• Beaten players watch from the stands, hidden from the fighters and free to fly, with a hotbar toggle for watching match after match without being pulled into one.

Win

100 credits

Podium

40 credits

Taking part

10 credits

Each achievement

25 credits

These add rather than replace each other. Finishing second pays for taking part and for the podium; winning collects all three. There is no key to collect and nothing to open afterwards — what a run pays lands in your balance and is spent in the hub.