Rules

Simple. Strict.

Everything that decides who advances. Legal terms live in the AGB.

Format

Single-elimination bracket of 8, 16 or 32 startups. Seeds 1–N; 1 plays N, 2 plays N−1, and so on.
Rounds start at 18:00 Berlin time (CET/CEST) unless the bracket page shows a different time. Every duel runs the round length shown on the bracket (default 24 hours).
The next round is generated automatically when the previous round closes; the bracket page always shows the exact start and end of every duel.

No account. One vote per device per duel, enforced by a signed first-party cookie plus a per-network cap.
Votes cast in the first seconds after a device is first seen are rejected — humans only.
Absolute numbers stay sealed until the final hour of a duel. Before that you see the total, not the split.
Votes are final. Bots, vote-exchange rings or paid votes lead to disqualification of the entrant they benefit — the opponent advances and the duel is marked "decided by dq" publicly.

A live, public product with a working https link. No landing pages for something that does not exist yet.
One entry per product per bracket. Rebrands of an eliminated product are not eligible the same week.
No adult, gambling, crypto-token-sale or hate content. Operator decides; decisions are final.
Pitch max 120 characters. Logos must be direct https image links.

Early brackets are free. Later brackets carry an entry fee shown at application time.
Your card is only authorised at application and charged the moment you are accepted. Rejected → the hold is released automatically, nothing is charged. Card holds expire after 7 days, so we decide within that window.
If the bracket does not fill by the start time, the operator cancels it. Accepted founders are refunded the fee minus the payment-processing cost Stripe keeps (roughly 1.5–3% + €0.25); consumers get the full amount back. Refunds land in 3–10 business days.
Once the bracket is full and published, fees are final — no refund for losing, withdrawing or being disqualified.
The fee buys a bracket slot, not a placement. The operator seeds by application order unless stated otherwise.

The champion holds the homepage for 7 days (full hero until the next bracket starts, reigning-champion banner after that), gets a pinned post from @Anspruchde, a winner card and an embeddable badge.
Paid brackets: the champion receives 50% of the net entry pot — the fees that actually reached us after card-processing fees, minus any refunds or chargebacks. Figures on the site are estimates; the exact amount comes from Stripe at payout.
Paid within 7 days of the final by SEPA transfer, PayPal or Wise, in the bracket currency; transfer costs are borne by the recipient. Payout waits while any entry fee of that bracket is under dispute.
A founder who charges back an entry fee is disqualified from that and future brackets; any prize already paid to them is reclaimable.
The prize is only owed for a bracket that actually filled and ran. A cancelled bracket pays no prize — it refunds everyone instead.
A disqualified champion forfeits the prize; it passes to the runner-up. Free brackets have no cash prize.
There is no guarantee of traffic, followers or revenue.