No Loss Tournaments

Buffer has always been big on making the trading experience more fun, and what better way to spice things up than 'No Loss Tournaments. No loss tournaments offer the same thrill of high stakes fun but WITHOUT the risk, since trading takes place on a virtual balance (Buffer Play Tokens).

In this document, we will detail the tournament mechanics designed for participants entering an event, as well as for those interested in hosting their own event.

Stakeholders:

• Admin: Anybody can submit a request to host a tournament on Buffer

• Traders: Anybody can participate in a tournament by paying the tournament buy-ins. If you win a tournament, you get a share of the prize pool, if you guess wrong you don't lose anything.

Tournament Formats:

Tournament formats in No Loss Tournaments are determined by the following parameters:

• Buy-in token
• Reward token
• Guaranteed rewards
• Rake %

Same Buy-in and Reward Tokens

In this type, the buy-in and reward tokens types are the same. The rake is set at 100%.

Within this type, there are three sub-types based on the prize structure:

• Maximum Guaranteed Win + 100% Rake: The prize pool is set at a maximum guaranteed amount.

• No Guaranteed Win + Rake < 100%: The prize pool is not guaranteed and is built from the tournament buy-ins. The rake is less than 100%.

• Minimum Guaranteed Amount with Rake < 100%: The prize pool is set at a minimum guaranteed amount, with a rake less than 100%.

Different Buy-in and Reward Tokens

In Type 2, the buy-in and reward tokens are different. The rake is set at 100%.

Tournament Components:

Once you are on the tournament page, you will see the event board with related info:

• Tournament cards: On the tournament page, all events are listed on the sidebar (left-side of the interface). Each card shows key details on a particular event - event progress, prize pool, top prize, participant's play token balance, number of current participants in the tournament vs max participants, number of tournament winners. The sidebar has: three sections (live, upcoming, closed) indicating the events progress, and two sub-sections (all, my). The "My" sub-section shows all live events you are participating in as well as the upcoming events you have participated in.

• Buy-in: Buy-in is the minimum amount required to enter a tournament. Buy in tokens can be USDC, or any ERC-20 token. In type 3, the buy-in amount is also used to fund the tournament the prize pool.

• Reward: Payout given to tournament winners. Reward tokens can be USDC, any ERC-20 token or any NFT. Depending on the type of the tournament reward type can vary (see 'tournmanet format' section).

• Play Tokens: The play token are non-transferrable virtual tokens a user receives for making a buy-in or re buy-in in a no loss tournament. Depending on the parameters set by admin, participants can rebuy play tokens with the minimum buy-in during a live tournament until a set max. buy-in limit is met. Play tokens can be used to place trades once the tournament begins and are only be valid for use for the period of the tournament. Since the user is trading using a virtual balance - risk is completely abstracted on any trades made in the tournament.

• Leaderboard: Participants can track their ranking during a tournament on the event leaderboard located at the bottom of the trade page, right next to position history.

Determining the Winners:

Once the tournament ends, the admin is tasked with closing the event. Once closed the pot is made available for 'Claim' for winners based on their score.

Number of winners and winning %age/player for a tournament may vary depending on the variable set by the admin/host. The traders with the highest play tokens balances at the end are declared the winners.

Score =

$$\frac{\text{Total Token Holding}}{\text{Total Tokens Bought}}$$

Claim:

Once the tournament is closed by the admin, rewards become available for claim by the winners.

Hosting a tournament:

Anyone can deploy a no loss tournament on Buffer, by submitting a whitelisting request. A request form will be made available on the frontend which can be used by users to express their intent to host a tournament on Buffer, as well as share the custom parameters for the event.

Starting the Tournament:

Admin controlled parameters include:

• Tournament Name: custom tournament name.

• Tournament Start Time: time when the tournament begins.

• Tournament Close Time: time when the tournament ends.

• Buy-in Token Type: can be USDC, or any ERC-20 token.

• Reward Token Type: can be USDC, or any ERC-20 token or NFTs.

• Play Token Mint Amount: number of play tokens to be credited to the wallet on each buy-in.

• Max Buy-in/ Wallet: max number of buy-ins a wallet can execute during a tournament.

• Max Participants: guaranteed winning amount.

• Min Participants: should be greater than 1. This is ideal for type 3 tournaments, where the tournament does not begin until a min number of participants defined by the admin/host. If minParticipants is not set, the default is set as 2.

• Start Price Money: base fund to start the tournaments and should be transferred into the contract before it starts accepting funds from other participants. In case any of the criteria for the tournament to start is not met - the funds are sent back to the wallet it came from just like any participants.

• Rake %: % to be deducted from the ticket price. Default is 100% when a Type 1 tournament is made. The rake is transferred to target wallets only after the tournament ends.

• Total Winners: total number of winners for each tournament.

• Reward Percentage/Winner: % of reward to be distributed each winner. The % should add up to a 100%.

During the tournament:

• Rebuy-in: Players can rebuy play tokens with the minimum buy-in

• Play tokens: the play token should be non-transferable/fixed amount transferred on every re-buy

• Score Calculation =

$$\frac{\text{Total Token Holding}}{\text{Total Tokens Bought}}$$

• Ranking: Done based on the score - only eligible are > 1 score

End of the tournament:

• Once the tournament has ended the total pool can be distributed based on each participant's score

• Distribution formula: 100% of the pool is to be distributed among top n players Admin can set number of winners and winning % per player. The % should add up to 100%.