Whether you are a loyal player of “Hamster Kombat”, a Telegram-based click-to-earn game, or completely indifferent to it, the hype surrounding this game since its release in the spring has been real.
With Notcoin in the forefront, most of the news about this game has focused on the release and price prediction of its native token, HMSTR, since the game registered millions of accounts. Now, as the game’s first season since its launch in March comes to an end, players are accusing the team of unfair treatment and false promises.
As part of the reward system promised by the game, the resources accumulated by players have been converted into HMSTR tokens, which are expected to be distributed through a token airdrop during the TGE. The game team has also revealed more information about token supply and distribution in a post on the X platform. The team stated that out of the planned supply of 100 billion HMSTR tokens, 75% will be reserved for the community, and 60% of the tokens will be distributed to users at the end of the first season.
According to the team’s post on the X platform, this “hamster math” is still ongoing: out of the 60% HMSTR token supply allocated to users, 88.75% will be distributed in the token airdrop and listing this week, while the remaining portion will be locked and only unlocked 10 months after the token is listed on the exchange. The team also promised an additional airdrop of 15% of 100 billion tokens during the upcoming second season of “Hamster Kombat”.
Since March, according to the “Hamster Kombat” team, the game has attracted as many as 300 million users. Among these users, only half of the 131 million players are eligible to receive token rewards in the highly anticipated airdrop, which is scheduled for September 26. In addition, 2.3 million players have been identified as cheaters and completely banned from participating in the token distribution.
Disappointing token distribution
Since the announcement by the “Hamster Kombat” team on Sunday, many users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the token distribution process and criteria on the X platform, believing that the number of tokens they received is far below the time and effort they put in.
HMSTR tokens will be listed and available for trading on exchanges later this week after the airdrop, but several mainstream exchanges have already conducted pre-market trading of HMSTR token spot and futures contracts. The price ranges from 0.01 USDT to 0.1 USDT on different platforms, and players are confused about the actual value of the tokens they received.
Based on comments from the community, ordinary users earned less than $50 in profit from spending hundreds of hours playing the game, based on the highest USDT price on various exchanges.
One player, Timbo, who is a member of the Telegram community for “Hamster Kombat”, claimed that he has been playing the game almost from the beginning, spending about 4-5 hours a day for two months and earning about 500 tokens. As the hype around the game and the upcoming token release grew, more and more players were promised token rewards upon release. “Over time, my interest gradually waned. The game itself is not that interesting. As for potential earnings, I didn’t expect too much – the number of players has become very large, and everyone needs to be rewarded,” Timbo said.
Controversy over “cheating” determinations
Another wave of negative sentiment arises from the exclusion of 2.3 million players from token distribution by “Hamster Kombat”. According to the project, the ban is to address users who allegedly attempted to gain game profits through unfair means, such as using multiple devices to click, playing from different accounts, or engaging in referral cheating. The project also provided examples, stating that “one person connected over 400 accounts to the same Binance address, and another person invited nearly 2,000 ‘friends’ who were all flagged by our anti-cheating system.”
However, some of the criteria for determining cheating seem controversial, and one of the most shocking penalties is for purchasing keys. Keys are important game items introduced later and have a high weight in the airdrop. In the game rules, users need to complete a mini-game to earn keys, but some players choose to purchase them directly, bypassing the mini-game. The game system of “Hamster Kombat” allows users to buy keys without any warning or indication that it is against the rules. However, this behavior was apparently considered “cheating” in the airdrop and allegedly resulted in players being banned from receiving tokens.
Members of the “Hamster Kombat” Telegram chat posted a message that included the following sentence:
“Some of my friends did nothing wrong but were wrongly included in the cheaters list. This unfairness seriously damages the trust of the community and creates an atmosphere of distrust.”
Those players who were deemed to have violated the so-called “game rules” only received a simple status of “cheating is bad” at the end of the first season. The Telegram group chat of the “Hamster Kombat” community was immediately flooded with complaints, with many calling the distribution criteria unfair and demanding that the administrators reconsider and distribute the tokens. Users on Telegram expressed dissatisfaction with being labeled as cheaters at the end of the season, noting that they had spent a lot of time playing the game.
“At the beginning of the project, no one knew what kind of misconduct there would be, and at the end of the project, suddenly there was a ban, and the tokens were distributed to fewer people with ridiculous excuses,” complained a user who claimed to be a player on the X platform. They stated that they had played for four months, collected over 200 keys, earned 8.36 million HMSTR per hour, set alarms, and tracked the “rise time” of cards. “Now you tell me I don’t deserve it. ‘Hamster Kombat’ is a scam.”
Meanwhile, the hashtag #boycotthamsterkombat has become popular on the X platform, with over 22,000 tweets using this tag at the time of writing.
How is token distribution determined?
According to community reports, the number of tokens players receive is determined based on the following criteria:
– The number of coins collected by the user throughout the period
– The number of friends the user invites to join the game
– The number of coins the user earns through passive income
– The number of keys the user wins in mini-games
– The number of daily tasks completed by the user
Tokens in “Hamster Kombat” are divided into several categories: Total HMSTR, Claimed, Next Unlock, and Unclaimed. However, the game does not provide an explanation for these different categories.
It turns out that the most important task determining the number of tokens each player receives is not the passive income HMSTR tokens earned by playing the game, but the number of friends invited through referral links. Based on comments on social media, ordinary users are the most dissatisfied with the token distribution logic because they have spent a lot of time actually playing the game, trying to enter the top 100 players, completing tasks, etc. These players are the core of the community and may not have extensive social networks like YouTube influencers who can invite “friends” through sharing referral links to earn more tokens.
Has “Hamster Kombat” deceived everyone? With a large-scale token distribution plan and reported user statistics, the game still has the potential for one of the largest airdrops in the crypto space. Players who have linked their wallets to their “Hamster Kombat” accounts are expected to receive their allocated tokens in this week’s airdrop event and can then trade them on major exchanges like Binance and OKX.
Considering that there are reportedly a large number of users playing “Hamster Kombat”, it may not be surprising that players received fewer tokens than expected. With a total token supply limited to 100 billion and a reported user base of hundreds of millions, the math becomes somewhat clear, although disappointing for most players.
In any case, the true value of the earnings calculated in fiat currency by users will only be understood when the HMSTR tokens are listed for spot trading on September 26 and players actually receive the long-awaited tokens.
Russian expert predicts token sell-off
According to RTVI, Viktor Pershikov, an independent expert in the crypto field who combats financial crimes, said that those who “wanted to get rich by playing ‘Hamster Kombat’ found themselves disappointed.” The media outlet pointed out that many people were disappointed to learn that their efforts “only yielded $5 to $15” after playing the game for several months. Pershikov also stated that the game and its team “never promised to make anyone rich” and that the token price would face pressure when players eventually start trading their HMSTR tokens for fiat.
Telegram is the preferred messaging app for the majority of Russian citizens, and the popular “Hamster Kombat” naturally has a large following in Russia. Some players in the country even purchased fascia guns to enhance their clicking abilities. Many e-commerce sellers also promoted the use of these fascia guns to “beat the hamsters,” leading to increased sales of these products on Russian e-commerce platforms.
Russian information and socio-political electronic newspaper Fontanka.ru reported on “Hamster Kombat” on September 22 and stated that the “eight-year-old son” of an employee of the game had “mined” “bitcoins” for 120 days. In the end, the boy’s “earnings amounted to about 4.3 rubles (0.046 USD).”
Some commenters expressed their dissatisfaction in the comments section of the Fontantka Ru article, with one Russian social media user lamenting, “How did we go from being the most educated country in the world to this?”
