Original author: Anna Kharton, Olivia Capozzalo
Original translation: Zen, PANews
Whether you are a loyal player of the Telegram-based click-to-earn game “Hamster Kombat” or completely indifferent to it, the excitement surrounding this game has been palpable since its launch this spring.
With Notcoin as a precedent, the news surrounding “Hamster Kombat” has largely focused on the release and price predictions of its native token HMSTR, especially after the game registered its ten millionth account. Now, as the first season since the game’s launch in March comes to an end, players have begun to accuse the team of unfair treatment and of making false promises.
As of last weekend, the resources accumulated by players as part of the game’s promised reward system have been converted into HMSTR tokens, which are expected to be distributed in the form of airdropped tokens during the Token Generation Event (TGE). The game team also revealed more information about the token supply and distribution in posts on the X platform. The team stated that out of the planned supply of 100 billion HMSTR tokens, 75% would be reserved for the community, with 60% of the tokens to be distributed to users at the end of the first season.
According to the team’s posts on the X platform, this “hamster math” continues: of the 60% HMSTR token supply allocated to users, 88.75% will be distributed during this week’s token airdrop and listing, while the remainder will be locked and can only be unlocked 10 months after the tokens are listed on exchanges. The team also promised an additional airdrop of 15% of 100 billion tokens during the upcoming second season of “Hamster Kombat.”
Since March, the “Hamster Kombat” team has reported that the game has gained up to 300 million users. Among these users, only a little over half, or 131 million players, are eligible to receive token rewards in the much-anticipated airdrop, which is currently scheduled for September 26. Additionally, 2.3 million players have been deemed cheaters and are completely barred from participating in the token distribution.
Disappointing Token Distribution
Since the “Hamster Kombat” team released an announcement on Sunday, many users have taken to the X platform to express their dissatisfaction with the token distribution process and criteria, feeling that the number of tokens they received was far less than the time and effort they invested.
The HMSTR token is set to be listed and available for trading on exchanges later this week after the airdrop, but several mainstream exchanges have already conducted pre-market trading for HMSTR token spot and futures contracts. Prices range from 0.01 USDT to 0.1 USDT across different platforms, leaving players confused about the actual value of the tokens they have been allocated.
Comments from the community indicate that based on the highest USDT price across exchanges, ordinary users have earned less than 50 dollars despite spending hundreds of hours playing the game.
A player in the Telegram community known as Timbo stated that he has played the game almost from the beginning, spending about 4-5 hours per day for two months and earning approximately 500 tokens. As time went on, excitement around the game and the upcoming token increased, leading more players to be promised token distributions upon release. “Over time, my interest faded. The game itself isn’t that fun. As for potential earnings, I didn’t expect much—the player base has become enormous, and everyone needs to be rewarded,” Timbo remarked.
“Cheater” Determinations Raise Questions
A larger wave of negativity arose when “Hamster Kombat” announced the exclusion of 2.3 million players from the token distribution. According to the project team, the bans were implemented to address users who were reportedly trying to gain game rewards through unfair means, such as clicking on multiple devices, playing from different accounts, or using referral cheating techniques. The project team cited examples: “One person connected over 400 accounts to the same Binance address, while another invited nearly 2,000 ‘friends’ who were all flagged by our anti-cheat system.”
However, some of the criteria for determining cheating appear to be controversial, with one of the most shocking penalties being for purchasing keys. Keys are significant game items introduced later and have a high weight in the airdrop. According to the game rules, users need to complete a mini-game to earn keys, but some players opted to spend money to purchase them directly, bypassing the mini-game. The “Hamster Kombat” game system allows users to buy keys without any warnings or explanations that it might be a violation. Nonetheless, this behavior was evidently classified as “cheating” in the airdrop, leading to players being banned from receiving tokens.
Several members of the “Hamster Kombat” Telegram chat group posted a message that included the following:
“Some of my friends did nothing wrong, yet they have been mistakenly placed on the list of cheaters. This injustice severely undermines the community’s trust and creates an atmosphere of distrust.”
Players who have been deemed to have violated the so-called “game rules” by the project team received only a simple status at the end of the first season: “Cheating is bad.” The Telegram chat of the “Hamster Kombat” community was immediately flooded with complaints, as many believed the distribution criteria were unfair and demanded that the administrators reconsider and redistribute the tokens. Users on Telegram expressed dissatisfaction at being labeled as cheaters at the end of the season, pointing out that they had spent a significant amount of time on the game.
“When the project started, no one knew what would constitute a violation, and suddenly there was a ban at the end of the project, using absurd excuses to distribute tokens to fewer people,” lamented a self-identified player on the X platform who claimed to have played for four months, collecting over 200 keys and earning 8.36 million HMSTR per hour, setting alarms to track the “rise times” of cards. “Now you tell me I don’t deserve it. Hamster Kombat is a scam.”
Meanwhile, the hashtag #boycotthamsterkombat is trending on the X platform—at the time of writing, the number of tweets under this hashtag has exceeded 22,000.
How is Token Distribution Determined?
According to community reports, the number of tokens players receive is determined by the following criteria:
– The total number of coins collected by the user during the entire period
– The number of friends invited by the user to join the game
– The number of coins obtained by the user through passive income
– The number of keys won by the user in mini-games
– The number of daily tasks completed by the user
Tokens in the “Hamster Kombat” game are divided into several categories: total HMSTR, claimed, next unlock, and unclaimed. However, the game does not provide explanations for these different categories.
It turns out that the most critical factor in determining the number of tokens each player receives is not the passive income HMSTR earned through playing the game, but rather the number of friends invited via referral links. From comments on social media, it is evident that ordinary users are most dissatisfied with the logic of token distribution, as they invested considerable time actually playing the game, trying to break into the top 100 players, completing tasks, and so forth. These players are the backbone of the community and may not have extensive social networks akin to YouTube influencers who can invite “friends” by sharing referral links and thus earn more tokens.
Has “Hamster Kombat” Deceived Everyone? With a massive token distribution plan and reported user statistics, the game still has the potential to execute one of the largest airdrops in the crypto space. Players who have linked their wallets to “Hamster Kombat” accounts are expected to receive their allocated tokens in the airdrop event this week, which can then be traded on major exchanges such as Binance and OKX.
Given the reportedly large number of users playing “Hamster Kombat,” it may not come as a surprise that the tokens players receive are fewer than expected. With the total token supply capped at 100 billion and a reported user base in the hundreds of millions, the math becomes at least somewhat clear, although this is disappointing for most players.
In any case, the value of the earnings calculated in fiat currency will only become clear once the HMSTR token is listed for spot trading on September 26 and players actually receive the tokens they have long awaited.
Russian Experts Warn of Token Sell Pressure
According to RTVI, independent experts focused on combating financial crime in the crypto space, Viktor Pershikov stated that those “hoping to get rich by playing ‘Hamster Kombat'” have found their expectations unmet. The media pointed out that many were dismayed to learn that “after playing the game for several months,” their efforts yielded “only 5 to 15 dollars” in return. Pershikov also noted that the game and its team “never promised to make anyone rich,” and that when players finally start trading their HMSTR tokens for fiat currency, the token price “will face downward pressure.”
Telegram is the preferred messaging app for most citizens in Russia, making the wildly popular “Hamster Kombat” particularly popular in the country. Some players have even purchased massage guns to enhance their clicking abilities. Many e-commerce sellers have also promoted the use of these massage guns for “hitting hamsters,” boosting their sales on Russian e-commerce platforms.
The Russian information and socio-political electronic newspaper “Fontanka.ru” reported on “Hamster Kombat” on September 22, mentioning that one employee’s “eight-year-old son” had “mined” Bitcoin for a total of 120 days. Ultimately, the boy’s “earnings were about 4.3 rubles (0.046 dollars).”
Some commenters in the comment section of the Fontanka Ru article expressed their dissatisfaction, with one Russian social media user lamenting: “How did we go from being the most educated and literate country in the world to this?”
