FAQ
General
What is 'A Fifth of Gaming'?
'A Fifth of Gaming' (AFoG) is a tool for organizing semi-automated recurring online multiplayer video game nights. It offers Social Guilds for casual play among friends as well as Competitive Guilds for tournament play with cryptocurrency prizes.
Guilds
What is a Guild?
A guild is a group of players that are fully independent from all other users of AFoG. They have their own schedule, their own game selection, their own admins, their own history, etc. Guilds can be any combination of public/private and social/competitive.
What is the difference between public and private guilds?
Anyone can join a public guild with a single button click. Private guilds can only be joined with an invitation from an Admin of that guild.
What is an Admin?
AFoG automatically gives the 'Admin' mantle to the five most active players in a guild. Admins have an assortment of privileges and responsibilities. They have access to the guild control panel to adjust guild-level settings and invite players. In social guilds they handle attendance tracking. In competitive guilds they have the final say in tournament match resolutions (and receive a share of the prize pool for their efforts).
How many guilds can I join?
As many as you want. There is no limit.
What is an event/session?
An event or a session is the time scheduled by AFoG for game night to happen. In social guilds this is the time when everybody gets together to officially kick off game night. In competitive guilds, this is the time when tournament registration ends and the competition officially begins.
When are events/sessions scheduled?
AFoG will automatically schedule sessions once every five days at the time-of-day specified by the guild creator at creation. The goal of the pace is to be frequent enough to be a routine part of your schedule but rare enough to not infringe on other important parts of life. This pace also ensures that the day-of-the-week on which game night falls is constantly changing, so scheduling conflicts for a player with other obligations on certain days of the week will hopefully be minimized. The constant cadence of the pace allows people to know when the sessions will be as far in advance as they want.
Competitive Guilds
What is a competitive guild?
Competitive Guilds are the “tournament guilds” on AFoG. These are the communities that have formed around a single game for the sake of participating in competitive events with real cryptocurrency prizes.
Prizes?
Yep! The top finishers in AFoG tournaments get real actual native (on-chain) cryptocurrency payouts immediately and automatically sent to them when the tournament finishes.
Where does the money for prizes come from?
An initial seed is added to the tournament prize pool from the guild's vault (which itself can be funded by past events, sponsorships, and anonymous donations), and the rest is the registration fees that participants pay to enter the tournament. Each tournament address is also publicly available so anyone who wants to can throw more money into the pot to make things more interesting.
What is the prize pool distribution breakdown?
- 90% - Paid to the top finishers in the tournament as prizes
- 5% - Distributed equally among the 5 guild admins
- 2% - Put into the Guild Vault to fund future tournaments
- 3% - Put into the Guild Fund to pay the guild's subscription
How do I know the payouts will actually happen and this vending machine won't just eat my money?
Have a look at past AFoG events to see its reliable track record. All payout transactions are publicly displayed underneath each tournament bracket so any interested parties can review the payment on the BCH blockchain and verify it happened at the correct time and sent the correct amount to the correct person.
I want to play in tournaments for Game XYZ but there is no guild for it. Now what?
Create one! You can create as many guilds as you want and AFoG supports any online multiplayer game that has an entry on IGDB. Create the guild, pick the game and the start time, and invite players to join you.
I want to play in tournaments for Game XYZ but the guild for that game starts their events at a time of day that doesn't work for me. Now what?
Create a new guild for the same game in a timeslot that works for you! There are no restrictions on the number of guilds for a given game. It is very likely that there are other players in your time zone that want to play XYZ and would be glad to have tournaments they can participate in.
Tournaments
What format are these tournaments?
All AFoG tournaments are double-elimination, meaning there's an upper and lower bracket and each player/team has to lose twice before they are eliminated from the competition. Specifics about tournament rules and policies and whatnots are at the discretion of the guild admins and are usually contained in the “tournament info” section of the page.
When can I register for a tournament?
As soon as the event is created (usually 5 days ahead of time), it will be displayed on the Events page meaning registration is open and the event can be joined.
How do I join a tournament?
To join an AFoG tournament, you must create an AFoG account (and confirm your email), add your BCH receiving address to your AFoG profile (so we have somewhere to send your winnings), and join the guild hosting the tournament (with one click of the “join guild” button). These are all 1-time setup tasks. Once they're done you'll never have to do them again. When you view the tournament detail page during the registration phase (before the event has started), you'll see a QR code prompting you for your entry fee. This is a Bitcoin Cash address that has been created specifically for you and specifically for this event. AFoG will be monitoring this address and when it sees enough funds in the wallet to cover the cost of registration, it will automatically add you to the tournament and move your entry fee into the tournaments prize pool wallet.
What happens if I send too much to the registration wallet?
As part of the tournament payout phase at the end of the event, AFoG ensures all registration wallets are empty. Any change leftover from your registration will be sent to the receiving address in your user profile.
Can I join a tournament once the registration phase ends?
No. AFoG gives players a long window of time to register for the event. The tournament start time is the hard deadline after which no new registrations will be processed. AFoG does do a last-minute round of checks for new registrations right before starting an event so if you send in your registration fee right before the cut-off you might get lucky and get in. If you don't make the cutoff time, don't worry your funds will simply be sent back to your receiving address as part of the events payout phase.
What about tournaments for games with multiple players on a team? How do we register?
From the same tournament page, the team must first be created by one of the players (it just needs a name). Once the team exists, invitations can be sent out from the same interface, either to other players in the guild by clicking on their names or to players outside the guild using their email address. Once the team is full (meaning the number of players on the roster equals the size of the teams set for the event), the registration process is the same as above. A QR code will be shown to everyone on the team, and anyone on the team can send any amount of money to it. Once the wallet contains enough money to cover the team's registration fee, the fee is moved to the tournaments prize pool and the entire team is registered for the event and added to the bracket.
The tournament has started and I see my matchup. How do I get in touch with my opponent?
Hopefully you and your opponent (or at least one of you) has added your gamertags to your profile for the platform the current game is being played on. In that case your username will be displayed on the tournament page. The AFoG Discord is often used by guilds for gathering during events so you may find them in there. Check also the tournament info section of the event page to see if your guild admin has included instructions for voice comms.
How are match results recorded?
AFoG has a self-report mechanism built into the tournament interface where the participants in a given match can select the winner of the match. If more than half of the players involved in the match agree which side won, AFoG accepts those results as valid and advances the bracket accordingly. If for any reason not enough match participants vote on the outcome, a guild admin can unilaterally select the winner.
When do the prize payouts happen?
Immediately. As soon as the last match result is reported, AFoG broadcasts the transactions sending the prize money to the winners. Admins are tipped once AFoG has verified all winners have been paid, and the guild vault and fund are paid once AFoG has verified that all admins have been tipped.
Referrals
What is a Referral?
Referrals are a mechanism designed to help AFoG grow its user base. Users can invite other people to the platform using special unique links, and the inviting user earns a portion of the invited users tournament entry fees.
How do I refer someone?
Simply go to the next upcoming tournament page for whatever guild you want to invite players to. You'll find a section labeled Invite Players with a link under it. Copy the link and share it with anyone. The link is unique to you, can be used any number of times, and never expires, so feel free to share it far and wide.
How much do I earn if I refer someone?
If someone uses your link to register on AFoG, you will earn 10% of the entry fees they pay to join any tournaments (even tournaments run by other guilds). Note that this 10% is 100% of the portion of their entry fee that is not already allocated to the prize pool, so it is the maximum that we can possibly give.
How long does a referral pay out?
You will earn a referral bonus every time the player you invited plays in a tournament anywhere on AFoG for 30 days.
Is there a limit on how many people I can refer or how much I can earn?
Nope, go crazy. If you invite 5000 people who each register on AFoG and play in five $5 tournaments over the course of their first 30 days, congrats you've just made $12,500!
How do I collect my referral bonuses?
You dont have to do anything. The funds will automatically be sent to the BCH address on your user profile during the payout phase of the tournaments.
Guild Vaults
What is the Guild Vault?
The vault is a dedicated Bitcoin Cash wallet/address whose sole purpose is to seed the prize pools of newly created tournament events.
How does the vault work?
When a new tournament is created, 10% of the guild vault balance is moved into prize wallet for that tournament. This increases the size of the prize pool and so increases the value of all prizes.
How does the vault get funded?
2% of every prize pool for every tournament for this guild is automatically deposited into the guild vault. The vault can also be funded manually by simply sending BCH to the vault address.
Who funds the vault manually? Do the admins have to do it?
Anybody (even people not in the guild) can fund a guilds vault. The vault address is public and any funds sent to it (from anyone anywhere) will increase the prize value of all guild tournaments moving forward.
I sent money to the vault address but I dont see it in AFoG. What gives?
The vault UI page only checks the blockchain for new transactions once every half-hour or so. Check back later.
Social Guilds
What is a social guild?
Social Guilds are designed to be a more casual gaming experience for groups of gaming buddies who just want a low-hassle mechanism for organizing everything. Think “game night” where no one has to be in charge of coordinating with everyone to find a game and day that works. AFoG puts game night on the calendar, sends email reminders, tracks attendance, and has built-in systems for game selection via a nomination and voting cycle.
Why track attendance? Isn't this supposed to be casual?
Being marked “present” for an AFoG game night game awards a player 1 AP (Attendance Point). AP serves several important functions in the ongoing management of the guild:
- Lifetime AP is what AFoG uses to give the most active players the 'Admin' role, to ensure that oversight of the guild is in the hands of the players who have been the most invested in its success.
- When it comes time to vote on which game to play next, a players AP balance is used to weight their vote. This ensures that the players who are the most active participants in the guild are the ones with the most say in what games are being played.
- AP is the currency used to Add and Remove sessions from the current cycle, giving players the ability to increase or decrease the amount of time the guild spends on the current game.
What is a cycle?
A cycle is the set of sessions all in a row in which the guild is playing a given game. Every session that AFoGs schedules during that cycle will be set up to play that cycle's game.
How are games selected?
The very first game is selected by the person who creates the guild at the time of creation. All future games are selected by the guild players. As soon as one game cycle starts, AFoG automatically guides the guild through a three-phase selection process that includes nomination, voting, and results. By the end of this process, the next game has been selected and added to the schedule for the next cycle.
What is the Nomination Phase?
During the Nomination Phase, all members of the guild can add 1 game to the list of games players can choose from during the Voting Phase. AFoG is integrated with the Internet Game Database (IGDB) API, so the nomination page allows a user to search for a game by typing in its name. The search tool automatically excludes unreleased games, single-player games, and non-PC games.
What is the Voting Phase?
During the Voting Phase, players are shown a list of all the games that have been nominated and can drag-and-drop to order them according to their preference. Once their ballot is submitted, AFoG records the order of their preference and uses that to calculate a winner in the Results Phase.
What is the Results Phase?
At the start of the Results Phase, AFoG will automatically process all the ballots that have been submitted to calculate the results and determine the winner. A detailed round-by-round results page can be viewed to see exactly who voted for what games in which rounds, when each game was eliminated, and how much AP each player spent.
How does AFoG calculate the winner of a game selection vote?
The logic behind compiling the results of the vote and determining the winner is surprisingly complicated. The important points for the casual observer are that the system uses Instant Runoff Voting, each players vote is weighted by their current AP balance, and each round in the runoff is weighted twice as much as the one before it.
Guild Creation
How do I create a guild?
Go to the main 'Guilds' page where the list of existing guilds is displayed. If there is no guild listed that has what you want in a guild, you can make one of your own by clicking 'Create'
Why can't I pick a date?
AFoG handles all date-picking for you. Your first session will be automatically scheduled 5 days after the creation date of the guild. Use the time to invite your friends to the guild!
How do I invite people to my guild?
You can invite players to your guild from the players grid, from the admin console, or if you've created a public competitive guild, from the team-assembly interface.
How will people find my guild?
Assuming your guild is public, it will be displayed in the list of guilds that players will use to find guilds that match what they're looking for. If you've created a public competitive guild, your upcoming tournaments will also automatically be displayed on the Events page.
What is the “first game”?
This is the game your guild will play during its first cycle. If you're creating a competitive guild, this will be the game the guild plays forever. If you're creating a social guild, players in your guild will be periodically prompted to nominate and vote on games for the guild to play for future cycles.
How many guilds can I create?
As many as you want!
Guild Fund
What is the guild fund?
The guild fund pays the guild's subscription fee. Building and hosting a web app like AFoG is expensive and time-consuming and guild subscriptions are how we keep the lights on.
How much does the guild's subscription cost?
The first three months are free. Going forward the cost is $1 per active player per month. So if a guild has 5 active players and somebody sends $10 of BCH to that guilds address, 2 months will be added to their subscription.
Who makes the payments? Do the admins have to do it?
Anybody (even people not in the guild) can extend a guilds subscription. The guilds address is public and any funds sent to it (from anyone anywhere) will add time.
What happens if my guilds subscription expires?
Don't worry; no data is lost and new sessions will continue to be created. However it will not be possible to record session attendance, game selection (nomination/voting) will be disabled, and tournament registration will be disabled until the subscription is renewed.
My guilds subscription has already expired. How do we turn it back on?
You dont need to do anything special. Just send BCH to the guild address as normal and time will be added as normal. As long as your subscription end date is sometime in the future, AFoG will function as normal.
How do I know sending money to the fund address will work?
Try sending a tiny amount. The subscription system is accurate down to the millisecond, so even if you only send a few cents you will see the effect on the subscription end date.
I sent some BCH to the guild fund address but I don't see it in AFoG. What happened?
AFoG only checks for new payments once every few hours. Come back later. Dont worry. Your transaction is written into the blockchain forever; its not going to get lost.
Bitcoin Cash
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency which enables anyone in the world to send any amount of money to anyone else anywhere else in the world ~instantly and for ~free with no intermediaries and without asking anyone for permission. It is money that cannot be censored, seized, or frozen. It cannot be debased or devalued by the monetary policy of corrupt and/or incompetent politicians. It does not depend on and is not subservient to any government, so it is indifferent to geopolitical events. It is also programmable money, which means it can be sent and received by any application with internet access using whatever arbitrary business logic the developer wants to encode.
There are millions of cryptocurrencies. Why BCH?
Only a very small portion of cryptocurrency projects today are pursuing the goal of being decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash. Characteristic of those projects are ~instant transaction speeds and ~zero transaction fees, which is what AFoG needs in order to perform its tasks. Among cryptocurrency projects that match this description, Bitcoin Cash is the largest and most widely adopted and also has a vibrant engineering community supporting developers and projects like AFoG.
I don't have a Bitcoin Cash wallet. How do I get one?
Almost every major cryptocurrency wallet provider supports Bitcoin Cash. We at AFoG like to recommend Selene Wallet because it is lightweight and BCH-specific.
I don't have any Bitcoin Cash. How do I get some?
Please note that Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are not the same thing. Bitcoin was captured and intentionally crippled by its enemies back in 2017, and so today is incapable of performing the ~instant and ~free transactions AFoG needs.
How does AFoG integrate Bitcoin Cash payments?
AFoG uses the BitcoinCashClient library. It is a free-and-open-source nuget package enabling as-simple-as-possible integration of BCH into any C# .net application.
Way cool! How does it work?
Click here for an in-depth explanation of the mechanics behind BitcoinCashClient.
Totally amazing! How can I get started?
Here's a simple video tutorial showing how to create a basic C# app that can create wallets, check balances, and send-and-receive BCH. With those building blocks you can do pretty much anything you want with BCH in your own application.
Darn, I'm not a C# dev, but I want to build on/with BCH! Now what?
Never fear! The BCH community has got you covered: