what's wildcard?
Wildcard is a web3 gaming project developed by Playful Studios, featuring a PVP collectible card-based MOBA game that combines strategic deck-building with fast-paced 2v2 battles. It incorporates NFTs for collectibles and has a token economy to support its ecosystem, including moves from Polygon to Ethereum for better integration. The game emphasizes community engagement, streaming, and spectator sports elements, with recent demos available on Steam Next Fest. It participates in crypto ecosystems like Arbitrum and partnerships with YGG for quests and rewards.
Wildcard launched incentive loop early 2026; capital layer launching weeks after Jan 25.
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x.com/playwildcardHosts Grand Finals with Wayfinders offering $2,000 prize pool on 2026-02-20 at 2:00 PM CST.
Launched the initial incentive loop at the beginning of 2026 designed to reward the highest skilled competitors in the game.
Scheduled to launch the capital layer over the next few weeks following January 25, 2026.
experienced server stress and bugs during a preseason tournament due to a spike in new players, with the team working on real-time fixes ahead of daily tournaments launching in early January 2026
Tournament mode launched, unlockable through partner giveaways, a $25 purchase, or by owning a Wildpass.
Hosts final qualifier tournament on 2026-02-14 with a $4,000 prize pool, sponsored by Arbitrum Play, Blaze, and Thousands; Pre-Season tournaments feature a $5K prize pool this month.
The full vision for Web3 integration will be revealed and delivered on December 19th during the Wildcard Premier League Tournament Opening Day.
Launched Franchises and Sponsorships features, detailing WC Token, Thousands XP Program, Thousands League Protocol, and Charter Program as the ownership layer of the Wildcard Premier League.
Pre-Season tournaments begin on 12/19, with Thousands providing tournament infrastructure.
The Meta Oracle feature evolves soon, with the team signaling a limited-time window for forecaster contributions before the change. Forecasters have made tens of thousands of Calls since the feature launched in November.
The team completed the Steam Early Access web2 milestone and shifts focus back to web3 development, with work expected over the next few months after a strategic decision to separate web3 and web2 release timelines.
The project prepares for upcoming user acquisition campaigns with Thousand, introducing new player experience upgrades and increased player compensation rates.
Meta Oracle forecasts feature is now live.
The project's first tournament at DreamHack Atlanta has concluded with winners crowned.
The DreamHack Atlanta activation represents the project's largest showing to date, expecting 40k+ gamers in attendance plus thousands streaming in what is described as a convention "takeover".
The project hosts a $5K tournament at DreamHack Atlanta from October 31 to November 2, with qualification rounds at their booth on Oct 31-Nov 1 and finals on Nov 2.
Wildcard is a finalist for Best Esports Game award, competing against Off The Grid, Parallel, Axie Infinity, and Wilder World in an active voting event.
REPLAY early access is now live, adding a new mode or feature to the game.
The project is a finalist for Best Strategy Game award, competing against 4 other strategy games in an active voting event.
Wildcard is listed as an early customer of Liveframe, a clipping and content creation service platform.
Season 0 kicks off, marking the beginning of the first competitive season.
New Meta Oracle Forecasts feature goes live, introducing prediction mechanics that allow players to forecast outcomes with expanded match information and data. (ID: 1981346571242377298)
The game officially launches and is now live, with 2v2 gameplay mode implemented as a core feature.
An AMA is scheduled in Thousands Discord at 8pm ET/12am UTC to discuss Wildcard, WC token, Thousands, and other topics, hosted by Paul Bettner.
The project makes the finalist list for an awards competition in the Arbitrum gaming ecosystem, with early access scheduled for October 24.
The project reaches #12 position on Steam's most popular upcoming games list.
New feature called GANE comes to Early Access this week.
WC token can be acquired through EX events and Meta Oracle Forecasts but is not yet tradeable with no launch date announced. Early Access is free with optional card pack purchases available.
The game accumulates over 100k wishlists on Steam.
The play-to-earn game ranks #51 globally among all crypto play-to-earn games.
The game is featured on Steam Next Fest with a playable demo available.
Featured in Arbitrum S2 Create-to-Earn campaign (700K $ARB rewards pool) as one of the gaming projects creators can focus on through December 31, 2025.