SixRings Duels changelog

•Changelog is in the Six Rings nav: The Duels changelog now lives as a direct Six Rings section page instead of being reachable only from the lobby patch-notes card.

•Guest 1v1 and Daily Arena: Anonymous players can jump into unranked Quick Match or the daily three-board Arena, then upgrade to a full account for ranked play, durable history, trophies, and identity.

•Avatar Case got much deeper: Twelve new animated TP-gated avatars joined the store, and tournament champions with 7, 8, 9, or 10+ wins now unlock new apex Infernal crests.

•SixRings achievement leaderboard: The new Six Rings leaderboard page ranks public achievement stats like rings, completed slots, TP, duel wins, tournament wins, Arena wins, FFA wins, and Elo.

•Unified How to Play guide: Solo, Duels, and FFA rules now share one `/sixrings/how-to-play` page, with the Duels lobby linking straight into the Duels section.

•Quick Match is the primary entry: The front page now pushes the guest 1v1 path directly, making the fastest Duels action visible before signup.

•Solo, Ranked Duel, NBA, and WNBA lanes: The homepage launcher now separates Six Rings Solo, Ranked Duel, NBA Analytics, and WNBA so players can pick the right destination without a dense global menu.

•First ranked matches start immediately: New signed-in players with fewer than three completed ranked 1v1s now get quick starter matches instead of waiting in the public queue.

•Starter matches feel like normal duels: Those early matches keep ordinary handles, normal Elo/result history, and natural opponent timing, with balanced server picks instead of instant or throwaway moves.

•FFA Madness waits for survivors: Next-round Survival rooms now open as waiting rooms first, then start when every survivor enters or after a 30-second grace period.

•Bigger Survival fields: Hourly FFA Madness Survival can now fill to 30 players, cutting to top 20, then top 10, then top 5, then champion.

•Cleaner lobby tiles: The signed-in lobby grid is now Ranked 1v1, FFA, Create Game, and How to play. The How-to content opens in place, and the FFA tile uses stable seat pips instead of a shifting queue count.

•Rank-gated Arenas: Admins can schedule timed Arena races from the Duels lobby. Eligible players race through shared boards, chase live standings, and Arena champions earn trophy-case credit.

•8Y RAPM joins the mode set: 8Y RAPM, 8Y OFF, and 8Y DEF are now available, with refreshed factor pools and full rolling 10Y windows behind custom games and mode displays.

•Hourly DARKO tournaments: Hourly DARKO best-of-3 brackets now run through the normal tournament engine with emerald tournament styling.

•Invite-only Custom FFA: Custom FFA hosts can create private code-link rooms that stay out of the public lobby and can start once at least two invited players are seated.

•Hourly FFA Madness Survival: Automated Survival tournaments now open registration each hour, launch from the Duels lobby, and advance survivors through the rooms engine.

•Tournament players stay bracket-owned: Tournament result screens no longer send players back into normal Queue again flows, reducing accidental overlapping games.

•Spectators see the series: Tournament watch pages now show series score context and can follow the next live game in the same series after the current game ends.

•Eliminated means eliminated: Tournament lobby cards now preserve eliminated and champion status instead of falling back to generic Still in copy.

•Chat announcements recover better: Duel chat recovers missed lobby and tournament announcements with less background polling, keeping the feed fresher without hammering the backend.

•Tournament status is clearer: Tournament cards now tell you whether you are entered, alive, eliminated, or champion, with stronger check-in prompts when your next game is ready.

•Champion moments and chat announcements: Completed tournaments now create a lobby chat result with the champion and top finishers, and champions get a bigger result-card moment.

•Legend avatars in Avatar Case: The 14 Legend emblems are now selectable Duel avatars for granted owner accounts, and appear as locked coming-soon rewards for everyone else.

•Stale games resolve more reliably: Abandoned active duels and tournament conflicts are cleaned up more aggressively so players are less likely to get stuck behind an old match.

•DARKO custom duels: Create Game can now run DARKO, DARKO OFF, and DARKO DEF boards using single-season DARKO values.

•Custom factor windows: Private games can use 3Y, 4Y, 5Y, and 10Y TS, TOV, SC, and 6F boards instead of being locked to the ranked random pool.

•Bonus-rule custom games: Hosts can enable full-lineup bonuses, and 6F custom games now show the TS/TOV/SC scoring breakdown that decides the match.

•Custom FFA starts are smoother: Large custom FFA boards, started broadcasts, and lifecycle fixes make invite rooms less likely to wedge or leave players waiting.

•Tighter mobile draft layout: The live 1v1 mobile board has smaller scoreboard spacing, no bottom-dock reserve during drafts, and tighter gaps around Flashbang and rosters.

•Public profile breakdowns: Profile modals now show ranked 1v1 split cards, side totals, game-type totals, tournament rings, recent duels, and H2H context.

•Profile search: The leaderboard panel can search duel handles and open public profile modals without exposing auth emails.

•Tournament Elo rates by series: Best-of-3 tournament series now move Elo once at series completion, so a 2-1 win acts like one matchup instead of three separate ladder swings.

•Defense-only score rule cleaned up: The second-pick +1 bonus remains for normal and offense-only 1v1 modes, while defense-only games start and score without that bonus.

•Tri-Board tournaments: Tri-Board became a tournament format with variable fields, play-ins, watch-state support, and better first-turn grace for live pods.

•Faster lobby reads: Profile, avatar, leaderboard, chat, tournament, and watch reads now use shared query caching to reduce repeated loading and flicker.

•Avatar Case launched: Tournament points unlock Cinder Court avatars, tournament wins unlock Infernal avatars, and selected avatars appear across duel profiles, brackets, seats, and match surfaces.

•Second pick gets +1: Normal and offense-only 1v1 duels now give the player picking second a +1 starting adjustment to offset draft-order disadvantage.

•Trio joins the ladder: The 1v1v1 Trio format appears from the duel lobby and feeds the global 1v1 ladder through placement-based outcomes.

•FFA can start at three: FFA queue players can start with three players instead of waiting forever for a fourth seat.

•FFA Madness scheduling: Manual FFA Madness events gained countdowns, lobby chat reminders, cancel controls, and rematch flow.

•Live cursors restored: Opponent cursors came back in 1v1 and Trio games using throttled Broadcast messages instead of costly Presence channels.

•Homepage Duels CTA: The SixRings landing page now has a direct Duels entry beside the main game call-to-action.

•Eager tournament advancement: Next-round series start as soon as both feeder series finish, so players do not wait for every match in the previous round.

•Chat challenges: Lobby chat can carry visible duel challenge actions, making it easier to start games from conversation.

•Community polls: The lobby can ask lightweight feedback polls; players vote once, and owner accounts can see live results.

•Playoff LAKER and FFA Madness: Manual games added Playoff LAKER options, while FFA Madness gained its own event lobby and 150-card global 5Y pool.

•Mobile rows rebuilt: Phone drafting uses denser, cleaner candidate rows so hidden boards and picked cards are easier to scan.

•18 ranked variants: Ranked random duels expanded to LAKER, 3Y/4Y/5Y/10Y RAPM, offense-only, defense-only, TS, TOV, and SC modes under one global Elo.

•24-card LAKER boards: 1v1 LAKER duel boards moved from 21 to 24 cards, giving both players a deeper shared draft board.

•Flashbang lifeline: LAKER duel players get one free Flashbang that rerolls unpicked cards to different seasons of the same players and resets the pick clock.

•Tournament brackets and watch mode: Single-elimination best-of-3 tournaments gained public bracket pages, spectator board grids, and 75-second per-game check-ins.

•Rank tiers and H2H records: The ladder gained named rank tiers, profile trophy context, and lifetime head-to-head records on result surfaces.

•Queue and deploy safety: Ghost queue heartbeats, one-sided mobile reveal confusion, and stale client deploys got targeted fixes so live games behave more predictably.