Two lives. One tournament. And in the end only one is left standing.
With Survivor, Schnopsn Cash gets a new tournament mode. The idea is quickly explained: everyone starts with 2 lives, every loss costs one, and whoever is the last one left wins. But losing a life does not mean you have to throw in your cards straight away. As long as rebuys are open, you can buy your way back into the tournament. That is exactly where the second layer of tactics begins.
How Survivor works
Registration runs as usual until the tournament starts. The entry fee differs from tournament to tournament, just as you know it from our other tournaments. The tournament starts as soon as the minimum number of players shown with the tournament is reached. After that it goes round by round:
- Every round is drawn anew among all remaining players. Where possible, you will not face your last opponent again straight away.
- Each match is one Bummerl. You have 15 seconds per move, plus a time bank of 45 seconds.
- The winner keeps all their lives. The loser loses one. At 0 lives you are out.
- A bye when the number of players is odd. Whoever draws it moves on to the next round without playing and without losing a life.
- The tournament is over as soon as only one player is left. That player is the Survivor and the winner.
But anyone who knows Schnapsen knows: one lost Bummerl does not mean the tournament is over.
Rebuys: back in the game
If you are down to 1 or even 0 lives, you can rebuy as long as rebuys are open. Whether you do is up to you. A single rebought life is enough to get you back in the game. In total, however, a maximum of 2 rebought lives is possible per tournament, either 1 life twice or 2 lives at once:
- 1 life twice: lives get more expensive with every round.
- 2 lives at once: only possible if you have lost your last life, are down to 0 and have not rebought before. After that, no further rebuy is possible.
If you have fewer than 2 lives after a game, you get an offer, provided rebuys are open and you are still allowed to rebuy. You have 30 seconds to decide. If you do not answer, nothing is bought. You always see the exact price in the offer before you pay.
The price of a life depends on the entry fee and on how many lives are still left in the tournament. The fewer lives still in play, the more expensive the rebuy. Every rebuy, minus our fee, goes straight into the prize pool and so raises it for everyone.
There is no offer if you lost the life through a no-show, a forfeit or a timeout.
When are rebuys open?
Rebuys are always open in the first 4 rounds. After that you can only rebuy as long as there are enough lives left in the tournament. The rule is simple: at least as many lives must be left as players started. With 8 players that is 8 lives, with 16 players 16 lives. Rebought lives count too.
From round 5 on, the check is always made before the round: how many lives will still be in play after this round? Since exactly one player loses a life in every game, you simply subtract the number of games from the current lives. A bye is not a game.
- If the result is at or above the limit, rebuys are still possible after the round.
- If it is below the limit, rebuys close and stay closed until the end of the tournament.
Before every round you can see directly in the tournament whether rebuys will still be possible after it.
An example with 8 players
The limit is 8 lives.
| Situation | Lives now | Games | Lives after the round | Rebuys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start: all 8 with 2 lives each | 16 | 4 | 12 | open |
| After round 1 without rebuys: 4 players with 2 lives, 4 with 1 | 12 | 4 | 8 | open (exactly at the limit) |
| From round 5: 4 players left, three with 2 lives and one with 1 | 7 | 2 | 5 | closed |
In practice this means: early on you have the chance of a second life. The closer the final gets, the more every single life counts.
Prize pool and payout
The prize pool is the sum of all entry fees and rebuys, minus our fee. Some tournaments have a guaranteed prize pool. In that case entry fees and rebuys fill up the guarantee first, and only what goes beyond it raises the prize pool.
The best 25% of players are paid, but at least the winner. The better the place, the bigger the share. With 20 players, for example, the top 5 are paid and the prize pool is split like this:
| Place | Share of the prize pool |
|---|---|
| 1st place | approx. 40% |
| 2nd place | approx. 23% |
| 3rd place | approx. 16% |
| 4th place | approx. 12% |
| 5th place | approx. 9% |
The leaderboard
Places follow the order of elimination: the winner is first, followed by whoever was eliminated later. If several players are eliminated in the same round, the one who rebought less ranks higher. If that is equal too, the better average point difference per game played decides. Byes and games not played (no-show, forfeit, timeout) do not count. Only if that is equal as well do the players split the prize money of their shared places equally.
Between rounds you can open the leaderboard at any time and see who is currently in which place. Players who are already out can see their place and their prize money there during the tournament, even for shared places.
Fair play, cancellation and abandonment
To keep things fair at the virtual card table, a few clear rules apply:
- Not showing up costs a life. This life cannot be rebought.
- Minimum number of players not reached by the start: the tournament is cancelled and everyone gets their entry fee back.
- A running tournament is abandoned: the remaining prize pool is split equally among all players still in.
Available now in the Schnopsn Cash app
Survivor is available now. Pick a Survivor tournament in the Schnopsn Cash app and register. Whether you defend every life to the very end or get yourself a second chance with a rebuy is entirely up to you.
In the end only one thing counts: being the last one left.