Launch500 · Season 1
The Crash Cup
A knockout between 32 Premium listings, decided by Crew votes: one vote per member per tie, head to head, round by round, until one product is left.
Reading the live record
The field · Season 1
reading
- Place 1, open
- Place 2, open
- Place 3, open
- Place 4, open
- Place 5, open
- Place 6, open
- Place 7, open
- Place 8, open
- Place 9, open
- Place 10, open
- Place 11, open
- Place 12, open
- Place 13, open
- Place 14, open
- Place 15, open
- Place 16, open
- Place 17, open
- Place 18, open
- Place 19, open
- Place 20, open
- Place 21, open
- Place 22, open
- Place 23, open
- Place 24, open
- Place 25, open
- Place 26, open
- Place 27, open
- Place 28, open
- Place 29, open
- Place 30, open
- Place 31, open
- Place 32, open
Reading how many places are filled.
This is a popularity contest and we will not pretend otherwise. A bracket measures which product people prefer head to head, not whether the software works. Winning earns a badge. It does not earn a score, a Crash Test or a place on the list.
How a season runs
Five stages, and no dates
01 · Before entries
Season 1 opens for entries soon.
02 · Entries open
Season 1 is open for entries. It runs once all 32 places are filled.
03 · Field full
Season 1's field is full; the draw is next.
04 · Ties open
Season 1 is running: the draw is made and the ties are open to Crew votes.
05 · Champion
Season 1 is finished.
For makers
Enter with a Premium listing
- 01A Premium listing enters automatically while places remain, including one bought before entries open. Nobody enters by asking, and staff may invite a listing; every entry shows which way it came in.
- 02Places go in the order of entry, and the draw seeds from that order once the field is full.
- 03A payment refunded in full or disputed withdraws the entry: before the draw it is removed, and after it the listing's ties go to the other side.
- 04A Garage never votes, including on its own tie. Crew members decide every tie.
For the Crew
Vote on every tie
- 01Open a free Crew account. It votes once it has been open 3 days.
- 02One vote per tie, and it is final. An account casts at most 60 votes an hour.
- 03Every counted vote weighs 1. Bursts from one address are set aside, and each tie shows the share.
- 04The tally is public while a tie is open. A level tie goes to the higher seed.
The rules
Everything the database enforces
Entry and the draw
- 01A listing enters in one of two ways: by its Premium listing payment, or by staff invitation. Nobody enters by asking, and every entry shows which way it came in.
- 02When a season opens, every live listing holding a payment that has not been refunded in full or disputed enters at once, ranked by its earliest such payment. After that, each payment that lands while entries are open enters in the order it lands, and so does each invitation.
- 03A season takes at most 32 entrants, and Season 1 runs once all 32 places are filled: entries close, then the draw, and only then voting. A payment after the field is full, or after entries close, waits for the next season.
- 04A payment refunded in full or disputed withdraws the entry it bought: before the draw the entry is removed; after it, the entry's ties go to the other side, marked "payment reversed".
- 05When entries close, a random seed is fixed and its SHA-256 is published here. The seed itself is published at the draw, so anyone can check it was fixed in advance and re-run the draw.
- 06Seeds follow the order of entry, then are shuffled within bands of a quarter of the bracket by that seed. The bracket is the smallest that holds the entrants, and a short field gives byes to the top seeds.
- 07Each round's ties stay open 3 days and the final 2. Ties close and the next round is built automatically, within 10 minutes of the window ending.
- 08Voting can be paused. While it is, no tie closes and no round is built, and every open tie gets the paused time back when voting resumes.
- 09There is no prize in Season 1 beyond the winner's badge, which links to the product's page and carries no followed link. A winner whose payment is reversed after the season keeps the result but not the badge.
How a vote counts
- 01Only Crew members vote, once per tie. A Garage never votes, including on its own listing.
- 02A Crew account votes once it has been open 3 days, and casts at most 60 votes an hour.
- 03Every counted vote weighs 1. Reputation does not weight a Cup vote in Season 1.
- 045 or more votes on one tie from one address within 10 minutes are set aside and count for nothing. Each tie shows the share of its votes set aside.
- 05A level tie goes to the higher seed.
- 06A tie found to have been manipulated is voided by staff: its votes are discarded, the reason is shown on the tie, and it runs again for a full round.
The record
Seasons
Reading the seasons.
What the winner gets
A winner’s badge to show on its own site. The badge is an image linking to the product’s page here, and the link is nofollow: a prize passes no ranking credit. There is no other prize in Season 1.
A trophy is not a verdict
A vote shows a product has an audience. Only a Crash Test says whether it works, and the Cup does not change one.