> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vetox.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Prize Matches

> Play a duel for a Vito entry, winner takes the prize — how staking works, the settlement fee, the caps, and why Vetox will never ask for your PIN.

Two players each stake Vito on a duel. The winner takes the pot.

<Info>
  Requires **Basic**, and it is **off until a server owner turns it on**.
</Info>

<Note>
  Prize Matches ride on the three duel games in [Games](/en/engagement/games): Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four and Rock Paper Scissors.
</Note>

## How a match runs

<Steps>
  <Step title="Two players, and only two">
    A prize match is offered on the 1v1 path only. A knockout bracket has many pairings and one champion, so there is nowhere for an even two-sided stake to sit. Brackets are never staked.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Both players agree the stake">
    Each is asked separately, and each has to accept.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Both stakes are held before the first move">
    The Vito leaves both wallets and is held in escrow. Nothing is paid out and nothing is charged until the match ends.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The match is played">
    Exactly as it would be without a stake.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It settles, or it refunds">
    A decided winner takes the pot. **Everything else returns both stakes whole.**
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What refunds

Only a decided winner settles. All of these return both stakes in full:

* A draw that survives every replay
* A turn timeout with no move played
* A moderator ending the match with `/stop`
* A match that could not be posted, or that lost its channel
* Anything unexpected

<Note>
  A refund is **exactly lossless**. The fee below is charged when a match settles and at no other moment, so a match nobody could decide gives both players back precisely what they staked.
</Note>

<Warning>
  If a match is somehow left unresolved, a sweep releases the escrow automatically. You are never asked to open a ticket to get a stake back.
</Warning>

## Limits

| Setting                  | Range        | Default  |
| ------------------------ | ------------ | -------- |
| **Entry**                | 1-1,000,000  | 10-1,000 |
| **Daily cap per member** | 0-10,000,000 | 5,000    |

The entry range is set per duel game, so Tic-Tac-Toe and Rock Paper Scissors can carry different stakes. The daily cap is per member, per server, and counts what a member has staked rather than what they have won.

## The fee

A settled match charges the standard [Vito](/en/members/vito) fee, keyed off the **winner's** membership.

| Normal, Silver, Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
| -------------------- | -------- | ------- |
| 7%                   | 6%       | 5%      |

Two details worth knowing:

* **The fee is charged on the loser's stake, not on the pot.** The winner's own stake simply comes back to them, so only the loser's stake changes hands. Charging on the whole pot would tax the winner's own money and make the real rate on their winnings twice the advertised one.
* **Stakes of 5 Vito or less are fee-free**, the same threshold every Vito transfer uses.

<Note>
  The fee is destroyed, not collected. Vetox does not receive it and neither does the server owner. It leaves circulation, exactly as the fee on a `/vito` transfer does.
</Note>

## Turning it on

Prize Matches are enabled per game on that game's own page, once the server-wide switch is on.

<Warning>
  This puts real member-held Vito on the outcome of a game. Set a daily cap you are comfortable with before switching it on, and consider keeping entry ranges modest to start.
</Warning>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The prize match was not offered">
    It needs **Basic**, the server-wide switch on, that game's own Prize Match switch on, and exactly two players. It is never offered in a bracket.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="One player could not stake">
    They are short of Vito, or they have reached the daily cap. Vetox tells that player privately and tells their opponent only that the match could not be set up. A refusal never reveals somebody's balance.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The match ended in a draw, so where did the stakes go">
    Straight back to both players, in full. A draw settles nothing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The winner received less than the pot">
    The Vito fee above was taken from the loser's stake. The winner's own stake always returns whole.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A stake has not come back yet">
    An unresolved escrow is released by a sweep rather than by hand. If a balance still looks wrong afterwards, check [Vito transactions](/en/account/vito-transactions) — every movement is listed there.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Card title="Games" icon="gamepad" horizontal href="/en/engagement/games">
  The duels a prize match is played on.
</Card>