Token allocation causes controversy: The once-popular fascia gun hamster game "Hamster Kombat" has still managed to offend players.

Whether you are one of the devoted players of Hamster Kombat, the click-to-earn game based on Telegram, or completely indifferent to it, the hype surrounding this game since its launch in spring this year has been very real.

With Notcoin as a successful predecessor, ever since Hamster Kombat reached tens of millions of registered accounts, most news about the game has focused on the launch and price predictions of its native token, HMSTR. Now, as the first season ends since its March launch, players have begun accusing the team of unfair treatment and making false promises.

As of last weekend, as part of the game's promised reward system, resources accumulated by players have been converted into HMSTR tokens, which are expected to be distributed as airdropped tokens at TGE. The game team also revealed more information about token supply and allocation in posts on X. The team stated that out of the planned 100 billion HMSTR tokens to be minted, 75% will be reserved for the community, and 60% of the tokens will be distributed to the game's users at the end of the first season.

According to the team's posts on X, this kind of "hamster math" continues: of the 60% of HMSTR tokens allocated to users, 88.75% will be distributed during this week's token airdrop and listing, while the remaining portion will be locked and can only be unlocked 10 months after the token is listed on exchanges. The team also promised to airdrop an additional 15% of the 100 billion tokens during the upcoming second season of Hamster Kombat.

Since March, according to the Hamster Kombat team, the game has had as many as 300 million users. Among these users, only a little over half—131 million players—are eligible to receive token rewards in the much-anticipated airdrop, which is officially scheduled for September 26. In addition, 2.3 million players have been identified as cheaters and are completely banned from participating in the token distribution.

Disappointing Token Allocation

Since the Hamster Kombat team released its announcement on Sunday, many users have taken to X to express their dissatisfaction with the token allocation process and criteria, feeling that the number of tokens they received was far less than the time and effort they invested.

The HMSTR token will be listed and open for trading on exchanges later this week after the airdrop, but several major exchanges have already launched pre-market spot and futures trading for HMSTR tokens. Its price ranges from 0.01 USDT to 0.1 USDT on different platforms, leaving players confused about the actual value of the tokens they have been allocated.

Judging from community comments, based on the highest USDT price on various exchanges, the average user earned less than $50 for hundreds of hours of gameplay.

A player in the Telegram community, nicknamed Timbo, said he had played the game almost from the very beginning, spending about 4-5 hours a day for two months, and earned about 500 tokens. Over time, as the hype around the game and the upcoming token grew, more and more players were promised token allocations at launch. "As time went on, my interest gradually faded. The game itself wasn't that fun. As for potential earnings, I didn't expect much—the number of players had become so huge that everyone needed to be rewarded," Timbo said.

Controversy Over "Cheater" Determination

An even bigger wave of negative sentiment was triggered when Hamster Kombat announced the exclusion of 2.3 million players from token distribution. According to the project team, the ban was to counter users who allegedly tried to gain in-game benefits through improper means, such as clicking on multiple devices, playing from different accounts, or cheating through referrals. The team also gave examples: "One person connected over 400 accounts to the same Binance address, another invited nearly 2,000 'friends,' all of whom were flagged by our anti-cheat system."

However, some of these cheating criteria seem quite controversial. One of the most shocking penalties was for purchasing keys. Keys, an important game item introduced later, also carry significant weight in the airdrop. According to the game rules, users need to complete a mini-game to obtain keys, but some players chose to pay directly to buy them, skipping the mini-game. The Hamster Kombat game system allowed users to purchase keys without any warning or explanation that this was a violation. However, this behavior was apparently deemed "cheating" in the airdrop and reportedly led to players being banned from receiving tokens.

Several members of the Hamster Kombat Telegram chat group posted a message, which included the following:

"Some of my friends did nothing wrong, yet were mistakenly listed as cheaters. This injustice seriously damages the community's trust and creates an atmosphere of distrust."

Players identified by the project as violating so-called "game rules" received only a simple status at the end of the first season: "Cheating is bad." The Hamster Kombat community's Telegram group was immediately flooded with complaints, with many considering the allocation criteria unfair and demanding that admins reconsider and redistribute the tokens. Users on Telegram were unhappy about being labeled as cheaters at the end of the season, pointing out that they had spent a lot of time on the game.

"At the beginning of the project, no one knew what would be considered a violation, and at the end of the project, suddenly there was a ban, using ridiculous excuses to distribute tokens to fewer people." One self-proclaimed player complained on X that they had played for four months, collected over 200 keys, earned 8.36 million HMSTR per hour, set alarms, and tracked card 'up times.' "Now you tell me I don't deserve it. Hamster (Hamster Kombat) is a scam."

Meanwhile, the hashtag #boycotthamsterkombat is trending on X—with more than 22,000 posts at the time of writing.

How Is Token Allocation Determined?

According to community reports, the number of tokens players receive is determined by the following criteria:

• The number of coins collected by the user during the entire period
• The number of friends the user invited to join the game
• The number of coins the user earned through passive income
• The number of keys the user won in mini-games
• The number of daily tasks the user completed

Tokens in the Hamster Kombat game are divided into several categories: total HMSTR, claimed, next unlock, and unclaimed. However, the game does not provide explanations for these different categories.

It turns out that the most important task in determining the number of tokens each player receives is not the passive income HMSTR tokens earned by playing the game, but the number of friends invited through referral links. Judging from comments on social media, ordinary users are most dissatisfied with the token allocation logic, as they spent a lot of time actually playing the game, trying to get into the top 100 players, completing tasks, etc. These players are the core of the community and may not have the broad social networks of YouTube influencers, who can earn more tokens by inviting "friends" through referral links.

Did Hamster Kombat deceive everyone? With its large-scale token distribution plan and reported user statistics, the game is still expected to achieve the largest airdrop in the crypto space. Players who have linked their wallets to their Hamster Kombat accounts are expected to receive their allocated tokens in this week's airdrop, after which they can trade them on major exchanges such as Binance and OKX.

Given the reportedly massive user base playing Hamster Kombat, it may not be surprising that players received fewer tokens than expected. With the total token supply capped at 100 billion and hundreds of millions of reported users, the math becomes at least somewhat clear, though it is disappointing for most players.

In any case, the fiat value of users' earnings will only become truly clear when the HMSTR token is listed for spot trading on September 26 and players actually receive their long-awaited tokens.

Russian Expert Says Token Will Face Selling Pressure

According to RTVI, Viktor Pershikov, an independent expert in combating financial crime in the crypto field, said that those "who hoped to get rich by playing Hamster Kombat" "found their expectations dashed." The media outlet noted that many were disappointed to learn that "after playing the game for several months," their efforts "only earned them $5 to $15." Pershikov also stated that the game and its team "never promised to make anyone rich," and when players finally start trading their HMSTR tokens for fiat, the token price "will face pressure."

Telegram is the preferred chat app for most Russian citizens, and the viral Hamster Kombat is naturally very popular in Russia. Some players in the country even purchased massage guns to enhance their tapping abilities. Many e-commerce sellers have also promoted the use of massage guns for "tapping hamsters," driving sales growth of these devices on Russian e-commerce platforms.

Russian information and socio-political e-newspaper Fontanka.ru reported on Hamster Kombat on September 22, stating that one of its employees' "eight-year-old son" had "mined" "bitcoin" for a total of 120 days. In the end, the boy's "income was about 4.3 rubles ($0.046)."

Some commenters expressed their dissatisfaction in the comments section of the Fontanka.ru article, with one Russian social media user lamenting: "How did we go from being the most well-read and highly educated country in the world to what we are today?"