In Brief:
- From Oct. 20 to 25, Koin Games is hosting the Crimson Cup, an online tournament for Origins TCG.
- The total prize value is $10,000. Only part of it is cash: the pool also includes promo cards, digital packs and Alpha Edition product.
- Players compete on the free Steam demo during Steam Next Fest. Sign-ups are handled through the game’s official Discord.
Steam Next Fest will be the stage for Koin Games’ biggest Origins TCG tournament to date. The event runs online for six days and offers $10,000 in prizes.
The official Origins TCG account announced the event on X: “This is everything you need to know about the Crimson Cup running from October 20-25,” adding, “The biggest Origins TCG tournament so far with a $10k prizepool.”
This is everything you need to know about the Crimson Cup running from October 20-25
The biggest Origins TCG tournament so far with a $10k prizepool ↓↓Origins TCGView on X ↗
What’s in the $10,000 prize pool
Much of the $10,000 comes as items, not cash. Koin Games listed the rewards as an exclusive 1/1 tournament promo card, more promo cards, digital packs, Alpha booster boxes and cases, and cash prizes.
How the prizes split by placement will be announced separately. The studio’s materials so far don’t include that breakdown.
Format and timeline
The Crimson Cup takes place over several days. It starts with qualification, then moves to playoffs and finals. Every match is played online, inside the game.
There are three regional qualifiers, on Oct. 20, 21 and 22. The playoffs and finals come next, and the event ends on Oct. 25.
Steam Next Fest opens Monday, Oct. 19 at 10:00 Pacific time and closes Monday, Oct. 26, so the whole tournament happens during the festival.
Three decks and hidden decklists
Matches are played in the Conquest format. Each competitor registers three decks, and each deck has a different Legendary. Any two of a player’s decks must have at least eight unique cards between them.
Koin Games chose these rules after surveying its players. Decklists stay hidden until the top four. When a player bans one of an opponent’s decks, the only thing they see is that deck’s Legendary.
Best-of-five matches have no ban, so players must win with all three of their decks. Descriptions of the event suggest best-of-three matches with a best-of-five grand final. The published sources don’t fully agree on which rounds use which match length, though.
The studio first tried out the format at Big Bob’s Playtest Battle on Aug. 28.
How to sign up
The tournament is played on the demo, not the playtest build. The demo is free to download on Steam.
Players register on the official Origins TCG Discord. Check-in for each qualifier opens two hours before it starts and closes five minutes before the start. Deck submissions close at the same moment. Anyone who misses check-in can’t play.
Demo 2.0 and ranked play
Origins TCG comes to Next Fest with its Demo 2.0 update. For the first time, every player can build a custom 25-card deck instead of choosing a preset list. A deck has one Legendary plus 12 cards, with two copies of each.
Koin Games has also released a tentative card list for the Crimson Cup. The studio said players could start building their tournament decks now, as long as no balance patches change things before the event.
Ranked mode goes live when Steam Next Fest starts, with exclusive ranked rewards, according to Koin Games. Players keep their progress from whichever build they’ve advanced further in, the demo or the playtest.
Earlier tournaments
This isn’t the first organized Origins TCG competition. In August, a playtest tournament gave its winners Collector Packs and a wildcard invite to the Next Fest tournament, which has limited spots.
About the game
Koin Games describes Origins TCG as a free-to-compete card game with no pay-to-win, where skill alone decides who wins. Players compete for limited digitally graded cards that can be bought, sold and traded. Both players take their turns at the same time.
The game’s Steam page lists a Q4 2026 release. Until then, the studio’s biggest competitive test runs on a free demo, and every entrant must have three decks locked in five minutes before their qualifier begins.