Players of the Telegram-based click-to-earn game "Hamster Kombat" have begun to accuse the team of unfair treatment and allege false promises. The resources accumulated by players have been converted into HMSTR tokens, but the process and criteria for token distribution have sparked dissatisfaction among users. Some players have been identified as cheaters and banned from participating in the token distribution. Players are confused about the actual value of the tokens they receive. Many users complain that the distribution criteria are unfair and demand reconsideration and redistribution of the tokens. The hashtag #boycotthamsterkombat has become popular on social media. The number of tokens players receive mainly depends on the number of friends invited through referral links. Players are particularly dissatisfied with the token distribution logic, as they have spent a considerable amount of time actually playing the game, yet the token distribution relies heavily on referral links. Discontent among players towards the game and the team continues to grow.

HMSTR

Whether you are one of the loyal players of "Hamster Kombat," a click-to-earn game based on Telegram, or completely indifferent to it, the hype surrounding this game has been real since its launch this spring. With Notcoin "leading the way," most of the news about this game has started to focus on the release and price predictions of its native token, HMSTR, since the number of registered accounts for "Hamster Kombat" reached 10 million. Now, with the end of the first season since the game went live in March, players have begun to accuse the team of unfair treatment and false promises. As of last weekend, as part of the reward system promised by the game, the resources accumulated by players have been converted into HMSTR tokens, which are expected to be distributed in the form of airdropped tokens at the Token Generation Event (TGE). The game team has also revealed more information about token supply and distribution in posts on the X platform. The team stated that, out of the planned supply of 100 billion HMSTR tokens, 75% will be reserved for the community, with 60% of the tokens allocated to users at the end of the first season. According to the team's posts on the X platform, this kind of "hamster math" continues: of the 60% 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 after 10 months of the token being listed on exchanges. The team also promised an additional airdrop of 15% of 100 billion tokens during the upcoming second season of "Hamster Kombat." Since March, the "Hamster Kombat" team claims that the game has attracted up to 300 million users. Among these users, only a little over half, or 131 million players, are eligible to receive token rewards in the much-anticipated airdrop, which is currently scheduled for September 26. Additionally, 2.30 million players have been identified as cheaters and are completely banned from participating in the token distribution. Since the "Hamster Kombat" team released an announcement on Sunday, many users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the token distribution process and criteria on the X platform, claiming that the amount of tokens they are receiving is far less than the time and effort they have put in. The HMSTR token will be listed and open for trading on exchanges later this week after the airdrop, but several mainstream exchanges have already conducted pre-market trading of HMSTR tokens in both spot and futures contracts. Prices on different platforms range from 0.01 USDT to 0.1 USDT, leaving players confused about the actual value of the tokens they received. Comments from the community indicate that, based on the highest USDT prices across exchanges, the average user spent hundreds of hours gaming to earn less than 50 dollars. A player in the Telegram community with the nickname Timbo stated that he has been playing the game almost since the beginning, spending about 4-5 hours a day for two months, and earned approximately 500 tokens. As time goes on, the hype surrounding the game and the upcoming token release continues to grow, leading more players to be promised token assignments upon release. "Over time, my interest has gradually faded. The game itself isn't that fun. As for potential earnings, I didn't expect much — the number of players has become enormous, and everyone needs to be rewarded," Timbo said. Another wave of negative sentiment comes from "Hamster Kombat" excluding 2.30 million players from the token distribution. According to the project team, the ban was implemented to address users who allegedly tried to gain game rewards through improper means, such as clicking on multiple devices, playing from different accounts, or cheating through referrals. The project team also provided examples: "One person connected over 400 accounts to the same Binance address, while another invited nearly 2000 'friends,' all of whom were flagged by our anti-cheat system." However, some of the criteria for determining cheating seem quite controversial, with one of the most shocking penalties being the purchase of keys. Keys are important game items introduced later on, which also have a high weight in the airdrop. According to the game rules, users need to complete a mini-game to obtain keys, but some players chose to spend money to buy them directly, skipping the mini-game. The "Hamster Kombat" game system allows users to purchase keys without any warnings or explanations that this is a violation. However, this action was evidently deemed "cheating" in the airdrop, and players were reportedly banned from receiving tokens as a result. Several members of the "Hamster Kombat" Telegram chat group posted a message that included the following: "Some of my friends did nothing wrong but were mistakenly listed as cheaters. This injustice seriously damages the community's trust, creating an atmosphere of distrust." These players, deemed by the project team to have violated the so-called "game rules," received only a simple status at the end of the first season: "Cheating is bad." The Telegram chat of the "Hamster Kombat" community was immediately flooded with complaints, with members arguing that the distribution criteria are unfair and demanding that the administrators reconsider and distribute tokens. Users on Telegram expressed their dissatisfaction at being labeled as cheaters suddenly at the end of the season, pointing out that they had already spent a significant amount of time on the game. "At the beginning of the project, no one knew what violations would occur, and at the end of the project, suddenly there was a ban, with absurd excuses to distribute tokens to fewer people," complained a self-identified player on the X platform, who had played for four months, collected over 200 keys, and earned 8.36 million HMSTR per hour, setting alarms and tracking the "rising times" of cards."Now you tell me I don't deserve it. Hamster Kombat is a scam." Meanwhile, the hashtag #boycotthamsterkombat is trending on platform X—at the time of writing, there are over 22,000 tweets using this tag. According to community reports, the number of tokens players receive is determined by the following criteria: In the game Hamster Kombat, tokens are categorized into several types: total HMSTR, claimed, next unlock, and unclaimed. However, the game does not provide explanations for these different categories. It turns out that the most significant factor determining how many tokens each player receives is not the passive income HMSTR tokens earned through playing the game, but rather the number of friends invited through referral links. From comments on social media, it is clear that regular users are most dissatisfied with the token distribution logic because they spent a lot of time actually playing the game, trying to break into the top 100 players, completing tasks, etc. These players are the backbone of the community and may not have a broad social network like YouTube influencers to invite "friends" by sharing referral links, thus earning more tokens. Has Hamster Kombat deceived everyone? With its massive token distribution plan and reported user statistics, the game still hopes to achieve one of the largest airdrops in the crypto space. Players who have linked their wallets with Hamster Kombat accounts are expected to receive allocated tokens in the airdrop event this week, which can then be traded on major exchanges like Binance and OKX. Considering the reportedly large number of users playing Hamster Kombat, it may not be surprising that players are receiving fewer tokens than expected. Given that the total token supply is capped at 100 billion, and there are reports of hundreds of millions of users, the math becomes at least somewhat clear, although this is disappointing for most players. In any case, the value of the earnings calculated in fiat currency will only become truly clear when the HMSTR token goes live for spot trading on September 26, and players actually receive their long-awaited tokens. According to RTVI, independent expert Viktor Pershikov, who focuses on combating financial crime in the crypto space, stated that those "hoping to get rich by playing Hamster Kombat" are "finding their expectations unmet." The media noted that many were disappointed to learn that "after playing the game for several months," their efforts "only yielded $5 to $15" in return. Pershikov also noted that the game and its team "never promised to make anyone rich," and that when players eventually start trading their HMSTR tokens for fiat, the token price "will face pressure." Telegram is the preferred chat application for most citizens in Russia, and the explosive popularity of Hamster Kombat naturally makes it very popular in Russia. Some players in the country even bought massage guns to enhance their tapping abilities. Many e-commerce sellers have also taken the opportunity to promote their massage guns as "hitting hamsters," thereby boosting sales of these massage guns on Russian e-commerce platforms. On September 22, the Russian information and socio-political electronic newspaper Fontanka.ru reported on Hamster Kombat, stating that the "eight-year-old son" of one of its employees had "mined" for a total of 120 days, earning approximately "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 educated and literate country in the world to what we are today?"

Players of "Hamster Kombat" accuse the team of unfair treatment and false promises.