In Brief:
- Koin Games will run the Crimson Cup, an online Origins TCG tournament, from Oct. 20 to 25.
- Prizes are valued at $10,000 in total. The pool mixes cash with promo cards, digital packs and Alpha Edition product, so it isn’t all cash.
- The event runs on the free Steam demo during Steam Next Fest, and sign-ups go through the game’s official Discord.
Koin Games will stage its largest Origins TCG tournament so far during Steam Next Fest, with $10,000 in prizes on the line across six days of online play.
“This is everything you need to know about the Crimson Cup running from October 20-25,” the official Origins TCG account posted on X. “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 the $10,000 covers
The prize value isn’t all cash. Koin Games said the rewards include an exclusive 1/1 tournament promo card, other promo cards, digital packs, Alpha booster boxes and cases, and cash prizes.
The studio said it would announce the exact prize split separately. The breakdown by placement wasn’t included in the materials it has released so far.
Schedule and structure
The Crimson Cup runs as a multi-day event, moving from qualification to playoffs to finals. All of it is online and played in-game.
Regional qualifiers are set for Oct. 20, 21 and 22. Playoffs and finals follow before the event closes on Oct. 25.
Steam Next Fest itself opens Monday, Oct. 19 at 10:00 Pacific time and runs until Monday, Oct. 26. The tournament fits inside that window.
Three decks, hidden lists
Matches use the Conquest format. Each player submits three decks, each led by a different Legendary, and any two of those decks must differ by at least eight unique cards.
Koin Games settled on the rules after surveying players. Decklists stay hidden until the top four. When a player bans one of an opponent’s decks, they see only its Legendary.
In best-of-five matches there’s no ban at all. Players have to win with all three decks. Available descriptions of the event point to best-of-three play with a best-of-five grand final, though the published sources don’t fully line up on which rounds use which length.
The studio first tested the format at Big Bob’s Playtest Battle on Aug. 28.
How to enter
The tournament runs on the demo, not the playtest build. The demo is free on Steam.
Registration happens on the official Origins TCG Discord. Check-in opens two hours before each qualifier and closes five minutes before the start, and deck submission closes at the same time. Players who miss it don’t play.
Demo 2.0 and ranked
Origins TCG arrives at Next Fest with its Demo 2.0 update. For the first time, every player can build a custom 25-card deck, made of one Legendary plus 12 cards played as two copies each, instead of picking a preset list.
Koin Games has also published a tentative card list for the Crimson Cup. The studio told players that, barring upcoming balance patches, they could start building decks for the event.
Ranked mode switches on with the start of Steam Next Fest and comes with exclusive ranked rewards, Koin Games said. Players keep their progress from either the demo or the playtest, whichever is further along.
Earlier qualifiers
The Crimson Cup isn’t the first organized Origins TCG event. An August playtest tournament offered its winners a wildcard invite to the Next Fest tournament, which has limited spots, along with Collector Packs.
Background
Koin Games pitches Origins TCG as a free-to-compete card game where players compete on skill alone, with no pay-to-win, for limited digitally graded cards that can be bought, sold and traded. Both players take their turns at the same time.
The Steam page lists a Q4 2026 release. For now, the studio’s biggest competitive test runs on a free demo, and every entrant has to have three decks locked in five minutes before their qualifier starts.
