What happened to Hamster Kombat? A tale of caution for developers

When Hamster Kombat first launched, the gaming and crypto communities had high hopes for the project. Months down the line, with little to no “new” announcements and pin-drop silence from developers, investors’ confidence in the tap-to-earn game’s long-term prospects has dropped tenfold.

Hamster Kombat first entered the crypto scene in March 2024, leveraging the Ton blockchain network. Designed as a Telegram-integrated “clicker” game, developers convinced the crypto enthusiasts that Hamster Kombat had a unique premise. 

In the game, players could assume the role of an entrepreneur and CEO of a crypto exchange, tasked with developing the platform through strategic investments in improvement cards, completing tasks, and interacting with the game’s iconic hamster mascot.

By mid-summer 2024, after launching its token, $HMSTR, the game had amassed over 239 million users. This success was so pronounced that it caught the attention of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, who praised the game on his channel. 

Durov’s endorsement made the player base surge further, surpassing 300 million users by the end of September.

So, where did it all start going downhill? How did a project that was initially lauded by the crypto community start trending for the wrong reasons? Here’s the story of one of the most popular tap-to-earn crypto games lost all its social credit.

Hamster Kombat: The good old days 

On September 20, the Telegram-based blockchain game announced the conclusion of its first season rollout. According to IntoTheBlock data, the game had amassed a massive global audience of over 300 million players, and active addresses within the network had reached 1.59 million by September 27.

To mark the season’s end, the platform took a snapshot of all players’ progress at 6 PM UTC on the same day, laying the groundwork for its much-awaited $HMSTR token airdrop. Hamster Kombat’s team also announced that its’ token will be listed on several major exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, KuCoin, MEXC, and Gate.io between September and October 2024. 

👏 SNAP, SNAP, CLAP, CLAP 👏

CEOs, we're letting you know the snapshot was successfully taken! 🫡🐹

📲 Reminder: You still have time to choose your AirDrop withdrawal method, but only until September 21, 8 am UTC.

Make sure to choose a withdrawal method! Please double-check… pic.twitter.com/tTyptrr1vK

— Hamster Kombat (@hamster_kombat) September 20, 2024

The news about the airdrop and listings sparked a lot of excitement in the community. Analysts were optimistic $HMSTR would do well considering the project’s huge fanbase. Unfortunately, Hamster’s CEOs were in for a rude awakening.

Flipping good times for sad tales

The excitement surrounding Hamster Kombat quickly soured after its highly publicized token launch and airdrop. The rollout was marred by technical hiccups and accusations of fraud. The TON blockchain, already under strain from other high-profile token launches, faced additional pressure during the game’s airdrop, raising questions about its scalability. 

Hamster Kombat’s highly anticipated $HMSTR token airdrop took place on September 26, 2024. Of the total supply of 100 billion tokens, 60% were allocated for this initial airdrop. 

Over 300 million players participated in the game since its launch. Yet, the project revealed that only 131 million qualified for the distribution after anti-cheating measures disqualified 2.3 million accounts.

According to several sources, eligible users received 88.75% of their allocated tokens immediately, while the remaining 11.25% was locked and set to vest monthly over ten months after the token’s listing. This approach angered some participants who expected full distribution upfront. 

✍️ HAMSTER MATH ✍️

🔥 The results of Season 1 have been finalized:

🚀 Over 300 million people have joined Hamster Kombat since March 26, 2024, 131 million qualified for the airdrop on September 26th and around 2.3 million were banned as cheaters.

📤 30.6 million of qualified… pic.twitter.com/LH5eD3i8al

— Hamster Kombat (@hamster_kombat) September 22, 2024

Dissatisfied players accused the developers of manipulating token allocations and operating unethically. On X, the crypto community created a hashtag meant to encourage users to boycott Hamster Kombat.

One user stated, “No one will be there who has not worked hard. All of these folks belong to your community. All of them can bring it down.”

Another user pointed out that Hamster Kombat had “bootlicked” YouTubers and influencers for referrals to get users to toil for keys in their games, only to give small rewards and wrongfully ban millions. They asked the community to unfollow influencers who supported the project, claiming YouTubers “misused the community.”

Will Hamster Kombat survive until season 2?

Since the airdrop mishap, the number of Hamster Kombat members on its Telegram channel has dropped at a shocking rate. IntoTheBlock data also shows that daily active address totals have gone down by more than 80%.

The team had announced that Hamster Kombat’s season 2 airdrop and game overhaul would happen in October. However, it has gone completely silent, and the date of the launch remains unknown.

The story of Hamster Kombat best defines a cautionary tale to developers. Its team, whom the community generally doesn’t know much about, seemingly leveraged investor enthusiasm to generate income through player engagement and promotional content on platforms like YouTube. 

Hamster Kombat has cheated the community 📌 It's time to give them back.

They have allocated a large portion of airdrops to bootlicking YouTubers and influencers for referrals.

They’ve implemented vesting without informing the community.

They’ve made people work like labour,… pic.twitter.com/Mw3UrDdHxl

— Crypto with Khan ( SFZ ) (@Cryptowithkhan) September 22, 2024

Many in the community felt under-compensated and underappreciated for their efforts, with several users claiming they were wrongfully banned and excluded from the airdrop and referral rewards. This mismanagement has resulted in dwindling engagement; frustrated participants are losing trust in the project, and we can’t say their grievances are unjustified. 

If there’s anything we’ve all learned in the last two years in crypto, evident in what happened to beleaguered crypto exchange FTX, it’s that you can only fool people for so long.

Without addressing these wrongdoings and breaking the silence over upcoming events, Hamster Kombat could collapse into oblivion before its planned season 2 rollout.

There have been rumblings of developers conniving with hackers to drain projects and share revenues. Perhaps, some Web3 developers are the scourge of the industry. What is undeniable is that Hamster Kombat has become a cautionary tale for any developer introducing a product to digital market investors.

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