Grab a friend and buckle up, because the online Preseason ladder for Wildcard’s Road to DreamHack is now live until August 23 on every Saturday, meaning you now have a chance to practice for the important qualifiers stage while potentially earning some rewards along the way.

What Is Wildcard’s Road to DreamHack?

The Road to DreamHack is an esports event that marks the start of the competitive era in Wildcard and gives anyone an opportunity to play to earn real cash by playing as a team of 2 players.

It’s divided into multiple online stages, culminating in the on-site $5000 showdown between 12 teams in Atlanta.

The first stage is now live from August 9: the online Preseason ladder. This is a weekly practice period that ends on August 23 and gives players an opportunity to warm up, test out their team and strategies on Saturdays, and earn some gift cards before the real Qualifier Ladders kick off on September 6. The Qualifier Ladders end on September 28 and will take place on weekends only, on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 PM to 8 PM EST. It’s where your performance will truly count, as the top 2 teams with the highest score on the leaderboard will progress towards the main event. Both teams will receive a travel stipend of up to $1500 covering flight, hotel, and/or meal costs while becoming the game’s on-site ambassadors. If you don’t qualify, you might be able to try again in the Last Chance Qualifier on October 4, where only one team will be invited to the Atlanta event. Only teams that ranked 3rd – 18th in the first qualifiers can participate, and the winning side in this second qualifying event will have travel expenses covered by up to $1500 and will also have the chance to be the game’s ambassadors during the popular gaming festival. After that, the Placement Stage will run from October 7 to October 23 in order to determine seeding of qualified teams over the course of 6 matches.

Once all these stages are done, the main event is then ready to begin in Atlanta on October 31, when 12 qualified teams will compete until November 2 to try and either win the tournament or rank in the top 4 in order to earn a share of the $5000 prize pool. US travel eligibility is required, and players need to be 18+ years old to participate. The winning team gets $2500, while 2nd place walks away with $1500 and 3rd and 4th place get to snag $500 each.

How to Play and Win Rewards in Preseason Practice Ladder

You can register for the Preseason Practice Ladder by signing up through the official competition page on the game’s website. It’s also linked at the end of the X thread below, and anyone can register for free to receive an exclusive in-game skin and have a chance of winning a $50 Steam or Razor Gold Gift Card by ranking among the top 3 teams each week. The exclusive in-game skin is awarded at the Early Access launch just for participating. Every player in the top 3 teams gets a gift card each, meaning there are 6 winners in total for every Saturday. Players from Russia however are not eligible to win gift card prizes during this phase. You will need to have access to alpha playtests, which you might have a chance of getting by wishlisting the game through the Steam store page.

While this Preseason runs from August 9 to August 23, you can only play and climb the ladder every Saturday from 2 PM to 8 PM EST. You can only play as a team of 2 players, but if you don’t have anyone to partner with, you can still sign up as a free agent and someone will hopefully invite you to tag along. At the time of writing, there are 15 teams, a total of 25 players in these teams, and 5 free agents, so there are some teams still looking for players to join.

On the competition page, anyone who doesn’t have an account already will have to create one the traditional web2 way. Google is also available as a social sign in option, and you don’t need to connect any crypto wallet to get started. With an account set up, you can go back to the event page, click on Register, and choose one of the 3 available options: register a new team, join an existing team, or register as a free agent.

Once you have a team ready to go, you will just have to wait for the next Saturday to roll by to start competing for the top 3 spots to earn gift cards. Every team member will have to use a different champion and have a deck consisting of 10 Unique summons, 3 unique Wildcards, and up to 3 unique Talents. Each match lasts up to 10 minutes and can have up to 5 minutes of overtime if the game is still not over. In overtime, the team that claims the opponent’s goal first wins the game, but if overtime runs out, then the team that has dealt the most damage to the Core is crowned as the victor. If both Cores have been completely damaged, then the match simply ends as a draw, requiring teams to replay tied matches.

About Wildcard

Wildcard is a free to play 2v2 collectible card action game that combines strategic MOBA elements with cards and third-person gameplay. Choose from a distinct range of Champions that each have unique abilities and summon various companions using cards from your customizable deck in sports-like arenas.

The PvP title was successfully listed on Steam earlier this year and is set to launch at some point in 2025. You can wishlist it on Steam right now as well as request access to weekend playtests. You can also enter the Wildcard Hub to try and claim your playtesting key there, with Discord verification required.

In terms of web3 features, this is ultimately a web2 game with no blockchain integration, as on-chain rewards are earned through the team's own external blockchain-powered streaming platform called Thousands.tv. This means you have to stream the game on the web3 platform and participate in streaming events to earn rewards. In June, Wildcard and Thousands announced a $9m fundraise to fuel web3 streaming.

This month, Wildcard launched a quest-based community rewards program through which players can earn in-game currency and a variety of cosmetics.