Who runs the cups
The cups are run by D-bug Station Limited, the publisher of IQ Daily (“we”, “us”). Questions go to [email protected].
Apple is not a sponsor of these cups and is not involved in them in any way. Neither are Amazon or Google, whose gift cards may be given as prizes.
Free to enter, decided by skill
Entering a cup is free. No purchase is needed to enter or to win, and IQ Daily Pro gives no advantage in a cup. Results depend only on how you solve the puzzles: chance plays no part in who wins.
Who can enter, and who can win prizes
- Entering: any IQ Daily player with a handle, on a version of the app that supports the cup, except where the cup isn’t offered (the app tells you).
- Pro days as a prize: your IQ Daily account must be linked to Sign in with Apple or Google when the cup closes, so the prize reaches you and you can recover your account.
- Prizes of money value (such as gift cards): as above, and you must be 18 or older, or have a parent’s or guardian’s permission, and live in a country where we can send the prize.
- Our employees and their households can play but can’t win prizes of money value.
- One account per person. Each person can win at most one prize of money value per cup.
If a winner isn’t eligible, or doesn’t claim in time, their prize passes to the next eligible player in the ranking. The cups are void where the law doesn’t allow them.
How a cup is played
- A cup is open for a set window, shown in the app. A Weekly Cup usually runs from Friday 10:00 to Monday 10:00 UTC, which covers the whole weekend everywhere.
- You enter once and get your own set of puzzles (usually 10). Every set in your bracket is drawn from the same pool and matched for difficulty. The puzzles are checked so that each has exactly one answer.
- You get one try at each puzzle, in any order, any time while the cup is open. Our server times each puzzle from when you open it to when you answer.
- The answers and explanations are shown when the cup closes. A puzzle you opened but didn’t answer by the close counts as wrong.
Scoring and ranking
- A right answer scores between 400 and 1,000 points: the faster you answer, the more you score. A wrong answer, or an unplayed puzzle, scores 0.
- Your cup score is the sum over your puzzles (shown divided by 100).
- Ties go to the lower total time on correct answers, then to the player who finished first, then to the player who entered first.
Brackets and countries
Each cup has brackets by player level, for example Rookie, Challenger and Master. You play in your level’s bracket, or you can choose to play up in a higher one, never a lower one. Your bracket is fixed when you enter. Each bracket has its own puzzles, leaderboard and prizes.
Your country is the country of your App Store account, fixed when you enter. It’s used for country leaderboards and any country prizes. Players whose country we don’t know play on the bracket leaderboard only.
The Monthly Championship
- Qualifying: your qualifying score is the sum of your best Weekly Cup scores (usually 2) among the Weekly Cups that close in that calendar month (UTC), in the highest bracket you played that month. The best players of each bracket qualify; the number is shown in the app.
- An async final is played like any cup, in a 24-hour window, by qualifiers only.
- A live final is a knockout in the Arena at a set time. Qualifiers join its lobby from the app in the 15 minutes before the start. Players are ranked by their place in the knockout; qualifiers who don’t take part are ranked after them, by qualifying score. If fewer than two players take part, the final is ranked by qualifying score.
Fair play
You must play on your own. These aren’t allowed, and can lead to disqualification from a cup or from all cups:
- sharing or using answers from other players while a cup is open;
- using more than one account, or playing on someone else’s account;
- using bots, scripts, or anything that answers for you or changes how the app works.
We review the top results before we confirm prizes, including unusually fast answers and accounts that share a device. Our decisions on disqualification and results are final.
Prizes and how to claim them
- Each cup lists its prizes in the app, by bracket and rank. A prize is given only if its bracket (or country) had at least the number of entrants the cup shows.
- XP, badges and days of IQ Daily Pro are added to your account automatically when the cup ends.
- Prizes of money value are given once we’ve confirmed the results. The winner then claims the prize in the app (the cup, then Claim prize) within the claim period shown there (14 days unless the cup says otherwise), confirming their age and country and choosing a gift card where there’s a choice. The gift card code is delivered in Profile, then Help & support.
- Prizes can’t be exchanged for cash or transferred. If a listed prize isn’t available, we may give one of equal or greater value. Winners are responsible for any taxes on their prize.
Your information
Your handle, avatar, country and results appear on cup leaderboards. When you claim a prize we keep what you confirm and the prize we sent. Our Privacy Policy explains the rest.
Changes and cancellation
If a technical problem, cheating or anything else outside our control affects a cup, we may change its dates, re-rank it or cancel it. If we cancel a cup, we tell its entrants in the app. We may update these rules; the version shown here when a cup opens applies to that cup.