Author: Climber (Golden Finance)

The TON ecological game token Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) will be officially listed on major exchanges on September 26, and the project team will also conduct airdrops for players on the same day. However, what community members, especially those who are deeply involved in the game, did not expect was that the airdrop rewards were seriously out of proportion to their efforts.

As of this writing, OKX pre-market trading information shows that the trading price of HMSTR is only about $0.001, and the profit from the airdrop reward of 100 HMSTR is only $1. On the other hand, the previously listed TON projects such as Notcoin, DOGS, and Catizen also have a "pig's trotters" guaranteed income.

In response, many community members claimed that they had been deceived and asked Hamster Kombat to redistribute rewards. However, the game project seems to deliberately embarrass the Mao Party. It not only limits the proportion of players receiving airdrops, but also severely cracks down on cheating. This can’t help but make the Lu Mao Party hesitant to continue to participate deeply in the TON mini-game project that has not yet issued coins.

High popularity, low income, wealth creation effect of TON ecological projects slows down

Hamster Kombat is a cryptocurrency exchange CEO simulator P2E game built on the Telegram applet platform. Players can increase their income by completing tasks, upgrading personal files, inviting friends, etc. At the same time, they can further expand their income sources through the in-game recommendation system.

The project quickly accumulated a large number of users through its unique game mechanics and extensive community participation. It attracted 239 million people to sign up in three months, and also applied for a Guinness World Record, becoming the first YouTube channel to surpass 10 million subscribers in a week. Hamster Games now has a user base of nearly 300 million, with 82 million monthly active users and an average of 32 million daily active users. The CEO of TG even called the hamster game the latest internet phenomenon to trigger a cultural out-group.

The core token of Hamster Kombat is HMSTR. Players can earn and trade this token in the game to upgrade their characters, participate in limited-time activities, unlock rare items, etc. The token is not only used for in-game transactions, but also plays an important role in the platform’s economic system.

Not long ago, Hamster Kombat announced that it will be listed on major mainstream trading platforms on September 26 and will conduct airdrops simultaneously. With the announcement of the airdrop mechanism and the price displayed on the pre-market exchange, community members found that the benefits they could obtain were extremely meager.

According to the official tweet, players can only claim 88.75% of the tokens, and the remaining 11.25% will have to wait 10 months and is expected to be received in July 2025. The Hamster Kombat team revealed that of the 300 million players who have played the Telegram game so far, only about 129 million ended up qualifying. Of the total 100 billion HMSTR tokens, 60 billion will be distributed in this airdrop, while an additional 15 billion tokens will be reserved for the upcoming Season 2 of the game.

And Hamster Kombat previously posted that it has launched anti-cheating detection, and some cheaters will unlock the "Cheating is Bad" achievement to convey an important reminder to cheaters. Officials stated that they hope to protect players and community members who have worked hard on the game and give them the opportunity to receive a fair share of airdrops.

Afterwards, approximately 2.3 million users were "banned for cheating" from receiving airdrops, and the project team stated that 6.8 billion tokens had been recovered from these cheaters. 50% has been distributed to honest players and the other 50% will be burned.

However, the airdrop posture of the project team is very high-profile, but the layout seems a bit narrow, and the benefits to players are almost negligible. According to OKX pre-market trading information, the price of HMSTR is only about $0.001.

A level 7 Hamster Kombat user received an airdrop of 100 HMSTR tokens, earning only $1 at the current price.

The picture above is a table of popular TON listed projects produced by a community member. Judging from the popularity of the listed projects and the benefit feedback from previous airdrop participants, the highest return is NOT, followed by DOGS and CATI, with a basic cost of a certain amount. After investing time and energy, the guaranteed income is about the same as a meal of pig's feet. (Note: The highest CATI price is now $1.11 and the lowest is $0.73)

Hamster Kombat requires players to participate for up to half a year, but the final rewards distributed are very few, which can't help but make many community members angry.

Meager rewards drew condemnation from the community, and Hamster Kombat fell into a "scam" controversy

As early as June 7, Hamster Kombat posted that user airdrop distribution will depend on profit per hour (PPH) and some other activity parameters released by the team in the future, rather than the number of token balances. The previous announcement of Binance Launchpool and Super Earning Coin to launch the project also made many players invest more time and energy. However, the rewards given to players by the project side are very interesting.

The Hamster Kombat project's airdrop distribution mechanism first angered Russian players, with local media noting that "after months of playing the game," players "were only getting $5 to $15" in return for their efforts. Viktor Pershikov, the country’s encryption security expert, said that those who “want to get rich by playing Hamster Kombat” are “finding their expectations frustrated,” which will cause their tokens to face selling pressure when they open trading.

Interestingly, in July the chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Financial Markets Committee called Hamster Kombat a “scam” that was manipulative and deceptive. He said the scheme was to manipulate and exploit the psyche of citizens, especially those who did not really want to work but dreamed that they could become rich with minimal effort.

Additionally, Aksakov criticized the activities Hamster Kombat users need to complete in order to receive airdrops, saying "people are gullible."

However, due to the previous popularity of the TON narrative, many people are still flocking to the wealth effects brought by multiple ecological projects. And when HMSTR made the community work hard for several months, but in the end only gave players a meager income, many people began to accuse the project of fooling players, and even called the project a "scam."

Community member @TheSolucky said that Hamster said that they will allocate airdrops based on PPH, but ultimately allocate them based on the number of invited friends. Isn’t this a scam?

However, there are community members who believe Hamster Kombat is not a scam and have defended it.

KOL @s0meone_u_know believes that even if the airdrop rewards are not proportional to the players’ efforts, it is not a scam because the project team allows players to obtain funds for free.

In response, another community member @iamdeejayjet countered that airdrop rewards are not free money because users have invested time, data, dedication, and they have made the project global. However, the project side obtains income through monetization and CEX traffic.

Encryption scientist @CryptoKingKeyur conducted cross-examination and said that Hamster Kombat’s words and deeds are inconsistent and there is bullying of users. First of all, the project white paper did not mention that 12% of the tokens will be locked. Secondly, it promised the largest airdrop in history, and the community received 60% of the total allocation. However, most players spent months of hard work and only received Very little reward.

As for Hamster Kombat's meager rewards, some community members said they would unite to stop them.

KOL @Cryptowithkhan said Hamster Kombat deceived the community and now it’s time to pay them back. The project team used players' attention to gain traffic on YouTube to make huge amounts of money, but did not give back to the gamers. He has unfollowed him on every social media platform and now hopes other community members will do the same. If players stayed silent there would be more projects like Hamster Kombat.

Conclusion

The airdrops of Hamster Kombat this time are so small that it is unacceptable, especially for those hairy party members who have invested a lot of time and energy. However, the attitude of the project team before and after the airdrop was very high-profile. Judging from the launch time of the project, the intensity of preventing witch cheating, and the operation of airdrops in batches, it seems to have the style of Da Mao. However, the benefits given to players in the end are very scarce. This is obviously a harm to both the community and the projects on TON that have not yet issued tokens. In particular, the Lumao Party needs to carefully consider its investment in subsequent TON projects. Weigh.

(The above content is excerpted and reprinted with the authorization of our partner PANews, original text link )

Statement: The article only represents the author's personal views and opinions, and does not represent the objective views and positions of the blockchain. All contents and opinions are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investors should make their own decisions and transactions, and the author and Blockchain Client will not be held responsible for any direct or indirect losses caused by investors' transactions.

〈Hamster Kombat ($HMSTR) airdrop returns are not as expected. Is the wealth effect of TON mini-games disappearing? 〉This article was first published in "Block Guest".