How it plays
The game, from zero
One song, one prompt, and your friends judging you
A league gets a prompt, like a song that should have been a bigger hit. Everyone submits one track for it, anonymously. Then everyone votes on the tracks they liked. Totals decide the round, points carry across the season, and the arguing is the point.
First A prompt goes up. A commissioner writes it, or in Blind Prompt, the last winner.
Then Everyone brings one pick. Nobody sees who picked what.
Then Everyone spends their points on the picks they rate, then locks. Your own is off your ballot unless your league says otherwise.
Finally Names land on the picks, points land on the season, and somebody gets insufferable about it.
The basics the game, from zero
What is a league?
Your crew. A league is a private group of friends, coworkers, or people with suspiciously good taste who compete in rounds together. Joining takes its code or its link, unless its owner opens the door: then it is listed in Find a league, where anyone can join it or ask to. The league room is its home: the seasons in play, the talk, the case, the opps, the whole meta-game.
What is a round?
A round starts with a prompt: a vibe, a scenario, a dare. Everyone brings one pick that fits, then spends points on everyone else's. Names land at the reveal, points land on the season, arguments ensue. Example prompts: "Road trip anthem", "Song that slaps at 2am", "A song your parents would hate". How a round plays depends on its season's mode (see Game modes).
What is a season?
A season groups rounds into one competition, like a sports season, and decides how they play: its mode, its rules, its betting book, how many rounds. Seasons are numbered, and a named one reads like a record: "Season 3: Chunga's Revenge". Each season keeps its own page: the rounds, the Leaderboard, the awards vote when it closes, and everything it leaves behind. Standings reset each season so everyone starts fresh. Two seasons can run at once, each with its own rounds.
How does scoring work?
Every point another player puts on your pick is a point for you, and a doubled round counts them twice. Your season total adds your bets' net while the season's book is open, a point for each bonus award at the close, and a point a round once you've picked ten rounds running; a red card or a nudge penalty can take some off. Deep scores medals and laurels instead, and a bracket is decided bout by bout.
How do I vote?
Each round you get points to spend, five unless your league says otherwise. Put them all on one pick or spread them out, then lock. A locked ballot is final. The commissioner sets how many points there are, whether you have to place them all, and whether there is a most on one song. Your own pick is off your ballot unless your league plays the Pete Rose Rule.
How do I invite people?
Commissioners invite players: Invite someone, in the league's commissioner menu, shares the code and the link (on a phone it opens the share sheet). New players join from Home with the code, or straight from the link, whose preview names the league and who sent it. A league holds up to 30 players. Its owner can also open the door, under Who can find it in the league's settings, and the league is listed in Find a league.
How do I find a league?
Find a league, on Home, lists every league whose owner opened the door, while a round takes picks or votes or a season is forming, and while it has room. Each says how it plays, how many play and what it sounds like (the decades it plays most and the artists it picks most), never who. Some take anyone: Join puts you in at once. Others ask first: Ask to join waits up to 14 days for its commissioners, and you can take it back. Turned down, you can ask again when its next season forms.
Can someone watch without playing?
Yes: they can follow the league. Any member shares their own follow link from the league's Followers page. A follower reads the league and its results and can react to a reveal, but never picks, votes, bets or posts, and nobody waits on them. The only notice they get is a round's results. Joining the league replaces following. A league's commissioners choose who can follow, under Who can find it in its settings: anyone, by asking first, or nobody new. From Find a league, a stranger follows or asks to; a member's own link lets its follower straight in. Commissioners can stop a follower or block them, and a blocked player can never follow or ask again.
How do I make my pick?
Open the round and search Spotify, or paste a Spotify link. The Your stash tab holds the tracks you saved for exactly this. Once you choose, you can add a line on why: voters read it while they decide, without your name. Then Submit track. In Rabbit Hole you paste a YouTube link instead, and in Deep your pick comes with a case.
Can I change my pick?
Yes, until picks close. Your line has Change track (Change video in Rabbit Hole): find the new one and it replaces the old, and your line on why stays. Keep it calls the swap off. Picks can close early once everyone is in.
That's the game.
The rest you learn by playing, and the whole guide is in the app once you're in.