A tournament of the world's strangest capture-the-flag teams. Each round you draft new members — a Knight, a Rubber Duck, a Necromancer, a Yeti — and then your deck plays a match against someone new all by itself: cards turn over until one of them takes the flag, and whoever runs out of cards or bench seats first loses. Seven rounds, the two teams with the most fans play the final. One to eight players — alone, you take on the Robot — peer-to-peer: no accounts, no server, just a room code. Bots fill any empty seat.
A bot is a full player: it drafts, plays and scores like anyone, and can win the tournament. Add as many as there are seats.
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How to play Challengers!
Seven rounds. Each round has a Deck Phase, which everyone plays at their own pace, and then a Match Phase, where you play one match against the opponent the tournament gives you. After round seven the two players with the most fans play the final; whoever wins it wins Challengers!
Deck Phase. Draw 5 cards from the Level pile the round offers (A, B or C — some rounds let you choose), keep as many as the round says, and put the rest back. Once per Deck Phase you may throw back what you drew and draw that many again — before or after your first pick. Then cut any cards you like from your deck: there is no size limit either way.
A match plays itself. Both decks are shuffled and neither may be looked at. One player turns over their top card: it takes the flag. The other attacks — turning over cards one at a time until the total power of the cards turned over equals or beats the power of the card with the flag. Their last card takes the flag, the others slide underneath it, and the card that lost the flag goes to its owner's bench with everything under it. Now the other player attacks.
The bench has six seats. Cards with the same name share a seat. You lose the match if you must put a card on your bench and there is no seat for it — or if you are attacking and have no cards left. The winner takes the round's Trophy, whose fans are hidden on its back and grow round by round.
Effects. A card without a keyword acts the moment it is turned over, and a power bonus it gets that way stays with it. During the attack lasts only for the attack that turned it over. From the bench works while it sits on your bench. In flag possession works while the flag sits on it. Flag loss happens as the flag is taken from it, before anything the winning card does. When picked happens once, as you draft it. Some cards take fans, which count at the end with your Trophies.
Beach Cup adds the Rainbow set, whose cards carry every set icon; No flag win, which happens when turning a card over does not take the flag; Special cards that bend a rule as they say; three picks in round one; and two rounds where taking the smaller option pays 2 fans. Either box's sets can be mixed: pick a basic set and any five of the twelve.
Two players play no final: the most fans after seven rounds wins, and a lead of 11 fans at the end of any match wins at once. Trophies are face up at two.
Bots are full players: they draft, play and score like anyone, and can win. The host adds as many as there are seats.
The Robot takes the spare seat at an odd table. It does nothing in the Deck Phase and plays its own eight cards: Alpha, Beta, Good Bot, C.H.A.M.P. and four Cyborgs, whose base power is the round being played. When it wins, that round's Trophy goes back in the box, and it is never ranked or in the final. Alone, you play the Robot by the two-player rules — and then it keeps the Trophies it wins, and can win.
To read a card, point at it or tap it. The 🃏 Cards button lists every card in play, set by set, with its exact wording.
Challengers! (2022) and Challengers! Beach Cup (2023) are by Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawitscheck, published by 1 More Time Games with Z-Man Games and Pretzel Games. This is an unofficial fan implementation. The rules follow the publishers' rulebooks. Every character is read off pictures of the printed cards — name, set, level, power, text and copy count — and each additional set adds up to the 40 cards the rulebook says it holds. The draft each round is read off the printed Tournament Plans, and the Trophy fans are Board Game Arena's. The Robot's start cards are read off two review photographs of them. Not in yet: the Robot's harder levels (its R and SOLO cards), and Beach Cup's Trainers. The City set's split of Talents, Dogs and Champions and the Beach Cup starter decks are provisional until checked against the cards.