Official Contest Rules

Weekly Gift Card Shootout

The free weekly gift-card skill contest has its own Official Rules: raceptl.com/contest-rules. Where they differ, the Weekly Gift Card Shootout rules control for that contest.

1. Sponsor

RacePTL contests are sponsored and operated by NumberEdge Racing LLC, Kansas City, Missouri (“RacePTL,” “we,” “us”). Contact details are in section 24.

2. Eligibility

• Free play: open to registered users 18 and older, subject to our Terms. No one under 18 may register.
• Paid contests (future): open only to individuals who are at least 18 years old, or 21 where required by the law of the place they are located, who are physically located in a state where the contest is permitted, and who pass identity, age and location verification.
• Employees of NumberEdge Racing LLC and members of their immediate household may play free but may not enter paid contests.
• One account per person. Accounts may not be shared, sold or transferred.
• Void where prohibited or restricted by law. We may block entry from any location where a contest is not permitted.

3. Free play and future paid contests

Today every RacePTL race, match, bracket and contest is free play. Free play uses virtual credits (“NEC”) that are granted free, cannot be purchased, have no cash value and cannot be redeemed, withdrawn or exchanged for anything of value.

Paid contests, meaning contests with an entry fee paid in money and a prize of value, are not offered today. If they launch, each paid contest will show its entry fee, platform fee, prize and rules before you enter, and all of these rules will apply.

4. How to enter

• Create a free RacePTL account and sign in.
• Enter from Quick Match, a private room or friend challenge, a bracket, or a listed contest.
• No purchase is necessary to play. Paid contests (future) will also require verification, a certified official button (section 16) and acceptance of that contest’s terms at entry.
• Entry closes at the time shown on the contest. Late entries are not accepted.

5. Trees

• Sportsman tree (.500): the three amber bulbs light one after another, 0.500 seconds apart, and the green lights 0.500 seconds after the last amber.
• Pro tree (.400): all three amber bulbs light together, and the green lights 0.400 seconds later.
• The tree type is set by the room, bracket or contest and is shown before you race. Both racers in a match race the same tree.
• A random, server-chosen starter delay separates staging from the first amber, so the start cannot be anticipated by timing.

6. How official reaction time is measured

The official reaction time (“official RT”) decides every race. It is computed on our server, not on your device:

official RT = (your release time + your delay box setting + your rollout) − green time

• The green time comes from the server’s race clock for that race.
• Your release time is the moment you let go of the button, corrected for your device’s measured clock offset and network latency during a clock sync before the race.
• Official RT is recorded in whole milliseconds and shown to three decimals (for example, .012).
• Each result is signed, stored with an audit record, and can be recomputed from the stored data. The number shown on your device is a preview; the server’s official RT is final.

7. Delay box and rollout lock

• In classes that allow a delay box, you set your delay and rollout before the race. Classes without a delay box (bottom bulb) reject delay settings on the server.
• Your delay and rollout lock when staging opens and cannot be changed during the race. The server uses only the locked values it recorded.
• In a best-of-three match you may adjust between races during the short adjustment window. They lock again when staging opens.

8. Fouls and red lights

• Red light: if your official RT is below zero (you left before the green), you fouled and lose the race, unless your opponent also fouled.
• Both racers red light: the racer whose official RT is closer to zero wins the race.
• Asleep: a racer who does not release within the race window has no reaction time and loses the race to any racer who does release.
• Staging timeout: once one racer is fully staged, the other must stage within the posted time. A racer who does not stage in time loses that race by walkover.
• A result with an invalid signature counts as a foul.

9. How the winner of a race is decided

When neither racer fouls, the racer with the lower official RT wins the race. Delay and rollout are already part of official RT, so a perfect light is .000. Elapsed time and speed are not used.

10. Best of three

Unless a contest states otherwise, every head-to-head match is best of three: the first racer to win two races wins the match. The match ends as soon as one racer clinches. Between races there is a short adjustment window, then both racers re-stage.

11. Ties

• Exact tie: if both racers have the identical official RT to the millisecond (including two red lights with the identical official RT), the race is a tie. Nobody wins it.
• Re-run: a tied race is re-run. It does not count as a race in the match score, both racers re-stage, and the same tree, delay and rollout rules apply.
• At most two re-runs per race. If the second re-run is also an exact tie, the race goes to the racer with the better reaction in the prior race of the same match: a valid official RT beats a red light, asleep or missing result, and between two valid official RTs the lower one wins.
• Still tied: if there is no prior race (the tie happened in the first race of the match) or the prior race was also level, the match is void and every entry in that match is refunded in full.
• Brackets: a bracket cannot hold a void result, so in a bracket match that is still tied after the steps above, the higher seed (lower seed number) advances.

12. Brackets and byes

• Brackets are single elimination. Each bracket match is a head-to-head match under these rules.
• Racers are seeded by the method shown on the bracket (for example, rating or registration order).
• When a bracket has fewer racers than slots, the open slots are byes. A racer drawn against a bye advances to the next round without racing. Open slots are never filled with computer opponents.
• Racers must check in and be ready when their match is called. A racer who does not show within the posted time forfeits that match.

13. Disconnects and abandonment

• If both racers have already submitted valid results for a race, that result stands even if someone disconnects or closes the app.
• If you leave or disconnect during a race and your opponent has a result, you forfeit that race by walkover.
• If neither racer has a result, the race is void and is run again.
• A match that is abandoned with no winner (for example, a room that expires or both racers leave) is void and all entries are refunded.
• Repeatedly abandoning matches you are losing is reviewed as a fair-play issue.

14. Humans only: no bots

Every opponent on RacePTL is a real person. We do not use computer opponents, practice bots, house players or simulated activity in any race, match, bracket, contest, live view, activity count or ranking. The server rejects any non-human participant. Using automation, scripts, macros or any device other than your own hand to release is prohibited (see section 15).

15. Integrity checks and disqualification

• Every result is checked on the server: signature, clock sync, physically impossible timing, settings mismatches and patterns across many races.
• A win that trips a critical integrity flag does not earn rating or season points, and in a paid match its prize is withheld and the entries are refunded while it is reviewed.
• We may disqualify a racer, void results, forfeit prizes and close accounts for cheating, automation, collusion, multiple accounts, tampering with devices or software, exploiting bugs, or abusive conduct.
• Large prize pools are held for a human integrity review before payout.

16. Official button requirement for ranked and paid play

• Paid contests (future) always require a certified official RacePTL button. Keyboard, mouse and touch input are not allowed in paid contests.
• Ranked play may also require a certified official button. When that requirement is on, it is shown before you enter, and only wins cut on a certified button count toward rating and leaderboards.
• Free unranked play, including solo practice and private races with friends, always allows keyboard or touch.
• A button is certified only if its serial number is in our registry and has not been revoked. Results from a certified button are signed by the button and verified on the server for each race.

17. Disputes

If you believe a race was scored incorrectly or an opponent broke these rules, file a dispute from your match history or the bracket page within 7 days of the race. We review the stored server audit record and may hold any related payout during the review. Our decision, based on the official server record, is final. See also Rules & Fairness.

18. Prizes and payout

• Free play prizes are virtual credits, badges, trophies or recognition with no cash value.
• For paid contests (future), the prize, or the prize table for brackets and multi-entrant contests, is shown before entry and is fixed when the contest starts.
• Prizes are paid to the winner’s RacePTL balance after the result is final and any integrity review is complete. Withdrawals require identity, age and location verification and go only to a payment method in the winner’s verified name.
• Winners are responsible for any taxes. We may require tax forms before paying prizes where the law requires.
• Prizes are not transferable, and no substitution is allowed except by us, for a prize of equal or greater value.

19. Platform fee disclosure

For any paid contest (future), the entry fee, the platform fee kept by RacePTL, and the prize are all shown to you before you enter. Those terms are frozen when you enter and are identical for every entrant in that contest. There are no hidden fees.

20. Refunds

Entries are refunded in full when a match or contest is voided, abandoned, cancelled, voided by an unbreakable tie (section 11), or when a win is withheld for an integrity finding. Completed contests are not refundable. Full details are in our Refund Policy.

21. Conduct

Be a good sport. Harassment, hate speech, threats, impersonation and offensive names are not allowed in chat, handles or profiles. We may moderate content and suspend accounts that break these rules.

22. Changes, cancellation and technical problems

We may cancel, suspend or change a contest if fraud, a technical failure, or anything else outside our control affects its fairness or integrity. If a contest is cancelled, entries are refunded. We are not responsible for your device, connection or network problems. Material changes to these rules are posted here with a new version and date before they apply to any contest.

23. General

These rules are part of our Terms and Privacy Policy. If any part of these rules is unenforceable, the rest still applies. Please see Responsible Play for limits, cool-offs and self-exclusion.

24. Contact

NumberEdge Racing LLC, Kansas City, Missouri
Email: mike@numberedge.com · Phone: 512-457-9348
We reply within 1 business day. More ways to reach us: Contact.