Why Hamster Kombat Banned 2.3 Million Users Ahead of Airdrop?

Hamster Kombat announced that it had banned 2.3 million users for cheating. This number is comparable to the population of a city like Rome, highlighting the significant scale of the crackdown.

The action precedes the highly anticipated HMSTR token airdrop, which will redistribute millions of tokens to the game’s community.

Hamster Kombat Faces Heavy Criticism Ahead of Airdrop

The company detected various cheating tactics, including linking over 400 accounts to a single Binance wallet and creating thousands of fake referrals. Hamster Kombat says that its anti-cheat system caught these infractions. It has been monitoring player behaviors, such as simultaneous logins and repetitive actions at precise screen locations.

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As a consequence, Hamster Kombat has confiscated 6.8 billion HMSTR tokens from the cheaters. Subsequently, the company plans to burn half of these tokens. It will distribute the remaining tokens among players who have adhered to the game’s rules.

“Cheaters don’t belong in our community. They automate their selling through software to get an advantage over regular players. We care about our players and market participants, especially long-term holders, and want to protect them,” Hamster Kombat stated.

This crackdown has impacted the eligibility for the upcoming airdrop significantly. Out of the 300 million players who joined Hamster Kombat since its launch in March 2024, only 131 million will receive tokens. Thus, only 43% of the total player base has qualified for the Season 1 airdrop.

The company has allocated 75 billion of the 100 billion total HMSTR tokens to community members. Initially, 60 billion tokens will be airdropped after season one concludes, with the remaining tokens scheduled for release during season two.

Players eligible for the airdrop can access 88.75% of their tokens immediately. The rest will vest and become available 10 months post-listing.

The season ended on September 20, with a snapshot of player activities to determine airdrop eligibility. However, this conclusion has been marred by controversy. The introduction of a last-minute anti-cheat rule has led to widespread disqualification of players who believed they had met all the requirements for the airdrop.

Consequently, some community members have voiced frustrations, feeling betrayed by the sudden changes to the eligibility criteria. Criticism has also emerged from influential voices within the crypto community.

“Hamster Kombat has cheated the community. They have allocated a large portion of airdrops to YouTubers and influencers for referrals. They’ve implemented vesting without informing the community. They’ve made people work like labor, day and night to collect keys from their games and gave $5 or $10 tokens,” Crypto with Khan, a prominent crypto influencer commented.

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This is not the first controversy to affect Hamster Kombat’s HMSTR airdrop. Earlier issues included a postponed airdrop date from July due to operational challenges.

Further issues arose when Binance announced Hamster Kombat as the 58th project on its Launchpool platform. While the listing initially generated excitement, it quickly became a source of contention within the community.