A plain-English reference for every term you'll encounter on Potly.Win β from how the platform legally works, to how scores get validated, to how prize pools are calculated. If you're new here, the New Player Guide is a better starting point; this page is the dictionary.
Platform
Skill-Based Contest
The legal category Potly.Win operates under. A competition where outcomes are determined by player skill rather than chance, with no entry fee required. This distinguishes the platform from gambling, which legally requires all three of: consideration (payment to enter), chance (random outcomes), and prize. Potly.Win has no consideration and no chance β only prize.
Free-to-Play
Genuinely free, with no hidden costs. There are no entry fees, subscriptions, in-app purchases, or premium tiers. The only "cost" of playing is seeing the ads that fund the prize pools.
Monthly Cycle
The one-month period over which leaderboards and prize pools run. Every cycle begins at midnight UTC on the 1st of the month and ends the moment the next month starts. At cycle end, the top 3 players on each game's leaderboard split that game's prize pool.
Leaderboard Reset
The event that occurs at midnight UTC on the 1st of each month. All monthly leaderboards return to empty, prize pools reset to zero, and a fresh cycle begins. All-time leaderboards are separate and do not reset.
All-Time Leaderboard
The historical ranking of the highest scores ever achieved in a game, across all monthly cycles. Unlike the monthly leaderboard, this one never resets. All-time leaderboards award bragging rights only β they don't pay out prizes.
Prizes & Payouts
Prize Pool
The total cash reward available for a specific game in a specific month. Funded by 80% of the ad revenue that game generates during the month. Displayed in real time in the game's sidebar and on the homepage. Read How Ad-Funded Prize Pools Work for the full breakdown.
Prize Distribution
How each prize pool is split among the top 3 finishers: 50% to 1st place, 30% to 2nd, 20% to 3rd. A $100 prize pool means $50 / $30 / $20 payouts.
Platform Fee
The 20% of each game's ad revenue that covers platform operating costs β hosting, payment processing, anti-cheat systems, email infrastructure, and ongoing development. The other 80% goes directly to the prize pool.
Payout
A cash payment sent to a monthly winner via PayPal. Processed within 15 business days of month-end after any anti-cheat reviews are completed.
Minimum Payout
The smallest amount that will be paid out to a winner: $5.00 USD. Prize amounts below $5 roll over and accumulate until they reach the minimum, at which point they're paid.
Rollover
When a prize payout is below the $5 minimum, the amount is held and added to any future winnings for the same player until the threshold is met.
W-9
A U.S. tax form required of any U.S. winner who earns more than $600 in a calendar year on the platform. This is standard IRS reporting for prize income and is not unique to Potly.Win.
Gameplay & Scoring
Session
A single play of a game, from the moment you start until the moment you crash, fall, or otherwise end the run. Each session is tracked server-side with a unique token and produces one final score.
Personal Best (PB)
Your highest score across all sessions of a given game in the current monthly cycle. Only your personal best counts toward leaderboard ranking β a bad run doesn't hurt you, only an improvement helps.
Tie-Breaker
The rule used to rank players with identical scores. The player with more completed games played that month (score greater than zero) ranks higher. If still tied, the player who achieved the score first (earliest timestamp) ranks higher. This rewards both volume and early effort.
Event-Based Scoring
A scoring system where every point comes from a specific player action β landing a jump, clearing a pipe, stacking a block β rather than from distance traveled or time survived. All four Potly.Win games use event-based scoring, which makes scores more meaningful and easier to validate server-side.
Combo / Streak
A sequence of successful actions in a row. Some games reward chains implicitly (a run with 40 pipes cleared is a bigger streak than 10), while others build scoring multipliers into specific mechanics like Powder Run's roof slides and log rides.
Difficulty Ramp
The gradual increase in challenge as a session progresses. Each game ramps differently β Wing Rush speeds up the pipes, Sky Rise speeds up the crane, Gravity Hop narrows platforms, Powder Run accelerates the mountain. Every player experiences the same ramp at the same scores.
Fairness & Anti-Cheat
Session Token
A unique cryptographic identifier generated when you start a game session. Used server-side to bind your score submission to that specific session, preventing replay attacks or score injection.
HMAC Score Signing
A cryptographic signature attached to every submitted score. The server verifies the signature matches the session's private signing key β scores that don't match are rejected before they reach the leaderboard.
Flagged Session
A session that tripped one of the anti-cheat rules and has been held for manual review. Flagged sessions don't immediately count against a player β they're queued for admin review and approved or rejected on a case-by-case basis. High scores from new or small player bases often get flagged automatically; being flagged doesn't mean you cheated.
Statistical Outlier
A score that falls outside the expected distribution for a game, either compared to other players or to the player's own history. Outliers are automatically flagged for review. Legitimately great performances can and do trigger this β it's a filter, not a verdict.
Rate Limiting
Soft limits on how many games you can start per minute. Players exceeding 25 games per minute see a warning; the system may temporarily stop saving scores around 30 games per minute. This prevents automation and abuse without restricting normal play.
Manual Review
The process by which a flagged session is examined by an admin before being accepted or rejected. Rejected sessions are removed from the leaderboard and prize pool standings are recalculated.
Advertising & Revenue
Ad Impression
A single display of an ad to a player. Every impression generates a small amount of revenue from the advertiser, which flows into the platform's revenue pool (80% of which becomes the prize pool).
CPM
"Cost per mille" β the price advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions. CPMs vary dramatically: U.S. and U.K. traffic typically commands higher rates than global average, Q4 (OctoberβDecember) pays more than the rest of the year, and video ads pay several times more than display ads.
Ad-Funded Prize Pool
The Potly.Win business model: ad revenue pays the prizes. Players see ads, advertisers pay for impressions, and 80% of that revenue flows into the prize pools that the top 3 finishers split each month. No entry fees, no purchases, no subscriptions.
Ad Blocker
Software that hides ads in your browser. Using one is your choice, but it has a direct cost: blocked ads don't generate revenue, which means no contribution to the prize pool. The bigger the prize pools grow, the more winners get paid β so disabling an ad blocker on Potly.Win is effectively contributing to the prize pool.
Account & Legal
Email Verification
The step required after registration where you click a link sent to your email address to prove it's yours. Until you verify, you can log in but can't compete for prizes. This prevents bots and duplicate accounts.
Pending Email
A new email address you've submitted on the account settings page, but haven't verified yet. Your original email stays active until the new one is confirmed, so you can't lock yourself out of your account.
PayPal Link
The PayPal email address on file for your account. Required for receiving payouts. Set it in your account settings before the month ends β if there's no PayPal on file when you win, payment can't be sent.
Soft Delete
How account deletion works on Potly.Win. Your account is deactivated, your personal data is anonymized, but your historical leaderboard and payout records remain for financial audit purposes. Accounts with pending payouts cannot be deleted until those payouts process.
Consideration
A legal term for something of value given to enter a contest β typically money. The absence of consideration is one of the three legal reasons Potly.Win is classified as a skill-based contest rather than gambling. You never pay anything to enter.
Jurisdiction
The country, state, or region where a player is located. Skill-based contest law varies by jurisdiction, and players are responsible for confirming that participating in online skill competitions is legal where they live.