Coinbase is the presenting sponsor of the 2026 Polytopia World Championship, and we're doubling the prize pool.
The champion gets an extra $10,000 in USDC to build whatever's next.
Tuition. Their first company. A wild idea. It’s up to them.
We're calling it The Builders League.
Here’s why ↓
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The resume problem
Where'd you go to school?
Who do you know?
What's on the resume?
That's how most people get a shot. It's a filter. And it also misses a lot of people, especially the ones who haven't had time to build a resume yet.
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The smartest game you've never heard of
The Battle of Polytopia is a mobile game made by developer @midjiwan, that has quietly gathered some of the sharpest strategic minds on the internet.
Its players include engineers, traders, founders, and a lot of people who open it "for five minutes" between meetings, or class, and look up an hour later.
On the surface: cute, blocky little tribes.
Underneath: one of the most unforgiving strategy games you can fit in your pocket.
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It's a game about building
You start with one city and a handful of stars.
- Stars are capital. Every turn you decide: grow, defend, or bet on something new. Spend them badly early and you feel it for the rest of the game.
- The tech tree is a series of bets. Fishing or Riding? You're committing before you know it'll pay off.
- It's turn-based. Nobody wins on reflexes. You win by thinking further ahead than everyone else.
- You expand, trade and outmaneuver. Every match means building something from nothing, under pressure, without all the information.
If you've ever built anything, this should sound familiar.
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Who's actually winning
Last year's World Championship finalists included a high schooler from the Netherlands, a math student in France and a computer science student in Germany.
Most of them don't have a resume yet. They're already some of the best strategists in the world.
The system would tell them to wait their turn. We think they've already taken it.
We believe more economic freedom comes from backing talent wherever it shows up, not just where the system is used to looking.
Sometimes that's a campus. Sometimes it's at the top of the leaderboard.
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Watch the final
Eight players. One title.
Live from Stockholm on Saturday, October 10.
Tune in here → Livestream Link
