Terms of Service

By creating an account, playing Free Climb (including as a guest), buying chips, entering a tournament, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use the Service. If you're using the Service on behalf of a company or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and “you” refers to both you and that entity.

Doomstack is a skill-based climbing game. Free Climb is a free, browser-based endless-climbing game where your peak height is recorded on a public leaderboard. Chip duels are ranked head-to-head matches where players stake non-cashable chips (see Section 5a). Tournaments are bracket competitions with a paid entry fee and predetermined cash prizes (see Section 5b). Rank and duel results are always computed from play — never from how much you spend.

The Service, including gameplay formulas, is provided as a competitive, for-entertainment product. Participation does not create any ownership interest, investment, or security, and past performance is not a promise of future results.

Doomstack is also offered as native iOS and Android apps distributed through the Apple App Store, Google Play, and — for pre-release builds — Apple TestFlight. Your use of those apps is also subject to the applicable app store's terms. Beta and pre-release builds are provided on an “as is” basis and may be unstable or change without notice; if you join the beta, you consent to our sharing your email with Apple to enroll you as a TestFlight tester. The apps can send push notifications about your games and account; you can turn these off at any time in your device settings.

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you're under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may only use the Service with a parent or guardian's consent.
• You're responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly at hello@doomstack.lol if you suspect unauthorized use.
• You agree to provide accurate information (such as a working email address) and to keep it up to date.
• You may play Free Climb anonymously as a guest without an account; guest sessions are temporary and are not guaranteed to persist or be recoverable.
• Accounts are for individual use. Don't create accounts through unauthorized automated means, or sell, trade, or transfer your account to another person.

• All payments are processed by Stripe. By making a purchase, you agree to Stripe's terms in addition to ours, and you represent that you're authorized to use the payment method provided.
• Chip prices, tournament entry fees, and any applicable fees may change at any time and are shown to you before you complete a purchase.
• All purchases are final and non-refundable, except where required by applicable law or at our sole discretion (for example, a duplicate or clearly erroneous charge). If you believe you were charged in error, contact hello@doomstack.lol within 30 days of the charge.
• We may cancel or reverse a transaction, and freeze or reverse the associated chips or entry, if we reasonably believe it was fraudulent, violated these Terms, or resulted from a payment dispute (e.g., a chargeback).

Chip duels and tournaments are skill-based competitions, not gambling. A match is won by climbing the same deterministic tower faster and farther than your opponent: the tower each player faces is identical, it is generated the same way for both players, and the outcome is determined by the players' skill and inputs — not by chance, a random draw, or the operator. These features are offered only where skill-based competition is permitted, and are not offered where restricted or prohibited by law. Nothing in this section is a promise that participation is lawful in your location; that is your responsibility to determine, and you agree not to participate where you may not lawfully do so.

5a. Chip duels (ranked, non-cashable)

• Chips are non-cashable virtual currency. Chips are a prepaid, in-app balance usable only inside the Service to stake on ranked 1v1 duels. Chips are non-refundable and can never be withdrawn, cashed out, converted to real money, or transferred to another user or any third party. They have no cash value outside the Service, are not a bank deposit, are not insured, and earn no interest. We are not a bank, money transmitter, or money services business. All chip sales are final. Chips are a limited, revocable license to use a Service feature — not property, a financial instrument, or an asset you own — and have no value outside that license.
• Free chips. New accounts receive a one-time free chip grant, and every account may claim an additional free chip grant once per day at no cost. Buying chips is never required to play.
• Zero-sum matches, no house cut. In a chip duel, both players stake the same number of chips at a fixed tier. The winner receives exactly the loser's stake — there is no platform fee or rake on chip duels.
• Refunds on unplayed matches. If a chip duel never starts (e.g. you cancel before an opponent joins, or no opponent joins), your staked chips are returned. Once both players have staked and the match begins, the result of a completed match is final, except as stated in “Fair play” below.
• No secondary market. Selling, trading, gifting, or otherwise transferring chips outside the Service — including via any secondary market, forum, or external arrangement — is strictly prohibited and may result in account termination and forfeiture of all chips.

5b. Tournaments (real-money prizes)

• Entry fees & prizes. Tournament entry fees are paid via Stripe Checkout. Prize amounts are predetermined and company-guaranteed before registration opens — they are not pooled or derived from entry fees. Prizes are paid to eligible winners via Stripe Connect.
• Payout & identity. To receive a tournament prize, you must complete Stripe Connect Express onboarding, which may include identity and tax-information verification required by Stripe and applicable law. You are solely responsible for any taxes on prize winnings.
• Bracket & format. Tournaments are single- elimination brackets. Bracket sizes, round schedules, and placement rules are shown before registration. Non-power-of-2 entrant counts are padded with byes.
• Entry refunds. If a tournament is cancelled before it begins, entry fees are refunded. Once a tournament is seeded and play begins, entry fees are non-refundable except as required by law.

Shared rules

• Eligibility & location. You must be 18 or older to buy chips or enter a tournament. When you buy chips or register, you represent and confirm that you are at least 18 — we rely on your confirmation and do not independently verify your age. These features are available only where we have affirmatively cleared your location after jurisdiction-specific legal review. They are currently offered only to players physically located in the following U.S. states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. They are not available outside the United States, or in any U.S. state not listed here. We update this list as jurisdictions are cleared or removed, and may pause these features in any jurisdiction at any time. We infer your approximate location from your IP address; this method is not exact. Using a VPN, proxy, or any other means to disguise your location is prohibited and may result in suspension and forfeiture of chips and prizes.
• Chargebacks & payment disputes. Initiating a chargeback or payment dispute — rather than contacting us first at hello@doomstack.lol — is a breach of these Terms. We may respond by suspending your account, freezing or reversing disputed chips or entries, and recovering amounts owed.
• Fair play & server-authoritative results. Every match result is re-computed on our servers from both players' recorded inputs, and the server's result is authoritative and final. Cheating, automation, botting, exploiting a defect, collusion, or otherwise manipulating a match voids the result and may forfeit chips and prizes and result in account termination.
• We may pause or withdraw features. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue chip duels, chips, tournaments, or related features at any time, including in a specific jurisdiction. If we permanently discontinue a feature, we will return unused purchased chips and unfulfilled tournament prizes to affected users by a reasonable method, except where prohibited by law or where an amount is subject to a fraud, dispute, or eligibility hold.
• Play responsibly. If gameplay or spending on chips or tournament entries feels out of your control, please seek help. In the US, contact the National Council on Problem Gambling at 1-800-522-4700.

You agree not to, and not to help anyone else:

• Submit, link to, or promote content that is illegal, fraudulent, deceptive, defamatory, obscene, or infringes another person's rights (including intellectual property or privacy rights).
• Submit a destination URL that distributes malware, conducts phishing, or otherwise attempts to compromise a visitor's device or accounts.
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
• Scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Service using automated means beyond what's needed for normal, individual gameplay, or bypass rate limits, CAPTCHAs, or other technical protections.
• Manipulate leaderboard results, gameplay scoring, or match outcomes through bots, scripts, automation, or other artificial means.
• Save a social handle you do not own or are not authorized to represent, or choose a public username or handle that impersonates another person, brand, or the Service itself.
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service's infrastructure, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account, system, or network connected to it.
• Use the Service to violate any applicable law or regulation.

We may investigate and take appropriate action for violations, including removing content, suspending or terminating accounts, and reporting conduct to law enforcement.

“User Content” means anything you submit to the Service, including your display name, the social platform handles you save, and a public username you choose (which creates a public creator page at /c/your-username that shows your saved social handles and public climbing record). You retain ownership of your User Content. By submitting it, you grant Doomstack a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and distribute it as part of operating the public leaderboard and creator pages — for example, showing your name, handles, and rank to other visitors and in leaderboard-related images (such as social share cards).

You represent that you have the rights necessary to submit your User Content and grant this license, and that it doesn't violate these Terms, any law, or any third party's rights. We may remove, hide, or refuse any User Content at our discretion, including without a refund if it violates Section 6 (Acceptable Use).

The Service — including its code, game mechanics, design, graphics, the Doomstack name and logo, and all related intellectual property (excluding your User Content) — is owned by Doomstack or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for its intended purpose. You may not copy, modify, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works from the Service except as permitted by law, nor use our name or logo without permission.

You may stop using the Service, or request account deletion, at any time by contacting hello@doomstack.lol. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, remove content, or restrict features at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you've violated these Terms, created risk or legal exposure for us, engaged in fraud or abuse, or if we discontinue the Service. If your account is terminated, purchased chips are forfeited and non-refundable; outstanding tournament prizes will be handled as described in Section 5b. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 5 and 7–15) will survive.

Please read this section carefully

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT BUYING CHIPS OR ENTERING A TOURNAMENT WILL RESULT IN ANY WINNINGS OR OTHER BENEFIT. SOME JURISDICTIONS DON'T ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DOOMSTACK AND ITS OPERATOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE'VE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) $100 USD. SOME JURISDICTIONS DON'T ALLOW CERTAIN LIABILITY LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Doomstack and its operator from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: your use of the Service; your User Content; your violation of these Terms; or your violation of any law or third-party right.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

Binding arbitration & class action waiver

You and Doomstack agree to resolve any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service through final, binding arbitration, rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court, and either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to prevent misuse of intellectual property or unauthorized access to the Service. Arbitration will be administered by a recognized arbitration provider (such as the American Arbitration Association) under its consumer arbitration rules, and will take place in, or be conducted remotely consistent with the law of, Florida.

Class action waiver: You and Doomstack agree that any proceeding to resolve a dispute will be conducted only on an individual basis, and not as a class, consolidated, or representative action. If this class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or remedy, that claim or remedy (and only that one) will proceed in court, and the rest of this arbitration section will still apply to the remainder.

Opt-out: You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing hello@doomstack.lol within 30 days of first agreeing to these Terms, with your name and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, disputes will instead be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Florida, and you and Doomstack each waive any right to a jury trial.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you don't agree, stop using the Service.

• Entire agreement. These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Doomstack regarding the Service, and supersede any prior agreements on this subject.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest will remain in full effect.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a right or provision isn't a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. We're not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at hello@doomstack.lol.