You don't have to beat
4,096 teams.
Just the one in front of you.
A single-elimination bracket for teams of two — your partner, your best friend, your sibling, your gym buddy. Every round you're drawn against one other team: your steps plus theirs, against the pair in front of you. Higher total advances. Lower total is out.
$100 per person in. 80% of every dollar goes straight back out. Skill decides it, not a draw.
$655,360
Prize pool
$100,527
Winner takes
266
Teams paid
12
Rounds
51 days — a 7-day round 1, then 3-day rounds
The whole deal, in one line
Win 4 matches and you're guaranteed money.
4 straight wins leaves 256 teams standing in a field of 4,096 — and every one of them is paid, from $522 at the bottom to $100,527 at the top.
4,096 teams field
0 of 4,096 registered
4,096spots left
Registration is free. Nobody pays anything until the last spot is claimed.
It's a knockout bracket, not a leaderboard
Leaderboards punish you for not being in the top 1%. A bracket asks a much smaller question, 12 times: can you out-walk this one team, this week?
One opponent. Not five thousand.
Every round you're drawn against exactly one other team, picked at random from the teams still standing. You never compete against the whole field — only against the two people on the other side of the bracket line.
Your steps plus your partner's
Both partners' wearable-verified steps for that round's window are added together into one team total. A big day from one of you covers a flat day from the other. That's the entire scoring system.
More steps advances. Fewer is out.
Higher combined total wins the match and moves to the next round. The other team is eliminated from the bracket — but their steps keep counting toward the side pool for the rest of the tournament.
How the 4,096-couple field shrinks
Each number is how many teams are still alive after that round. Everything in green is inside the money — reach 256 teams remaining and you have already earned a cheque, win or lose from there.
The bracket
One field, one entry price, one rule that matters: win four matches and you are guaranteed money. 80% of every dollar that comes in goes back out to the teams that walk.
Entry is $100 per person — $200 per team. 20% covers running the tournament (payments, verification, support, prize distribution). The other 80% is the prize pool, and all of it goes out: 97% through the bracket, 3% through the side pool.
Where the $655,360 goes
You are paid for the round you reach, and the payout doubles every round you survive. Showing the whole ladder — including the bottom of it — because a prize table that only shows first place is hiding something.
4,096 teams · 12 rounds
$819,200 in · $655,360 out · 266 teams paid
| Round reached | Wins | Teams | Each | Round total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 12 | 1 | $100,527 | $100,527 |
| Final (runner-up) | 11 | 1 | $66,915 | $66,915 |
| Semi-finals | 10 | 2 | $33,457 | $66,914 |
| Quarter-finals | 9 | 4 | $16,728 | $66,912 |
| Round of 16 | 8 | 8 | $8,364 | $66,912 |
| Round of 32 | 7 | 16 | $4,182 | $66,912 |
| Round of 64 | 6 | 32 | $2,091 | $66,912 |
| Round of 128 | 5 | 64 | $1,045 | $66,880 |
| Round of 256 | 4 | 128 | $522 | $66,816 |
| Side pool — knocked out, kept walking | — | 10 | $3,575 → $357 | $19,660 |
| Total | 266 | $655,360 |
How the ladder is built: $655,360 is 80% of the $819,200 of entries. $19,660 of it (3%) funds the side pool; the remaining $635,700 is split into equal pots — one per paying round, plus one and a half for the winner. Each round's pot is shared by the teams knocked out in that round, and because every round has half as many teams as the last, the cheque doubles each time you survive.
Reaching the round of 256 pays $522 — that is 4 wins for $522 on a $200 team entry. Everything before that round pays nothing from the bracket, which is exactly why the side pool exists.
Rounding: per-team amounts are floored to whole dollars and the entire remainder is handed to the winner, so the column above adds up to $655,360 exactly. Nothing is quietly kept back.
Knocked out? Keep walking.
Losing a match ends your bracket run. It does not end your tournament. Your steps keep counting for the whole thing, and 3% of the prize pool is set aside for the eliminated teams that walked the most.
$19,660
Side pool
3% of the prize pool, ring-fenced from day one
10
Teams paid
The eliminated teams with the highest total steps
$3,575 → $357
1st place to last
A sliding scale — the most steps takes the biggest share
The rules, in full
- Your combined step total keeps accumulating from the day the tournament starts until the day it ends — all 51 days — whether you're still in the bracket or not.
- When the final is over, the 10 eliminated teams with the highest total steps split $19,660.
- Teams that already won money in the bracket are excluded. This is a pool for the teams that got knocked out, not a second helping for the ones that didn't.
- Both partners still need their watches reporting. A team that stops syncing stops accumulating, and the leaderboard notices.
12 rounds. 51 days.
Round 1 runs a full 7 days — it doubles as the get-your-watch-working week. Every round after it is 3 days. That is about 7 weeks end to end for the 4,096 teams field.
| Round | Days | Teams playing | Still alive after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Round of 4,096 | Days 1–7 | 4,096 | 2,048 |
| 2. Round of 2,048 | Days 9–11 | 2,048 | 1,024 |
| 3. Round of 1,024 | Days 13–15 | 1,024 | 512 |
| 4. Round of 512 | Days 17–19 | 512 | 256 |
| 5. Round of 256Everyone who reaches this round is paid | Days 21–23 | 256 | 128 |
| 6. Round of 128 | Days 25–27 | 128 | 64 |
| 7. Round of 64 | Days 29–31 | 64 | 32 |
| 8. Round of 32 | Days 33–35 | 32 | 16 |
| 9. Round of 16 | Days 37–39 | 16 | 8 |
| 10. Quarter-finals | Days 41–43 | 8 | 4 |
| 11. Semi-finals | Days 45–47 | 4 | 2 |
| 12. Final | Days 49–51 | 2 | 1 |
Rows in green are inside the money. Opponents are drawn at random among surviving teams at the start of every round — there is no seeding and no bracket to scout.
Two ways in. Same pool.
$104 by card, or $100 from your Lucilla wallet. Same entry, same bracket, same odds. The card networks charge us $4 to move your money; your wallet doesn't.
Card
No feeVisa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay
- $100 into the prize pool
- $4 card processing fee
- Nothing else — no service charge, no upsell
$100 per person reaches the pool — $200 per team. The $4 difference is the card fee, passed through at cost. Winnings are paid in USDC to your Lucilla wallet in the app.
How it works
Five steps, and you don't pay a thing until step four.
Register free with your partner
A free Lucilla account and your partner's email — that's it. No card, no wallet, no payment. This step costs nothing and commits you to nothing; your spot in the queue is held from the moment you register.
Both of you confirm
Your partner gets an email and taps confirm. Two confirmations = one team on the list. One confirmation = nothing happens, and nobody is charged.
Install the app, verify, connect a watch
Grab Lucilla on iOS, verify your phone number, and connect an Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin or Amazfit. Both partners. The watch is the referee, and a watch that isn't reporting is a forfeit.
When the field fills, you have 7 days to pay
Only once every spot is claimed do we ask for money — by card ($104 on the $100 stake, $53 on the $50 stake). Miss the window and your spot goes to the next team in line.
Win your match. Do it again. Get paid in USDC.
Round 1 runs a week; every round after it is three days. Beat the team in front of you and you advance. Win four and you're guaranteed money, paid in USDC straight to your in-app wallet.
Register your team
Free — a Lucilla account and your partner's email. No card, no wallet, no app needed to hold your spot: 4,096 left in the 4,096 teams bracket, and your place in the queue is held from the moment you register.
What you actually need
Short list. One of these is a “not yet” and we're not going to bury it.
The Lucilla app on iOS
Free on the App Store. You need it to verify your phone, connect your watch, see who you've been drawn against, and hold the wallet your winnings land in.
A supported wearable — both partners
On iOS: Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, Amazfit, Polar or COROS. Samsung, Pixel and Wear OS arrive with the Android release. Both of you need one — this is checked before you pay, and a phone on its own can't enter. One watch shared between two people doesn't work either, because a team total is two step streams added together.
18+, and a way to pay
A card. You only need it once the field fills — and a Lucilla wallet in the app, which is where any winnings are paid.
Android — not yet
We're being straight with you: the Android build is in review and isn't ready for a paid round. Register anyway and we'll email you the moment it lands — your place in the registration queue is held.
The awkward questions
Answered before you have to ask them.
The Lucilla Friends & Couples Challenge is a skill-based competition. Every match is decided entirely by the combined verified step counts of the two partners on each team — there is no element of chance in the result, no draw for prizes, and no house edge. Round pairings are drawn at random among surviving teams, which affects who you face, never who wins. Entrants must be 18 or older. Void where prohibited by law. Prize amounts shown are calculated from a full field at the selected bracket size; a tournament only runs once its field is complete.
Lucilla is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple, Fitbit, Google, Garmin or Amazfit. Wearable trademarks belong to their respective owners.