The shortlist's most-loved game — rating 99.1%, the best in the category. The card asked "why, with maximum mechanic and 99% love, doesn't it scale". The session answers and adds what the storefront can't show: this is the most complete room we've torn down. It has literally everything we lack — an active roll, an idle economy, a return machine of a dozen hooks, a 450-card × 4-finish collection, manufactured recurring events, and a gapless price ladder ◈9→◈1799. This teardown is about what to take from that room.
The core idea: Kick pushes the "room" to the limit — and its live online (2,104) is still below ours (2,649) despite ×7 our cumulative visits. The lesson isn't "the room doesn't matter", but more precisely: a maximal room buys love, spend depth and retention — but does not guarantee scale. Its growth came from traffic (brainrot virality) that is now receding. For us this is a ready blueprint: an idle layer, an active "kick instead of a button", a D2 menu, a manufactured recurring server event, a ◈9→◈1799 ladder with honest pity — the things that turn a visit into 99% love and into a ◈1799 whale.
Why the category's most-loved game trails us on live online — and why its room should still be copied whole.
Five prior teardowns asked "which mechanic saves you". Kick closes the question from the other side: it has everything at once — an active roll via a kick, tsunami-survival, an idle plot, rebirth, a 450-card collection, a dozen D2 hooks, manufactured recurring server events, a gapless price ladder. And all of it produced 99.1% rating and 6% fav/visit — level with us on love. But its live online is below ours. So the room isn't about scale; it's about love, spend and retention. And it's all transferable.
There are three systems here we don't have at all
An idle plot (a card on the plot drips $/s, offline income up to $615B/Day) — we have no idle layer. An active roll — a kick sends the block down a field where further = rarer, then "RUN!" from the tsunami (Speed decides) — a direct answer to our passive match. A return machine — a streak +10%/day (top 66 days), a 7-day calendar, a playtime ladder, pity. Three blueprints for our three biggest holes.
We trail on cumulative traffic — and lead on live online.
Kick has ×7 our visits (13.6M vs 1.94M) and ×6.5 favorites — but that's the past (7 weeks of brainrot virality). Its live online is 2,104 vs our 2,649 — we're ahead ×1.26. Fav/visit is near-equal (6.0% vs 6.4%). So its room is better and the inflow has stalled. Our growth lever is the door (thumbnail/discovery); we take its room as a blueprint.
One snapshot, both games, 20.07.2026, 18:37 (+03:00) — the same slice as the rest of the shortlist. In-game numbers (prices, income, odds) are read off the 20.07 session recording, 19:47–20:37.
| Metric | Kick A Lucky Block | Grow a Soccer Club (us) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online | 2,104 | 2,649 | us ×1.26 |
| Visits | 13,562,154 | 1,944,532 | them ×6.97 |
| Favorites | 813,193 | 124,875 | them ×6.5 |
| Fav / visit | 6.00% | 6.42% | near-equal |
| Rating | 99.1% | 91.41% | them +7.7 |
| Spend ceiling | ◈1,799 | ◈129 | ×14 |
| Players per server | 5 | 12 | us ×2.4 |
| Born | 27.04.2026 | 15.06.2026 | 49 days older |
Against Build A Soccer Squad the "we're loved more" argument worked. Against Kick — no: 99.1% vs our 91.4%, and on favorites it beats us ×6.5. The only metric level is fav/visit (6.0% vs 6.4%): both games are the most loved in the category per visit. Hunting for something broken is pointless; we need to study the machine we still have to build.
And the machine is huge: active roll, idle, rebirth, a 450-card collection, ~10 D2 hooks, events, a spend ceiling to ◈1799. That's not one feature — it's the whole missing half of our game.
The uncomfortable truth: for all its room, Kick doesn't out-online us (2,104 vs 2,649), though it's 7 weeks older and gathered ×7 the visits. We even convert visits into current online better (2,649 / 1.94M vs 2,104 / 13.6M).
The lesson isn't "don't build the room". It's: the room buys love and money, the door buys scale. Kick maximized the first, the inflow gave the second and stalled. We need both — and it hands us the room for free, as a blueprint.
The roll here isn't a button — it's a kick with aim and a run from the tsunami. Plus the first minutes and why they're so loved.
The core is a lucky-block tycoon, but with an active roll. You kick the block ([E]/the Kick button); it flies down a field where tiers are laid out near = common, far = rarer; Power = kick force/distance, and the field has 2X/3X/5X/6X LUCK zones. The block bursts → a card (finish × rarity + $/s) → the tsunami "RUN!" fires and you must run (Speed decides). You place the card on the plot — it drips money, money goes into upgrades and rebirth.
A kick with aim; Power pulls the block further (rarer card), Speed saves you from the tsunami. Two inputs into one roll — far more than our "spin the dice".
The offline income $/Day is pinned to the top and grows the second a card lands on the plot ($24.7M → $615B a session). Plus "RUN!", the rarity flash, sound. Lots of "juice".
The key fork is push-your-luck: kick further → rarer card, but the wave is faster too, and without Speed you "can't escape" — the card is lost. Risk vs reward right in the roll. Plus: which card to place, when to rebirth. Not rich tactics, but the player is constantly deciding something — unlike us.
Onboarding is aggressive and all about return/love: spawn → the 7-day calendar pops (+ an Unlock All upsell) → "place a card on the plot" → "buy your first weight" → Welcome Offer ◈29 → an engineered "add to favorites?" prompt at a moment of joy. Plus free OP cards locked behind quests (play 15 min + collect 5 + join the group).
Right after the player takes the free first weight, a "Do you want to add … to favorites?" pops — a favorite request right at the peak of joy. Plus the Auto button is locked behind Like + Join Group, and free cards (Haaland, Rainbow Messi) are behind a like/join. Love here isn't a side effect but a bought mechanic. Hence 99.1% and 6% fav/visit. We should likewise ask for the favorite at the jackpot moment, not stay silent.
Idle income, two progression axes feeding the kick, a rebirth prestige, and a collection that closes our content cliff.
Two axes feed the active roll: Power (kick force/distance → rarer card) and Speed (outrun the tsunami). Both are bought, both reset on rebirth — which grants +0.5× money and +0.25× power forever. A classic prestige, wired onto the active loop.
| Axis | What grows | How and how much | What it gives us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Surviving the tsunami | SPEED stall: +1 = $125 cash OR 9 gems, ~$22.5k by level 35 (26 lvls ≈ $140k) | A reason for the "run" — an active layer over the roll |
| Power | Kick force/distance | POWER stall (cash) + earned from kicking; it's the rebirth currency | A skill link: train power → kick further → rarer card |
| Weights | Power/s passively | 14 tiers, FREE→◈1799, dual price Robux OR cash; Robux weights survive rebirth | A whale ladder far above our ceiling (see Monetization) |
| Rebirth | Multipliers forever | Gate 1,000 Power; resets Speed + cash weights; +0.5× cash, +0.25× Power; SKIP for R$49 | A prestige loop; top leaderboard is 248 rebirths |
The economy is a steal-a-brainrot tycoon: a card on the plot drips $/s, total offline income is shown by a banner and grows inflationarily ($24.7M → $615B/Day a session). Cash goes into card levels, Speed, Power and weights. The roll is a way to get a better card onto the plot. We have no idle layer at all — a structural hole.
| Resource | Sources | Sinks | Takeaway for us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash ($) | Idle income from the plot (offline $/day), rolls | Card levels ($10→$9.4M), Speed, Power, weights | Idle income = a reason to come back tomorrow; we have none |
| Gems (⬡) | Rewards/events | Random gamble, alt-price for Speed | A second soft currency for gambling |
| Spins | Daily, quests, playtime, calendar | The wheel (cards/cash) | A return currency: banks between sessions |
| Robux (◈) | Purchase | Passes, dev-products, weights, rebirth skip | A ◈9→◈1799 ladder with no gap |
The top of progression at Kick doesn't cut off: a 10-tier rarity ladder (Common → Uncommon → Rare → Epic → Legendary → Mythical → Divine → Celestial → Cosmic → Eternal) plus Secret above, and an orthogonal finish axis (Normal/Gold/Diamond/Rainbow). That's 450 cards × 4 variants. On top — a Fuse Machine (fusing toward a Secret) and The GOAT, a stock event that eats the whole ladder.
Common · Uncommon · Rare · Epic · Legendary · Mythical · Divine · Celestial · Cosmic · Eternal — plus Secret (0.05%, pity counter 0/50). Income grows by tier: Uncommon +286/s → Diamond Mbappé +236K/s → Eternal Garrincha +34.3B/s. Plus finishes Normal/Gold/Diamond/Rainbow (Rainbow drips more). Our top of progression is a cliff; theirs is hundreds of cells over months.
The GOAT — a deposit event: hand in cards across the whole ladder (Common 0/75 · … · Eternal 0/1) → a 100/100 card "+50% to all income". Fuse Machine — fuse six cards "For Secret ???". Collect all Secrets — a wall of cells. This holds the player after money stops being the problem — exactly our unresolved "what to do at the top".
A separate Squads system: place cards of one nation on the plot — the set grants a bonus (Brazil = +10% income · France = +8% luck · England = +15% offline · Argentina = +15% rebirth at 3 cards; only different cards count, sets stack). We already have nations, but they sit as a passive chemistry bonus. Squads is a ready recipe for turning them into a collection goal.
The most valuable part: a return menu of a dozen hooks and a price ladder with no gap — take both as a blueprint.
This is what made going inside worth it. Kick doesn't hold with one feature — it stacks hooks in layers: daily, in-session, luck-pity, offline+events. Each is simple alone; together they're the fullest D2 machine of all our teardowns. The leaderboards confirm it: top streak 66 days, top playtime 21 days 6 hours.
A manufactured recurring event. Our World Cup trump was spent by the 19.07 final, and the synthesis named the next task "our own recurring event to replace it". Kick shows a cheap template: a server Lava/Galaxy Event on a timer — the arena floods, everyone "RUN!", rare cards drop more often, the countdown is visible. No FIFA needed — the event is born from code and repeats itself.
Two lessons at once. First: the price ladder is continuous from ◈9 to ◈1799 — it fully closes our ◈39↔◈109 gap and runs ×14 above our ◈129 ceiling. Second: almost everything sells as impulse at the friction moment — Random Card on the gamble tile, Unlock All on the calendar, Rebirth Skip on the gate, spins at the wheel.
| Pass | What it gives | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Pack | A starter (the bottom rung) | ◈29 |
| Starter Pack (2) | A second starter (2 cards +$42/s & +$125/s + $5k) | ◈39 |
| Pro Pack | Foden +$2.8k/s, Messi +$1.9k/s + $50k | ◈49 |
| 2x Power | ×2 kick force [forever] | ◈99 |
| 2x Money | ×2 income [forever] | ◈129 |
| 2x Luck | ×2 roll luck [forever] | ◈149 |
| VIP | +25% income + chat tags | ◈199 |
| Mega Boost | 2× Money + Power + Luck forever ("save ◈108 / 29%") | ◈269 |
◈49 and ◈99 sit right inside our ◈39↔◈109 gap, and Mega Boost ◈269 is double our ceiling. Eight rungs, no gap.
| Item | What it is | Price | Where it's sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player cards | Griezmann +$1.6k/s / Haaland +$27k/s / Mbappé +$76k/s | ◈9 / 29 / 59 | Shop |
| Neymar Rainbow Limited | +$19.584M/s, stock 468/999 | ◈129 | Limited pedestal (scarcity) |
| Cash | $10k / $100k / $1M | ◈9 / 19 / 29 | Shop |
| Random Card | A random card | ◈9 | On the gamble tile (impulse) |
| Welcome Offer | 75k + Legendary + 2× Power 10m | ◈29 | First purchase |
| Unlock All | Unlock the whole 7-day calendar | ◈99 | On the calendar (impulse) |
| Rebirth Skip | Skip the rebirth gate | R$49 | On the rebirth gate (impulse) |
| Weights (14 tiers) | +Power/s, Robux weights survive rebirth | ◈19 … 1799 | Weights stall (Robux OR cash) |
The spend ceiling isn't ◈269 but ◈1799 (the top weight). The Robux ladder runs continuously ◈9→◈1799. And a private server ◈50/mo. Every native dialog pushes a bundle of 500 Robux (◈400 struck) for €5.99.
The active loop and feedback are strong. The weak spot is overload: a dozen timers on the HUD and "Like + Join" gates at every step.
| What | Works | Gets in the way | Fix for us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roll | Kick with aim + Power-distance + LUCK zones — a real input | The skill is shallow (mostly "kick further") | Take "kick instead of a button"; even this depth beats our passive match |
| Tsunami | Active survival, "juice", Speed is meaningful | Can't be skipped; on low Speed it's "too slow" | Fix our match with a role/run, not an auto-sim |
| HUD | Offline income and streak always visible | ~10 timers compete for attention | Take 3–4 hooks, not ten; don't drown the screen |
| Gates | Like+Join drive the rating (99.1%) and the group | Auto and free cards are locked behind a social action — pushy at times | Ask for the favorite at the jackpot moment; but don't lock the core |
| Transparency | Spin odds, Secret Chance, pity — shown | No full roll-rarity table | Our Tuesday odds release + pity makes us more honest |
Where the loop holds, what to carry into the prototype, and the score we give the category's most complete room.
Unlike Draft and BASS, Kick's loop is active at every step (kick → run → place → upgrade), so the plateau comes later: the player is always doing something, and idle income + D2 hooks top up the dopamine. The one pit is grinding Power for the first rebirth (power farming). The peaks are the first kick+tsunami, the first big roll, the Lava Event.
How to read the chart. X = session minutes, Y = "how much there is to do". The loop is active almost the whole time (a wide green zone), so the line stays high. The one pit is farming Power for the first rebirth: routine buying with nothing new. The peaks are on events (first kick+tsunami, rebirth payout, Lava Event). Takeaway for us: an active loop + manufactured events hold pace noticeably steadier than a passive competitor.
| Time | What happens | State | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00–11 | First kick, tsunami "RUN!", first plot, calendar + Welcome Offer | Growth | Active loop + onboarding jackpots |
| 11–24 | Grinding Power for rebirth, buying Speed/weights | Pit | Routine farming with no new content |
| 24–43 | Rebirth payout, big rolls (Mythical), rising offline income | Growth | Prestige payout + a visible $/day jump |
| 43–50 | Lava Event, limited cards, loop repeats | Event | The server event tops up a peak; then it's a repeat |
Kick is the single richest source of transferable systems of all our teardowns. The order: first the things we structurally lack (idle, the D2 menu), then the active roll, then the price ladder.
| Priority | System | Why | Minimum build | QA criterion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P0 | An idle layer on the plot | A structural hole: we have no reason to "come back tomorrow to check" | A card on the stadium drips $/s + offline accrual + a return screen | Share of second same-day entries rises |
| P0 | The D2 menu (streak + calendar + pity) | The fullest return machine in the category | Streak +%/day, a 7-day calendar, a pity counter on the roll | D1→D2 retention ↑ |
| P1 | The active "kick + RUN!" roll | The answer to our passive match | A roll through an action (aim/force) + a short survival | In-session retention ↑ vs a passive match |
| P1 | A manufactured server event | A replacement for the spent WC window | An event on a timer: a modifier + a countdown on screen | Online peak in the event window |
| P1 | A ◈ ladder + impulse at friction | The ◈39↔◈109 gap, the ◈129 ceiling | Rungs ◈49–199 + "skip/unlock" at the moment of waiting | Revenue from rungs below ◈129 > 0 |
| P2 | Squads (nation = set) | Bring passive nations to life | A one-nation set on the lineup → a bonus | Share collecting full sets |
Kick confirmed it: the missing half of our game isn't "one more mechanic" but an idle layer + a return machine. We build those first, on top of the Tuesday odds release (adding pity).
| Problem | Why it hurts | Minimal fix | How to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| No idle layer | No reason to "come back tomorrow to see how much piled up" | A plot with $/s + offline + a return screen | D1→D2 retention |
| A passive match | The player builds and watches; no agency | A roll/match through an action + a short survival | In-session retention |
| The WC window is spent | The FIFA calendar no longer gifts windows | A manufactured server event on a timer | Online peak in the event window |
| The ◈39↔◈109 gap, ◈129 ceiling | Mid-spenders and whales find nothing to pay for | Rungs ◈49–199 + impulse + a top SKU | Distribution of spend across rungs |
Kick isn't about "why them, not us". It's a catalog of systems we still have to build: idle income, an active roll, a return machine, a collection for months, manufactured events, a gapless price ladder with honest pity. And all of it produced 99.1% love. The only thing the room didn't give is scale: its live online is below ours. So we take the room as a blueprint and look for growth at the door.
Active kick+run+idle — the richest loop in the category
Aggressive, quest gates, "add to favorites" at a moment of joy
Deep idle + prestige + a card sink; inflationary
~10 timers and Like+Join gates drown the screen
The fullest D2 machine of all our teardowns
Gapless ◈9→◈1799, pity, impulse at friction
Take almost everything: the idle plot, the active "kick+RUN!" roll, the D2 menu with a streak and pity, a manufactured server event, the ◈9→◈1799 ladder with impulse, Squads. Don't copy: the near-solo server, the HUD overload, the core locked behind Like+Join. The honest caveat: the room is maximal, but scale comes from the door — its online is below ours at ×7 visits. We build the room to this blueprint and look for growth in the thumbnail.