By Valentin Updated Masters tournaments how it works
Every weekend Orion runs the Weekend Masters, a tournament in which registered players climb live standings for a share of a guaranteed prize pool paid in gems. It runs from Friday 16:00 UTC to Monday 00:00 UTC, the same 56 hours for every player in the world, and the prizes are virtual items only, never real money.
The games themselves are ordinary backgammon under the rules you already know: the international game, with the doubling cube. What the Masters adds is a weekend clock, a scoreboard and a prize. This guide covers each part, with the figures as they stand on 10 October 2026. If you are looking for strategy rather than the tournament, the Learn page collects every guide we have written.
When does the Weekend Masters run?
From Friday 16:00 UTC to Monday 00:00 UTC, every weekend. The door opens two hours earlier, at Friday 14:00 UTC, so you can register before the first game. During the week the Masters is not shown at all: the panel appears in the app when the door opens and disappears once the weekend has been settled.
The window is fixed in UTC on purpose, so nobody's daylight saving moves it. The app shows the countdown and the times in your own clock. A few examples for the weekend of 9 to 12 October 2026, while Europe and North America are still on summer time:
- London: Friday 17:00 to Monday 01:00.
- Paris and Berlin: Friday 18:00 to Monday 02:00.
- Athens, Istanbul and Moscow: Friday 19:00 to Monday 03:00.
- Dubai: Friday 20:00 to Monday 04:00.
- New York: Friday 12:00 to Sunday 20:00.
- Los Angeles: Friday 09:00 to Sunday 17:00.
- Tokyo: Saturday 01:00 to Monday 09:00.
When Europe and North America change to winter time, the local hours there move one hour earlier (Europe on 25 October, the United States on 1 November), because the tournament stays on UTC. Istanbul, Moscow, Dubai and Tokyo do not change.
How do you enter?
Open the hub while the door is open and choose Masters next to Arenas and League. The panel shows the buy-in, the prize pool, the number of entrants and the time left. Registering takes the buy-in from your gems in one step, and the same step adds it to the prize pool, so there is no state in which you have paid without being entered.
In the current weekly setup the buy-in is 100 gems. Each player registers once per weekend. Gems are the game's virtual premium currency: you earn them in play, for example on the season pass track, and you can also buy them in the shop.
How are points and standings counted?
Once you are registered, play ranked matches from the Masters panel while the tournament is live. Every win scores 10 points. Every defeat costs 5 points, and your score never goes below zero. The standings rank entrants by points and update as games finish, and your own rank is shown on the panel.
Two consequences are worth knowing before you start. Volume helps, because points accumulate across the weekend. But defeats cost you: ten games at six wins and four losses score 40 points, while ten games at five and five score 25. The standings are visible to entrants only: you see the board once you have a seat.
What is the prize pool, and how is it paid?
The prize pool is the larger of two numbers: the guaranteed amount, or the total of every buy-in collected. In the current setup the guarantee is 5,000 gems, so the pool is never smaller than that, however few players enter, and it grows past it when enough players register.
The top three are paid, as shares of the pool: 50 percent for first place, 30 percent for second and 20 percent for third. With a 5,000 gem pool that is 2,500, 1,500 and 1,000 gems. To be paid, a player needs at least one win and a score above zero; a paid place that nobody qualifies for is simply not awarded.
The weekend is settled automatically a few minutes after Monday 00:00 UTC. Each payment is written once and only once, so a winner can never be paid twice or skipped by a retry. The prizes are gems inside the game. They have no cash value, and nothing can be withdrawn or exchanged for money.
What happens when you win?
The next time a winner opens the game, the prize arrives as a full-screen ceremony: the trophy or medal for the place, the title for the rank, how many players took part, and a button to claim the prize. It is delivered through the same ledger as every other reward in the game, so it waits for you however long you stay away.
Are the dice fair in Masters games?
Yes, and you can check it rather than take our word. Masters games are played on the server, with the same provably fair dice as every other server game in Orion: before the first roll the server publishes a SHA-256 commitment to a secret seed, every roll is derived from that seed with HMAC-SHA256, and the seed is revealed when the game ends.
Copy the game ID from the result screen and paste it into the verifier at orion.arthea.ai/verify. Your browser recomputes every roll and checks it against the commitment, with no account and nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions about the Weekend Masters
Is the Weekend Masters real-money gambling?
No. The buy-in and the prizes are gems, a virtual currency with no cash value. Nothing in Orion can be withdrawn, sold back or converted to money.
Can I see the standings without entering?
No. The board is reserved for entrants. A player without a seat sees the prize pool, the number of entrants and the time left, and the way in is the buy-in.
Do I have to play all weekend?
No. Play when it suits you between Friday 16:00 and Monday 00:00 UTC. Your points stay on the board between sessions, and only the games you finish while the tournament is live count.
When do the winners get their gems?
The weekend is settled a few minutes after it closes on Monday 00:00 UTC. Each winner receives the prize with a ceremony the next time they open the game.
Is the Masters the same as the League?
No. The League is the season-long ranked ladder of ten leagues, from Driftwood to Orion, measured in trophies. The Masters is a separate weekend tournament with its own points, its own standings and its own prize pool, and it starts from zero every Friday.
The Weekend Masters opens every Friday in Orion, free on iPhone, iPad and Android, and every roll of every Masters game can be checked at orion.arthea.ai/verify.