Prizes

A small tool that lives at prizes.kuzin.dk. After enough Magic: The Gathering events at Faraos Cigarer — Copenhagen’s long-running gaming hub — it became clear that figuring out the prize split at the end of a tournament was the same arithmetic puzzle every single time, done in someone’s head while a queue of players waited at the counter. So I built a calculator that does it for you.

What it does

Punch in the number of players (including the organiser), pick the cut-off — X-1 or better or Top 8 — and decide whether to skim 10% off the top to seed a future bigger tournament. Out comes the breakdown:

• Two winners → 60% to the top finisher.
• Three winners → 40% to first.
• Four or more → 35% to first, then graded down through the field.

The percentages are tuned to the conventions Faraos Cigarer actually uses, so the output is something the organiser can read out loud and the players will recognise.

Stack

• Next.js (App Router) — overkill for a calculator, but the dev loop and zero-config deploy were exactly the trade-off I wanted for a “ship it tonight” project.
• Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui — the form controls, buttons, and dark-mode toggle are stock shadcn so the visual layer was solved in an afternoon.
• Lucide for the sun/moon theme toggle and the small UI icons.
• Dark mode out of the box — Faraos has fluorescent shop lighting; the tool gets used in both bright and dim conditions.

Why bother

The math isn’t hard. But “not hard” math done dozens of times under social pressure with cash on the table is exactly the kind of micro-friction that’s worth removing once. Now organisers point their phone browser at it, type two numbers, and read off the result. The same rules every time, no disputes about whether someone forgot to round.

Live at prizes.kuzin.dk.