RIVAL's entire loop comes down to five steps. Most of the product complexity lives in step three — making sure "reality decides" actually means something fast, fair, and impossible to argue with.
1. Predict
You're shown a question with a clear, binary or limited-choice outcome — "Will India win tonight?", "Will Bitcoin close above $150K this week?" No ambiguity, no fine print.
2. Lock your opinion
Once you submit a prediction, it's locked. You can't edit it after the fact, and you can't see how the crowd is leaning before you commit — otherwise you're not predicting, you're just agreeing with consensus after the fact.
3. Reality decides
This is the resolution engine. Each event category has a defined, objective source of truth:
- Sports — official match results
- Crypto — exchange closing prices at the specified time
- Entertainment — verified box office / award results
- World events — confirmed outcomes from primary sources
Resolution happens automatically as soon as the outcome is confirmed — usually within minutes for live sports and crypto, same-day for most other categories.
4. Earn Rival Score
The system compares your prediction, your timing, and the final outcome. Score adjustments are calculated immediately and reflected on your profile and any leagues you're part of.
5. Beat your friends
Every resolved prediction feeds into your private leagues and leaderboards. This is where an individual right call turns into bragging rights — your friends see exactly where you landed, and where they didn't.
The whole point of this pipeline is speed and certainty. If resolution is slow or disputable, the entire reputation system loses meaning. RIVAL is built so that being right shows up almost as fast as the event itself happens.