> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://serotolabs.gitbook.io/tradeclash/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://serotolabs.gitbook.io/tradeclash/about-trade-clash/marketing-brief.md).

# Marketing Brief

The one page anyone writing about Trade Clash should read first — a post, a clip caption, a press reply, a deck. It supersedes the auction-era social memo, now in [legacy/internal](https://github.com/FlyingWHR/tradeclash-gitbook/tree/main/legacy/internal/README.md).

Last updated 30 July 2026.

***

## 1. The product, in one sentence

> **Trade Clash is a real-time AI agent battle arena. You build an agent, it fights other players' agents on a real RTS engine, and the crowd watches and bets the outcome.**

Say it in that order. "AI agent battle arena" is the category; "build, own, watch" is what a person does; everything else is detail.

## 2. Why anyone should care right now

People already want to watch AI systems compete — the "Claude vs ChatGPT, who'd win" instinct is everywhere and nothing satisfies it. Trade Clash makes it literal and watchable: two agents that strangers designed, fighting a real-time strategy match with commentary and a live probability, on a loop that never stops.

The interesting inversion is what the skill is. You never touch the controls. You are not competing on execution — you are competing on whether your model of a fight was correct, and you find out in public. That is a different feeling from playing an RTS, and it is the thing to sell.

## 3. Audience

|               | Who                                                                                                                                              | What lands                                                          |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Primary**   | **Builders.** People who would rather design a system than execute one — Factorio, Zachtronics, fantasy sports, bot-jam and AI-tinkering crowds. | "No code. Five dials and plain English, and it fights without you." |
| **Secondary** | **Watchers.** Twitch/esports viewers who like a board to read and a number to argue with.                                                        | "Two AIs, a live win probability, and a crowd pricing it."          |
| **Tertiary**  | **Collectors.** Crypto-native, but the pitch is *record*, not speculation.                                                                       | "Your agent's configuration hash and its record live on-chain."     |

Primary is the one that compounds — a builder who ships one agent gives the watchers something new to watch. Optimise the funnel for **build**, not for views.

## 4. Message hierarchy

Use this order. Cut from the bottom, never the top.

1. **Hook (0–3s):** two machines fighting. *The arena never sleeps.*
2. **What it is:** a real-time AI agent battle arena.
3. **How you play:** no code — five dials and plain-English standing orders.
4. **Why it's fair:** the server decides the winner, matches are seeded and deterministic, results anchor on Base.
5. **Money:** points only.

## 5. The copy system — three strings, one job each

Mirrored across the product, the site and these docs. Don't invent a fourth.

| Slot       | String                            | Use                                  |
| ---------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| Descriptor | `Real-time AI agent battle arena` | titles, meta, first line of any post |
| Verbs      | `BUILD · OWN · WATCH`             | kickers, bullets, thumbnails         |
| Tagline    | `THE ARENA NEVER SLEEPS`          | end cards, mood beats, the closer    |

**Everything a player builds is an AGENT.** Not a bot, not a fighter, not a war-agent.

## 6. Proof points — all true today, all checkable

Reach for these instead of adjectives.

* **A real RTS engine in a browser** — an OpenRA fork compiled to WebAssembly, not a toy simulation.
* **Five dials and twelve order types compile to \~80 real engine parameters.** The Forge shows you the compiled file before you commit.
* **Orders the compiler doesn't understand are reported back as ignored** — the product tells you when it didn't understand you instead of pretending.
* **The win probability is measured, not vibes.** Out-of-fold, split by match: log loss **0.513**, Brier **0.175**, accuracy **72.3%**, AUC **0.831**, ECE **0.099**.
* **We publish where the model was wrong.** Before calibration it scored *worse than answering 50% every time* while being 72% accurate. Fixing that is a better story than hiding it.
* **Seeded and deterministic** — same seed plus same configurations replays the same match.
* **The server derives the winner.** A client-reported result is never accepted, which is the whole reason the book can be trusted.
* **Six blocs, four archetypes**, and a 30-second trailer that exists and is cut.

## 7. Voice

Trader-sharp but clear. Confident, short, present tense. Honesty beats hype wherever trust is at stake — this product's edge *is* that it shows its work.

**Never:**

* Name-call the audience. "Degen" is banned from all copy.
* Gambling language: wager, luck, house edge.
* Imply real money, cash-out, returns, or yield.
* Promise dates, or describe a gated capability as though it ships.
* Quote the model as more accurate than the measured numbers.
* Present the earlier products' figures as the arena's own numbers. See "Track record" below for the framing that is approved.
* Cryptic stat runs. "169 kills · 26 structures", never "169k 26b".

**Money copy is never playful,** and it is stated plainly exactly once per surface: *points only — one gas-free signature, never a transaction.*

## 8. Track record — how to use it

The studio has shipped two earlier Trade Clash titles, and their numbers are real and verifiable. They are usable, and they should be used — a first-time reader has no other reason to believe this team ships. What is not allowed is letting them read as the arena's traction.

**Approved sentence, use verbatim:**

> Seroto Labs' earlier Trade Clash titles connected **100,000 wallets** across four tournaments and took **1st place for New Consumer App** at Base's On-Chain Summer Awards.

Also true and usable: $2,000 USDC distributed to top players across those four tournaments.

**The rules around it:**

* Always attribute to **"earlier Trade Clash titles"** or **"Seroto Labs"** — never to the arena, and never in a sentence whose subject is the current product.
* Never imply the arena has users yet. It has no public build.
* Keep it in the credibility slot — a footer, an about line, a deck's team page. It is never the hook.
* The award links to its source. Keep the link; an unlinked award reads as a claim.

Full history: [Tournament History](/tradeclash/legacy-documentation/tournament-history.md) and [Previous Game Concepts](/tradeclash/about-trade-clash/legacy.md).

## 9. Constraints that shape the plan

State these plainly to anyone building a campaign.

* **There is no public build yet.** Every CTA points at the community, the docs, or the trailer. Never "play now".
* **The engine's current art is EA-derived,** so paid media and a press push wait for the original-asset remake. The decision on record is to build attention with content first and swap the art in when there is traffic to justify it — that is a deliberate trade, not an oversight, and it means organic/social is the only channel until the remake lands.
* **Real value is gated.** Audit → determinism receipts → legal → KYC → custody. None are cleared, so "when real money?" is answered **not planned**. See [Roadmap](/tradeclash/about-trade-clash/roadmap.md).
* **Footage quality is bounded by bot behaviour.** How dense a clash looks depends on the agents' squad sizes, and arena pairing is random. Don't write a line the picture can't honour — if the copy says "forty units in the blender", the footage has to show forty units.

## 10. Assets on hand

30-second trailer (cut, with real music and narration) · poster frame showing the live broadcast UI · six bloc leader portraits · the shared globe · broadcast stills with the plans overlay and the market card · the Forge spec sheet.

**Missing and worth making:** short vertical cutdowns of single clashes, a Forge screen-capture that shows an order compiling, and one clip of a win probability swinging hard mid-match — the most legible "this is a real system" moment we have.

## 11. Channels

| Channel            | Job                                                                                                       |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **X**              | Clash clips and probability swings. Short, no preamble, the picture does the work.                        |
| **Telegram**       | The community. Where builders show agents and argue about doctrine.                                       |
| **Vertical video** | Trailer cutdowns and single-fight clips. Design for muted viewing — legible text, no reliance on audio.   |
| **These docs**     | Credibility. When someone asks "is this real", the architecture and win-probability pages are the answer. |
| **tradeclash.xyz** | The one-screen version of this brief.                                                                     |

## 12. What success looks like

Ranked. The first one is the only one that matters early.

1. **Build-to-build retention** — someone who builds one agent builds a second.
2. **Watch-through** on the live rotation.
3. **Share of standing orders that compile** rather than coming back ignored — a direct read on whether the build experience is teachable.
4. **Agents forked from another player's design** — the sign that designs, not just matches, have become the content.

Vanity metrics (impressions, follower count) are diagnostics, not goals.