We have big news for creators, teachers, and event hosts using Random Arena. In our latest patch, we expanded our free tier contestant capacity by 2.5x—from 20 up to 50 contestants per game, completely free with zero credit cards or signups required.
Alongside this capacity expansion, our engineering team completed a major optimization overhaul of our WebGL rendering and Rapier 3D physics frame loops, unlocking a locked 60 FPS experience on low-power presentation laptops and stream setups.
:rocket: Experience 50 Free Contestants Live in 3D
Ready to test the upgraded capacity? Paste your roster or connect your live Twitch chat with !join to test 50-contestant Rocket Races, Methane Meadows, and Colosseum deathmatches right in your browser.
1. 2.5x Free Tier Contestant Cap Expansion (20 ➔ 50 Contestants)
When we first launched Random Arena, our free tier supported up to 20 contestants per drawing. While 20 was plenty for small group breakouts, larger classrooms, active Twitch streams, and department meetings needed more room without hitting a paywall.
Starting today, every free user can import up to 50 contestants simultaneously across all game modes.
Twitch & YouTube Stream Overlays: Your viewers can type `!join` in chat and instantly pop into the player pool up to 50 concurrent entrants.
Classroom Roster Pickers: Teachers can paste entire class rosters or multi-period student lists in one click.
Corporate Team Meetings: Department heads can drop full attendee lists into a Rocket Race or Spin Wheel without needing an upgraded enterprise pass.
For massive public events and high-volume streams, our Pro and Event passes continue to unlock up to 100 concurrent contestants with advanced custom branding and logo uploads.
2. Zero-GC Frame-Loop Optimizations for 60 FPS Performance
Scaling up to 50–100 active rigid bodies inside a web browser requires relentless rendering discipline. In React Three Fiber (R3F), allocating temporary objects or matrix updates inside high-frequency `useFrame` loops can trigger periodic Garbage Collection (GC) stutters.
In this release, we completed deep refactoring across our key arena components, specifically Methane Meadows and The Clash:
Hoisted Loop Invariants: Shifted all invariant calculations out of per-entity physics sub-steps.
Pre-Allocated Matrix & Quaternion Buffers: Eliminated per-frame object instantiation inside entity and particle position updates.
Smart Matrix Skips: Disabled matrix updates for idle or eliminated combatants, reducing CPU thread overhead on complex multi-entity collisions.
The result? Smoother physics simulations, zero frame drops during heavy 50+ contestant collisions, and consistent 60 FPS execution even on integrated laptop graphics.
3. Modular Leaderboard Utilities & Live Broadcast Polish
We also revamped our post-match victory experience. The leaderboard system (`LeaderboardUI` and `WinnerUI`) has been refactored with modular ranking utilities, making winner showcases cleaner and easier to read on broadcast overlays and multi-screen casting receivers (`CastingReceiver`).
Whether you are casting your screen to a smartboard in a classroom or routing a transparent browser source to OBS, the victory animations and final rankings render with razor-sharp clarity.
What Changed in This Release
| Area | Previous Limit / State | Upgraded Release State |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier Contestant Limit | 20 Contestants max | 50 Contestants max (2.5x increase) |
| Methane Meadows & Clash FPS | Potential GC frame spikes under 50+ loads | Locked 60 FPS with pre-allocated zero-GC frame loops |
| Leaderboard & Victory UI | Monolithic rendering components | Modular utility architecture with enhanced casting support |
| Max Pro Tier Capacity | 100 Contestants | 100 Contestants (Optimized for maximum readability) |
Try the Upgraded Free Tier Today
Experience the new 50-contestant capacity and ultra-smooth 60 FPS physics performance right now in your web browser. No software installation, credit card, or account signup required.