Clubs
Every player in ChessVS belongs to a club. Your club shapes your board's look, your passive ability, your card art, your AI opponent's personality, and the community you compete alongside.
The game launches with two clubs — Bitcoinia and Etheryst — with additional clubs introduced over time.
You can change your club freely until your first ranked season ends. After that, you can change it once per season, at the season break, and switching to a board of a different club counts as that change. Changing club in the game arrives in a later update. Your club-specific collectibles stay with that club, so read this page and the launch club pages before you commit.
Launch clubs
The two clubs available at Player Registration:
| Club | Style at a glance |
|---|---|
| Bitcoinia | Aggressive, attrition, relentless tempo |
| Etheryst | Combinatorial, deep combos; the first card it fires each match will cost no charge, arriving in a later update |
Same position, two clubs: your club decides how your board looks every time you play.
Both clubs are open from day one, and every season they race each other in the Banner Race. Season 1 is Genesis War and Season 2 is The Merge, the first two chapters of the Bitcoinia and Etheryst story.
Choosing your launch club
There's no "best" club — each rewards a different style.
- Like aggression and pressure? Bitcoinia.
- Like deep strategy, combos, and high decision density? Etheryst.
Pick the identity you genuinely connect with — you'll be wearing it for a long time.
Future clubs
Additional clubs are planned for future seasons. Each will arrive with its own AI persona, board material, passive ability, and themed card collection. Names and details are announced ahead of each launch as they're confirmed — keep an eye on the Discord and your registered email for announcements.
Playing with other clubs
Your club is your home: it decides your board, your passive ability, your card art, and the community you represent.
Every ability is shared. No club owns an ability: every Battle Card can be played by every club. What belongs to a club is a card's edition. Your starter cards, and every card from a Standard Pack or a Battle Box, are universal, so anyone can play them. A club edition comes from a Club Pack. It is printed in one club's colors, carries that club's small upkeep perk, and is played by that club's members.
So when a new club arrives, its abilities are ones you can already play. Its club editions are for its members.
Cross-club team events, where clubs face each other as teams, are planned for a later season.
Your club's art
Each club has its own lore picture: The Genesis Forge for Bitcoinia and The Crystal Codex for Etheryst. It's free for every player and only changes how the game looks, never how it plays.
You always see your own club's picture, so you and your opponent may each be looking at a different one. If you haven't picked a club yet, there's no picture.
Where it shows:
- On a computer, behind the board in your matches. The board, your cards and everything you play with stay on top of it.
- On a phone, never while you play, so your match screen stays exactly as it is. Your club's art fills the screen while you wait for a match and sits behind your Results screen. A phone turned sideways with a wide enough screen gets the computer view, picture included.
- When you choose a club, tap a club on the club select screen and its picture fades in behind the page.
Turning it off. Open Settings (the Settings tab on a phone, or your @name at the top of the screen on a computer) and find Club background under Gameplay. With it off, no club picture shows anywhere. Your choice is saved on the device you set it on, so your phone and your computer each remember their own. If your device is set to increase contrast, the picture stays off.