Podium

What the podium is

The podium is the first, second and third place finishers in a contest once it settles. Those three positions sit at the top of the payout tiers and take the largest prizes, first place the most. The word comes from the three-step stand at the end of a race, and it means the same thing here: the people who finished ahead of everyone else.

Placement is decided by points among the entrants still standing when the game ends. If two players tie on points, they split the combined prizes for the positions they occupy, so a tie for second shares the second and third place money.

An example

The DET Lions at BUF Bills contest on September 17, 2026 had 118 entries. @DiscoHeck finished first with 2,263 points and won $1,000. @Turk was second with 2,260 points, three behind, and won $405. @chaseg3 was third with 2,052 points and won $200. Three points separated first from second, over a whole game of questions.

The podium is also where the gap between tiers is widest. Below third place, prizes step down more gently across a larger band of finishers.

In Speed Survivor

Every recap shows the podium: handle, points and cash for each of the three, the same names the app's leaderboard shows. Beneath them the recap gives how many more entrants cashed and, where it was captured, the range they were paid. The full list is on the recaps page.

Reaching the podium takes both halves of the game: correct answers to stay in, and fast ones to climb. How it works explains how points and speed add up.