The Card

01 — Overview

The Card at a Glance

The Card is a location-based discovery and matchmaking platform for rookie combat fighters, starting exclusively with PFC (fightpfc.com) under a separate brand operated by PFC admins.

The core experience borrows the Grindr mechanic: a grid/map of verified fighters near you, ready to fight. What makes it defensible is the trust ladder — every win is proven, not claimed:

  • Tiers 1–2 (Rookie, Amateur) — free. Fights at home with your own pillow; both fighters confirm each other, confirm the fight, and mutually agree on the result.
  • Tier 3 (Contender) — official PFC pillow, serial-verified. A neutral referee is required, plus 1–3 judges who score live from a private link against PFC rules. Paid membership starts here.
  • Tiers 4–6 (Ranked, Elite, Official) — rankings, brackets, storefronts and finally federation-sanctioned status on real PFC event cards.
  • Academy — tier-linked learning, plus referee and judge certification so every official fight is scored to the same standard.

Beyond discovery and fighting, The Card holds fighter stats that follow the athlete from rookie to pro, and a fan economy: tips, limited-print digital fighter cards (with physical Printify twins), and power-ups.

Contents

02ProblemWhy this exists: five gaps in amateur combat sports.03UsersPersonas for the MVP and the bilingual-by-default policy.04ScopeWhat ships in v1 — and what explicitly does not.05TiersThe six-tier ladder, from free Rookie to sanctioned Official.06OfficialsThe judge and referee ladder: open judge, certified judge, official referee.07AcademyLearning, certification and coaching layered on top of the ladder.08Fighter CardsHow the card works, and how fans buy, collect and trade them.09MerchandiseOfficial gear, federation apparel and fighter storefronts.10FeaturesDiscovery, fights and judging, fan economy, power-ups.11MonetizationRevenue lines, ordered by when they ship.12Data modelCore entities and the audit trail behind every win.13FlowsThe five end-to-end flows, step by step.14PlatformWeb + PWA architecture, payments, localization, admin.15Non-goalsEverything deliberately left out of v1.16RisksWhat can break the model, and the mitigation for each.17RoadmapPFC first, multi-federation next, pro pipeline last.