The leagues, the plaque round: the meta speaks — the player plaque, the goal line, the way-up tag, the centred ceremony

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

PROJECT.md

@@ -491,6 +491,33 @@ zombie (now an occasional opponent, `TUNE.racketEvery`, not the every-game fixtu
   `RETURNED`, `DOUBLE KILL`) is a footnote to something you already watched happen. Sharing the loud
   FACE with the milestone cards is right; sharing their SIZE made every footnote read as a milestone.
 
+## Session log: THE LEAGUES — the plaque round: the meta speaks (2026-08-29, same day, STAGING ONLY)
+
+Oliver's first screenshot review, four items, all built. The theme: the meta layer existed but
+did not TALK to the player.
+
+- **No second bar** (his question, settled in discussion): a career bar moves ~2% a session late
+  and demotivates more than it informs. Total progress reads as the LEVEL NUMBER + LEAGUE
+  instead; the card carries the long form — "LEVEL 12 OF 50" and a thin CAREER bar (whole-curve
+  xp, honest about how far the cap is).
+- **THE PLAYER PLAQUE** replaces the bare level strip on the splash: ONE button-styled panel —
+  league wappen, name, "LEVEL X · LEAGUE Y" over the bar, a chevron that says it opens (the bare
+  strip's tap was undiscoverable), and **the standing GOAL LINE**: "WIN THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT CUP
+  TO ADVANCE" / "…BECOME CHAMPION" / "CHAMPION OF THE DEAD CLUB — DEFEND THE NAME". The badge
+  COLLECTION deliberately stays on the card (splash real estate: the boxed-bar lesson) — now one
+  DISCOVERABLE tap away.
+- **"How do I advance?" is answered in three standing places** (the promotion ceremony taught it
+  exactly once, and only AFTER the first promotion — too late): (1) the plaque's goal line;
+  (2) the arcade's own "what now?" moment — when the band's top body walks BACK on (`d.again`,
+  set by the clamp), its walk-on modal carries "NOBODY STRONGER IS LEFT / THE CUP IS THE WAY UP"
+  (pinned by the band-clamp test); (3) the tournament poster wears a corner tag **THE WAY UP**
+  (`tag` on the MODES row, rendered by banner()) and its blurb says "YOUR LEAGUE'S ROUNDS · WIN
+  IT TO RISE".
+- **The promotion ceremony's court tile is centred** (`margin auto` + `align-self` — the .mid
+  column stretches block children, so the 74%-wide img sat left), and the death screen's XP line
+  moved to +24/+36/+50 — the pulsing ★NEW BEST★ is B(20) drawn top-baseline at +2 and overlapped
+  the +18 line whenever both showed.
+
 ## Session log: THE LEAGUES, PHASE 4 — the duel learns, tin tiers, the level is you (2026-08-29, STAGING ONLY)
 
 Phase 4, the last of the built plan. STAGING ONLY — the whole feature waits on Oliver's own