THE TOURNAMENT, the pace-lit trail, and brighter opponents

The fourth mode: four rounds up the dead hierarchy (CUP_ROUNDS), each round
drawing a rung from its band, the champion always the final. It rides the
match machinery whole — cupDraw feeds the drawn rung through d.opp so every
ladder dial scales untouched; the body's pool spans the round (need-scaled
pool and divisor, so wounds carry between games); cupGameWon holds the same
body mid-round, kills it on the round, and past the final cupWon banks a
NOT-dead match run under CHAMPION OF THE DEAD CLUB. Blood carries; round one
is a single game; deathmatch stays as the arcade run. Full-run state test.

Sidequests: the ghost trail is pace-qualified (TUNE.trailSpeed) so both
tennis modes streak — pow>0.8 was only ever reached by the gore slingshot;
opponent sprites draw ~18% brighter via a load-time baked copy
(render.brighten, TUNE.oppBright) with no PNG touched; the cup scoreboard
line names the round instead of lying with deathmatch arithmetic; the rack
and the apron demo no longer draw under a trophy screen.

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

PROJECT.md

@@ -434,6 +434,26 @@ vetoed (*"the camera movement is distracting"*) and its knobs sit at 0 — see t
   (~0.35ms/frame desktop, settled key at both ends) — if the phone stutters in rallies, zero these
   two before touching anything else.
 
+## Session log: THE TOURNAMENT (2026-08-13, same day — Oliver picked it over the endless ladder)
+
+The fourth mode tile: four rounds up the dead hierarchy (`config.CUP_ROUNDS` — each round DRAWS a
+rung from its band, the final is always THE CHAMPION), riding the whole match machinery and
+differing in exactly three places: who walks on (`cupDraw` puts the drawn rung in `d.opp`, so every
+ladder dial downstream scales untouched), how deep the body's pool is (`matchOpponent` multiplies
+by the round's `need` and `matchPoint` divides the same way, so wound stages SPREAD across the
+round — the body enters game two missing what game one cost it), and where a won game goes
+(`cupGameWon`: mid-round the same body plays on; round won is the kill + mop beat + next draw;
+past the final, `cupWon` banks a NOT-dead match run and holds CHAMPION OF THE DEAD CLUB on the
+classic win's summary shape). Blood carries; the trainer's heal-per-game is the distance. Round
+one is a single game so a run opens fast; deathmatch stays beside it as the arcade mode.
+
+Also this session: the fall ANTICIPATES the pass (a winner past the net with a closed-form
+unreachable landing resolves mid-flight — plus the soft-lock the first version shipped: the
+decided-latch must die with its rally, see the beats/gameplay comments); the fall table lost its
+rise row and tightened its drop; the ghost trail is PACE-qualified so both tennis modes streak
+(`trailSpeed`); and opponent sprites draw brighter via a load-time baked copy
+(`render.brighten`, `TUNE.oppBright`) — no PNG touched.
+
 ## Session log: the serve gets stakes (2026-08-13, same day)
 
 Oliver: *"the golden mark is just very easy to hit and hitting below it does not necessarily make a