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>

src/config.js

@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ export const TUNE = {
   faceFlip: 0.13,   // s an auto-steered direction must persist before the body mirrors (earnFlip).
                     // The rolled cycles hold a real racket, and an un-earned flip teleports it
                     // across the body — the "racket flashing left and right" report
+  trailSpeed: 16,   // m/s of horizontal pace at which a rally ball earns the ghost streak in every
+                    // mode (the pow>0.8 gate alone was only ever reached by the gore slingshot)
+  oppBright: 1.18,  // brightness baked into every OPPONENT sprite copy at load (render.brighten) —
+                    // the far bodies read dark against the crowd. Load-time: reload to retune
   serveSpin: 1.3,   // extra gravity a full-power serve carries (was a fixed 0.35). Without it the
                     // net-clearance loop ate the whole smash: a flat fast ball can't get over the
                     // tape AND come down on a target, so it got throttled back to walking pace.
@@ -630,9 +634,24 @@ export const COURTS = [
 export const MODES = [
   { id: 'classic', name: 'CLASSIC TENNIS', sub: 'REAL TENNIS · BEST OF THREE SETS', tile: 'o_swing1' },
   { id: 'zombie',  name: 'ZOMBIE TENNIS',  sub: 'ONE GAME PER OPPONENT · BLOOD ONLY', tile: 'z_r1' },
+  { id: 'cup',     name: 'THE TOURNAMENT', sub: 'FOUR ROUNDS · THE CHAMPION WAITS', tile: 'z_champ1' },
   { id: 'gore',    name: 'SPLATTER GORE',  sub: 'THE MATCH TURNS · SURVIVE IT', tile: 'z_boss1' },
 ];
 
+// THE TOURNAMENT (Oliver's pick over the endless ladder, 2026-08-13): four rounds up the club's
+// dead hierarchy, each round DRAWING one rung from its band so runs differ, the final always THE
+// CHAMPION. `need` is games to take the round — round one is a single game so a run opens fast —
+// and the drawn body's pool scales with need (see matchOpponent), so its wound stages spread
+// across the whole round instead of being spent in game one. Blood carries between rounds; the
+// trainer's heal-per-game is what makes the distance survivable. Deathmatch (id 'zombie') stays
+// beside it as the arcade run.
+export const CUP_ROUNDS = [
+  { name: 'ROUND ONE',     band: [1, 2, 3],        need: 1 },
+  { name: 'QUARTER-FINAL', band: [4, 5, 6],        need: 2 },
+  { name: 'SEMI-FINAL',    band: [7, 8, 9, 10, 11], need: 2 },
+  { name: 'THE FINAL',     band: [12],             need: 2 },
+];
+
 export const TOURS = [
   { id: 'men',   name: "MEN'S SINGLES",   tile: 'tour_m', sfx: null },
   { id: 'women', name: "WOMEN'S SINGLES", tile: 'tour_w', sfx: '_f', dx: 0.46, apex: 0.78, tossDx: -0.59 },