Contestants selected from a contestant pool must face off in a series of duels. They are competing to win cash at the end of each game, but the ultimate objective is to win five duels and take home $500,000. Three contestants are randomly selected to have a shot at each match. The current champion then chooses his/her challenger, based only on the appearance of the challengers and small amounts of personal information given. Though contestants remain in the pool, some will never be chosen. In each game, players are given ten chips. They then face a series of multiple-choice (four answers each) trivia questions. A screen goes up so that opponent's actions cannot be seen. Players are allowed to place a chip on just one answer, or as many as all four, assuming they have enough chips remaining. The first question is worth $1000 and the questions rise in value until the last questions, which is worth $50,000. Contestants have as much time as they like to answer, unless they are Pressed. Each contestant is provided one Press per game, and when a player uses a Press, their opponent has seven seconds to lock in their answer or answers. If a player gets an answer wrong, they automatically lose the game. If at any time, both players get an answer wrong, they go into Sudden Death. In Sudden Death, the objective is to answer the question correctly using less chips than your opponent. Once a contestant loses all their chips, the game ends.