Kia ora, Wellington. You didn't just show up — you moved in.
Armageddon Expo ran over Easter weekend and we brought SkillSlam back for round two. Three days. Over 3,000 battles. And one DarkMode player who broke the scoring system so hard we had to double-check the maths.
Skill Slam is a live auto-battler where you take a quick quiz, get sorted into a Career Faction based on your answers, and go head-to-head against other players — stat vs stat, streaks on the line, faction glory at stake. No app download needed. Just your phone, a big screen, and the crowd watching every upset in real time.
Wellington took it seriously. Maybe too seriously.
We've pulled together the stats from the weekend and laid them out below — because your choices mattered, your battles were real, and some of you went absurdly hard.
The Numbers
Here's what Wellington did across three days at Armageddon 2026.
Who Signed Up
The most popular factions tell an interesting story about what Wellington is drawn to.
Wellington leaned Hype Machine — the capital's crowd is all about media, marketing, and making noise. DarkMode only made up 11% of players but absolutely dominated the points leaderboard. Sometimes it's not about numbers. It's about one 18-win streak.
The Legends
We had a prize on the line across the weekend — a brand new pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones for whoever topped the combined leaderboard. Some players left a mark. Here are the ones who made us stop and stare.
The Faction War
Every point you earned didn't just go to your leaderboard — it went to your faction. All weekend, the nine Career Factions were locked in a war for supremacy. Here's how it ended.
Final Faction Standings
CHCH vs WGTN
Two cities. Two very different SkillSlams. Here's how they stacked up.
Christchurch invested in purpose, balance, and creativity. Wellington invested in tech skills and earning potential. Different cities, different values — but both went absurdly hard.
Christchurch's leaderboard was shaped by consistency — Uncle Bev ground out 105 games and built a 12-win streak over a full day. Wellington's was shaped by one explosive moment — Scott Pilgrim's 18-win streak on Day 2 rewrote everything in a single run.
The Faction War told different stories too. In Christchurch, the biggest faction (Dream Lab) didn't win — the Vibe Merchants did, carried by one dominant player. In Wellington, the smallest competitive faction (DarkMode at 11%) didn't just win — they posted 4.1 million points, more than every other faction combined.
One thing both cities agreed on: Robot Fluency was the most-played skill in battle.
Two cities down. One to go. SkillSlam is heading to Armageddon Auckland Autumn on ANZAC weekend (April 25–27) at the Auckland Showgrounds — three days, the biggest crowd yet, and we can't wait to see how AKL stacks up. Will Auckland chase tech and money like Wellington? Purpose and balance like Christchurch? Or something completely different? The three-city picture is about to get a lot more interesting.
That Quiz You Took? That Was Just the Warmup.
The 6-question quiz that sorted you into your faction was a compressed, gamified version of something much bigger.
It's called FutureMix AI, and it's the real deal.
FutureMix is an AI-powered career exploration experience built by Nexties. Where SkillSlam gave you a faction in 60 seconds, FutureMix goes deeper — it builds a personal map of your strengths, interests, and values, then shows you study paths and career directions that actually fit you.
Think of it this way:
- SkillSlam told you what kind of work lights you up
- FutureMix shows you exactly where that could take you
If you were sorted into Dream Lab, FutureMix might surface graphic design degrees, UX bootcamps, architecture diplomas, or startup programmes you didn't know existed. If you landed in DarkMode, it'll connect you to software engineering, cybersecurity, data science, and AI pathways across New Zealand.
Every faction maps to real careers. Every career maps to real courses. And Nexties has them all.
Explore Your Faction's Careers
Want to see where your faction could take you? Each link below takes you to real courses on Nexties that match your SkillSlam faction.
What's Next
Christchurch started it. Wellington turned it up. Auckland is next — Armageddon Auckland Autumn, ANZAC weekend, April 25–27 at the Auckland Showgrounds. The biggest city. The biggest crowd. The biggest question: can anyone top an 18-win streak?
In the meantime:
→ Try FutureMix AI — the full-depth conversation version of the quiz that sorted you into your faction. It's free, it's private, and it goes way deeper.
→ Explore courses on Nexties — browse degrees, diplomas, certificates, and short courses across every field. Like Netflix, but for your future.
Thanks for playing, Wellington. You brought the three-day commitment, the faction-switching experiments, and one 18-win streak that none of us will forget any time soon.
— The Nexties team
