Lvl Up Giveaways: What's Running Right Now in September 2026

Sep 15

6 min read

Lvl Up is giving away "Riptide," a water-cooled gaming PC built around a Gigabyte RTX 5090 and a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, at a stated ARV of $13,000. Entries close September 17, 2026 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET, and the winner is drawn on or about September 23.

What's running in September 2026

The build is specified rather than described: a Gigabyte RTX 5090, a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64GB of DDR5 and a custom water-cooling loop. Lvl Up itemizes the bundle at the PC $9,320, peripherals $1,400, consoles $1,550 and merchandise $140.

Naming the parts is more disclosure than most operators offer, and it lets you price the build yourself instead of taking a number on faith. It also lets you add the components up. Those four figures total $12,410 against a stated ARV of $13,000, a $590 gap between the operator's own itemization and its own headline value, with no note explaining it.

The promotion opened August 21, 2026 at 12:00:01 p.m. ET and closes September 17. The rules at lvlup.us/pages/riptide-rules put the drawing on or about September 23; the homepage says September 24. The rules govern.

The September 17 deadline should shape your decision. A mailed free entry has to arrive before the deadline, not just be postmarked, so that route is near its practical limit already.

Winners are selected by American Sweepstakes & Promotion Co., Inc., 300 State St. Suite 402, Rochester, NY 14614, a named third-party administrator. Eligibility is the United States and Canada, 18 or the age of majority. The charity named is Extra Life, benefiting Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. We did not review donation amounts.

At $13,000 this is the smallest prize we have priced among comparable purchase-entry operators, where six-figure vehicles and property are the norm. A smaller prize usually draws a smaller field, which is a genuine point in an entrant's favor.

How to enter

Store purchases generate entries at the rate shown at checkout, and the VIP subscription grants a fixed number of entries every month across four tiers.

The free route is published, and Lvl Up publishes it twice, in two versions that do not agree.

The generic house rules page at lvlup.us/pages/sweep-rules directs free entries to 3555 S 700 W, Suite A, Salt Lake City, UT 84119 at 25 entries per day, and names no administrator. The per-giveaway rules page for this promotion, at lvlup.us/pages/riptide-rules, directs free entries to Lvlup.us Sweepstakes, PO Box 471, Macedon, NY 14502-0471 at 10 entries per card, and does name the administrator.

Use the Macedon address and the per-giveaway page. That document was written for this promotion and it names who runs the drawing. A reader who finds the house rules page first mails a card to Utah under a rate the governing document does not state. The address changes with the campaign, so check the rules page for the promotion you are entering. With the deadline this close there is no time to send a second card if the first goes to the wrong box.

What it costs to play

The VIP tiers publish a price and an entry count, so the arithmetic works.

Rookie is $5 a month for 20 entries, or 25 cents per entry. Champion is $10 for 200 entries, or 5 cents. Elite is $25 for 1,000 entries, or 2.5 cents. GOAT is $50 for 5,000 entries, or 1 cent.

That is a twenty-five to one spread, and it runs the wrong way for anyone entering cheaply. Rookie is the lowest monthly price in this category and by a wide margin the worst value per entry on this page. Doubling your spend from Rookie to Champion multiplies your entries by ten.

Put the free rate next to it. Two mailed cards are 20 entries, matching a full month of Rookie for two stamps. Anyone considering the bottom tier should mail cards instead.

Annualize the rest. Rookie is $60 a year, Champion $120, Elite $300, GOAT $600. This drawing resolves on or about September 23; the subscription does not stop then. A $5 or $10 charge is exactly the size people stop noticing on a statement. Decide monthly, not once.

One caution on the entry counts themselves. Lvl Up does not publish a total entry pool, so 5,000 entries tells you what you spent, not your probability of winning. A large allocation feels meaningful precisely because there is nothing to compare it against.

Tax is comparatively gentle here, though not nothing. A $13,000 prize is taxable income in the year received, and sponsors report prizes of $600 or more on Form 1099-MISC. There is no cash component in this bundle, so the bill comes out of pocket. A four-figure liability on a five-figure prize is survivable in a way a six-figure vehicle is not, which counts in this giveaway's favor if you are wary of winning something you cannot afford to keep.

What they've given away before

Lvl Up publishes a winners page listing 12 winners: five major prize winners and seven VIP weekly winners. Four of the majors carry a photo and one carries video. Each is identified by first name and last initial with a state.

The most recent is the promotion that closed August 20. The Jujutsu Kaisen themed PC was drawn on or about August 26, and the page lists David K. of West Virginia as the winner, with a photo and no video, no quote and no date.

Note the value gap. The winners page describes that prize as the "$13K Jujutsu Setup," while the official rules for the same promotion stated an ARV of $12,500. Nothing on either page reconciles them. That is the second place on this site where a documented figure does not match a headline one, which is worth knowing before you treat any stated value as precise.

The broader limit applies as usual. There are no full surnames and no award dates anywhere on the page, so none of these wins can be independently confirmed. Read it as partial evidence that drawings resolve.

What to check before you enter

1. Third-party administrator named? Yes. American Sweepstakes & Promotion Co., Inc. of Rochester, NY, named in the per-giveaway rules at lvlup.us/pages/riptide-rules. It does not appear on the house rules page.

2. Official rules public and findable before you spend? Yes, footer-linked, naming sponsor Lvlup.us LLC, 2810 N Church St., Wilmington, DE 19802. The two rules documents give different free-entry addresses and rates, which costs this check points.

3. Past winners documented with specificity? Partly. Twelve winners with photos on four majors and video on one, but first name and last initial only, no dates, and a stated prize value that does not match the rules.

4. Prize value stated as ARV? Yes. $13,000, with a component list detailed enough to check, though those components sum to $12,410.

5. Does anyone ask a winner for money? No sign of it. A real sweepstakes never asks a winner for a fee, a tax payment or a gift card. That request is fraud every time, on any channel.

Deadlines at a glance

Prize	Stated value	Entries close	Winner announced
"Riptide" water-cooled PC: Gigabyte RTX 5090, Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64GB DDR5, plus peripherals, consoles and merchandise	ARV $13,000, stated in the official rules; itemized components total $12,410	September 17, 2026, 11:59:59 p.m. ET	On or about September 23, 2026 per the rules; the homepage says September 24

The short version

Riptide is a water-cooled RTX 5090 build with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 64GB DDR5, ARV $13,000, closing September 17, 2026.
The itemized components add up to $12,410 against a stated ARV of $13,000, a gap the site does not explain.
Two free-entry addresses are published. Use PO Box 471, Macedon, NY 14502-0471 at 10 entries per card, from the rules at lvlup.us/pages/riptide-rules, not the Salt Lake City address on the house rules page.
VIP runs 25 cents per entry at Rookie down to 1 cent at GOAT, at $60 to $600 a year on a charge that outlasts this drawing.
Two mailed cards match a full month of the $5 Rookie tier, which makes the bottom tier hard to justify.
David K. of West Virginia is listed as winning the prior Jujutsu Kaisen build, valued on the winners page at $13K against the rules figure of $12,500. No cash is attached here, so the tax comes out of pocket.