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1DS Blog
Old Game vs New Game: The AuthorityOS Counter-Positioning Method
02 Nov 2026
Old Game vs New Game is the AuthorityOS counter-positioning method: name your market's inherited rules, price their cost, and define the game you'd rather win.
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Old Game vs New Game is the counter-positioning method inside the AuthorityOS methodology, developed by 1DS Collective. You name the inherited rulebook your market obeys (the Old Game), document what it costs, and define a demonstrably better set of rules (the New Game) that favors what you're uniquely built to do.
One attribution note before the method, because we'd rather be honest than look original: "counter-positioning" as a general strategy term was popularized by Hamilton Helmer in 7 Powers, where it describes a newcomer adopting a superior business model that incumbents decline to copy because copying would damage their existing business. The AuthorityOS Counter-Positioning Canvas applies that same asymmetry to content and brand positioning: you take a public position your established rivals can't adopt without contradicting everything they've sold.
What is the Old Game?
The Old Game is the set of rules your market follows without ever having chosen them. Its defining characteristics: the rules are invisible (they read as "how things are," never as decisions), they're enforced by belief rather than by law, they reward activity that no longer produces results, and their cost is distributed so evenly that no single player ever itemizes it.
That cost is measurable, and the parent framework prices it across 5 dimensions: financial, emotional, strategic, temporal, and relational. An Old Game can be costing a market money, morale, direction, years, and relationships simultaneously while everyone in it calls the losses "the price of doing business."
The tell of an Old Game is a sentence that starts with "that's just how it works in this industry." Whenever you hear it, someone is reciting a rule they never audited.
Where do Old Game rules come from?
Four sources, mostly.
- Industry tradition: practices that made sense in a previous era and outlived it
- Gatekeepers: credential bodies and institutions whose relevance depends on the rules
- Incumbent economics: rules that happen to protect whoever profits from them
- The Invisible Enemies: market-wide belief systems like complexity worship and speed glorification
The fourth source is the deepest, and AuthorityOS treats it with its own framework. What matters here is the common thread: Old Game rules serve someone, and that someone is rarely the operator following them. Which is also why canon draws a hard line on targeting: the method attacks belief systems and leaves competitors alone. Your rivals are usually obeying the same rulebook you were; the rulebook is the opponent.
What makes a New Game valid?
A New Game is valid when it clears 4 requirements from the canon, and all 4 are load-bearing:
- Demonstrably better, beyond merely different
- Addresses root causes, and skips symptom relief
- Achievable by your actual audience
- Favors your unique capabilities
Most failed repositioning dies on requirement 1 or 4. "Different" alone is a costume change; markets have seen a thousand contrarians and they can smell novelty without superiority. And a New Game that doesn't favor your specific capabilities is a gift to whoever executes it better, which defeats the purpose of the exercise. The whole point of counter-positioning is building a game where your strengths are the entry fee.
Requirement 3 gets overlooked and shouldn't be. If your New Game demands resources, access, or talent your audience lacks, you've designed an aspiration rather than a position, and aspirations don't convert.
How does the Counter-Positioning Canvas work?
The Canvas (AOS-013 in the methodology) forces the contrast onto one page: 4 rows, 2 columns, no room for hedging.
| Canvas row | Old Game | New Game |
|---|---|---|
| Core Belief | What the market assumes | What you know instead |
| Success Metric | How the old rules keep score | How your game keeps score |
| Required Action | What the old rules demand | What your game demands |
| End Result | Where the old rules lead | Where your game leads |
The discipline of the 4 rows is that each one has to flow from the row above. A New Game success metric that doesn't follow from the New Game core belief is a sign you're bolting slogans together, and the Canvas exposes it in seconds. Done right, the completed right-hand column reads as one continuous argument: believe this, so measure this, so do this, so end up here.
Fill the Old Game column first, from evidence. The strongest source is the Frustration Harvest described in the Signal Space Framework™: 15+ verbatim frustration quotes from the market, collected before you touch the Canvas at all.
The Dr. Kai worked example
The methodology documentation teaches the Canvas through Dr. Kai, an executive coach. He's the canon's teaching illustration (worth saying plainly: a methodology example rather than a 1DS client), and his Canvas is the clearest version of the method in action.
| Canvas row | Old Game (executive coaching) | New Game (Executive Leverage Coaching) |
|---|---|---|
| Core Belief | Coaching value equals time with the coach | Coaching value equals the executive capacity it multiplies |
| Success Metric | Hours delivered, hourly rate | Outcomes per engagement |
| Required Action | Sell sessions, stack calendars | Sell defined transformations |
| End Result | Capped income, calendar servitude | Premium pricing, waiting list |
In the canon's telling, the reposition produced a tripled close rate, doubled prices, and a six-month waiting list, on unchanged expertise. The Canvas didn't make Dr. Kai better at coaching; it stopped him competing in a game built to commoditize him.
Notice the Helmer asymmetry working underneath: hourly-model competitors couldn't follow him without torching their own billing structure. That's what separates counter-positioning from ordinary differentiation, which competitors can copy by Tuesday.
Whose name goes on the New Game?
In founder-led companies, the New Game usually lands harder in the founder's voice than in the company's. A brand account announcing "the industry is broken" reads as marketing; a founder itemizing the Old Game's cost from lived experience reads as testimony. The trade-offs of routing position through a person versus a logo are mapped in founder brand vs company brand, and for most operators the answer is a sequenced both.
Whoever carries it, the position has to survive contact with the market before it scales. The parent framework's Validation Test (4 of 5 ideal prospects instantly recognizing your Old Game statement) applies to the Canvas output too, and our engagements typically begin by clearing exactly that bar; the finished work lives in our case studies.
When is counter-positioning not the move?
Three honest disqualifiers.
If the Old Game works, leave it alone. Some inherited rules survive on merit, and markets punish people who attack functioning systems for sport. The 5-dimension cost audit exists to check this: thin costs mean a thin position.
If you can't clear all 4 validity requirements, wait. A New Game that's merely different, or that your audience can't play, or that a better-resourced rival could run tomorrow, will cost you credibility you'll want later.
And if you're inventing a new category, there may be no Old Game to counter yet. Counter-positioning needs an incumbent belief system with real mass behind it; without one, standard category creation is the cleaner play.
Counter-positioning is the second sprint of the Signal Intelligence layer in AuthorityOS, and it's a working session we run inside client engagements. If you want your market's Old Game named and your Canvas drafted, book a strategy call. Bring your calendar's worst recurring frustration; that's usually row 1.
Frequently asked questions
What is counter-positioning in marketing?
Counter-positioning means taking a position your established competitors can't adopt without contradicting their own model. The term was popularized by Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers for business models; the AuthorityOS Old Game vs New Game method applies it to content and brand positioning.
What's the difference between counter-positioning and differentiation?
Differentiation claims you're better within the market's existing rules, and competitors can usually copy it quickly. Counter-positioning changes the rules in a way incumbents can't follow without damaging themselves, which makes the position durable rather than merely distinct.
What are the 4 rows of the Counter-Positioning Canvas?
Core Belief, Success Metric, Required Action, and End Result, each contrasted across an Old Game column and a New Game column. The rows chain together: what the market believes drives how it keeps score, what it does, and where it ends up.
How do I know my New Game is valid?
Canon sets 4 requirements: demonstrably better beyond merely different, addresses root causes, achievable by your actual audience, and favoring your unique capabilities. Then validate externally: 4 of 5 ideal prospects should instantly recognize the Old Game you've named.
Is attacking competitors part of counter-positioning?
No. The AuthorityOS canon draws a hard line: attack belief systems, and leave competitors alone. Rivals are usually following the same inherited rulebook you were, and the belief system controlling the market is the opponent with actual strategic value.
Written by John Hyland, Founder at 1DS Collective. John has drafted the Counter-Positioning Canvas with founders across a dozen industries, and row 1 is wrong on the first attempt nearly every time (that's the exercise working). Reviewed by Sam Parham, Co-Founder.
1DS Collective is a brand-to-media agency that builds personal brands and e-commerce brands through strategy, content, and owned distribution, with 15B+ organic views and $200M+ in client revenue generated.