diff --git a/server/src/engine/scoring-analysis.test.ts b/server/src/engine/scoring-analysis.test.ts
index 3f76f04..3333096 100644
--- a/server/src/engine/scoring-analysis.test.ts
+++ b/server/src/engine/scoring-analysis.test.ts
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ describe('scoring competitiveness analysis', () => {
     }
 
     section.push('')
-    section.push('**Critical hit threshold: 4**')
+    section.push('**Critical hit threshold: 3**')
     section.push('')
     reportLines.push(...section)
 
diff --git a/server/src/lib/constants.ts b/server/src/lib/constants.ts
index 2fdceea..9f54d4e 100644
--- a/server/src/lib/constants.ts
+++ b/server/src/lib/constants.ts
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ export const ELO_MATCHING_RANDOMNESS = 150
 
 // --- Scoring: damage ---
 export const TIMEOUT_DAMAGE_MULTIPLIER = 1.5        // Damage multiplier for timeout/error losses
-export const CRITICAL_MARGIN_THRESHOLD = 4           // Score margin above which a hit is critical
+export const CRITICAL_MARGIN_THRESHOLD = 3           // Score margin above which a hit is critical (lowered from 4 to allow both-correct crits)
 export const CRITICAL_DAMAGE_MULTIPLIER = 1.5        // Damage multiplied on critical hits
 export const MARGIN_TO_DAMAGE_SCALE = 2              // baseDamage + margin * this
 export const LOSER_DAMAGE_BASE = 0.3                 // Loser gets baseDamage * this - margin