ZABAL Gamez
Three months of building with The ZAO. Season 1 is complete.
Three battles, six finalists, three champions: n3m, ghostmintops and uniquebeing404. Every session is recorded and free to watch.
The Season 1 champions
Six finalists went head to head across three battles in the last week of August. The builder and creator champions swept all three signals - the poll, the charts and the judges. The artist battle ran without a judges panel. Every finalist was paid. The full record.
Not finished is fine - post it as a work in progress and update it as you build.
I'll build
Share that you're shipping in July
I'll lead a workshop
Share that you're teaching a workshop
What is it?
Three months. Different doors open in different months. You can step in any of them.
Workshops
Recorded sessions on tools, context, and the ZAO ecosystem. Watch live or anytime. Free.
Open Build Month
Anyone can build a project for the ZAO ecosystem using any tool. Ship in public, get noticed. Daily Build Days, open bounties to claim, and get funded for what you build.
Finals
Everyone who submitted in July is on the board. Six finalists get picked, two per track - six finalists present live at the end of August, one ZAO mentor per track. How the finals work.
Three tracks - pick your lane
Whoever you are, there is a way in. Every workshop, build, and collectible is tagged to one of three tracks.
Musical or visual
Musicians, producers, visual artists, designers. Bring sound and image to the ZAO ecosystem.
Developer or aspiring
Coders, vibe-coders, no-code builders. Ship a working project with any tool you like.
Media and distribution
Video, writing, streaming, growth, community. Tell the story and move it to the world.
What you walk away with
Not a weekend you win and forget. The payoff keeps going after the Finals.
A shipped product that gets used
You build on live ZAO rails for a 100+ member community that actually needs the tools. Real users, not a demo that dies Monday.
Income that keeps flowing
Finishers keep the repo and the 1% WaveWarZ trade cut that keeps paying after August. The $500 USDC pool is the floor, not the ceiling.
Proof you can show
A commemorative collectible for everyone who ships, your work amplified in /zabal, and a public track record in the ecosystem.
A crew, not a leaderboard
A ZAO mentor as your teammate and a community you stay part of. You join something - you don't just place in it.
Questions, answered
The honest answers to what people actually ask before joining.
Do I need to be a developer?
No. Any harness counts - vibe-coding, no-code, design, writing, community work. The workshops bring you up to speed on the tools and the ecosystem - all recorded, so you can catch up anytime.
How much time does this take?
As little or as much as you want. The July build can be a single weekend. Workshops are recorded, so you watch live or anytime. Pick one door - you don't have to do all three.
What if I don't finish?
You keep everything you built and learned. Finishing unlocks the pay and a commemorative collectible, but there's no penalty for starting and no cost to trying.
Is it really free?
Yes. No entry fee, no token you have to buy, no catch. Free to join and free workshops, open to anyone.
How is this different from a weekend hackathon?
You build for a real 100+ member community that needs the tools, on live rails, with a ZAO mentor as your teammate - and you keep the repo plus the trade cut after the Finals. It doesn't disappear when the weekend ends.
Who is behind ZABAL Gamez?
The ZAO - a Farcaster-native community that has run weekly Respect sessions for 100+ weeks straight. Builders from the ecosystem won the Snap category at FarHack 2026.
Three doors. Open as many as you want.
Learn the tools. Build the work. Watch it unfold.
These aren't picks - they're commitments. Season 1 ran workshops in June, an open build in July and the Finals in August. Each card below is one path - claim yours by casting publicly.
Workshop Attendee
July: follow other builds, maybe contribute
August: watch the Finals
Soak up the context. Workshops are free, recorded, and archived for replay. Open to anyone.
Builder
July: ship publicly, get amplified
August: mentor pick = Finals spot
Make something. Any harness. 500 USDC, split between the six finalists.
Watcher
July: follow July builds on /zabal
August: watch the three finals battles live
Follow along. Tune the streams. Vote in the open poll during a battle if you want. Zero pressure.
Doing all three
Watch the workshops, follow the builds, catch the Finals. Most folks end up here - claim it once + we save you all three.
While you decide - play the arcade
Low-commitment doors into the season. No signup to play.
Play ZAO 2048, test what you know about the ZAO, or find out what you should build - each one is a way in.
The Season 1 workshop library
Every June session, free and recorded. 31 of them, each with a recap you can watch any time. Browse all recordings.
Loading sessions...
Dates to be announced
Workshop calendar
Browse + RSVP via Lu.ma. Sessions get added as workshop leads lock dates.
Where to go from here
Season 1 is settled. Everything it produced is free, open, and stays up.
The results
Three champions, six finalists, and the numbers behind the season, in one page.
See Season 1 results ->Submit a project
The board stays open between seasons. A submission does not enter Season 1 - that is settled.
Submit a project ->Teach a session
Thirty minutes on what you know. We stream it, clip it, and cross-promote it.
Lead a session ->Suggest a lead
Someone you'd love to see teach? Nominate them, upvote the board, and tag them to invite them in.
Open Dream Leads ->The workshop library
All 31 sessions and every fireside: recorded, transcribed, and kept. Watch any time, free.
Watch the recordings ->The Finals
Three battles, six finalists, how each one ran and who took each track.
Read the Finals record ->Follow along
Watch the build in public. Join on Farcaster, Discord, or Telegram - every door's on one page.
All the links ->Mentor or sponsor
Built before, or want to back the next pool? Come in as a mentor or partner.
Get involved ->Want everything - format details, prize structure, judging, ecosystem, FAQ, the whole long-form pitch?
Read all the details at /info ->