--- topic: events type: guide status: research-complete last-validated: 2026-05-16 related-docs: 701, 630, 646, 631, 584, 599, 498, 505, 527, 322, 324 tier: STANDARD --- # 654 - ZABAL Games + Empire Builder V3: Meeting with yerbearzerker (Jordan) > **Goal:** Capture decisions + new direction from the 2026-05-16 working session with Jordan (Empire Builder) + Iman + Zaal. Two big shifts: (1) ZABAL Games timeline moves to June prep / July submissions / August finals, (2) every Phase 2 finalist creates a tokenless Empire as their pre-launch home, then optionally Ascends with a token + Clanker airdrop using their own leaderboard as the airdrop list. > **Status:** research-complete. Supersedes the "all-in-June" framing from Doc 630. Doc 630 spec stays canonical for format; this doc updates the calendar + adds the Empire V3 mechanic. > **State note (2026-05-21):** Doc 701 is the current canonical state - it carries this doc's calendar pivot forward plus the mentor-roster-open decision. Where this doc conflicts with Doc 701, Doc 701 wins. --- ## Key Decisions | # | Decision | Pick | |---|---|---| | 1 | **Calendar** | **June = prep month** (ZAO teachers + Vibe Coding instructors run Far-Hack-style recorded sessions). **July = submissions month 1** (open build-a-thon, anyone ships). **August = final 8 selection + winner reveal.** Replaces the all-June compression from Doc 630. | | 2 | **Empire-as-onboarding** | Every Phase 2 participant **creates a tokenless Empire** as their build home. Token is OPTIONAL and comes later. | | 3 | **Token-launch flow** | Participants who want to launch: build leaderboard during the Games → export CSV → upload to Clanker airdrop with vesting → token launches into Ascended Empire automatically. | | 4 | **Songjam leaderboard migration** | Adam (Songjam) deprecating Twitter scraper for cost reasons. **MIGRATE** the Songjam leaderboard from X scraper to an Empire Builder API leaderboard. Lives inside Empire Builder alongside other ZABAL leaderboards. | | 5 | **POIDH leaderboard** | Build an Empire Builder leaderboard pulling on-chain POIDH bounty submissions. Counts unique submitters across all ZABAL bounties (5 submits on one bounty = 1, but bounty-1 + bounty-2 submitters both count). Replaces manual $1-ZABAL-per-submitter outreach. | | 6 | **kmac.eth template collab** | zlank.online "use template" mechanic - Empire Builder daily stats template (one-click cast for "today's Empire Builder update"). Footy app is the reference template. | | 7 | **Empire Builder API access** | Jordan to provide API key + access so ZABAL Games interface can let participants deploy Empires directly from the submission flow. | | 8 | **Master prompt deliverable** | Zaal commits to shipping a "ZABAL/ZAO/WaveWarZ context skill" (drop into any vibe-coding agent) by end of May, before June bootcamp opens. | | 9 | **Bootcamp format** | Borrow Far-Hack model - recorded specialist sessions ("here's Empire, here's how to use it, here's why"). Watchable live or after. Jordan signs up to record an Empire Builder session. | | 10 | **Pre-launch discipline** | Jordan's advice locked in: 2-week pre-launch marketing cadence on anything that ships. June bootcamp doubles as the pre-launch window for July. | --- ## Part 1 - The Calendar Pivot (June / July / August) The prior framing in Doc 630 had Phase 1 building + Phase 2 Finals compressed into a tight window with date "TBD." Jordan's input + Zaal's reflection produced a cleaner three-month split: ### June - Prep Month - **Purpose:** Teach + warm up the cohort. No competition yet. - **What runs:** - Recorded sessions from ZAO teachers (governance, Respect, ZOLs, fractals) - Recorded sessions from Vibe Coding instructors (Claude Code, Cursor, agent harnesses, MCP) - Tool walkthroughs: Empire Builder V3 (Jordan), zlank.online (Zaal + kmac), POIDH bounties, Juke, Songjam - The ZABAL/ZAO/WaveWarZ context skill goes live early June for anyone to drop into their agent - **Output:** Cohort of warmed-up builders, all aware of tools, all with context skill loaded. ZAO mentor pool primed. ### July - Submissions Month 1 (Open Build-a-Thon) - **Purpose:** Anyone with the chops to ship can submit a build aligned with ZABAL, ZAO, or WaveWarZ. - **Format:** Same as Doc 630 Phase 1 - the build IS the application. Live URL + open-source repo + 60s demo + /zabal cast. - **Empire requirement:** Every submission creates a **tokenless Empire** as its public home. This gives them a leaderboard + treasury surface from day 1. - **Mentors watching:** 8 ZAO mentors monitor submissions rolling. Already-known champions can be picked early; surprise breakouts get picked late. First-come-first-served per mentor. ### August - Final 8 + Winner - **Purpose:** Phase 2 Finals - 8 builders, 8 mentors, the actual ZABAL Games. - **Format:** Same as Doc 630 Phase 2 - 24h build with mentor embedded + 24h promote + 24h DAO vote + reveal stream. Compressed to a single week inside August (week TBD). - **Token decision:** Each finalist decides during August whether to Ascend their Empire with a Clanker token launch. Those who do get auto-airdrop to their leaderboard with a vesting schedule. Those who don't keep running the tokenless Empire indefinitely. **Why this pivot works:** Original Doc 630 compressed teach + build + judge into ~30 days. Spreads thin. June-prep solves the "people show up cold" problem. July as an open month lets builds breathe + lets mentors evaluate ~30 submissions instead of 8. August Finals get the focused energy they deserve. --- ## Part 2 - Empire Builder V3 Mechanic Stack Jordan walked through the V3 tier delta. This locks the participant flow: ### Basic Empire (free, tokenless) | Slot | Count | |------|-------| | Leaderboards | 2 | | Boosters | 10 | | Ranked spots per leaderboard | 250 | | Cost | Free | Used by every ZABAL Games participant from day 1 of July. Captures who's contributing to their build, who's amplifying their casts, on-chain interactions, anything you can stick on a leaderboard. ### Ascended Empire (token launch unlocks) | Slot | Count | |------|-------| | Leaderboards | 10 | | Boosters | 40 | | Ranked spots per leaderboard | 500 | | Cost | Token launch through Empire Builder UI | Triggered when a participant launches their token via Empire Builder's Clanker integration. ZABAL itself is an Ascended Empire (launched via Clanker 2026-01-01 per Doc 646). ### The Build-then-Airdrop Pattern (Jordan's Pitch) This is the unlock the meeting locked in: ``` Step 1 Create tokenless Empire in July as ZABAL Games submission home Step 2 Build the project. Build leaderboards. Identify who's actually contributing value. Step 3 When ready, take leaderboard → export CSV → that IS your airdrop list Step 4 Launch token through Empire Builder UI → instantly Ascended Empire Step 5 Airdrop with vesting schedule to the CSV Step 6 Speculators speculate after launch; you already paid contributors first ``` **The framing Jordan locked:** "Token is an assist. It serves a role in the ecosystem. We're not optimizing for speculators - if they make money, groovy, but the focus is the project, community, mission. Token comes in support of that." This is the anti-pattern to "launch token first, figure out project later" which Jordan called out as predation bait. --- ## Part 3 - Side Decisions + Action Items From the Meeting ### Songjam Leaderboard Adam Songjam confirmed deprecating the Twitter scraper (cost). Migration path: - Build Empire Builder API leaderboard - Source data via Songjam's existing music engagement API (not X scrape) - Lives alongside other ZABAL leaderboards in the same Empire surface - Frees Adam from scraper maintenance, gives ZABAL Farcaster-native data ### POIDH Bounty Leaderboard POIDH puts all bounty submissions on-chain. Empire Builder leaderboard pulls from the bounty contract directly: - Count = unique bounty IDs a wallet has submitted to (5 submissions on bounty A = 1 count) - Each new ZABAL bounty (clipping, content, builds) adds a row to count against - Replaces Zaal's manual "go through each, send $1 ZABAL" outreach - Already a working leaderboard (one contract added morning of 2026-05-16, second pending) ### kmac.eth + zlank.online Templates The Snap protocol's high auth gate (JFS) only matters inside Farcaster clients. zlank's web route soft-fails so anonymous web users can interact. Empire Builder integration: - Template: "Today's Empire Builder Stats" daily snap - One-click cast - the first post of Zaal's day becomes a Snap + cast - Footy app is the reference for the template mechanic - See Doc 505 for the zlank builder spec, Doc 527 for the snap roadmap ### In-Rememberium Jordan dropped a Clanker token called In-Rememberium for Dish (who left Clanker). Not a memorial - "he didn't die, he just stopped working there." Worth a follow when Jordan + Dish reconnect, since Dish was a GameStop-era onboarding peer. ### Jubjub (Australian Farcaster Batches) - Jubjub runs Farcaster builder batches out of Melbourne - Adrian (Empire Builder co) is his neighbor - they met up for a beer - Zaal DM'd Jubjub + pinged on the timeline - no response yet - Worth re-pinging once ZABAL Games calendar is public. Jubjub's batch model is what June-prep is borrowing from in spirit. ### Estuary Frame Jordan's framing for Farcaster's role in the ecosystem - "Farcaster is the estuary where baby projects grow big and strong before going into the ocean. Saltwater + freshwater. You incubate here, then go out into the greater world." Useful for any ZABAL Games marketing copy. --- ## Part 4 - Codebase + Site Touch Points | File | What needs updating | |------|---------------------| | `/Users/zaalpanthaki/Documents/BetterCallZaal/zabalgames.html` | Replace any all-June timeline with June prep / July submissions / August finals 3-column structure. Add Empire Builder tokenless-then-Ascend mechanic to the "How it works" section. | | `/Users/zaalpanthaki/Documents/BetterCallZaal/zabalgames-brand-context.md` | Add the master context prompt section + Empire-as-build-home requirement. | | `/Users/zaalpanthaki/Documents/BetterCallZaal/zabalgames-schema.sql` | Add `empire_url` field to submissions table (optional in July, required for Phase 2 finalists). | | `research/events/630-zabal-games-claude-code-hackathon-v0/README.md` | Add front-matter note: "Calendar updated by Doc 654 - June prep / July build / August finals." | --- ## Also See - [Doc 630](../630-zabal-games-claude-code-hackathon-v0/) - Canonical ZABAL Games Season 1 spec (format + mentor model) - [Doc 646](../../business/646-clanker-empire-builder-zabal-games-promote/) - Clanker + Empire Builder promotion mechanic (token-launch optionality) - [Doc 584](../../business/584-empire-builder-farcaster-creator-playbooks/) - Empire Builder creator playbooks + booster stacks - [Doc 631](../../business/631-poidh-zabal-sentinel-convergence/) - POIDH + ZABAL convergence (on-chain bounty submission data) - [Doc 599](../../business/599-adam-meeting-may2026-commercial-leaderboard/) - Adam (Songjam) meeting on commercial leaderboard direction - [Doc 505](../../farcaster/505-zlank-online-builder-spec/) - zlank.online builder spec (the templates collab surface) - [Doc 527](../../farcaster/527-zlank-next-3-builds/) - zlank next-3 builds (where Empire daily-stats template fits) - [Doc 498](../../business/498-zlank-unified-sdk-concept/) - Unified SDK concept covering snap embed in external surfaces --- ## Next Actions | Action | Owner | Type | By When | |--------|-------|------|---------| | Update `bettercallzaal.com/zabalgames.html` to June/July/August timeline | @Zaal | Edit | This session | | Update Doc 630 with calendar-superseded note pointing to Doc 654 | @Zaal | PR | This week | | Ship "ZABAL/ZAO/WaveWarZ context skill" v0 for vibe-coding agents | @Zaal | Build | End of May 2026 | | Get Empire Builder API key from Jordan | @Zaal | DM | Next 7 days | | Build Empire Builder API leaderboard for Songjam migration | @Adam + @Zaal | Build | Before June 1 | | Add second POIDH bounty contract to existing leaderboard | @Zaal | Config | Next 3 days | | Record kmac.eth + Zaal session on zlank templates for June bootcamp | @Zaal + @kmac | Record | Late May 2026 | | Re-ping Jubjub once June calendar is public | @Zaal | DM | June 1 | | Schedule Empire Builder bootcamp session with Jordan + Iman | @Zaal | Calendar | Before June 7 | | Draft 2-week pre-launch marketing cadence for July submissions | @Zaal | Doc | Mid-June | --- ## Sources - Meeting recording 2026-05-16 (Zaal + Jordan/yerbearzerker + Iman) - [Doc 630 ZABAL Games Season 1 spec](../630-zabal-games-claude-code-hackathon-v0/) - [Doc 646 Clanker + Empire Builder for ZABAL Games](../../business/646-clanker-empire-builder-zabal-games-promote/) - [Doc 584 Empire Builder creator playbooks](../../business/584-empire-builder-farcaster-creator-playbooks/) - [Empire Builder V3 (mentioned in meeting; verify tier specs against live UI at empire builder dashboard)](https://www.empirebuilder.world) - [POIDH bounty platform](https://poidh.xyz) - [Songjam](https://www.songjam.space)