Twelve seats, five hours, one brief nobody has seen before. Built live in front of an audience, with AI, at vibe-coding speed.
Applying is free and open to vibe coders, developers and AI obsessives from all of Europe. No age limit. Applications close 15 October 2026.
Nobody can prepare. Everyone finds out what to build in the room, at the same moment.
"So, we need something new. Has to look fresh, modern, you know the thing. Not like the others. Just do something."
Vague, real, the way clients actually brief. Nobody sees it beforehand.
No follow-up questions, no second document. That's all the builders get.
Five hours. No going back, no second round.
6 SOLO BUILDERS VS 6 CREWS
The work block sits under the chandeliers, set up like a LAN party. You walk the rows, see the screens, hear the crews argue, and you're there when something breaks and they have to keep going anyway. Lounges run all the way around, so you can sit down and keep watching.
The jury judges the result. Not the team size, not the number of assets and not the length of the prompt.
Your setup decides your division. The goal stays the same.
Division prizes keep it fair. The Grand Prix stays open: if the best build of the day comes from one person, they beat every crew and take the Solo Bounty with them.
6 SEATS
One person, one point of view, one complete build. For freelancers, self-employed people, employees and the self-taught. Your résumé is not a discipline.
6 SEATS
Two to four people. Agency team, studio or loose collective. What counts is that you enter together and build together on site.
WHAT HAS TO BE DONE BY THE END
Positioning and the central creative direction.
A visual base system plus a key visual.
A published, working landing page.
Four minutes live on stage.
Bonus, not required: 3D, motion, video, social assets or a clickable prototype can strengthen the idea. More output doesn't automatically mean more points.
That's one half. The other half sits in the room: the audience hands out the People's Choice, with no criteria grid and no obligation to explain. Both prizes can go to different builds. That's on purpose.
Everyone who competes gets their own intro video on event day, shot by the FAIME video team: line-up, a short turn, a card on the LED wall. Like sport, only what you make here is a build. The cards below show the setup. The real builders arrive once the twelve seats are taken.
SOLO BUILDER
STACK Claude Code, v0, Supabase, Vercel
SOLO BUILDER
STACK Figma, Midjourney, Framer, Cursor
CREW · 4 PEOPLE
STACK Figma, Webflow, Runway, Notion
CREW · 3 PEOPLE
STACK VS Code, Claude, Blender, Cloudflare
Want to be on a card like that? Apply for the Arena
Four places at the jury desk are filled, more names follow before presale opens. The full profiles are on the award day page.
However the day ends, a seat is not a raffle ticket with a certificate at the end.
0 €
Applying and the seat itself are free. You bring a laptop, chargers and your own tool accounts, we provide the rest. Twelve seats, handed out one by one.
4 MINUTES
A live pitch in front of a full room and a jury that builds things itself. Plus your own intro video, shot on event day by the FAIME video team.
4 TROPHIES
The division prizes, the open Grand Prix and the People's Choice. If a Solo Builder beats every crew to the Grand Prix, the Solo Bounty comes on top.
APPLICATION · VCA26 ARENA · UNTIL 15 OCT 2026
You're applying for one of twelve seats in the Arena on 5 November 2026 at Flora Köln, Cologne. This is not a registration for the award day and not an automatic acceptance. Applications close 15 October 2026.
There's no age limit, no required degree and no residency rule: anyone in Europe can apply. Whether you're ten years old or twenty years into your career doesn't matter to us. What you build does.
Stage and hosting run in German and English, and so does your pitch. Recordings with subtitles go online after the event.
Applying and competing are free. No entry fee, no registration cost.
Your application is in. We read every application as it comes in and will get back to you. The steps are under "What happens after you apply".
That didn't go through. Your answers are still here, so please try again in a moment or write to farzan@vibecodeawards.de.
How we handle your data is in our privacy policy (German).
We look at how you think, at the idea, and at the parts you actually owned.
With shortlisted applicants we go through setup, expectations and open questions on a video call.
Only the written confirmation secures your seat.
The brief stays secret; schedule, tech and permitted tools are set beforehand.
Free, no age limit, open to all of Europe. You need a project you built yourself and a few minutes.
