QUESTIONS

A short-fiction arena platform. Writers pay to submit; readers grade for free; over four elimination rounds the field is cut down to a top 3 readers and writers that split real cash — and, in flagged arenas, present at our Hollywood Demo Day.

Entry to every arena is a flat $35. $25 goes into the arena's prize pool; $10 keeps the lights on. 

No. Reading and grading is free. Each arena has a reader cap; seats are first come, first served. Top readers earn a share of the reader pool.

AI as a tool, yes. Pure AI dumps, no. Every submission runs through an AI-authenticity + rules-compliance pass. If the AI-check score falls below the threshold the submission is auto-flagged, hidden from the public listing, and reviewed by a human moderator.

No. All entry sales are final. Once your story is submitted, it stays in the arena until it's cut on a round, denied by a moderator (in which case you're refunded), you fail to rate your feedback, or the arena closes.

You do. You grant us a non-exclusive license to display it for the duration of the arena and to feature winning stories on the public site and Demo Day.

R1 cuts the bottom 30% of stories. R2 cuts half of what's left. R3 trims down to a finalist bracket sized by the arena's target percentage, bounded by a minimum (usually 6) and maximum (usually 100), and never exceeding 70% of stories still alive. R4 ranks the surviving finalists and crowns the top 3.

Two leaderboards, both 0–100, recomputed every round. Writer score = 70% average reader rating + 30% sentiment signal from reader feedback. Reader score = 60% writers' ratings of your feedback + 30% feedback quality + 10% capped volume bonus. Only feedback that passes moderator review counts. Ties break on earlier submission time.

The pool is split 50% / 50% into a writer pool and a reader pool. Within each pool the top 3 split their side 50% / 25% / 25% for 1st / 2nd / 3rd.

Payouts are released after results are published once you configure a verified payout account in Settings → Payouts (PayPal, bank transfer, Wise, or other). We hold winnings for up to 60 days while you complete setup.

Once you configure a payout account in Settings → Payouts (PayPal, bank, Wise, or other) and an admin verifies it. Payouts release after results are published.

Our quarterly LA showcase for arena winners. Finalists present a logline to producers and showrunners. Guests RSVP with a tokenized invite link. Only arenas flagged Hollywood-demo produce a Demo Day slot.