Hey Commanders,
ZeroSpace Early Access launches on July 20, and we’re excited to kick things off with the First Contact Invitational.
Over the next 20 days, twelve RTS legends will jump into the game, race up the ladder, and compete in a major tournament. It’s a unique chance to watch experienced pros learn the game from scratch and see the competitive side of ZeroSpace in action.
We’re thrilled to have the following RTS experts taking part:
Harstem, MaNa, GiantGrantGames, Nathanias, PiG, MarineLorD, TheViper, Lowko, JimRising, UpATree, White-Ra, and JuggernautJason.
Many of them will be streaming their progress, so you can follow along as they explore factions, test strategies, learn the intricacies of the game, and compete to climb the ladder.
Because the game is in Early Access and still in development, they’re likely to also find bugs and areas that require balance adjustment. Don’t worry—that’s working as intended and will be a huge help as we continue on our road to 1.0.
Ladder Phase (July 20 – August 8, 2026)
Participants will race on the ranked ladder over the first 20 days of Early Access. Everyone will be competing on the same ladder, but there will be an additional leaderboard that just ranks these players against each other.
Tournament Phase (August 9, 2026)
The event concludes with a tournament on Sunday, August 9 at 6:00 PM CEST / 9:00 AM PDT. The format consists of:
A 12-player Swiss Round Stage (best-of-2 matches)
Top 4 advancing to a playoff bracket
Best-of-3 Semi-Finals
Best-of-5 Grand Final
Seeding for the tournament will be based on ladder ranking from the previous phase.
There’s a combined $13,000 prizepool up for grabs:
Ladder Bonuses ($2,000)
In additional to seeding, ladder placement relative to one another will earn the invitees cash rewards
1st Place: $400
2nd Place: $300
3rd Place: $250
4th Place: $200
5th Place: $150
6th–12th Places: $100 each
Tournament Prizepool ($10,000)
1st Place: $3,000
2nd Place: $2,000
3rd–4th Places: $1,000 each
5th–8th Places: $500 each
9th–12th Places: $250 each
If you enjoy creating clips of your favorite games or content creators, you can join in too. During the ladder phase, submit your favorite clips from the creators’ streams to the official ZeroSpace Discord. (Many players enjoy Medal.tv for clipping.) The top 10 clips voted by the community will each be awarded with $100 to both the clip submitter and the featured streamer. Let’s see those clips!
Be part of the excitement when Early Access goes live on July 20. Download the game, jump into matches, share your feedback, and see how you stack up against the creators on the ladder. Follow their streams and cheer them on!
For the latest updates and to submit clips, join us on Discord.
Events such as the First Contact Invitational mark an important step in building ZeroSpace’s competitive community. We have a lot of work ahead of us to get the game ready for our 1.0 release and hope you’ll help us get there. We’re grateful for your continued enthusiasm and can’t wait to see how these creators and the broader player base come together as ZeroSpace enters Early Access.
Thanks for your support - the galaxy is about to get a lot more competitive.
- The ZeroSpace Team