#mdzsbb26

That's right, sign-ups for the MDZS Big Bang 2026 are now officially underway!

Please use the following links to sign up!

Artist - Closing May 3rd! CLOSED

Beta Reader - Closing May 3rd! CLOSED

Writer - Closing April 19th! CLOSED

Pinch Hitter - To remain open indefinitely.

Once you've hit "Submit" you will find a link to the discord server. A reminder that we still consider discord mandatory at the current stage, and will keep participants updated if this changes in response to Discord's policies. Discord is no longer mandatory for participation.

Those who joined the server last year must put a new introduction for the current Big Bang before we will grant the 2026 role!

As always, feel free to contact us via socials with any questions you have, and make sure to familiarise yourselves with our rules, faq, and schedule.

You heard it right, writers! Your time to show us what you've been making has finally come.

The Summary Submission link can be found on our server, and it was also sent to your email.

If you don't find our email, please make sure to check your spam tab and add [email protected] to your contacts list to make sure it won't happen anymore. We need to be able to reach out to you!

You will have until the end of Sunday 26th to send us your submission, or you won't be eligible to participate further as a writer in our event.

Key information that you need to have for your submission:

A link to your summary submission document, which must contain at least 3,000 words - Google Docs is preferred, but anything that allows us to view with only a link is permitted, such as Ellipsus. An example submission can be found on our server, but you may submit anything related to your work as long as it is at least 3,000 words.

Up to a 350 word summary (soft limit, AO3 style).

Up to a 700 word outline (soft limit, at your discretion for what constitutes an outline).

An idea of the relevant characters, pairings, and tags (AO3 style).

For help in filling this form out, please refer to our Example Eligibility document. There, you will find three tabs — including a FAQ with an idea of things we would or wouldn't consider in line with a submission, an example document, and a simple guide walking through the questions of the submission form.

We know the excitement is big, but make sure to read it all carefully so as to avoid any mistakes! Our instructions are there to make both yours and our lives much easier.

A few general reminders:

Writers, you can submit and edit your forms until Apr 26th. After that, every answer is final, and we won't be accepting any new submissions.

You will receive a copy of your answer once your form is sent — please edit any information through it instead of submitting a new one.

Artists and betas, your sign-up form closes on May 3rd.

Did you think you'd gotten rid of us so soon? We have arranged our schedule estimates for the 2026 MDZS Big Bang, and overhauled our Schedule, Rules, and FAQ pages!

We are running things a little bit differently this year, and we would really like to thank everyone again for all their patience last year! It was our team's first time running an event, and we feel so much more confident that this year, we can do an even better job!

The Team

To that end, we will be opening Mod Applications later this month. We would like to take in at least two new mods, with room for more if necessary. More information will follow in the coming weeks, but our organisation for this year will have a much clearer division of roles, so we'll be dividing out:

Writer Mod(s),

Artist Mod(s),

Beta Mod(s),

General event/social Mod(s),

to make sure that teams will have a key point of contact, as well as the mod team can delegate more efficiently. We will particularly welcome applications from artists willing to be mods, as this is an underrepresented role in the mod team!

Rule changes

There are a couple of rules that we are implementing this year to help us run the event a bit more smoothly, and to give clarity to all participants. The rules are listed on our Rules page, but this is a highlight reel of some key changes.

Discord will be mandatory for participation for this year. This will give you the quickest access to the mod team as a whole, and enable links to be located as quickly as possible. Email will remain our primary form of communication, and our socials will remain active throughout.

The eligibility document will be 3,000 words instead of last year's 2,000. The summary submission phase opens in April, which means that we expect participants who may be interested in writing for the Big Bang to meet this by April. If this is not enough time for you, then you may wish to reconsider whether you want to sign up for a hard-deadline event with a 10,000 word minimum. There is no judgement for knowing your own limits.

Our check-ins will be relabelled from 25%/50%/75% to 40%/60%/80% in line with the eligibility document forming as functionally a 30% check-in.

We will no longer be granting extensions requested during the check-in periods. They should be requested in advance.

We will not grant extensions for the purpose of meeting the check-in goals.

We will be stricter about lack of communication between teams, or participants and mods. We were too lenient on this last year, and we apologise and acknowledge that this resulted in some disatisfied teams.

There are more alterations, but these are some of the main ones that we are implementing this year to improve how we run the event. They may be subject to further changes as we get closer to running the event, and also in response to feedback from the community.

We are always open to constructive feedback, and you are more than welcome to send us an ask. Those of you in the discord server should not open a ticket to do this, as we will soon be locking down the server to "redecorate" for this year, in line with the mandatory discord server requirement.

Abuse will not be tolerated, and the rules we have in place we believe to be fair and representative of a good Big Bang, as well as in the logistical limitations that we can accommodate.

Please see our Rules, FAQ, and Schedule pages for a full picture of how we anticipate the event to run this year, and we hope to see you along for the journey!

We are getting closer to sign-ups, but before then, we want to announce that we are opening our Mod applications!

If you would like to help us out behind the scenes and make sure the event runs smoother than last year, please feel free to apply! We will consider every application carefully, and previous experience running events is appreciated but not required.

There isn't a formal deadline on applications, we will likely close them in 2-3 weeks, or when we feel we have received enough responses.

In particular, we very much welcome applications from artists who would like to be on the mod team, as our current team is dominated by writers and beta readers!

We hope to have some of you interested in helping out, and if not, we thank you for your patience in last year's Big Bang, and hope to make this one the best we possibly can!

That's right, we have sent out all teams to your inboxes - check your emails!

Get in touch with everyone in your team as soon as possible, and we wish you all the best in creating your amazing pieces this year!

Some important points:

Please check you have provided the right email to us. Some emails are unexpectedly bouncing back to us. Please contact us via email, discord, or send in an ask and we will try to help.

Some claims were submitted from people who didn't seem to be signed up. We did not honour these claims, as signing up was required to be a part of the Big Bang. If you submitted a claim and signed up but didn't receive a team match email, please reach out as soon as possible.

Our spreadsheet bugged out while sending the emails, so the final question in every team's email is unintentionally blank. Sorry! This is not something we can fix, unfortunately. The information is still available in the airtable, and your writer will be able to supply that information too.

Hello!

So, I'll start this with saying that I (mod Eve) and mod Eevee are both British, and we experienced the Discord age verification update in the UK several months ago in response to some local government laws, and that is influencing a bit of our response to this.

In essence, it is still our strong preference that we keep Discord mandatory for participation in the event this year. Last year it was optional, and we sent out regular emails for check-ins and team matching. Even before Discord announced this measure, we still planned to send out regular emails alongside Discord updates. This has not changed, and email and Discord will remain our primary form of contact for the event this year. All participants will receive regular emails for check-ins, despite being members of the discord server.

Everyone has the right to delete their accounts if they wish to protest the decision. In the event that people who want to delete their Discord accounts sign up/intend to sign up for the Big Bang, you need to reach out to the mod team before doing so in order to make sure that we have a regular method of contact for you. This is because last year, we had problems getting in touch with several participants via email, and mandating at least Discord and emails allows us to streamline our contact process, staying on top of any problems while keeping the rest of the mods in the loop.

I (mod Eve) also want to say that, while I fundamentally disagree with Discord's age verification policies, especially in relation to their data breaches with IDs as recently as October, much of the concerns about what it means are slightly misconstrued. Again, I am on the other side of this, I experienced the age checking process last year. For those who do not know or are unclear, the Discord age verification procedure means that, until you have verified your age (in some way) you will be unable to access:

Age restricted servers

Age restricted channels

both of which indicated by the server owner/mods. Which means that in the MDZSBB discord server, although we require participants to be at least 18, the server itself is not age restricted, and we have some age restricted channels that we are discussing as a mod team. The only impacted channels in the server would be those age-restricted channels. All other channels, general, art, writing, beta talk, etc, are completely accessible even a user never verifies their age.

I have two major ideas for mdzs works that I have active google docs on. One of them is a series and I have posted the first fic of that already on Ao3. Can the other parts of the series (which haven't been posted yet) be used for my bigbang work? The other is just a collection of ideas (for now) but I think that I could make a single fic out of it rather than a series unlike the above one, but I have multiple ideas that I will be posting as extras, is that allowed?

Or can big bang works have only standalone fics?

Hello! Very glad to have you!

Your first idea is not something we would be able to allow for submission in the Big Bang. Since it's part of a series, it wouldn't be able to stand alone, and would likely a) involve at least some (likely a lot of) familiarity with the first work, and b) inhibit anonymity during the matching process. So unfortunately, if you submitted this for the event, we would not put it forward for claims.

Your second idea sounds a lot more in line with the event rules! The contents of the fic you post will be entirely at your discretion, including extras, but you must make sure that the work is complete and stands alone with a minimum of 10,000 word before any extras are included. If you want to post extras outside of the posting period (or in general), we recommend you do this in a separate work connected by a series.