For budtenders
Somebody folded a corner for you. Here is what happens next.
Scan the card
The card asks which corner is folded, then tells you what it means and who picked you. It reads something like this: “B, Saint of Patience. A guest from the East thinks you’re the friendly one.” If the guest chose to stay anonymous, it says so. If no corner is folded, that is recorded as an answer of its own. What each letter means is on the Budtenders Ball page.
Not for you? Pass the card to a colleague who deserves it, or pass it on without scanning to stay out. Nothing happens unless you say yes.
Saying yes
You sign a release and choose a working name. Your working name is the one on everything public; your legal name and email stay with us. A photograph is up to you, and your avatar can stand in for your face anywhere. You take part as yourself, not as your shop, and your code stays with you if you change jobs. Your contest profile, your team page and your registry live on the contest site, budtenders.nl. Everyone taking part is 18 or over.
Your team
You name two sidekicks. The green sidekick has hands on the product: rolling, packing. The rust and beige sidekick keeps the house running: the door, the coffee bar, the gift shop, the cleaning. Each signs their own waiver. Your pit crew travels with you, helps with the challenges and adds points at the rounds in person.
Your avatar and your hoodie
Every nominee gets a custom avatar, made by POLYC. It is your badge, the front of your original hoodie, and the starting point for everything your team wears. It comes as a transparent PNG and as a square sticker for group chats, so your team can put it over faces in photos.
Your hoodie has your avatar on the front, POLYC on the back, your working name on one arm and your code on the other shoulder. You choose the look, POLYC or Cheeky. A handful of personalised replicas are made for your supporters, and never remade. Your team gets half the margin on its merch: 25% to you and 12.5% to each sidekick.
Your data, your share
Every scan of your code adds to your own data set. Through 2027 you see your own numbers. From 2028, if you choose to take part in data sharing, your data set can be sold, and your team receives half of every sale: 25% to you and 12.5% to each sidekick. A single code’s data set starts at €819, so at that price your share is about €205 and each sidekick’s about €102, every time it sells.
You decide who may buy it: shops, vendors, both, or nobody. Opting out means your personal data set is never sold. Your code’s scans still count, without your name, toward the site-wide contest data. We never sell names, emails, addresses or phone numbers. Payouts are made when data sells, from 2028. A sidekick seat left empty keeps its share with POLYC.
Your registry
Each team gets a registry, like a wedding list. It carries your kit, the hoodies included, and your train, hotel and day money for each round in person, posted one round at a time. Shops can sponsor you, and so can anyone in the trade, from a licensed grower to a lighting firm. Money for travel passes straight through to you. POLYC takes nothing from it.
Groups at your counter
You meet the groups first. When a stag party or a crowd on a long weekend comes to the counter, you can tell them about party pages: a copy of POLYC each, with a page for every person in every copy. You can also put the order together with them and send it in. Budtenders get the same partner terms as tour operators. This is separate from Budtender of the Year: any budtender can do it. Write and ask: editor@tingeworld.com.
The season
A remote round from January to March 2027, a first round in person on 17 and 18 April with the results live on 20 April, another round in June, and the Budtenders Ball in October. The winner is crowned King Bud or Queen Bud on 20 October 2027, International Budtender Day. Each nominee picks the title they run under, whatever their gender. Dates and updates are on the Budtenders Ball page.
Questions: editor@tingeworld.com or +31 20 214 0885. Chosen, not drawn: the editor picks the winner. Taking part costs a budtender nothing.