Winners emerge from the haze of The Ego Clash Invitational 2023

Deep in a freezing cave, two hours north of San Francisco, many of the world’s best cannabis breeders, growers, and hashmakers gathered to sow the seeds of 2024’s cannabis hype-cycle and keep its eternal flame burning.

Near midnight on Sunday, Dec. 10, they succeeded.

Here’s who won The Ego Clash Invitational 2023—a private, invite-only global cannabis industry competition in Mendocino County, CA for: best indoor flower; best outdoor flower; best rosin; and best full-melt.

Now, look upon the flavors set to dominate the cannabis conversation into 2024.

Best indoor flower—Ego Clash 2023

More than 30 growers entered the indoor flower competition. Entrants did a blind judging of each other’s work and awarded points. Among the entrants, pronounced lemon flavors and refined Gelato strains won the most points.

Eddy’s Lemons sounds like a reference to Eddy Lepp OG. Blue Lobster is a cross of Apples & Bananas x Eye Candy. Compound Genetics’ Chris Lynch—now at Cipher Genetics in Santa Cruz, CA—worked with Maine Trees of Maine to bring the Blue Lobster to the West Coast.

One Leafly reviewer noted: “It’s like some weirdly perfect combo of Sherb, Zkittles, and GDP. The GDP bringing some interesting grapey/blue raspberry notes.”

Also, Zkittlez stayed dominant with a 3rd place finish—capping another epic year from Hippie Hill’s King of Z Hill contest to Spannabis in Barcelona.

Winners received a custom Jerome Baker bong, custom glass joint tips from Rek Tipz, and undeniable bragging rights for life.

Best outdoor flower—Ego Clash 2023

More than 40 flowers duked it out in the Ego Clash’s first outdoor competition. One of the most popular flavors on the market, Lemon Cherry Gelato, grown at large scale by Terp Mansion, scored a big first-place win. Humboldt County, CA dominated down the podium, too. Ridgeline Farms kept the Runtz craze going with a LANTZ win. And Xotic Flavorz ran Tiki Madman and Big Al’s Exotics’ hype new Hawaiian Snowcone outside to take third. All three strains have tons of crowd-appealing, sweet, syrupy, fruity, often creamy flavor with a potent finish. (As opposed to any terpinolene, myrcene strains, or linalool strains.)

Best rosin—Ego Clash 2023

Flavors of lime, tropical taffy, and pear emerged victorious in the battle for the best rosin. Yeti Melts bred their Optimus Lime in-house from Zeezy x Limeheads—so definitely expect some Z and lime notes in there.

Best full-melt—Ego Clash 2023

A likely cross of Z and Super Boof appears to have won the hearts of full-melt judges this year. In second place, we saw another blend of two strains. And a pineapple dessert flavor took third.

We’ll have more winners, photos, and details as the haze lifts further and we learn more. Plus, come back in January for “The best seeds and clones to grow in 2024,” as well as “New Year, New Terps: Fresh flavors for 2024.”

Ego Clash is produced and hosted each year by Moonshine Melts, Dying Breed Seeds, and 3rd Gen Family Farm.

The Ego Clash 2023 Invitational sponsors