The higher echelon of esports organizations are adopting web3; A look at current Initiatives.
Adeeb Sayeed
Partnerships and Strategy at Lysto- Playtesting| UA & Retention expert | esports | web3 gaming|
Esports as an industry can benefit in multiple ways by integrating web3 technology. This article will focus on how NFTs and blockchain technology are currently being experimented with. Over the past year, crypto and esports industry firms have engaged in sponsorship deals and NFT projects, as there is a clear overlap between the participants in both industries.
Esports is a system of different parties trading value amongst each other. Sponsors, fans, players, tournament organizers, teams, all of these different areas all need each other for the ecosystem to succeed. With Blockchain, we can enable value exchange directly, benefitting everyone involved.
How Blockchain can Impact Esports
Smart Contracts can help organize cost-effective, efficient, well-managed, large-scale esports tournaments. Humans can leave core aspects of the tournament administration to intelligent contracts such as:
-Verify participants (meet the entry criteria, potentially via Blockchain)
-Prospective players can agree to the competition terms. Any of the terms breached will be eliminated automatically
-Picking a match and completing the results table (with the results being verified using Blockchain)
-Payments is one of the most important tasks that is simplified by cryptocurrency and its transaction speeds. It will allow wiring money to players are worldwide soon as the tournament ends therefore decentralizing esports tournament payments.
-POAPs and Ticket NFTs
2. Publishing/Broadcast Rights
Currently, esports belong to the publisher. The publisher owns the game's IP rights. Therefore anyone who intends to hold a tournament must obtain a license from the publisher and follow their rules. Though Blockchain cannot play a role in democratizing existing web2 games, web3 games are taking a more decentralized approach.
3. Fandom
This adds a new layer of monetization. With special access and clubs, it's exactly what fans would want. This is the only place esports organizations are experimenting.
Adoption at the top!
Though the Industry has received massive overall community outlash when attempting anything to do with crypto, some of the top echelons of esports teams, tournament organizers, content creators, and developers are readily experimenting and constantly testing the Web3 waters.
The adoption at the top is indicative that they understand the high-value propositions blockchain technology is bringing to gamers. Even though gamers themselves are averse to it, as discussed in my previous article: Understanding gamer's aversion to NFTs.
Top web3 initiatives in the esports industry
Faze Clan
Faze Clan, an esports organization valued at a billion dollars, has been vocal and bullish about Web 3 and is partners with Moonpay exchange. Faze banks, the founder of Faze Clan, in particular, has become an influencer in the NFT space, making a big buck flipping Crypto Punks. They don’t have a current project in web3, but fans are anticipating one soon.
Richard Bengtson, FaZe Clan cofounder - "WE’RE FIRST-GENERATION INTERNET KIDS, PIONEERS. AND IT’S OUR JOB, AGAIN, TO WRITE THE FUCKING SCRIPT. LIFE IS A VIDEO GAME. EVERYBODY’S LIFE IS GAMIFIED. WE JUST BUILD A BUSINESS OFF THE BACK OF THAT.”
Dr.Disrespect's DEADROP
Dr.Disrespects vision with his games studio Midnight Society is to "make games that defy the current publishing model and reward all those fans and influencers who make them a success."
This vision is coming to life with MidnightSocietyFounder Pass NFT. The NFT unlocks features that make holders the game testers, who will build along with the developers and provide them with voting rights on game features and giving them exclusive access.
Projects that provide special access through NFTs.
Fnatic Nation Key NFTs
The Fanatics Key NFT membership collection has 3 levels of NFTs
-Citizen Key -199K
-Pioneer Key -855
-Core Key -37
it will provide fans with exclusive events, content, and merchandise.
TSMFTX
The company has strong ties with web3 as they have a $210M Naming Rights Partnership with #FTX
The team has NFT skins in the Solana Blue-chip game Aurory Project that provides more Web3-like rewards with
•EARLY BETA ACCESS
•BOOSTED REWARDS
• NFT AIRDROPS
• LAND SALES PRIORITY
Projects with real-world utilities
SKT1
Chinese esports Dota2 team partnered with @Swappable_NFTsto drop their Mystery box collection.
Players got to meet and greet and signed posters and discounts on merch!
The NFT holders had a real meet and greet w/ the Rocket League Team in London during RLCS and also got access to their exclusive discord channels.
-Access to live events
-Future Meet and Greets
-Signed and discounted merch
Collectables and memorabilia
Collectables have always sold big when it comes to Dota, Call of Duty and League of Legends, thanks to their deep lore. Here are collectible/memorabilia projects
OG esports
@OGesports has dropped multiple NFT collections in collab with artists.
2018-2019 Dota 2 Championship - This collection was a tribute to winning @dota2ti 2018-2019
Art Collectibles by OG
Optic Gaming
THE ARRIVAL collection of OPTIC x Frank151
NFT 1: Limited Edition of 500
NFT 2:5 Metallic Plated Singular Editions
NFT 3:Single Edition 1 of 1 Custom hand-painted gaming console by #OpTicHecz 3D printed Allen the Alien statue VIP access to all future Frank151 live events
100 thieves
@100Thieves won the #LCS championship 2021. The 2021 Championship Chain memorabilia NFT was a replica of the real diamond chain given to the winners #100thieves #NFTs
Their 'Enter Infinity' NFT Collection featured eight 1-of-1 unique artwork pieces.
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Alliance
@theAllianceGG and @LodaBerg teamed up with @MOBOX_Official to be a part of MOBOX Collectible MOMOs Loot Boxes on @TheBinanceNFT
The team received community backlash and was accused of cash grab schemes by other pro players/Influencers in the Dota2 community.
Out of the 23,500 NFT packs had just 3 Legendary Loda Momos. It had pretty slim odds of impressing anyone.
While most teams are looking to integrate web3 for fandom, some teams such as G2 and Secret have launched full fledge projects like G2 and Team Secret Gemini Guild.
Samurai Army
G2esports' NFT project have larger goals outlined with their PFP collection
The 6,262 Solana NFTs are inspired by the popular esports club’s samurai-themed logo.
The project will be a gamified social club for gamers and later expand into games, comics, music, and more
It's also only fair to mention that G2 esports had also announced their NFT project with @ForjOfficial, who failed to deliver, and G2 filed a lawsuit against them.
Team Secret Gemini Guild
Secret Gemini is aiming to be the world's top competitive play to earn guild community!
They have an amazing structure of amateurs to the professional roadmap and have a great incentive for guild members as well.
Indian esports NFTs
The top Indian esports teams are not left behind in this trend. Popular Indian BGMI esports teams @OREsportteam, @GodLike_in @OrgBlind, &@iNSANEDAVID have Collaborated with Indian Blockchain startup @getstanapp to launch NFTs for fan engagement. We are yet to see the launch of these NFTs and the utility they will provide.
Fan Tokens
NFTs is not the only form of Web3 inclusion we see in the Industry,. Esports teams are also experimenting with Fan tokens
Esports Fan Tokens are joining sports fan tokens on an even footing on Socios, providing them with a large array of unique decision-making depending on the team.
Fan tokens currently out there right now:
OG's fan token has by far done the best.
We have already seen some cool activations like from their CS:GO squad!
At $4.19, it's doing well even in the bear market! #OG
Team vitality fan token
Players can vote on polls, Exclusive rewards, VIP access, and more!
Current token price: $0.1574 #vitalityblast
@natusvincerewere among the first to launch their own fan tokens. NAVI has one of the most active token holders initiatives
Holders get to choose which team member should do the AMA, picking graphics for their posters, topics for Vlog content, and much more.
Current token price: $0.3049 #navination
Tournament Organizers have launched #NFT collections too.
There are plenty of ideas that come to one's mind of how to integrate nfts into events, like POAPs and Ticket NFTs, for example. So why not try the same in esports events, right? Here are some of the popular TO's attempts at NFTs.
Weplay Esports launched its first Collectibles NFTs on Binance with 3 types of NFTs in their Storyline collection:
-Logo token.
-Trophy token.
-Story token.
@weplaycollect says that they aim to unite real esports fans and digital art lovers. Unfortunately no utility here.
@BLASTPremier, together with @ForjOfficial, launched Gamified Chicken NFTs.
Chickens in CS:GO are a popular point of debate in the community, which gives these NFTs a really nice feel. 6 chickens equipped with two weapons are split into Team Red and Team Blue. The quest is to acquire all chickens to build the ultimate cluck force!
ESL One
@ESL partnered with @Immutable to bring us two collections so far!@ESLCS Along with the top @CSGO launched TEAM GEAR & POG Collections.
The Team gear collection has team gloves and suits.
These NFTs have utility, with owners receiving the first set of utilities at #IEM Katowice 2022! & access to additional prizes.
Ultimately
An evolution of esports fandom is in play, and it's being hated on by the gaming communities; this is curbing further innovation in the space. If supported, the esports industry will have more ways of monetization.
Bonus: The integration is happening the other way around as well.
Noun esports: The blue-chip Noun NFT project has purchased two pro esports teams. One in Dota2 and another one in pokemon unity. Their Unite team is the recent finalist at the Pokemon unite world Championship.
The web 3 gaming narrative will change over time. So it just becomes gaming, and we stop calling it web3 games and web3 integrations.
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