[Axie] Esports Grant #2 - 7500 AXS over 5 months!

We're excited to ramp up competitive gaming in 2022!

Key Points:

• Applications for the second round of Axie Esports grants are live! 7,500 AXS has been allocated from the play & earn pool in prize money and expenses for over 75 community tournaments.

• This Esports grant will require approved tournaments to have at least 20% of their final participants from open qualifiers that must be announced at least 3 weeks in advance.

• Approved tournaments will also be required to provide live streams in 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Tagalog

• We are accepting event proposals from January 15th - January 25th from community tournament organizers.

Last year, Sky Mavis committed 5,500 AXS to support a grant for Axie Esports that supported over 40 tournaments. We were delighted by the response and the global scale of the events! Throughout the process we gathered your feedback and have used it when designing this second round of grants.

We are extremely excited about the long-term potential for Axie Esports, especially once Origin is launched and the meta has settled. We believe that the changes we’ve made in Origin have made Axie battles much more competitive and less focused on random events. Our community is full of competitive gamers, and we are excited about continuing to improve the state of competitive Axie.

In the meantime, we will continue supporting Axie Esports and enabling our event organizers to host tournaments through another esports grant.

Esports Grant #2 - 2022

This grant will allocate 7,500 AXS from the play & earn allocation pool to support at least 75 tournaments from January 25 - June 30 of this year and be spread across regions proportionate to our player base.

We learned a lot from the first esports grant last year and have made several changes for this one:

• Up to 5% of allocated AXS can be used for event expenses

• A maximum of 150 AXS will allotted to any one event

• A single organizer can submit up to 3 events for this grant

Similarly, approved event organizers will have to meet the following minimum requirements:

• Each event must have at least 20% of their final participants from open qualifiers

  • For example, an invitational with 10 players would need 2 of their players to come through open qualifiers

  • Open qualifiers should have at least 256 openings

• Create a web page or web site with all of the details of their event and how to qualify at least 3 weeks before it is scheduled to begin

  • This should include a basic ruleset and event structure, including how many axies players use, how often they can swapped out, etc.

  • Information regarding open qualifiers (time, date, where to sign-up) must be included.

• Provide a high definition (1080p) livestream for every match of the main tournament and the last two rounds of open qualifiers in: English, Spanish, Portuguese & Tagalog

• Conduct all matchups in the tournament as at least best-of-three series, with rounds quarter-finals and beyond at least best-of-five.

• Provide a clear and consistent ruleset for competition.

Approved tournament organizers that do not meet the minimum requirements will forfeit their 5% of the AXS used for expenses and not be considered for future esports grants.

Other Expectations:

• Organizers will make a reasonable effort to utilize their social media platforms to share information about their event, such as: brackets, schedules, rules, commentators, and links to livestreams.

• Organizers will strive to deliver to highest quality production they can within their means, including things like: player interviews, animated transitions, live scoreboards, updated brackets, casters cameras, etc.

• Organizers will enforce their ruleset fairly and equally to all competitors.

Offline / LAN Events

If you are thinking about pitching a physical event that intends to bring players on site with a live audience are encouraged to consider the complexities involved with executing events on this scale.

If you do not have substantial financial backing, a venue, and/or sponsors lined up, consider the gravity of your commitment carefully.

We are excited about the future of live, physical Axie events and remain open to supporting them with this grant; however, proposals for these tournaments will require some additional layers of scrutiny and logistical planning.

Submit Your Proposal

Each Esports proposal should be in the form of a graphical deck and present the following information:

• name and history of organization running the event

• tournament format and breakdown of qualifiers

• event dates, including: ideal target dates and two back-up dates

• information on sponsors or strategic event partners

• broadcast plan, examples of production elements, list of commentators

• marketing strategy and list of social media accounts related to the tournament or organizer

• realistic viewership estimates

When creating your proposal, consider the amount of AXS you are requesting carefully. Keep the maximum figure of 150 AXS in mind, and remember that this a max-bound figure for the largest events selected to be a part of this grant.

Think of your proposal as part of a proof-of-reputation system, where you are staking your reputation by committing to an Axie Esports tournament. Living up to what’s promised in your proposal will be the key to success and being eligible for future AXS allocation.

We would much prefer if you under-promise and over-deliver!