Q&A: NFTeams Wants To Make An $Ape Powered Sports League On Otherside. Find Out More About AIP-319

There is an Ape Improvement Proposal on the ballot this week that shooting to score funding for its Otherside sports league powered by $Ape!

AIP-319 titled “Create the Sporting League of the Otherside (NFTeams) + 5,000 free 3D Player Mint” is an ecosystem fund allocation proposal written by ApeCoin DAO Contributor and NFTeams Founder Steve.

“This proposal aims to move the NFTeams ecosystem to an Apecoin standard, while also giving 5,000 Player NFTs as a free mint to $APEcoin and BAYC ecosystem holders (via mini-games),” Steve explained. “The goal of NFTeams is to create the sporting leagues of the Otherside.”

These player NFTs that Steve and his team plan to giveaway if this proposal is passed will eventually compete in NFTeams Otherside sporting league and holders will be able to manage their player’s careers and earn money based on their performances.

“Our NFTs will be ERC-6551s, Steve wrote. “This will allow a Player NFT to mimic a Sports Star in real life. They will own their own erc-20s and nfts and the sale of a player will result in the contents of their own wallet moving with them. This also means any salary paid to a Player from a team will be held in the actual NFTs wallet.”

In total, Steve and NFTeams are asking the ApeCoin DAO to allocate $500,000 USD in $Ape for a gamified mint of the player NFTs and the development of the project’s Otherside sports game.

To find out more about NFTeams and where the project sees itself going forward, the Gazette reached out to Steve for an interview. Check it out below:

Can you tell me what your AIP is all about in a sentence or two?

“The main aim of the AIP is to create the Sporting League of the Otherside while moving to an APEcoin standard and giving away 5,000 Player NFTs.”

What inspired you to write this AIP?

“ I've been working towards this for the past 18 months, I've spent around $300k USD on the player build-out and tooling. This is what I call a win-win-win situation. A win for NFTeams to get some funding to help us build quicker while also onboarding BAYC/MAYC members A win for $Apecoin and Yuga ecosystems to show off use cases and create more content while bringing in NFTeam holders.”

How did NFTeams begin?

“ NFTeams is a combination of everything I have done over the past few decades wrapped up into an NFT project. I've been in crypto for over a decade and into sports and sports betting for multiple decades. During the 2020 lockdowns and while getting into NFTs, I tried to think about that sort of project I would love to build that took in all my prior experience. That's when I landed on NFTeams, the plan was to recreate a worldwide sporting league for web3. We started with 10k teams, gave away 10k jerseys and now we are onto our players.”

Can you tell me a bit about the league. How does it work? Will users play as their players in games, or will it be a movie/Video featuring people’s players? Can you explain it?

“As mentioned above, our ecosystem is Teams, Jerseys and Players. The league will initially start with 1 sport and be desktop based. So imagine Legends of Mara, crossed with loadouts from 10KTF and combined with ESPN gameday. Team owners will draft players and load out their teams. Players will train daily to increase/decrease stats via mini games (They will also be able to use $APE to hire personal trainers and upgrade quicker). Once we get the Desktop version down pat, we will then move to replicating the play by plays in a 3D environment. The dream is that in a few years, you come home from work, chuck on your VR googles and watch your players and team compete as if you were watching an NBA or NFL game.”

Can you explain the economics of the league? How do users earn money from owning a player NFT?

“Not money, $APE. We currently have around $400k USD in our community fund, this is used as prizemoney. We have given away $10-$15k a month for 2 years now. This will be converted to $APE and used to fund the prize pools. $APE is also the currency used to train the players and 50% of that also goes into the community fund. Teams will be able to play in tournaments are there will be an entry fee (in $APE) to join. They will then be able to draft players who will be paid a percentage of anything the team wins. It will be up to the team owners to say what percentage they are willing to give to draft the best players. If a team wins a league or makes the playoffs, they get a percentage of the prize money, and that is split between the team owner and the players based on whatever percentages were agreed to.”

What’s your idea for the minting mini game?

“I'm still deciding. But we have seen how both HV-MTL and LOTM have been received, so I think something that does not require much commitment is the best option. We currently have a few sports tipping games on our site, and could convert one of them. But I do like the idea of an old arcade game and everyone being able to have just 1 play per day for a week to get into the top 5,000.”

In your AIP you talk about the “ApeCoin standard,” can you explain that a bit? What is the ApeCoin standard and why are you bullish on $Ape?

“If $APE is to succeed long term, we need people using it on a daily basis. Yuga has started off well with their mini-games like Dookey Dash and LOTM. We also need more than just Yuga to be using the currency, you need big gaming companies and small indie devs like myself to create products that use $APE. We could have followed what all other projects have done and create their own erc-20 and used that, but I think eventually we will see a world where it makes sense to utilise the standard for gaming currencies, and I feel $APE has the best chance to be that currency. We love to lead the way and be the first to do things, we did that with having our own marketplace with zero royalties and fees, and we have done many many more firsts in the space that have been copied by bigger names, we just don't get the recognition as I have been building in quiet. NFTeams will move to having everything in $APE, that means our community fund will be in $APE, all prizes will be in $APE, all fees and tournament entries will be in $APE. The entire NFTeams ecosystem will be run on $APE.”

Why is Otherside the right place for a sporting league?

“There are currently 100,000 pieces of land, and 100k more to come. We need to have a reason apart from farming to go to them. We can see 10,000 of those lands having each team's stadiums and training facilities on them, we see players using the resources to build out brand new sporting equipment and powerups, we can see spaces where players can train every day and meeting places to catch up on games and events. I believe it is up to everyone in the Yuga world to start building for Otherside if we want people to use it, or it will end up like all other current web3 worlds (a barren wasteland).”

Do you have anything else you’d like to add or say?

“I'd suggest looking at the level of work we have put in so far, I am biased, but I believe the players are as good as any collection in the space. They are also 3D-ready avatars, ready to go in any virtual world. Also understand that we are not converting the $APE, which I can understand is a big worry. We are holding and staking our $APE. I believe we need to support everyone trying things in this space to further the adoption of web3. If you hold any $APE, please vote YES for AIP-319 Massive thanks to the Bored Ape Gazette for being a big part of this space and getting the word out.”

The window to vote on AIP-319 is currently open and ApeCoin DAO Contributors have until next Wednesday, October 4th, to cast their coins.

$Apes can read Steve’s full proposal here: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-319-create-the-sporting-league-of-the-otherside-nfteams-5-000-free-3d-player-mint/17242

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow NFTeams AIP and will let you know how the community votes on this proposal later this week. Stay tuned for updates!