Like many other well-known brands, e-sports teams are also starting to show interest in NFT as a fan acquisition tool. Following Team Vitality’s recent partnership with Tezos (XTZ), G2 Esports has now joined the fray by launching NFT on Solana.
The NFT collection, dubbed “The Samurai Army,” which translates to Samurai G2, inspired by the team’s samurai-themed campaign, will be created on Solana’s Metaplex protocol. Each of the 6,262 NFTs in the collection is scheduled for gradual release in February 2021.
Each NFT Samurai Army also counts as a representative ticket for exclusive G2 Esports membership, with access to priority community, interaction with pro players, early access to G2 NFT rewards in the future, with additional potential benefits including the chance to compete with more eSports professionals and the chance to enter future competitions. CEO G2 Esports, Carlos Rogriguez said: “We are creating a highly rated social club for gamers, eSports and NFT fans”.
G2 Esports’ partnership with Metaplex is a long-term project. In the future, both sides plan to be expanded into different directions, including games, comics, music, and more. G2 Esports previously announced an exclusive multi-year NFT partnership with Bondly in June 2021, however there is no word on the NFT rollout so far.
The NFT market has exploded in recent times generating around $23 billion worth of trading volume in 2021, according to data from DappRadar, a phenomenal growth from around $100 million in 2020. Ethereum still holds the leading position in this field.
However, Solana has emerged as a popular alternative due to its lower fees, faster transactions, and significantly lower energy consumption. Although it’s only been around for about six months, Solana has already recorded over $1 billion in trading volume across over 5.7 million NFTs from 85,000 projects. In general, Solana-based NFT needs to work harder to get ahead in the NFT game as the platform currently lacks high-end NFT projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks on Ethereum.
Returning to the main topic, the Esports and crypto industries have established a very strong link in 2021, notably the sponsorship contracts between the two fields.
One example is the case of the FTX exchange, which sponsored e-sports club Team SoloMid (TSM) in a 10-year, $210 million naming rights deal and then became a partner. Official crypto partner of the seven-year North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). TSM also revealed a partnership with the NFT Aurory project on Solana in October.
Next is the giant Coinbase, which has also sponsored Esports teams like Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid, along with tournament operator ESL. Bybit joined the list with two European heavyweights, Natus Vincere (NAVI) and Virtus.pro, Crypto.com became Fnatic’s global partner in addition to Uniswap’s relationship with Team Secret.
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