Proposal Name
ApeCoin Esports (ACE) - The ESports League DAO Powered by ApeCoin
Proposal Category
Core: Brand Decision
ABSTRACT
ApeCoin Esports (ACE) is aimed to be a pioneering esports league DAO, that is owned and operated by the players for the players. Our goal is simple: become the NFL/NBA of E-Sports. As a fully player-owned platform, we aim to address the challenges in the current esports landscape. With the support of ApeCoin DAO, we can achieve this vision and establish ACE as the premier leader in Web 3 gaming and ultimately bring more value to Otherside and future BAYC game launches by building this foundation for competitive gaming now.
We are thrilled to embark on a journey towards excellence with ACE, and what better way to make history than by partnering with ApeCoin DAO to launch an electrifying circuit of ESports tournaments. With 6 years experience building in web 3 gaming and founding BFC, the largest Fortnite ESports league by viewership (averaging 50,000 concurrent viewers), we have the team to make this one of the most thrilling and captivating experiences ever witnessed in the world of competitive gaming. Join us as we pave the way for an unforgettable display of skill and sportsmanship, and set a new benchmark for the ESports industry.
MOTIVATION
This proposal was inspired by the success of Dookey Dash, our community already has curated dozens of professional players from web 2 that see the vision now and want to join us on this journey. We strongly believe the time is now or never to make this happen.
As the gaming industry continues to evolve, the promising potential of Web 3 ESports is gaining traction. ApeCoin DAO could be at the forefront of this burgeoning trend, with the vision of ACE to heighten awareness of ApeCoin and the entire Web 3 gaming sphere.
Our ultimate goal is to alleviate the challenges faced by Web 2 ESports organizations by creating a DAO-governed Web 3 ESports team and league. In doing so, we seek to tap into the unprecedented potential of Web 3 ESports and capitalize on the opportunity for early-mover advantage. By bridging this gap, we aim to establish ApeCoin DAO as a key player in the Web 3 ESports arena and set the pace for a new era of Web 3 gaming.
RATIONALE
Let’s face it. Professional gamers in today’s world are grossly underpaid, and esports organizations of today have been notorious failures. We want to solve this by creating a web 3 esports league where the players come first. While simultaneously executing on bold new, experimental ideas, to put us ahead of the competition.
Our ACE proposal has been carefully crafted to bring value to $ApeCoin and shine a spotlight on web3 gaming, directly benefiting the APE community. We strongly believe that this proposal has the potential to be one of the most exciting and impactful initiatives to come out of the ApeCoin DAO since its inception. Our team is committed to executing this proposal with the highest level of professionalism and dedication to ensure its success.
SPECIFICATION / DELIVERABLES
To achieve our mission, we want to host exciting and unprecedented gaming tournaments, complete with live events and livestreams, and eventually expand into much more. Through each initiative, we’ll be promoting Apecoin to a wider audience, expanding the utility of Apecoin, and spreading awareness of the incredible potential of Web3 gaming.
We acknowledge that some of the initiatives we propose may be experimental, but our focus is on pushing the boundaries of what is possible by leveraging the blockchain in innovative and enjoyable ways. Our goal is not to emulate the status quo in web 2 gaming organizations, but to pioneer new avenues and provide gamers with a more thrilling and fulfilling experience.
Launch of The ApeCoin Mega Tournament Circuit
Our objective is to kick off ACE’s journey with an ESports tournament circuit that will leave a lasting impression. Although we’re starting small, our vision is to create unforgettable events that push the boundaries of what’s been done before.
We are first launching a circuit of tournaments based on a proven model that our co-founder Ops1x has used in the past for his company BFC which resulted in BFC becoming the largest ESports league in the world for Fortnite in regards to viewership. Similar to BFC, we will be hosting bi-weekly tournaments for $5K in prizes per week. While you may think it is a small amount, tournaments of this size were able to consistently garner the attention of 50,000~ concurrent viewers per week within BFC. We expect to build up the ACE brand to achieve similar results which will be major not only to establish ApeCoin as a key player in ESports, but also to build attention that can be funneled to Otherside and future BAYC gaming initiatives like Dookey Dash.
Here are a couple of teasers from the BFC league
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZnqtUTS-Ws
In the future, we want players to have the opportunity to compete for an impressive grand prize upwards of $1M while playing at an exciting venue unlike any other tournament. We’re currently exploring innovative ideas for the venue, and our team is brainstorming a range of thrilling options. From hosting the event on a luxurious yacht to setting it up on the rooftop of a skyscraper or inside an underwater hotel, we’re determined to create a one-of-a-kind experience that will blow people’s minds. Hosting an event on this scale will instantly get the interest of all top ESport teams and organizations, establishing ACE globally as a prominent player in the market. While this $1M tournament is not a part of this proposal, this is the direction that we want to ultimately take with ACE.
We know that some of our ideas may seem difficult to achieve, but we’re committed to thinking outside of the box and doing whatever it takes to create events that are bold, exciting, and most importantly, fun. Our goal is to put on a show, make history in the world of ESports and create events that will break the internet.
ACE DAO Genesis
Truly operated and owned by the players.
To ensure a fair and democratic approach, the ACE DAO Genesis team consists of 5 members, each with an equal vote to decide on the initiatives, treasury allocation, and membership selection criteria. Unlike other DAOs, ACE does not involve NFTs or Tokens to avoid legal concerns and instead employs a smart contract-based voting mechanism for transparency and security.
We strive to maintain the exclusivity of our community by adding new members based on their potential value and skills, and by ensuring that the membership is limited to 99 members at most. The membership is organized into three distinct ranks - General, Captain, and Lieutenant - based on their expertise and contribution to the community. Our membership selection process involves collective voting by other members, with each member having an equal say in determining the outcome.
STEPS TO IMPLEMENT
Step 1: Tournament Planning
- Develop marketing and content plan
- Choose the game for the tournaments based on popularity and trends
- Identify and invite teams, players, partners and influencers
- Establish tournament structure and prize pool for bi-weekly competitions
Step 2: DAO Development
- Design and develop ACE website/app
- Create first MVP of DAO smart contracts
- Confirm genesis ACE DAO members
- Conduct full security audits with 1-2 trusted firms
Step 3: Announce ACE + Tournament Circuit
-
Increase awareness through DAO’s social media presence
-
Release marketing content and send invitations to top teams
-
Set up brackets and secure sponsorships for the event
-
Run bi-weekly tournaments for $5K~ using our co-founder Ops1x’s proven model successfully executed within his previous venture Fortnite BFC league
-
Acquire strategic partners and sponsors to help with the growth of ACE
Step 4: Finalization of ACE DAO
- Finalize audits and deploy DAO with confirmed genesis members
Step 5: Submit DAO Proposal For ACE Expansion
- After feedback from our community and the DAO, we will propose an expansion to allow us to manifest the full vision of ACE. As we are starting small with this proposal to show our value, and build a base of momentum towards our brand.
TIMELINE
Month 1 - Begin prototyping the ACE DAO, and planning the upcoming events.
Month 1-5 - Hire staff as needed, organize the tournament schedule, begin building hype, and send out invites to players/streamers for the qualifier round. This will be a cycle repeated for every bi-weekly tournament.
Month 2 - Begin running $5K bi-weekly tournaments.
Month 3 - Open DAO applications, for new players, builders, advisors, and more to get involved in ACE.
Month 6 - Finalize development and audits of the ACE DAO, and prepare platform deployment. Re-submit a second proposal for the DAO to approve ACE to continue and expand, or deny and have the staked $ape fully refunded.
THE TEAM
The team that we’ve put together has a huge background when it comes to competing in esports. Our players have won major tournaments for some of the largest esports organizations such as, TSM, Ghost Gaming, MisfitsGG & CubeX Gaming. Collectively, we’ve earned over a million dollars competing in tournaments, and creating content with gaming. We’ll be coming together with ACE to take our knowledge and experience to help pioneer gaming in the direction the future is pushing us towards.
Our co-founder Sardar Ghafoor (Ops1x) is a former professional Fortnite player for TSM and a renowned Twitch content creator with a following of over 2 million across platforms. He also founded BFC (BoxFightChamp), an organization that hosted tournaments for major web2 games with over 10,000 concurrent viewers, and a combined 50,000 concurrent viewers from all participating gamers. Ops1x brings his extensive experience in tournament management to ACE, leveraging the skills he honed through founding BFC. With Ops1x on board, we can expect top-notch tournament hosting, from player invitations and bracket creation to live streaming on Twitch and expert commentary.
Our other co-founder, Dante Scott, possesses valuable business and technical expertise in the web 3 field. He serves as CEO/CTO of Onessus, a web 3 company he co-founded with his father in 2018. During his tenure, Dante successfully developed and launched numerous blockchain applications and games while managing a team of over 40 employees. Dante’s skill set is instrumental in bridging the gap between web 2 and web 3 gaming for ACE.
DAO Members / Players
Here are our founding DAO members, but once our proposal passes we want to immediately begin sourcing talent as potential genesis additions to the DAO.
1. Ops
Earnings: $1.5 Million
2. Innocents
Earnings: $800,000
Past team: Ghost Gaming and CubeXgg
3. Xolaf
Earnings : Net Profit $600k / Net Revenue $3,600,000 (dookey dash)
4. CirrusNFT
- ACE DAO Advisor
OVERALL COST
Total Cost:
52K $APE ($200K~) - Non-refundable
+ Refundable - 130K $APE ($500K~) Fully staked for ACE on behalf of ApeCoin DAO, yield used to sustainably fund tournaments in perpetuity.
Expenditures
Bi-Weekly Prize Money: $5K (Funded through staked $Ape yield)
- 130K $APE to be staked on behalf of ACE. This $Ape is fully refundable at the end of our proposal cycle if the DAO is not fully happy with our performance. We will only be using the yield from the staked $Ape to fund tournaments, and any surplus yield to help fund other expenses. Prizes may be dynamically adjusted if the price of $Ape appreciates or depreciates.
Team Cost: $200K + Surplus $Ape yield
- Full-Stack Blockchain Development
- Security Audits
- Marketing / Content Creation
- Merch design and prototyping
- Management
- Players
- Genesis DAO Member rewards
LONG TERM VISION - Ideas Beyond This Proposal
It is important to emphasize that ACE embodies a long-term vision. We want to start small and simple to make our entry into this market, and also to show the ApeCoin DAO that we have a team of executors that are deeply passionate about what we’re building. Below are some ideas that we have curated that are NOT a part of this proposal, but that we would love to begin building later this year once we’ve established ACE as a brand within the ESports ecosystem.
Development of Discord Integrated E-Sports League
In 2019, our co-founder Dante claimed first place in the DAPP Network Hackathon with the present concept. The judge panel comprised eminent figures in the crypto industry such as Ran Neuner and Brock Pierce, thereby validating both the concept and prototype. Regrettably, the timing was not opportune to launch such a product in 2019.
The idea is rather simple: establish an ApeCoin powered ESports league within Discord, enabling users to matchmake with opponents, compete, and rank up, all on a single platform. Our innovative decentralized referee system will protect our ecosystem from cheaters while incentivizing non-competitors to make money by serving as referees and ensuring the security of our decentralized league. This system operates similarly to how miners in Bitcoin secure the network, albeit on a considerably smaller scale. It’s important to note this system will NOT be for wagering/gambling in any way shape or form. Only to act as a scalable competitive platform that we can provide free ApeCoin rewards within. Please refer to the flowchart below for a brief overview of how the referee system operates.
Collateral as ApeCoin
Development of Discord Integrated Player <> Investor Marketplace
We have identified a significant market demand for boosting services, which was demonstrated during the Dookey Dash event where millions of dollars were paid to boosters by sewer pass holders to achieve high ranks. We anticipate this demand will continue to increase over the next few years, and we aim to capitalize on this paradigm shift coming from web 3 gaming.
To achieve this goal, we have identified several core issues that need to be addressed, namely: 1) difficulty for boosters to find clients, and vice versa, 2) middlemen exploiting the market demand through arbitrage, and 3) scammers taking advantage of the demand and engaging in fraudulent activities resulting in banned passes.
To tackle these issues, we propose the establishment of a specialized marketplace for boosting services that caters to a wide range of games. By doing so, we can ensure fair and equal deals for all participants while minimizing the risk of fraudulent activities. Our existing referee system smart contracts from the E-Sports league can be utilized as an escrow system to facilitate deals. And all of this happening directly through Discord.
In summary, we aim to provide a reliable and secure platform for boosting services that caters to the growing demand and ensures a fair and equal experience for all parties involved.
Our apps will be built with…
- Solidity
- ExpressJS
- DiscordJS
- NodeJS
- React
- MongoDB
- WalletConnect (Or other)
.
