G2 Esports NFTs are here and fans of the LEC franchise are very angry about it.
The European esports organization announced the
SamuraiArmyNFT
in collaboration with Metaplex, a fan club hosted on Solana, the blockchain platform. The effort follows TSM FTX a
blockbuster partnership
between esports organization TSM and cryptocurrency platform FTX.
Why are fans mad about G2 Esports NFTs?
G2 Esports fans are frustrated about the NFT drop due to distrust in NFTs as a whole due to the abundant scams and adverse environmental impact.
The concept of G2 Esports’ outing into NFTs is relatively simple. Fans can purchase one of 6,262 different Samurai-themed NFTs based on G2 Esports’ logo. Ownership of these NFTs acts as a lifetime pass to an unspecified fan club with exclusive content and behind-the-scenes peeks for G2 fans.
Gaming fans have been pretty outspoken about their dislike for NFTs in the space, given Ubisoft announcing and then immediately canceling a Ghost Recon NFT effort, and something similar happening with the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The situation was no different here, with plenty of community figures telling G2 that this wasn’t a good look.
Those who voiced support were drowned out by those in line with casters Clayton “Captain Flowers” Raines and Aaron “Medic” Chamberlain who criticized the organization.
How do NFTs work?
An NFT is a way of registering ownership of an item, generally a piece of media, via a blockchain. In layman’s terms, it’s effectively a certificate of authenticity for an image or video.
Each NFT is unique and can therefore hold differing values. The abundance of similar-looking apes and filling up Twitter timeline, the differentiation in an outfit and other pieces is often the specific variation that distinguishes them and gives them differing value.
G2’s samurai avatars’ registered owners will allegedly be able to access exclusive content thanks to their SamuraiArmy NFT, but the details remain unclear of what that looks like. Other teams have ventured into fan club efforts, but neither Team Liquid nor Cloud9, who have similar systems, chose to involve NFTs or blockchain infrastructure as a part of their implementation. The most notable NFT endeavor in esports came from
Dota 2 and Counter-Strike organization OG
which purportedly made over $1 million from its NFT drop.
Nicholas James
About Nicholas James
Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.
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