Philippine Web3 Festival: Uncovering Possibilities with Web3 Esports
In this panel discussion, YGG Head of Esports Mike Ovecka talks about the difference between web2 and web3 esports and how decentralization can empower players with ownership rights.
The Philippine Web3 Festival was a week-long event held November 14-18, 2022, in BGC, Metro Manila, that showcased the future of web3 by bringing together a variety of games, guilds, NFT projects and crypto VCs to the epicenter of web3 adoption, the Philippines. The event also featured an esports tournament, a hackathon and a flagship conference with renowned thought leaders to discuss what the future holds for web3 and its adoption.
This esports panel was moderated by Een Mercado, gaming content creator at YGG Pilipinas. The panelists were Mike Ovecka, Head of Esports at YGG, where he oversees the recruitment, coaching, and management of the YGG esports team, Nix Eniego, Philippines Lead at Axie Infinity, Sascha Jochum, Head of Web3 at Ampverse, an esports entertainment company building world-class teams, talent and products across esports and Web3, and Joe Josue, co-founder and CEO at MetaSports, an organization aiming to reimagine esports and gaming for web3.
The panelists discussed how the integration of blockchain technology in gaming can shake things up in the competitive web3 gaming scene.
The following is an excerpt from the second day of the Philippine Web3 Festival. Watch the full recording here.
PHWeb3Fest - Esports for Blockchain Gaming
Een (2:07:25): We'll be talking about web3 esports, and it's an interesting topic because in every game that we play, there's an esports aspect to it. There's a competition level. So I want to ask our panel today, what is the difference between web2 and web3 esports?
Mike (2:10:59): I’d like to point out that automatic payments is a huge component of web3 esports and it's not just tournament platforms that can facilitate instant payments after tournaments are done. For example, at the AxieCon tournament [in Barcelona, September 2022], the players got the payment right after the tournament was executed. That's unheard of in web2 esports.
On top of that, we also have leaderboard rewards in games. Previously, I worked at Blizzard and players would never get rewarded for placing in leaderboards, and now, you have AXS rewards being sent out for placing on leaderboards. So that's a huge component of the difference between web2 to web3 esports.
Een (2:13:54): I want to ask Mike and Nix since we have a lot of tournaments happening right now, so what kind of value can individual players unlock in the competitive scene of web3?
Mike (2:14:21): I think we're very early, so content creators and competitors can really build a brand for themselves right now. On top of the monetary benefits, if they have asset ownership, the assets can both appreciate and depreciate. So that's one thing, and then content creation is a huge part of it. You can build a community that is really bought in because you can have these technology stacks that can enable them to have ownership of their own brand. Imagine a Twitch streamer who has a token or some sort of ownership component to it where the community has a vested interest in their success. So I think that's a big part of it.
Nix (2:15:03): I agree with that. Building a brand in gaming has never been this easy, especially if you could partner with games like Axie. We empower our players to create content and share it with the community. That’s why we have the Creator Program and the partnership with Nas Academy. We want players to feel that they’re not just playing mindlessly but also because they’re enjoying it and having that sense of accomplishment and progressing in their gaming career. We want to provide opportunities for that as well.
You can watch the full discussion on YouTube.
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