YGG TV: Leading a Web3 Esports Team with YGG Elite’s Captain Disi
In this episode of YGG TV, Community Marketing Manager John Sedano and YGG Elite Captain Disi discuss what it’s like to be the leader of one of the top-ranking teams in the Axie esports scene.
YGG TV is an online show produced by Yield Guild Games (YGG) where community members can tune in to learn more about blockchain gaming, discover the latest games, and stay up to date on activities in the web3 space. John Sedano, YGG’s Community Marketing Manager, spearheads the production of YGG TV episodes, which are released every Thursday at 9 p.m. SGT.
In this episode, John Sedano and Disi, YGG Elite’s Team Captain, talk about blockchain’s impact on esports and its athletes, the challenges of being a web3 esports team captain, and how YGG Elite communicates as a group to quickly adapt to the ever-changing metagames of Axie Infinity.
The following is an excerpt from the episode. Watch the full recording on YouTube.
Get to know YGG Elite Captain, Disi! How does he manage leading a Web3 esports team? #YGGTV
Sedano (2:47): How do you think blockchain will influence or change esports as we know it?
Disi (2:53): I think the main difference with blockchain, in terms of esports, is that most players own what they compete with. There's also a lot of crypto and NFT prizes involved that are immediately obtained by the competitors. Since the players immediately get what they play for, they are more incentivized.
Sedano (3:20): It's a lot more exciting that there are new instruments that are put into play here. So it's not as straightforward as in web2 games where you join a tournament and then you get your prize if you win. Now we're talking about NFTs, and we even have NFT trophies awarded. If I'm not mistaken, YGG Elite was able to bag the first NFT trophy of the YGG Managers Cup back in 2021. So there are a lot of opportunities that can come from the convergence of esports and blockchain games, and that’s pretty exciting.
As a team captain, you are always meeting new people who are joining the competitive scene and who might be curious about the scene. Can you give us more info on any challenges that come with competing in Axie Infinity? And how do you and your teammates work around said challenges?
Disi (4:25): The challenging part was finding the right people as the competitive space in web3 is very new. Even though there's a lot of people with different backgrounds from web2 games, you still can’t say that those guys would be the best. That was the challenge before. Another challenge is that web3 gaming is global. We’ve been meeting different people from different cultures. It's not always that you would be able to understand each other’s culture. But it's interesting because we always try to make our team as close as possible so that we can freely share ideas. That was very important when we built YGG Elite.
Sedano (5:20): In terms of communication, you have an obstacle that you have to get through. Let's say you're joining a tournament, or you have to fight in a new metagame or style of play. You have to come up with a new strategy. How do you approach communicating with your teammates? How does your role as team captain come into play?
Disi (5:38): We've been together for more than a year now. So there's definitely a lot that has happened to us as a team. Something that I can definitely remember is that for some seasons, there's different metagames or styles of play. Luckily, we have different players with different skill sets and play styles. So we try to utilize those players when there is a metagame that fits their play style. We hear that guy's opinion. First, it's very important that you can trust your teammate, especially in this scene. People might think that Axie Infinity is just like a single-player competitive game. But you may realize because of the different web3 esports organizations out there, like YGG Elite, that team effort is very important in trying to win the tournaments in a season.
You can watch the full episode on the Yield Guild Games YouTube channel.
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