Our Playbook + What to Expect in season0
gm GMs.
We can’t wait for season0 to start in June. While we are heads down building for the gameplay alpha, we wanted to share a recap of the VBA and dive deeper into what to expect during season0.
What is the VBA?
We are the Basketball League of the Metaverse — a community of hoops degens. We are basketball lovers, risk takers, and innovators. We are here to create a new way to experience sports and open a world of limitless possibilities.
Our vision is to create a basketball ownership experience that leads with VBA as a game and expands to culture at large.
The VBA is so much more than just a game.
Our Playbook (Roadmap)
At the VBA League Office, we plan to work in tandem with our GM community to build the league into a fun and competitive experience for everyone involved. Throughout the process, we will create not just a game, but a full ecosystem deserving of being the basketball league of the metaverse.
To get there, our initial playbook is made up of three phases. These ideas are exploratory and we hope to work as a team with our community to try new things, learn and improve the experience.
Phase I: Game Building
Phase II: Ecosystem Building
Phase III: Metaverse Building
Each phase signifies the primary focus — with investments made across the ecosystem and Metaverse throughout each prior phase.
Phase I: Game Building
season0 (playable game alpha) is focused on building the game.
This is an exploratory period where our GMs will play a critical role in helping shape the direction for what the VBA becomes long term. We know everything moves extremely fast in web3 and are committed to being agile in how we adapt and grow.
Our initial game will consist of assembling teams of VBA players to enter tournaments against opponents for rewards (see below for more details on rewards).
As we continue to develop, we are excited to try new things that could enhance the experience— such as additional paid entry contests, championship tournaments and brand partnerships.
Phase II: Ecosystem Building
After the core game and rule set is established, we will continue expanding and building out the rest of the VBA ecosystem.
As part of ecosystem expansion, we’ll explore transforming your team into a franchise by adding new assets like courts, coaches, trainers, etc. We will also explore options to improve your players through scouting, training, progression/regression/retirement, and much more. In addition to features that enhance the gameplay, we’ll also start trying things like introducing storylines and media to continue to expand the VBA experience for everyone.
Phase III: Metaverse Building
In Phase III, we plan to expand upon our ecosystem and entrench ourselves into culture at large through the VBA metaverse.
During this phase we plan to expand the VBA as a global brand that reaches millions of people. We want to establish ourselves not just as a game, but a massive, global community of basketball lovers, innovators and change makers.
The season0 Deep Dive
season0 will be an exploratory period for GMs and the League Office to try new things, learn, improve and shape the future of the VBA together.
Gameplay
When season0 begins in June, users will be able to enter their teams in weekly contests against opponents for rewards. Throughout the season, we’ll be trialing different forms of salary caps and contest formats to ensure that all GMs have the opportunity to flex their legendaries and have fun with a team of underdogs.
There will be one team per wallet and your lineup must consist of 5 of your players. Every VBA player NFT has a unique appearance, preferred position, rarity (from underdog to legendary), play style (ie pass first PG), skills (over 20 attributes!), and other biographical data like name, birthday, and seasons of experience. To start, you’ll only be able to see a player’s appearance, position, rarity, seasons of experience, and after playing in games, their stats too. Mechanisms for revealing attributes and play styles will be explored as a follow up. You’ll also be able to customize and change all your player names.
Setting your lineup will take place in a fantasy sports-like UI while live games will be play-by-plays similar to an ESPN box score.
And of course, for the teams that perform well each week, there will be rewards you can win. Keep reading.
season0 Rewards
100% of the proceeds from our initial mint and more will go towards the season0 prize pool! Giving our community at least 2000 SOL in rewards with even more options to come soon.
That’s right. We’re in this for the long term, and we believe your feedback will be critical to making the VBA into the best possible long term experience for the community. In the meantime, the development of the VBA metaverse will be directly funded by the $6M we raised from an amazing set of partners from the best crypto investors to multiple NBA teams to game leaders at Riot, EA, and 100Thieves.
With this in mind, season0 is an opportunity for us to learn and grow together while we set up the foundation of the league. We will explore a variety of different prize types, amounts, and distributions to ensure that there are fun and competitive modes for our community of holders. Specifics will be shared in advance of updates and it will be clear in the UI what contests have rewards to give holders transparency and clarity on what to expect.
Beyond the free entry contests, we also plan to explore additional features in season0 which could include: utility tokens / in-game currency, paid entry contests, and NFTs as rewards. These features may be follow ups to the version we launch in June — after we’ve given everyone a chance to get accustomed to our game and make adjustments for competitive gameplay. Expect the rewards from the free-to-play contests to ramp up slowly to make sure that people have a chance to understand the game before competing for higher rewards.
For paid entry contests, we’re considering adding these as a way for people to compete in higher stakes contests to earn more SOL and play more frequently. We see this as a fun new way for people to stack their crypto bags through competitive contests.
We will also be exploring a utility token or in-game currency for the VBA. These tokens could be tied directly to in-game utility such as discovering new talent or developing a players skills. More on all of these mechanics in future updates.
Lastly, thank you for joining us so far on this journey, we can’t wait to ball with you all in the metaverse.
Oh, and by the way, make sure you hold onto those season0 packs… you might need ’em later 🔑
