Web3 RPG Guild of Guardians to Drop Playable Characters With World-Leading Esports Orgs
16 brand-new Guardians have been announced for the upcoming ImmutableX mobile RPG, representing Cloud9, Fnatic, T1 and more!
JANUARY 18, 2023. NEWS. WRITTEN BY JENZ ALIPAR.
The partnership between blockchain gaming and esports grows even stronger!
Guild of Guardians, an upcoming mobile action RPG developed by Stepico and published by Immutable Games Studio, have announced the next phase of their partnership with 8 of the world’s top esports organisations, introducing 16 esports-branded Guardians into the game.
Cloud9, Fnatic, NAVI, Ninjas in Pyjamas, NRG, SK Gaming, T1 and Team Liquid will each be represented by two different in-game Guardians; one available for direct purchase, and one obtained through gameplay. Each of these Guardians will be an NFT, allowing them to be traded on third-party marketplaces – including AtomicHub, who will release their ImmutableX integration in Q1 this year.
Justin Hulog, Chief Studio Officer at Immutable Games Studio, said:
“This is a one-of-a-kind partnership that brings together the top esports teams and their fans around the world, and introduces them to the Guild of Guardians ecosystem in an intimate and seamless way. By leveraging Web3 technology, we can offer fans a different way to engage with their favourite teams, thanks to the utility and digital ownership rights provided by these next-gen collectibles.”
Pietro Fringuelli, Chairman of the Executive Board at The World Esports Association, noted:
“It’s exciting to have some of the most renowned esports brands deeply integrated into a game like Guild of Guardians. This offers a great opportunity to enable closer interactions between fans and teams, and we can’t wait to see more possibilities like this emerge in future.”
On February 8, 2023 at 23:00 UTC, players will be able to buy special “summons” to receive a random, tradeable esports-branded Guardian in Legendary rarity. This limited-run of 16,000 summons are available for purchase until February 16 at 01:00 UTC or whilst stocks last, never to be made available again.
These new Guardians will offer owners a wide range of both in-game and out-of-game benefits; exclusive experiences, early access to leaderboards and token rewards, and generous prize pools, which will be rolled out across three phases that we’ve previously covered.
Purchased Guardians will be available to use after Guild of Guardians’ Alpha release, currently slated for Q3-Q4 2023.
Bo Kryne, VP of Product at esports org Team Liquid, also added:
“The ecosystem health of IMX creates the conditions for a long and meaningful partnership for us. Team Liquid is not interested in participating in speculative crypto projects that impersonate as video games, only to extract resources from their player base and benefit a small group of token holders. We’re happy to see that Guild of Guardians is developed as a high quality game first and foremost, and ultimately, that’s the main reason for us entering this partnership.”
For more information on the Guild of Guardians x Esports partnership, and to purchase an exclusive summon, head to the Guild of Guardians website.
Opinion
We covered the initial Guild of Guardians x Esports announcement way back in September (an age in Web3, right?), so it’s great to see Phase 1 spring into action.
Esports is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world right now, and with icons such as Faker, s1mple and TenZ taking competitive gaming fandom to new heights, seeing top-tier organisations stake their reputation on an upcoming Web3 title is a big win for blockchain gaming.
I can’t help but thinking… with all these esports brands on-board, and the blessing of The World Esports Association, will we see a highly-competitive aspect to the upcoming mobile RPG? Hmm…
