Guild of Guardians (GOG), a mobile squad-based action RPG game published by Immutable Games Studio, have announced the next step in their partnership with the world’s leading esports organisations, including NAVI, T1, NRG, and others, which will introduce 16 exclusive esports-themed Guardians to the game.
Immutable Games Studio chief studio officer Justin Hulog said, “This is a one-of-a-kind partnership that brings together the top esports teams and their fans from around the world, and introduces them to the Guild of Guardians ecosystem to players in an intimate and seamless way.By leveraging web3-native gameplay mechanics and 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.”
Each of GOG’s eight partner esports teams — Cloud9, Fnatic, NAVI, Ninjas in Pyjamas, NRG, SK Gaming, T1, and Team Liquid — will be represented by two different in-game Guardians, obtainable in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), amounting to 16 in total. Eight of the new collectibles will be available for purchase exclusively while another eight Guardians will be available by playing the game.
“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 by enabling closer interactions between fans and teams, and we can’t wait to see more possibilities like this emerge in the future,” noted The World Esports Association (WESA) chairman of the executive board Pietro Fringuelli.
Team Liquid VP of product Bo Kryne said: “There are two factors that convince us Guild of Guardians is the right opportunity for Team Liquid. The ecosystem health of IMX creates the conditions for a long and meaningful partnership for us – something that Liquid is very keen on as we only believe in projects that offer lasting value for their users. The second factor is the approach to the development of GOG – ultimately what we are endorsing and promoting to our audience is a game title that puts gameplay and quality of the product first. 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 are happy to see that Guild of Guardians is developed as a high quality game first and foremost and ultimately that is the main reason for us entering this partnership.”
Starting on 8 February 2023 at 6:00pm US EST, players will be able to buy special “summons” to receive a random tradeable Guardian of Legendary rarity that is a part of the special Early Adopters collection. Each of these summons — 16,000 in total — will be available for purchase until 15 February at 8:00pm US EST or as long as supply lasts. Guardians will be playable in Guild of Guardians after the Alpha release.
Another eight digital collectible characters modelled after the partner teams will be earnable by playing the game and won’t ever be available for sale.
The new Guardians will offer owners a wide range of utility with both in-game and out-of-game benefits, from playable, in-game experiences to early access to leaderboards and token rewards and generous prize pools, which will be rolled out in a series of phases.
- Phase 1: IP Integration – Guardians will natively be integrated into the GOG universe via playable characters after the Alpha release, with unique synergies for using certain combinations of Guardians in the same squad. Owning an esports hero will make it easier to earn additional esports content that is introduced in the future – such as team pets.
- Phase 2: Leaderboard Competitions – Guild of Guardians will introduce a democratised esports system where anyone can participate and compete for leaderboard rewards as both individual players and guilds.
- Phase 3: New Game Modes – Esports NFT holders will also gain access to special in-game rewards, unique synergies for using certain combinations of Guardians in the same squad, and out-of-game rewards such as unique merch opportunities and VIP access to upcoming events.
Announced last fall, the partnership signifies the largest web3 partnership within the esports community to date. Esports continues to increase in popularity with a projected revenue of $1 billion for the first time in 2022 and an estimated 29.6 million monthly viewers, an 11.5 per cent increase from 2021.
