From the CEO’s Desk

Hello, #ZoneArmy!

Congratulations to all of you on Zone’s upgraded mainnet launch! I know the community has been waiting patiently for the launch. However, I am glad we took the time to make sure the ZONE community got the gaming experience that they deserve.

Thanks to everyone who played on the testnet, provided us feedback and reported bugs — you rock!

Get prepared for more play and earn opportunities with the ZONE mainnet launch and several other planned upgrades, with new games in the coming weeks. Crypto market downturns have historically proven to be wonderful opportunities to build, and we have been building constantly. With or without a downturn, Zone’s objective has been to deliver you the best user experience and gameplay in web3.0.

During the creation of the upgraded infrastructure for Zone, we were in constant contact with the community, listening to their feedback regarding games and formats. The upgraded mainnet launch is a result of all the feedback and our constant endeavour to make gameplay more fun and engaging for you, ZoneArmy. Zone is designed to be a social gaming platform and a decentralized platform where gamers love to spend their time to play and earn. The answer after months of iterations — Hypercasual games! Gaming for everyone!

Hypercasual Games #InTheZone

Easy to learn & play, addictive, minimalistic in nature, and made for every demographic — Hypercasual games are witnessing unprecedented growth.

In 2017, the genre took a 17% share of downloads in the mobile gaming sector among the top 1,000 titles. One year later, hypercasual games became the largest genre for downloads, and the sector has continued to expand its share further in 2020 to 31% of all installs.

Source:https://sensortower.com/blog/mobile-game-taxonomy-report-2021

Revenues in hypercasual games have also seen a considerable rise over the past couple of years. It is evident that hypercasual games have established their dominance in the gaming industry and changed the way gamers engage. Zone’s hypercasual games have been structured with keeping the user experience as the highest priority. Unlike several other clunky and hard-to-use blockchain gaming projects, games and payouts on Zone are super-fast thanks to the Algorand blockchain. The platform achieves this while preserving gameplay while providing enhanced Web3.0 features.

Our accelerated development roadmap has seen the integration of multiple hypercasual games into the Zone gamefi platform. Keeping with the hypercasual spirit, the gameplay and participation mechanics on Zone are structured to be powered by micro-transactions as little as 10 cents along with free-to-play pools.

Since the launch of hypercasual games on the Zone testnet a few weeks ago, we have seen over 200,000 games played! These numbers are just scratching the surface but validate the demand for hypercasual games in the web3 ecosystem as a means to play and earn.

Zone’s Game Developer Program

Zone is in the process of partnering up with game developers and gaming studios from around the world to bring a variety of popular games to the platform.

We will soon announce the launch of our Game Developer Program aimed to help independent developers improve their games with Zone’s web3 integration. Zone’s objective is to provide them with an alternative and efficient model of monetization led by microtransactions rather than conventional in-app purchases and advertisements.

To prepare for the Game Developer Program, Zone became the Hypercausal Booster Partner for Istanbul’s Winconf 2022. Members of the team met with several developers who were looking for platforms like Zone to launch their games to Web3.0. Up next, find us at Gamescom, Germany. In the coming months, you will see the results of these strategic partnerships.

ZONE Token Burning Announcement

With our upgraded mainnet going live, we will initiate regular tokens buyback and burn based on the gaming activity of the Zone platform. More details will be published soon, but in essence, the more games users play on the platform, the more they get rewarded and the more tokens we will buy back and burn from the market. So, #JustPlay!

Web3 Partner For Bowling and AFK Elephants

In February of this year the parent company of Zone, XTZ Esports acquired the media, betting, city, merchandise, esports, NFT and Metaverse rights to the sport of bowling from the International Bowling Federation in a multi-year 9 figure deal. Zone is all set to be the Web3.0 partner for bowling. We are looking forward to showing you what we have been building to bridge the gap between real-world sports, esports and Web3.0.

We had previously announced that AFK holders will have limited reserved seats at the IBF Bowling World Cup on a first-come-first-served basis (Depending on venue capacity). In addition, the owners of Mythical AFK Elephants will get enlisted for a unique experience at the World Bowling League events! I hope to see you all there.

Zone’s Cross-Chain Integration

Many of you noticed the upcoming wallet integrations on the platform.

Zone was always designed to be a multi-chain gaming platform and I am excited to announce that Zone will be going cross-chain in the upcoming weeks on Solana first, followed immediately by Polygon and other popular chains. The Zone token will also be made available on these chains in the coming months.

Our vision is to make Zone the de-facto decentralized gamefi platform in Web3.0. We want to enable Web2.0 gamers and gamers from any chain to compete against participants from other blockchains without degrading their experience or involving complicated bridging mechanisms.

Every blockchain has its strengths and weaknesses but a cross-chain future means the Zone platform will be accessible to all. Now, the #ZoneArmy can become very large, very fast. The wait is over! Just play and earn on zone.game!

Best,

Adi K Mishra

CEO, Zone

Announcing Zone Mainnet: Gaming for everyone! Any device, Multi Chain, Play and Earn was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hello, #ZoneArmy!

Zone Top Gun is now live on ZONE Mainnet. Top Gun allows the users to compete in solo challenges on Zone! This is in addition to the Zone Battleground mode which allows for team vs team battles!

Understanding ZONE Top Gun

1. Zone Top Gun is the solo challenge mode that allows players to compete directly for top positions on leaderboards.
2. Top-10 players are rewarded with varying percentages of the total pool prize according to their ranks in the pool.
3. Players will receive 3 tries to score points and ultimately only their highest score will count towards their leaderboard score. Each ‘try’ will last for 3 minutes and at the end of 3 minutes, the game will stop and the score will be submitted.
4. There will be 2 pool types for Zone Top Gun: Play & Earn Pools and Game Farms. The Play & Earn pools are pools with an entry fee and their prize pool keeps growing as more players join the Pool. In contrast, Game Farms are pools that have fixed rewards.
5. Both the pools will be rolling pools with each pool lasting for 15 minutes. Players can join the pools any time during those 15 minutes except when there is only one minute left, in which case, the pool won’t accept new players.

How to Play in ZONE Top Gun

Step 1 — Visit zone.game

Step 2 — Click on connect wallet and scan the QR code with your Pera Algo Wallet/MyAlgo Wallet.

Step 3 — After connecting the wallet successfully, sign the wallet verification transaction. This is only for security purposes and if you have already verified your wallet in the last 24 hours, you can skip this step.

Step 4— After verifying your wallet successfully, select “Zone Top Gun” from the game bar.

Step 5— Select your game.

Step 6— Pay the entry fee by clicking on the sign transaction button and approve the transaction from your wallet.

Step 7— Once the transaction is approved, you can start playing. For each pool, a user will get 3 attempts. In these 3 attempts, the highest score scored by each player will be considered for the final leaderboard ranking.

Results:

Only the highest score from all the attempts will be considered

Players who rank in the Top-10 will be the winners. The rewards will be distributed according to the table shown below. The rewards are distributed as soon as all the players in that pool finish playing.

In case two or more players score the same, the time taken to score will be considered and ranks will be assigned accordingly.

If both the score and time taken by 2 or more players are the same, the ranks will be assigned on the basis of FCFS-First come first served, meaning the person who joined the pool first gets the higher rank.

Head over to zone.game to begin playing in Top Gun now #ZoneArmy!

Launching ZONE Top Gun — Solo Challenge In The Zone was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Zone is building the gamefi ecosystem for all. Zone is the ultimate social gaming platform on web3 with some of the most popular games in existence. These hypercausal games are loved by millions and are easy to play and earn. Start playing now at: https://zone.game

Today, Zone is launching the much awaited Mainnet with 2 gaming modes -Zone Battleground & Zone Top Gun going live on Algorand blockchain. Zone allows users to compete in multiplayer tournaments in teams or solo challenges.

The following popular hypercasual games have been added to the Zone platform:

1. Cubeform
2. Flip Jump
3. Hoop Star
4. X-Trench Run
5. Samurai Rampage

Let’s do a deep dive into these games one by one.

Hoop Star

Game Description — Move the hoop to catch the basketball. Don’t miss a single ball!

Features:

-Simple and addictive gameplay
-Score bonus and combo points with perfect catches
-Unlock different balls as you score higher

Scoring:

- Get +1 score when you successfully sink the ball
- Get +2 score when you perfectly sink the ball without touching the rim for the first time
- Get +3 score when you perfectly sink the ball without touching the rim in a row

Cubeform

You’re a happy, happy ball bouncing forward. Unfortunately, the cube platforms ahead are constantly changing. Rotate the platforms to provide a safe path for yourself.

The longer you bounce without touching the obstacles, the higher score multiple you’ll get.

Features:

- The music is fire!
- Different filters and effects to enhance your gaming experience. Choose from monochrome, pitch black and space blue
- Extremely easy controls. Tap left or tap right to rotate
- Easy to play, hard to master

X-Trench Run

Avoid obstacles and take out the turrets in this space simulation game. As the nation’s star cadet, fly your X- Fighter wing deep into the enemy trench, disable enemy laser gates and hunt the boss. It’s up to you to win this space war! Stay on course, don’t crash, and use your intuition!

Features:

-Endless mode with increasing difficulty
-Highly repetitive five star gameplay. Every round is different.
- Exciting boss fights. Earn your stars and stripes.
- Fast and energetic music
- Mobile and desktop friendly controls

Scoring:

Get +1 score when passed an obstacle safely (Normal and Laser Walls)
-Get +5 when destroyed a turret
-Get +50 when defeated a boss

Flip Jump

Flip Jump has our very own AFK Elephants in the game!

Choose your AFK Elephant. Tap, hold and release to jump. Jump from one platform to the next.

How far can you jump?

Features:

- Simple, 1 touch gameplay

Scoring:

• Get +1 score when successfully landed on a platform
  -Get +5 score when perfectly landed in the middle of platform

Samurai Rampage

Tap to slash the demons before they get to you. Score combos by executing a variety of cool attacks. Fight challenging bosses.

Scoring:

Slash the demons to defeat them and score points. Slashing the boss will reward more points. Perform combos and get score multipliers, maximum up to 10x.

What are you waiting for #ZoneArmy, #JustPlay now at https://zone.game

ZONE’s Ultimate Hypercasual Games — Gaming For All! was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today, Zone is launching the much awaited Zone Mainnet on the Algorand blockchain, With this Zone Battleground is also live now, battleground allows users to compete in multiplayer tournaments in teams.

The following popular hypercasual games have been added to the Zone platform:

1. Cubeform
2. Flip Jump
3. Hoop Star
4. X-Trench Run
5. Samurai Rampage

Understanding Zone Battleground

1. Zone Battleground is a team vs team game mode where players are automatically assigned teams and the team with the highest score wins the prize pool.
2. The players in the winning team are rewarded equally.
3. There are 2 pool types for Zone Battleground: Play & Earn Pools and Game Farms. The Play & Earn pools are pools with an entry fee and and the prize pool keeps growing as more players join the Dynamic Pool. Game Farms are free to play pools and have fixed rewards.
4. All the pools are rolling pools with each pool lasting for 15 minutes. Players can join the pools any time during those 15 minutes except when there is only one minute left, in which case, the pool won’t accept new players.
5. Players will receive 3 tries to score points and ultimately only their highest score will count toward their team score. Each ‘try’ will last for 3 minutes and at the end of 3 minutes, the game will stop and the score submitted.
6. The team score is the average of all the players’ highest scores for a certain pool.

How to Play in ZONE Battleground

Step 1- Visit zone.game

Step 2- Connect wallet.

Step 3- After connecting the wallet successfully, sign the wallet verification transaction. This is only for security purposes.

Step 4- Choose from the variety of pools of different games and reward sizes in which you want to compete/play.

To play in Play To Earn Pools

Step 5- Sign the transaction from your wallet. You will have to pay a participation fee.

Step 6- Click on “Play Now” and start playing. You will have 3 chances to score your highest!

For Game Farms Pools

Step 5- Click on “Free”

Step 6- Click on “Play Now”

Leaderboards:

Players will be able to access the live leaderboard of each pool. Simply click on the leaderboard button after playing the game once.

The leaderboard will display your scores and based on that, your rank in the leaderboard. Higher your score, higher your rank will be.

Results:

The highest score from all the attempts will be considered for individual players.

The total team score will be the average of all the individuals’ highest scores in that team.

Whichever team scores the highest wins and rewards will be distributed equally among all the players in the winning team. The rewards are distributed as soon as all the players in that pool finish playing.

To check out your previous game results, head over to your profile section at https://zone.game/profile

Key points:

• You can participate in each pool only once.
• For participating once in any pool, you get 3 attempts to play the particular game.
• Each game session will be of 3 minutes only, meaning the score will be automatically submitted after 3 minutes of gameplay.
• You can not participate in any pool after the 1 minute mark is displayed.

Head over to zone.game to begin playing now #ZoneArmy!

Launching ZONE Battleground — The Greatest Team Battle Experience On web3 was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

🐘AFK Elephants are the most intelligent species in the metaverse and the native utility NFTs of the ZONE gamefi ecosystem. AFK NFTs offer massive utility both in the real world and in the Algorand ecosystem. With each AFK NFT comes 👇
🍾Access to all ZONE events
🚀 Access to Z PAD Launchpad
🎭Pseudonymous identities and ✈️Weekly ZONE airdrops!

The most awaited AFK Elephants NFT utility, the ‘Weekly $ZONE Airdrop’ ✈️is now live! Every week, 50,000 $ZONE will be airdropped to AFK holders collectively.💰 The first batch of ZONE airdrops will go live today at 6:30 pm UTC!

•Holders will get the weekly airdrop in ZONE tokens directly in their wallets👛 holding the AFK NFT.

Make sure you have opted-in the correct ZONE ASA in the wallet which holds the AFK, ZONE ASA ID is — 444035862.

📌Note — If during the weekly airdrop, any wallet holding the AFK NFT has not opted-in to the ZONE token, they won’t be able to claim the airdrop at a later time. They will have to wait for the next week’s airdrop.

If you haven’t opted-in to the ZONE ASA already, follow the steps below to opt-in.👇

Step 1- Go to your wallet and search for the Zone ASA ID “444035862”. A token will appear on the screen with this ASA ID.

Step 2- Select that token, your wallet will ask if you want to opt-in to the token, click on “Opt-in”.

Step3- Click on Opt-in and approve the transaction.

You have successfully opted-in the ZONE ASA in your wallet.

•If you hold multiple AFKs in the same wallet, no worries, you’ll get airdrop rewards for each AFK in the same wallet.

•There is no advantage/disadvantage for holding more AFKs in the same wallet.

•There is no advantage/disadvantage for AFKs bought from the secondary market.

•If you have listed the AFK NFT to be sold at any secondary marketplace, unless the NFT is in your wallet during the airdrop, you won’t be able to receive the ZONE tokens. For example, if your NFT is the marketplace escrow account, you won’t receive the airdrop.

•The airdrops will be given out from the ZONE airdrop/reward pool.

Below is the airdrop distribution for every AFK NFT rarity:

Mythic — 219.8141417 $ZONE/week

Legendary — 135.5996329 $ZONE/week

Super Rare — 47.54631936 $ZONE/week

Rare — 19.64990163 $ZONE/week

Uncommon — 12.5620473 $ZONE/week

Common — 11.34073715 $ZONE/week

• Each week, due to the remaining matching AFKs in circulation, and as they are returned and burnt, the reward amount might change slightly.

Wait, there’s more!

•ZONE has already announced that 🎳 AFK holders will have limited reserved seats at the IBF Bowling World Cup on a first-come-first-served basis depending on venue capacity plus Mythical AFK holders will get enlisted for a unique experience at the Bowling World Cup/World Bowling League event.

•Next up for AFK Elephants is PFP integration with the ZONE platform.

🐘Want an AFK Elephant NFT? Head over to our official collection at NFT Explorer and get some!

AFK Website: https://afkelephants.com/

ZONE Mainnet: https://play.zone.game/

Announcing 50K Weekly $ZONE Tokens Airdrop For AFK Elephants NFT Holders was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Zone has partnered with Algostake to offer multiple $ZONE staking pools!👏

 — @XTZ_ESPORTS

Algostake offers the largest selection of staking pools available on the Algorand blockchain with user-friendly, non-custodial staking. Your staked tokens stay in your wallet and users need only collect their rewards daily by claiming. For Algostake’s PRO subscribers, the rewards are sent to their wallets automatically. 👍

Currently, there are 2 ZONE staking pools live on Algostake:😮

1. ZONE-ZONE Staking with 50% APR
2. ZONE-ALGO LP(Tinyman) Staking with ~53.16% APR

All rewards are in $ZONE tokens. 😎

Follow the steps written below to stake your ZONE Tokens on Algostake and earn 50% APR.

👌How to stake your $ZONE and claim rewards

Step 1- Go to https://app.algostake.org/

Step 2- Connect wallet 👜

Step 3- Select the ZONE-ZONE staking pool from the pool list. You can also search for “ZONE” using the search bar 🔍 to quickly bring up all ZONE pools.

Step 4- After you click on the ZONE-ZONE pool, a screen similar to the one shown below will be displayed, click on “Stake”. ⛏️

📌NOTE — ⚠️You must have at least 1 ZONE Token in your wallet to qualify for staking.

Step 5- Once you click on the stake button, Algostake will need to verify your wallet. To verify, click on “VERIFY WALLET”. Verifying your wallet costs 0.001 Algos. This does not transfer any ZONE tokens. See the image below for more information. 👇

Step 6- Once you click on the verify wallet button, you need to approve the transaction from your wallet. Once verified, all your ZONE Tokens will be staked and you will see a screen similar to the one shown below. After you have staked, you will see a ‘My Claims’ section where you can claim your rewards. 💰

📌NOTE — Algostake takes random snapshots of your ZONE balance daily and gives out rewards accordingly. You won’t be able to claim rewards instantly as rewards are only given out once a day. Check back after 24 hours to claim your rewards. ⌛

Step 7- To claim the tokens, you can simply click on the claim button and approve the transaction, the reward tokens will be sent directly ➡️to your wallet.

📌NOTE — You don’t need to claim your rewards daily. All your daily rewards are accumulated 📈and you can claim them whenever you wish.

The process to stake ZONE-ALGO LP(Tinyman) on Algostake is also similar, so go to https://app.algostake.org/ now and stake!

😀Happy Staking #ZoneArmy! 🚀🚀🚀

How To Stake ZONE To Earn 50% APR 💎 was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Announcing Zone #JustPlay Rewards: The biggest in gamefi history!

Zone has launched a massive rewards program called #JustPlay for users of the ZONE platform worth 150,000 Algos!

Players will win randomized rewards randomly in ALGO when they play on Zone. What this means is that neither the amount of the reward is fixed nor is there a guarantee that you will win #JustPlay rewards.

#JustPlay rewards will be in addition to your winnings on the platform.

Randomized rewards will be given to both winners and losers on the platform randomly.

For example:

1. You play a solo challenge on Zone > You Win > You receive 20 ZONE as the winning amount> You might get 10 Algos as #JustPlay rewards!
2. You play a solo challenge on Zone > You lose > You receive 0 ZONE as the winning amount> You might get 5 Algos as #JustPlay rewards!

The same concept applies to the ‘Challenge Friend’ mode as well.

What are you waiting for? #JustPlay, go to https://play.zone.game/ now!

ZONE Announces 150,000 Algos #JustPlay Rewards Program was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Check eligibility-

To check if your NFT is unique, use the AFK Analyzer.

Step 1- Visit https://mint.zone.game/analyzer

Step 2- Enter your AFK Asset ID.

Your eligibility status will be displayed on the screen.

To find the Asset ID of the AFK you hold, follow the steps mentioned below:

Visit NFTExplorer https://www.nftexplorer.app/

Enter your wallet address

You will see the AFKs you own.

Click on the AFK you want the Asset ID for.

The Asset ID will be displayed below the NFT image

If eligible, follow the steps below to remint your AFK Elephant.

If eligible, how to claim your new AFK Elephant NFT

If eligible, you’ll be able to see an Algorand wallet address on-screen.

Step 1- Send your matching AFK Elephant NFT to the Algorand wallet address shown on-screen.

Step 2- Once you send the NFT successfully, visit https://mint.zone.game/

Step 3- Click on “Connect wallet” and connect your wallet.

Note- Make sure you have connected the same wallet on the claims portal that you used to send the matching NFT to the address on-screen.

If you have completed “Step 1” successfully, you’ll be able to see an AFK Elephant to claim. If you don’t see the AFK Elephant after 10 minutes of sending the NFT, contact support on our Discord server.

Step 4- Click on “opt-in”.

Step 5- Click on “Request claim”.

Your new AFK Elephant NFT will appear in your wallet.

If not eligible to claim a new AFK Elephant.

Congratulations! You don’t need to do anything, as the AFK Elephant you hold is ONE of its kind in the ZONE.

FAQs

Q1. Who all are eligible for the AFK reminting?

Anyone who owns AFK NFTs that have matching copies is eligible. The best way to find out is to use the AFK Analyzer.

Q2. I bought a matching AFK Elephant NFT from a secondary marketplace, am I eligible to remint the NFT?

Yes. Any wallet address that contains one of the matching NFTs is eligible to get a newly minted AFK Elephant from the claims portal.

Q3. How will we remint our AFK? How will the reminting process work?

You can check if your AFK has matching NFTs here and then follow the on-screen steps to send the matching NFT to the designated Algorand wallet address. After sending the NFT successfully you can claim your newly minted AFK NFT from the claims portal.

Q4. What will happen to the matching AFKs?

All the matching AFK Elephant NFTs will be removed from the circulation and destroyed.

Q5. Where can I send my matching AFK Elephant?

After you have used the AFK Analyzer to confirm you have a matching AFK, you can send your matching NFTs to the wallet address provided on-screen.

Q6. Where can I claim my reminted NFT?

You will be able to claim here: https://mint.zone.game/

Q7. I sent my matching AFK NFT. I can’t claim. It doesn’t show me any AFK on the claims portal.

If you have sent your matching AFK NFT to the on-screen address on AFK Analyzer, you should be able to see the newly minted AFK on the claims portal. If not, wait for 10 minutes and try again. If you are still not able to see your new AFK, raise a support ticket on the AFK Discord server.

Q8. Where and when will I be able to claim a fresh AFK Elephant for my matching NFT?

The claims portal to remint AFK Elephant is live now.

You can check your eligibility here — https://mint.zone.game/analyzer

If eligible, you can claim an AFK Elephant here https://mint.zone.game/ after you have sent your matching NFT to the address provided on the AFK Analyzer.

Q9. How does the allocation system work? What rarity level/rarity category NFT will I receive?

The reminted AFK Elephants will be completely randomly allocated to the wallets, any wallet reminting can get an AFK of any rarity.

Example — If you owned a matching AFK of common rarity, you can get mythical in reminting and vice versa.

Q10. Do early claimers get any advantage?

No, the distribution is completely randomized, there is no advantage to early claimers.

How to remint a unique AFK Elephant was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From the CEO’s Desk,

I came across e-sports around 3 years back and was completely blown away by the energy and enthusiasm in the industry. It was only second to what was witnessed previously in crypto while in Singapore.

Since then, we have been working on building and growing XTZ Esports into a large esports company. It took us 18 months of non-stop execution, experimentation, and exponential growth to reach scale. During this process, XTZ esports ended up training and owning the No. 1 Free Fire team in India and briefly one of the top Valorant teams in India. We realized that a key issue in the industry is building scalable and flexible production solutions. It took a significant amount of bootstrapped funds and R&D to build a remote, scalable production solution to host esports tournaments across several jurisdictions.

It was only after 20 months of working to create core tools did we decide to combine our efforts in crypto and esports to launch ZONE. ZONE is an enabler that empowers the platform to tap into the network effects of existing games, both real-world and digital.

ZONE smart contracts are powered by Reach (https://reach.sh/) on top of Algorand. As an analogy, this is like building a car while the axle and wheels are constantly changing and upgrading while making sure the car is moving forward in a straight line. We are excited by the developments in Algorand and are working hard to make sure everything is stable while working through the current constraints in the smart contracts. However, we are strong believers that this will pay off in the long term.

Today, I am excited to announce a massive sports rights acquisition deal that has taken immense personal resources.

XTZ Esports has acquired the rights to bowling from the International Bowling Federation:

https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/press-releases/story/Dubai_XTZ_Esports__International_Bowling_Federation_sign_nine_figure_tenyear_global_growth_partnership-ZAWYA20220221110747/

This provides the foundation for the next decade of XTZ Esports, and what ZONE will achieve for real-world sports.

Why Ten-Pin Bowling:

Bowling might seem like an odd choice as most of us view bowling as a recreational sport. However, the numbers are staggering.

Bowling is a centuries-old sport with more than 200 million bowlers who go bowling at least 4 times a year. Of these, 2–3 million bowlers around the world are professional athletes. With the right toolset and the introduction of new concepts, the sport can be re-imagined.

More importantly, it is a very interesting sport that is missing the right global push, and this is what the blockchain family and community has the power to do.

You can learn some interesting facts about the sport here:

The sport is increasingly present in pop culture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzMEk9_W6tU

Enabling ZONE for real-world sports:

Bowling is the closest sport to a real-world e-sport from everything that was assessed. This gives ZONE a front-line seat on striking! ZONE is primed for bridging real-world sports and the web3 world.

Potential tools from ZONE

• 1v1 challenges in bowling
• Fantasy sports across millions of professional athletes and aspiring athletes
• NFTs in sports to re-imagine team ownership

Potential tools from XTZ Esports

• Remote, scalable real-time production solution
• Tournament management solution
• Athlete profile management
• Record keeping and archives

Our objective, from day one, has been to move with the community and not restrict access to centralized participants so we can get constructive feedback to chart the course of a product at the intersection of esports and crypto. ZONE users need not FOMO; you are already on the ground floor!

XTZ Esports and ZONE in partnership, now bring in the next phase of evolution with real-world sports intersecting with esports and blockchain.

We had to hold back this news from the community for confidentiality reasons but our objective from the start has been to give the community a voice in this exciting adventure. Extending this sentiment, we are pleased to add a surprise announcement!

AFK holders will have limited reserved seats at the IBF Bowling World Cup on a first-come-first-served basis (Depending on venue capacity). Plus, the owners of Mythical AFK Elephants will get enlisted for a unique experience at the Bowling World Cup or the World Bowling League event.

Who knows, you might meet your favorite athlete or celebrity there.

While we build ZONE as the biggest gamefi ecosystem on web3, a platform that encompasses all of sports and gaming, I am confident the community will share the grand vision and opportunity presented to us all now — Re-imagining an entire sport with new tools and technology.

Welcome to the ZONE!

I invite ideas as we build the foundations of a very large project.

Adi K Mishra (https://twitter.com/adikmishra)

Ground Zero on ZONE with Sports Rights Acquisition was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NOTE- Before you try connecting your wallet to make a claim, make sure you have a minimum of 1 Algo in your wallet.

Step 1- Claims will go live at 12:00 PM UTC 19 FEB 2022!

Visit the claims portal. Link for the claims portal will be shared on our socials and will also be updated in this guide at 11:30 AM (UTC).

Step 2- Click on “Connect” to connect your wallet.

Step 3- After you connect your wallet, you will be able to see the NFTs to opt-in on your screen. Click on “Opt-in”. You will have to repeat this process for all the AFKs.

Step 4- After opting-in for the AFK Elephants, click on “Request Claim”. You will have to repeat this process for all the AFKs.

Step 5- Wait while the request is being processed.

Step 6- Congratulations! You are now one of the earliest AFK Holders in the ZONE.

How to Claim your AFK Elephants! was originally published in Zone GameFi on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.