This post is to share my experience, thus far, playing NFL Rivals mobile app. And explain how I've come to earn almost $3,500 in Player Card NFT's, through the game.
Preface about feeling towards lack of NFT games and NFT Gaming space:
- I, like many of you have felt jaded towards the lack of useful NFT adoption and functionality in (enjoyable) mobile games.
- In most games I’ve seen that dev’s are too focused on a quick cash-in, rather than making a fun game, that adopts the benefits of end-user ownership. Which, has left the landscape of NFT games, largely a laughing stock.
- I wasn’t looking for an “NFT game to make some money”. I was looking for a game that I enjoy, where it happened to also return some of that invested time/energy/effort back to me, the end-user. Which, I do believe that NFT’s have the potential to solve.
- All that to be said, I went into this with VERY low expectations, and thinking of it as an experiment for me to understand what the NFT game scene really looks like. And as you’ll read below, given the unique seemingly early adoption I was able to take advantage of, I was excited to see it sink or swim, firsthand.
How I found out about ‘NFL Rivals’:
- In fall of last year I received an email that was announcing upcoming NFT drops (I believe it was a Coinbase news em).
- What caught my attention was ‘NFL’. In my experience, the NFL licensing rights are extremely difficult to obtain, and to my knowledge outside of Madden, not many (if any) other games were able to use the NFL license. Right away I was intrigued.
- The email alluded to an ‘Arcade style football game’ where you’d be able to play with/own/sell your players.
- To me, the whole thing sounded like Madden Ultimate Team, but actually getting to own your players.
- I am a long time EA NHL player, and can’t tell you how many hours/money I spent grinding an Ultimate Team, just to restart the next year. So, I was keen to see if this idea was legit.
- So the EM said that there would be drop of ‘Limited NFL Helmets’ that grants you early access to the beta and game, as wells ‘owning a club’, and included a drop date for the helmets, along with a Discord you could join.
Buying a Helmet and Beta Access:
- The Beta access helmet cost .14 ETH (at the time ETH was trading for around $1,300USD)
- When I logged on I saw that no one had purchased a Lions or Redskins helmet yet, so I grabbed one of each, and was lucky enough to get an early mint number for both. (Approximate cost = $364)
- After I got my helmets, there was months of waiting around in the Discord
- Many were offloading their helmets for substantial loss
- Most weren’t even sure what we had even bought.
- Until, early 2023 when they announced the beta would be released and the Helmet holders would get first access.
- Until Beta was announced/released, all we were going on was a couple screengrabs of gameplay in the Discord.
- As a beta participant we received a couple free NFT’s once the full release would be out as well
Grinding the Game and how I’ve ‘earn player cards’:
- Beta access was granted in February(ish) 2023 to anyone with an NFT Helmet.
- Beta listed for a few weeks, then the game took a break to work on some fixes identified in the beta, and came back for the full release in April - many weeks later.
- You get to ‘own a squad’ by purchasing a helmet, as I mentioned above. Anyone can purchase a helmet and create a squad. I own a couple ‘Squads’ because of my NFT helmets, which are basically clans that you join to help climb a leaderboard.
- Our ‘squad’ gets rewards each ‘season’ for how well it finishes.
- There is regular tournaments that occur where the top 250 / 100 / 80 / 50 etc. players win NFT player cards. The higher you finish in these tournaments, the more rewards you earn.
- The tournament prizes range from ‘NFT player packs’ to rare cards, legendary cards, and even mythic cards.
- I’ve basically never missed an event, and subsequently have been able to build my squad with the players that I’ve won since the start.
- There was 1 ‘collection prize’ where you had to collect a certain number and type of players, to earn a Mythic Tyreek Hill, early on - it was the only collection type of giveaway, but, I earned it through buying a couple players in the market place - and getting the Tyreek Hill Mythic as an airdrop. (You can see those costs below)
- Outside of the Tyreek Hill, all other players have been ‘won’
- I’ve also purchased some of my Legendary players by selling others that I’ve won, and using Myth (the ecosystem token), in my account - on their marketplace. But, to be clear, I’ve never added any currency outside of what was described below. (Essentially trading players around).
Time played:
- I haven’t missed many tournaments since the start.
- This has resulted in an estimated average of 20-40 min of gameplay per day (Average game is 4 min long @ 5-10 games per day + training games)
- Using that math, I’d estimate I’ve played the game about 1,200 minutes per month. Or, roughly 20 hours per month.
- @ roughly 5 months, I’m comfortable with estimating 100 hours played thus far.
- This does not account for time spent in the Marketplace, trading, researching and selling, etc. - for this I’d throw another 10 hours on.
- So we’ll say: 110 hours total in estimation
Costs incurred so far:
Collection of NFT players To date (9.24.23):
- 28 NFT Players in total
- 3 Mythical ; 20 Legendary ; 4 Epic ; 1 Rare
https://preview.redd.it/e3it58eogaqb1.jpg?2276&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=763f615a8875b96d5909d5afb56336f22841c68e
https://preview.redd.it/mj74fd8pgaqb1.jpg?2309&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a359e7c42e1841c988cf8ab501559f00f5be36c1
Value of 28 NFT Players in Current Market (9.24.23):
- Note: these values are based on the lowest current offerings and do not account for trading fees.
- Note: Estimates as of 9.24.23 @ 10:20AM CST
Kicker - Tyler Bass (Epic) = $28.16
RB Ezekiel Elliot (Epic) = $49.03
QB Dak Prescott Legendary) = $61.66
CB Devon Witherspoon Legendary) = $105.57
LB Will Anderson Jr. Legendary) = $156.10
CB Sauce Gardner Legendary) = $196.78
WR Garrett Wilson Legendary) = $119.05
WR Stefon Diggs Legendary) = $111.21
OL Zack Martin Legendary) = $72.69
TE Darren Waller Legendary) = $42.23
DT Chris Jones Legendary) = $281.54
OL Ronnie Stanley Legendary) = $30.97
RB Austin Eckler Epic) = $32.95
DE Greg Rousseau Legendary) = $109.57
DE Micah Parsons Legendary) = $63.37
FS Kevin Byard Legendary) = $168.14
SS Tyrann Mathieu Legendary) = $73.19
LB C.J. Mosley Legendary) = $53.80
OL Paris Johnson JR. Legendary) = $28.01
WR D.J. Moore Legendary) = $63.67
RB Sequin Barkley Legendary) = $42.24
WR Tyreek Hill Mythic) = $375.48
DE Nick Bosa Mythic) = $815.13
LB De’Vondre Campbell Epic) = $8.45
CB Pat Surtain II Mythic) = $985.48
WR A.J. Brown Legendary) = $105.80
Total trading value = $4,180.27
Final Calculations:
Value of Collection = $4,180.27
Cost for collection = $702
Time played for Collection = ~110 Hours
Total Return on investment = $3,478.27
Estimated hourly return = $31.62 / hour
TLDR - Through roughly 110 hours of playing NFL Rivals NFT based game, I’ve earned an estimated asset collection of $3,478.27. Working out to roughly $31USD / hour.
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