Introduction to Sorare

Intro

 I'm resurrecting this blog to talk about my latest hobby. About a month ago I became aware of a platform called Sorare. I was immediately intrigued as it combined a long-enjoyed hobby of mine (fantasy sports) with a very recent one (cryptocurrency & blockchain technology).

Think of the baseball cards you collected as a kid. If you grew up in the 90's like me then maybe your collection is sitting in the basement like this:

While my trip down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole earlier this year made me a believer that crypto in some form is inevitably here to stay, I was slightly more mystified by the attraction of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) But as I learned about Sorare, my view shifted from one of "that's not for me" to "I need to try this out".

Especially when compared to those sports cards I mentioned earlier, the cards on Sorare have some significant advantages:

1. Easily sellable/transferrable (digital marketplace)
2. Easily verifiable
3. No worry of physical damage
4. More scarce (particularly compared to those of my childhood era)
5. Contain utility (win other cards and/or win cryptocurrency)

The final point has to be what tipped the scales for me- it transforms the cards from collectables to pieces in a game where you can win something of value.

What are the scarcity levels?

I should first mention Common cards. These are giving to you upon signup, are not limited in number created, cannot be bought/sold/traded, and have little utility other than a few exceptions. But I think of those more like monopoly money. The real value comes when talking about these 3 levels, which have limited supply:

1. Rare (supply of 100)
2. Super Rare (supply of 10)
3. Unique (supply of 1)

How do you acquire cards?

Before I explain the basics of gameplay, there are several ways to acquire cards on the Sorare site:

1. Buy them "new" from an auction format called "New Signings"
2. Buy or trade for them from other users on what's called the "Transfer Market"
3. Win them by entering a League tournament using cards you already own.

Gameplay Overview

I would like to expand on the utility & gameplay in further posts, but the TLDR is that you select 5 of your cards to participate in a gameweek. As those athletes compete in real life, they accumulate between 0 & 100 points on the Sorare platform based on a unique scoring system. The combined score of your 5 cards is your score for that gameweek, and you are competing against other owners
who have each selected 5 of their cards for that time period. A certain percentage of the top scoring users are then rewarded with another card. There is also a threshold in one of the leagues whereby scoring over a certain amount rewards you with either .01 or .02 Ethereum (roughly $17 or $34 at the time of this writing). The ability to earn Eth by meeting that threshold regardless of how you compare to other entrants is very enticing.

To Be Continued...

I plan to be back very soon with my own experience as I've attempted to acquire enough Rare cards to compete in the big boy leagues. I'll share some of the highlights and challenges along the way. Stay tuned.

Note: If you are thinking about signing up, please consider using my link. We'll each get a Rare card once you buy 5 "New Signings" in the auction. During signup, when it asks you for your 3 favorite teams, I'd recommend choosing teams from any of these 3 leagues: MLS, J-League, or K-League. That way, you have a better chance of getting a Common goalkeeper that you can use in higher level contests throughout the summer. More on that later. In the meantime, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.