The Day Of The Zed tournament was a bunch of fun, but more than that it showcased a whole new infrastructure that has been built in to the Zed Run platform.
Skins used as entry tickets, multiple leaderboards and various qualifying conditions all functioning alongside each other.
I imagine for the Zed team DOTZ was as much a functionality test as it was a tournament and props to them because it all worked perfectly.
The importance of what has been built here should not be over looked.
Zed now has a major suite of tournament tools ready for action and the only limit will be how creatively and strategically they can use them.
I’ve been giving some thought to how Zed could next utilise the new tournament infrastructure and I think the obvious next play would be a special event Maiden.
We all know the community love a Maiden and though running them weekly works with the game loop we have, the frequency does make them a bit less special.
I think with this new infrastructure we can keep that weekly loop while returning prestige to the Maiden event.
My event idea is: the Zed Run “Breeders League”.
A 4 week event that returns prestige and large prize pools to the Maiden while stimulating breeding and getting the community excited and engaged.
FORMAT:
The format is quite simple.
We have 4 separate weeks of qualifying followed by a 1 day major finals spectacle.
Basically we use our current weekly Maiden event as the qualifiers and the class and funnel winners from each week progress to the major final.
For each qualifying week there is a separate skin that must be minted as an entry ticket.
A horse must be born and run it’s Griffin the week it attempts to qualify.
It also must be wearing the appropriate skin for that week.
(Wk 1 skin/Wk 2 skin/Wk 3 skin/Wk 4 skin)
Weekly qualifying numbers could remain the same as they currently are and horses run in under 21 entry races as they do now.
For finalists in the these qualifiers the current Maiden payouts are split at the normal ratio but downsized.
33% ($5,000) is used for weekly payouts and the other 66% ($10,000) goes toward the major finals.
As mentioned the weekly champion from each class and funnel moves on to the major final.
Then after 4 weeks of qualifying we have 1 group of 12 horses from each class for the major finals.
These major finals would be a great product/event for live streaming.
The finalists from each class run against each other in a total of 5 12 horse races.
These are over 1000m/1400m/1800m/2200m/2600m distances.
We use premier or Fibonacci scoring and after 5 races we crown 1st/2nd/3rd in each class and reward them handsomely.
But here is the kicker!
There is also a jackpot prize that goes to the horse with the highest point score from any class.
This way, though C1 rightly has a much higher finals payout than say C6, the most dominant horse from any of the 6 classes has an equal chance at the jackpot prize.
This makes it worth breeding for everyone from all classes and budgets as any class finalist can win!
If you’re better in your class than anyone else is in theirs than the jackpot is yours.
So what are the jackpots and other prizes?
I’ll outline these below.
PRIZE POOL:
We had 1,236 DOTZ skins minted which meant that our Halloween tournament not only paid for itself ($25,000) it also made a profit of $5,900.
With 4 separate mints of skins over 4 weeks and an average taken from recent breeding of 350 horses a week I would imagine 1,500 entry skins would be a conservative estimate of what we could expect to be minted for an extended Maiden event.
At $25 a skin that adds $37,500 of Zed Token to the prize pool and why not add in the spare $5,900 from DOTZ to help out.
(Zed should also state that any extra mint funds will also be added to the prize pool and have a running tally of the total dollar figure on the tournament page for hype)
We also add in the accumulated Maiden money of $40,000 (66% of allocated Maiden funds) and then we have $83,400 in Ethereum and Zed Token prize money.
(Plus any more mint funds accumulated)
Let’s not spread this thinly here either because a bigger prize means more incentive to breed and mint, we want top heavy glory, so how about a break down something like this:
| C1 | 1st – $20,000 | 2nd – $6,200 | 3rd – $1,800 |
| C2 | 1st – $15,000 | 2nd – $4,500 | 3rd – $1,300 |
| C3 | 1st – $9,200 | 2 – $3,200 | 3rd – $800 |
| C4 | 1st – $6,700 | 2nd – $2,300 | 3rd – $600 |
| C5 | 1st – $3,800 | 2nd – $850 | 3rd – $350 |
| C6 | 1st – $2,800 | 2nd – $600 | 3rd – $200 |
These are big top 3 payout prizes but cash isn’t all the winner gets, nor are the stables the only ones that can win here.
On top of these large Zed token/Ethereum prizes, like the DOTZ tournament the victors also get a special skin.
This time for first, second and third overall.
(We could even consider 4 through 12 getting a skin too)
We’ve recently seen Zed finally get some Novus Dzine skins on the track for the Zed Legends League and if he would be willing to design some for this event that would be amazing.
(Pay him a nice fee for his work Zed, he has so much talent!)
So, what about the jackpot you ask?
Well, the horse that accumulates the most points from any class in the major final also gets to design a custom skin with Novus.
This would give someone a chance to potentially get their own stable logo on the track which is something I’ve wanted to have for years.
Novus has even previously designed me one which you can see below:
On top of the custom skin, the horse that accumulates the most points in any class also gets an unraced/unbred Z1 Genesis Nakamoto from the Zed Run vault!
I know Zed needs these for future marketing offers but this would really ice the cake and build hype.
Imagine breeding for C6 as a small stable.
Even though you can’t afford to breed for the big pots of C1 or C2 you can still breed the best horse in class and come away with a stable changing prize!
But that’s not all.
As I mentioned, this is a majorly streamable community event.
4 weeks of build-up and hype.
A major final with class leaderboards that feed in to an overall leaderboard of horses competing for a Z1 Nakamoto.
If we can get a great cast of streamers together such as Arbitrage.Run Show (Donkey and Kevin) with guests like Danshan, Souls Vanish, Donkey Keith, BG and others it could be something no Zed Head would miss.
It could bring the community together.
Bring the community to life!
On top of that, if you checked my maths there is still $3,400 in Zed Token unaccounted for.
This has to go to a lucky viewer of the stream.
One that owns a stable.
For example if you share the link to the stream and tag Zed Run you get an entry for the prize.
At the end of the stream it gets drawn out and if that person is viewing we have a winner.
As a community member if you’re not watching for the excitement, you’re certainly watching for a chance at $3,400.
So that’s what I’d like to see happen next guys and I would sure as hell be breeding some foals to compete in this format.
What’s more it wouldn’t cost Zed any money aside from the Maiden funds which are already allocated to be spent.
Would you like to see this happen?
If so, please share this article on X/twitter and tag Zed Run. (@zed_run)
Perhaps we can will it in to existence together guys?!
Either way thanks for checking out my idea and all the best on the track.