00:27
It it. 

03:31
Hello, everybody. Hello again to everyone in Discord who just heard me greeting you there. Welcome to another Fireside chat with the Wildcard team. Today I am joined by Chelsea Maag, who is our pretty new director of business development. It so I won't tell you what her job is, I'll let her tell you what her job is. But we're doing a little bit of. 

03:55
A different format today. 

03:56
It's full QA so I have some questions that we're going to start off with, but this is going to be a really interactive session with the community. So if you have questions for Chelsea right now or as you hear her talking, please drop them in the chat and discord. If you're on Twitter or YouTube watching, feel free to join us there and. 

04:16
You can drop your questions and it's. 

04:18
Going to be a good time. So I'll pass it over to Chelsea who can introduce herself and let us know a little more about what she does at Wildcard. 

04:34
Sorry, I'm having some latency issues on my side, so hopefully you can hear me well. But we can now. So great to meet everybody, see everybody. And as Ami mentioned, we're going to be doing things a little bit differently here today because business development is pretty different every day. And when I was tasked to put together a slide deck for you, I really just wanted to make sure that from a more strategic approach, you guys have the opportunity to ask me questions or hear maybe some alpha that you guys haven't heard before. No spoilers. But to start, I think it would be great for me just to share a little bit about what business development is, how I ended up here at Wildcard and then Ami, I know you have some questions, so we'll go from there. 

05:23
But by way of introduction, my name is Chelsea Maag. I'm based out of the Los Angeles area and I recently joined as the full time business development director here at Wildcard about three months ago. But I have been working alongside Wildcard for over a year now. So from a background perspective, I used to work at Polygon, which is where I got introduced to Paul and Katy and the broader wildcard team and I was supporting them on their integration with Polygon. And during that I had the opportunity to really deeply get involved with everything that Wildcard was doing. And I was brought on as an advisor about six months ago and I was lucky enough to have a full time role carved out for me, which now is what I'm focused on. 

06:17
But prior to joining Polygon, I spent another year or so at Immutable and so I've been in Web3 for about two and a half years now. And I've always been really interested with blockchain technologies, but also the speculation that comes from that back in the day, because I am a gamer at heart, I actually used to learn about XRP in CSCO lobbies on Steam. And so that was back in 2016, 2017. But really going back to my roots, I have really started my career in sales and think telecommunications, but it was very clear to me that gaming was what I was always so passionate about. I kind of play any and every game, but I am a very competitive gamer, so if I can't win, I really don't want to play. And so story mode games are not for me. 

07:14
And as a result, I actually pursued my passion and got a job as a tournament director at ESL, which is an esport company. And so I spent kind of the better time of almost three years where I put on some of the world's largest esport events from the tournament operations perspective. So think some large titles such as Madden, FIFA, Counterstrike, Mortal Kombat, you name it. I probably have written some rules and maintained the integrity of some of those tournaments. But then I had the opportunity to move on into Big Tech where I kind of got out of games. I worked at Amazon for a little bit of time, and during my time there it became really clear to me kind of towards the tail end that I wasn't really doing something I was passionate about. 

08:09
So I really made the move to get closer to technology that I really do feel can be here for the greater good. But also knowing that games is really that breakout use case that I was really interested in having a hand in pioneering. It was so great to have the chance to meet Paul and Katie, to have that really come to life. 

08:36
Amazing. Well, community, meet Chelsea. Chelsea, meet the community. So we're really glad you're here. She's already making really big moves for Wildcard, and so we're going to start talking about how all of that experience that she just talked about applies to Wildcard now and what we're thinking on the business development side. So let's start with actually kind of a big one. Which is what is Wildcard's current business development focus or philosophy, however you want to say it? 

09:06
Yeah, it is a really good question. And for those of you in the audience or those of you tuning in after the stream, business development is an interesting role to have within a game studio. Typically this comes more in the future of game development from a publishing perspective. But coming at this installment here at Wildcard, it was very important for me to really understand what the philosophy was behind what we wanted to accomplish, what our goals are, and how to navigate those both on the Web3 and the Web2 side. So as you guys may know, we've been really focused on the Web3 side of Wildcard over the past year or so. And so for me coming in, I want to really make sure that we are continuing to provide Web3 opportunities to the community. 

09:57
But how we actually go to market from a Web2 perspective, where we hopefully are reaching gamers from all over the world, that we can have play the game and onboard into some of these Web3 mechanisms that we've been building to make sure that the core community and that Core Web3 audience really has value and has just all of the promises that we've said delivered against over time. And because you guys are the core audience and you guys are the core community members, it's super important that I'm making sure that in the philosophy we're taking into account the people who are engaged with Wildcard, not just going after all the people who may not. 

10:46
Know about us yet, recording in progress. 

10:51
When I think about the really important pieces of a business development strategy, I really start at a high level. So I almost envision a funnel. And so what's really important to me is how do we get as many players as possible at the top of that funnel? Who are those players and why are they going to be interested in Wildcard? How do we maintain focus and maintain a really organic and thriving community once those players do come into Wildcard? And then how do we bring value back to those players? And so Web3 is really a core mechanism there that we're going to continue investing in and really fleshing out how the strategic approach works with that. 

11:36
But at the end of the day, games are all about fun, and games are all about coming together and having just a great time with your friends or meeting new people. And so as a result, what's really important to me is finding places where we can not only connect through a video call, but we can actually connect in real life, too. I think that's a super important piece. And for those of you who have been gamers for a while, or maybe some of you guys aren't, but want to get into it, LAn events have always been kind of a really cherished and special moment in gaming where you can come together with your friends, connect all of your devices together and play. So finding ways where we can bring more of those grassroots events where the human side of it is actually seen. 

12:31
And so that's really a short term focus for me, is figuring out ways that we can start bringing the community together and making sure you guys actually feel like it is a community that you guys are a part of, because I know we really feel that way about even just being a part of it, too. Hopefully that helped answer that. 

12:52
Absolutely. 

12:53
Yeah. I still think about three XP and what it was like to play next to someone in Wildcard and actually talk to people face to face. It's such an important component. So speaking of events, we won't go into IRL events just yet, but you did talk about an event coming up at the town hall that I would love to get more into, get more details on. So you mentioned Wildcard's involvement with extra Life this year. So can you tell us a little bit, maybe review what extra Life is and kind of like what Wildcard's involvement is in that? 

13:33
Absolutely. 

13:34
Yeah. 

13:35
So extra Life is a charitable cause. 

13:40
And it's a program that was run out of children's Miracle Network hospitals. And they service thousands of kids across. 

13:52
North America. And what's really important to actual life is that they are finding ways to heal kids or provide kids care through gaming. 

14:04
And so every year they host a couple of events and those are really tied to people just getting together and playing games and raising money that then can be utilized to provide care for kids who either have extended stays in hospitals within that hospital network, or maybe it's first time people going through a difficult time. And I know when I was younger, gaming was absolutely an outlet for me, where I actually felt a sense of belonging. And so when I look at what Wildcard is really doing from a Web3 perspective, it is, I think, becoming more and more obvious that there are way more ways that we can leverage Web3 to do good, not only for our community, but for the broader community. 

14:56
And doing that in a trustless way is incredibly important, especially in a world where a lot of people do take advantage of others. Extra life is going to be an event where we'll have a two part kind of series to the event. The first part is all going to be about the Lushland Stadium getting people involved in playing. And during that time we will ask for donations. But if you can't donate, that's totally okay. We will have some commemorative pins to give away. Which more to come tomorrow on that. And we really just want to get the community involved in really highlighting the new stadium, highlighting, coming together and playing and bringing awareness to a really great cause. 

15:44
And then in the future we will have more kind of trustless ways to donate to that cause over time where hopefully we'll introduce maybe new frog sets or otherwise that you can go purchase and hopefully we'll have the opportunity to continue donating over time. 

16:03
That's really exciting. So you all stay tuned. I think there's a big announcement coming Thursday about that. I'll be on social media and in Discord, so a lot more details about what it is and how you can tune in and how you can get involved. So I want to go back to something else that you said earlier on in the conversation, which was kind of simultaneously building out business for both Web2 and Web3, which of course has some crossover but also very different audiences. So how are you tackling that right now? 

16:40
So as everybody in the chat knows, or maybe you don't know, but what is really clear right now is we need to figure out how to start scaling our play tests so we can start servicing more community members and more new players playing the game at any given time. And so right now, if MFL is still in the chat, he was play testing yesterday with Shady and what really came out of that for me was I want more people and we experience every single day and we want more people providing feedback every single day. And right now, the Wild pass holders are really that core community that has the opportunity to come in and play. 

17:28
But the gap of scaling, we want. 

17:33
To make sure that we're going out in different avenues, whether that be in real life events or different partnership opportunities to work with gamers who are very interested in CCGs or interested in mobiles or action based games that provide really organic but tailored feedback for that specific player profile is going to be really important in this next phase of development for us. So more tactically, we're in what we consider our production phase of the game, which means that we are making really key changes almost every single day based on player feedback. 

18:13
And so when I look at a business development opportunity in the short term, it's making sure that we're getting enough feedback from players to help us hone in on what that roadmap can look like and help us to bring in the next phase of the game and the next phase of the game. That way the game is in a stage where we have enough people playing where I can then go out to partners and sponsors and collaborative opportunities and say, here's all of the incredible things Wildcard has accomplished over the past six months. Here's why you should be involved. Here's why. Us in the Web3 arena is really providing a new experience that I don't know if anybody really in Web3 has unlocked yet. 

19:00
But for us, we have some exciting things coming down that road and telling that story in a really meaningful way. That way, our first impression to people who have never heard about Wildcard is the best impression we can put forward. And so that's really the short term goal, is making sure that we are doing all of these key steps to set ourselves up for success. But that really comes with people getting hands on with the game and providing really good feedback about their experience. 

19:31
Thank you. So I'm going to switch over to a community question now that came in. 

19:39
From our wants to know how we. 

19:43
Plan if we do have plans to capture the interest of professional players or professional teams so that they're interested in playing a Wildcard. 

19:53
It is a super good question, and this is something that keeps me up at night because I do come from the esport world, and I think for any game that is trending to be competitive organically, has a really good shot in either having a great grassroots scene. So think Street Fighter is a really good example of this, or they have a really good opportunity to really scale into a more professional and sanctioned esport event cycle. And we have some really talented team members who have worked in esports as well, who have shoutcasted over esports and actually have run their own organic kind of grassroots leagues, too. And so we have different team members internally. We also have advisors who come from the esports world. 

20:46
And so we've really put together a great team that is very well poised to hopefully figure out the right path for Wildcard, figure out the right path to enable the community to really take some ownership in building up the grassroots scene where they can have some value and some ownership as a result. But when we talk about these professional players, so a really good example of this is there's some conversation of Avalanche, if you guys are familiar with the chain where they just struck a partnership with T One, and t One is a very popular team overseas, and Faker is a really popular esport player there. And so we're starting to see little hints of these really major celebrity esport moments take place in Web3. 

21:41
And so when I look at that, I really start to think, okay, how do we get really good competitive players? Play testing, right? Because we aren't at the place where we can have a solid first impression with somebody like Faker, but we are in a place where we can get really good feedback on how to be ready for that moment. And so we have playtested with some former professional players already. We play tested with former StarCraft professional player, former quake professional player. We are in conversations with a larger kind of tournament organizer and really having conversations with people like that. 

22:20
It is super important for us to set ourselves on the path to then go to whatever team you name it, Cloud 900, thieves, whoever it may be, and have them be the next stepping stone to informing our ability to go into that more professional path. But I will say what I love about Wildcard and part of the reason why it was so easy for me to make the decision to join the team was Wildcard is very easy to pick up, but it is very hard to master. It is very difficult game that has a lot of depth and we do want to make a lot of decisions from a progression and ranking opportunity where that depth can provide anybody the opportunity to get better. You don't have to be this great professional esport player to do that. 

23:13
And truthfully, the people who are here now who have been playing the game in these play tests have a much better shot than anybody else so far. And so hopefully we'll have more to share on that progression and that raking path and how we plan to kind of help the community start running some tournaments. 

23:33
Awesome. 

23:34
I think we've got some budding professionals in the Wildcard community. But speaking of that, I'm going to throw in this question actually from Shady, so less specifically about Wildcard and more about esports. So a lot of the professional esports players, people on teams and stuff, they're on the younger side. Do you think you're ever too old to become a professional esports player? 

24:00
This is such a good question. And the reason why I really enjoy this question is I think it really depends on the game itself. So I'm not old by any means, but the first time I picked up Fortnite, I was like, I am old and I can't build. This is too fast for like this is just a thing that truthfully games just got so different and I just can't do this. But then I go back and play Halo and some of these other games. Yes, I'm still very good and I feel very good about this. So I will say it depends on the game. So some of the different generations probably grew up on these, again, more Halo style games or some StarCraft style games, or I'll use quake as an example, or Madden. And those are mechanics. 

25:00
We're very used to, and we've spent years playing those mechanics. But it's when you start introducing these new mechanics, we don't have that same level of, oh, I've done this before, I'm very good at this. And so I will say, no, you are not too old. But I do think that there is a tinge of this is new, and I need to get used to this. But I will say back in my esports background, I have hosted plenty of events where there was, I think, older than normal players playing in those events. And granted, those were 25 year championships and so forth, so it was really baked into bringing some of that older talent together. But I think everybody is an individual, and I think age doesn't block anybody from being good at anything. 

25:55
It's a very interesting misconception, in my opinion, and I'm very hopeful to see some of different ages and some diversity within our grassroots and our tournaments. 

26:08
Me, too. Okay, so kind of branching from that, we talked about focusing on Web2 and Web3 audiences. We've also talked along this road of development that not only are we trying to build a competitive game for competitive players, but we're also trying to build one that's tailored to content creators. So do you have any thoughts about how we're giving attention to both those audience as well, the creators and the esports players? 

26:43
Totally. Yeah. So this is a really good question, and I know Paul and Katie, they talk about this a lot, and if any of you guys have a chance, Paul talks on a Twitter space every Wednesday on Stefania's Twitter page, and it's really good to hear him as the visionary of Wildcard start talking about these things. But we'll talk a bit more tactical on kind of the approach with creators kind of starting in the short term and then moving to the long term. In the short term, what we really want to start doing is identifying creators who might already be in our community. So really understanding who wants to become a creator, who is already a creator, and starting to fill that feedback loop on what is really important to creators. And so I used to stream on Twitch. 

27:39
It was very short lived. It streamed heroes of the storm for a little bit, but when I streamed, what was really important to me might be very different from what's important to creators today. However, I think at the core of it, I want to make sure that we are providing creators the ability to do what they love, hopefully full time. However we bridge that gap, but making sure that they don't feel like they have to pick and choose of. Okay, now I have to go to my full time job and I don't really have time to create content. We want to make sure that we're providing value back to people who are providing value into the wildcard community. That is, I think, full stop the loop we are really aiming to figure out. 

28:25
But outside of that, we then say, okay, well, there is probably a handful of creators in our community, and crypto stash is a really good example of this, who has come and really raised his hand to be a part of a few opportunities, and we're just looking to identify more of those in the short term and then coming up with kind of a core group of creators that we can really lean into and then moving far into the future. So the general vision is to make sure that we are providing creators with the tools, with the platform, with a really good game in that fan loop. So think, all of your viewers, that fan loop is something that is at the forefront of all of our design decisions. 

29:13
And something that you might have heard Paul talk about in the past or Kiti talk about in the past is one thing we're thinking about in Lushland Stadium or in the arena is making sure that if I'm a creator and I'm playing that game, I have a way to interact with the fans in this dance. So I have a way for those fans to show up for me, for those fans to get rewarded and those fans to maybe in return reward me as well. But that we're closing that fan loop, that isn't just a Twitch stream where people are donating bits to me and I don't really have a way to connect back with them. And so how does that creator have the opportunity to provide value from maybe their wallet into the wallets of the viewers and so forth? 

30:04
So that is hugely important. And for anybody who's been in games, creators are kind of the lifeblood of a lot of games. And so that is something that we are looking for feedback on. And so if you are a creator out there, please raise your hand to Ami, raise your hand to Remy and Shady, and we would love to get you involved. 

30:27
Yeah. All right. So you guys heard it. 

30:29
You let us know. 

30:30
We will get you involved. So I'm pausing because I'm reading the question that just came in. So our community member Luke plays competitive Splatoon. So not a lot of people necessarily think of Nintendo when you think of esports. But Chelsea, are you familiar with the Nintendo esports scene, and is there anything to be learned from their approach? 

30:57
Totally. Yeah. So this is such a good question and the reason why I love this question, so I'll bring it back to Nintendo. But when I first started working at Amazon, I actually had the opportunity to work on really casual esport events. And what it was called was Champions of Fire, where we took ten casual mobile games and I created a tournament format with ten different creators. Seated the bracket, everybody went head to head, but think Sonic the Hedgehog or Disney Crossy roads. And some of these really just tile music games, some of these very casual games that are definitely not esports. I've had a few opportunities to really lean into how do we make this an esport? How do we make this competitive, and how do we make this fun? 

31:55
I also had the chance to do this on more mid chord titles like Power Rangers, for example, which is what that new Yuka Labs game out of enway is created from, and so kind of bridging the gap of a game that can be hyper competitive, like Splatoon. I think Modern Warfare, Plants versus Gardens is a really good example of that. I probably got the title wrong, but games that are inherently have scoring mechanism, a leaderboard, and players can absolutely be competitive. And in my opinion, the way that Nintendo is really doing that is leaning in to the community that is playing the game and providing opportunities for them to up level their competitiveness outside of just that core loop of the game and that scoring in that leaderboard. 

32:51
And where I see the ability for us to kind of do something similar is, sure, maybe it's not a counterstrike or maybe it's not a StarCraft, where it's like the most competitive ever, or maybe we want to separate the opportunity for people to find a competitive path. And so what is the opportunity where we can have more casual competitive events take place that is 100% on our radar and something we do want to make really inclusive and really fair, rather than people feeling like they have to grind their way to number one in the world. And I don't think that's fun for the majority of the players. And so how do we make it fun for the majority? 

33:37
I hope that answered your question, Luke, but let me know if you want us to elaborate anywhere. Okay, so we've been talking a lot about the esports and the competitive scene, but obviously your role encompasses partnerships a lot more broadly, too. So do you have any dream partnerships in mind for Wildcard, someone that you would really love to connect with? 

34:03
Yes. Well, so my answer would have been different. I'll tell you the answer that I thought about before this meeting and the one that's coming to mind. We've been talking about esports a lot and I did mention Faker. Knowing that he has even just a slight interest in Web3 games. That's a dream, right? I think he is somebody who has been so pivotal in the esports scene that would just be a very cool moment to have somebody like that play Wildcard. But when I think about a partnership, so I'm going to take it a different angle in what a dream can be. So as you guys may know, we. 

34:43
Have pins in our and a lot. 

34:47
Of that kind of. And if you've ever been to Disneyland. 

34:58
You can watch where it would be. 

35:06
Incredible to strike a partnership, something like Disney. Not only is that narrow use case. 

35:10
But they have which is. 

35:22
Sorry, Chelsea, I'm going to pause just for 1 second. We're losing you just a little bit and I want to make sure that what you're saying doesn't get. Yep, okay. I think it might be OK. 

35:37
I think. You good? 

35:42
Yeah. 

35:42
I think we got up to the point where you were talking about the pins if you want to go. 

35:47
So outside of the narrow use case of the pins, I do think Disney has just so many different opportunities across all of their properties and think media. So TV sHows, movies, commercials, content, all of that aspect is something that Wildcard is really setting ourselves up to be really successful in from a lore perspective. But then we can also move into the parks and the events and the live attendance of everything that they have, which I think is self explanatory. How cool would that be to have Wildcard be a part of that experience? And then outside of that, they have their tangible, purchasable items. And that is a really cool opportunity that I think regardless of what partnership we strike, I think that's something that I have personal interest in trying to figure out someday. 

36:44
Kind of like how Pudgy Penguins is in Target and all of these stores now. I think that's a really cool opportunity. 

36:53
I know we've gotten questions off and on since I got here almost a year ago for Wildcard merch. We want a hug. 

37:01
Burr. 

37:04
That'S not Alpha. That is just some personal perspective. 

37:10
Yeah, don't quote us on that, but we're listening. We want to just as much as you do. Okay, so let's talk about. 

37:23
The game. 

37:24
And how business development is integrated there as well. Because we've got partnerships, we've got esports, but the game itself has business opportunities as well. How are the plans for the economic side of Wildcard going and how involved are you in that? 

37:40
Yeah, this is probably the most important part of my role right now is really figuring out how the game is set up to be successful. And as a result, it's really important for me to help be part of the conversation with our product team, with our design teams, our production team and marketing and so forth to make sure that the monetization and progression systems are. 

38:11
In a place that we can hopefully start testing. We start scaling our. 

38:17
And when I think of where business is in that, okay, well, we generally want to get free to play gameplay game. How are we able. Sorry, you might stop having audio issues a little bit. 

38:32
Yeah. Usually if you pause, then it catches up and it's okay. Okay. 

38:43
Is that better? 

38:44
It is better. Yeah, it always works great. 

38:50
This is why we need in real life events, I will just say, but what is really important in business, sitting kind of in the middle of all of these different principles again, production, design, product and so forth, is making sure that the way that we're thinking about the economics of the game tie really deeply into the long term strategy for the game and how we're going to grow the game and how we're going to go to market with the game. At the end of the day, we are really looking at doing this independently. Being an indie publisher who's going down the road, that is really important for us to be able to not only deliver on success back into Wildcard, but delivering on that success going into the community as well. 

39:39
So we talk about this loop of how we're hopefully going to democratize this world of games where the publishers or the game studios are the only ones profiting. What's really important here is sure, we also do need to profit, but we do need to provide value back to our community. And so I'm sitting right in the middle of that, hopefully figuring out how do we get to the end goal and making sure that all of the business opportunities are really in line with that approach. 

40:12
I love it. And community, as we're traveling down this road, your feedback on all of that is really important, too. So don't forget, as you're giving feedback on the game, we want to hear feedback on our developments in that area. So don't be shy. 

40:32
So I'm going to pause here, say. 

40:34
To our Discord viewers, if you do have any other questions for Chelsea, now is the time. Drop them in the chat while I keep an eye out for those. Chelsea, is there anything that you wanted touch on that we didn't already touch on in our Q A as. 

40:51
Far as Wildcard goes or business. Yeah, I think I see that. Luke asked a question that actually is pretty interesting to me to see this perspective. So Luke says, is it possible for players to get onto esports teams and orgs without a social media presence? I know it's a lot about marketing yourself. And so for the question, some games do have a Premier League where anyone can play and people can be found that way. Are there outside ways to do that? I think that's a really good question that is broader to Wildcard, where historically, if we look at an esport organization like 100 thieves, I don't know if I've ever seen them bring somebody onto their team who doesn't have a social media presence. Right. 

41:40
I think that is fundamentally flawed because if we look at any other sport in the world, that's not a prerequisite for being on a team or being seen and heard and known. And so what's really important in our ability to have people really emerge in professions or this career path is how do we find ways to make sure that you are seen and your progress within Wildcard is showcased? 

42:15
And what I really mean by that, and as you guys might see within our wildfire, there's definitely going to be ways for us to say, okay, that person has played a lot of games, but they're also really good at this game, or they have kind of something a little bit more special just based on some analytics variable together of how many games they're playing, how are they doing in those games, what is their rank and so forth, and from there, hopefully finding ways to match them or pair them with people who do want to own maybe an organization or who do want to have some ownership, but they aren't potentially players. Right. These are people who kind of look at Web3 aspects as a career, as a way to drive some opportunity. 

43:01
But how do we bring players into that, and how do we match players into that is something that we are thinking really deeply about. Because I don't think it is the most fair that just because you are good at making memes on Twitter, you're good at making content on Twitter, that you now have an opportunity that other people don't. And so that's really important for us, hopefully, and especially from a business perspective and a community perspective, how do we drive people to be discovered and found and matched with people who are very interested in kind of bringing that ownership of East Fort Orgs or teams up? 

43:44
Thank you. Okay, we got another one from brizing, who is asking, how important do you think? So for those who don't know or haven't played it, Wild is a One V One game. So right now, it's more in the realm of, like, a street fighter or mortal Kombat, where it's you versus another person. There's been talk of a two V two. I don't think three V three gets kind of crazy, but, Chelsea, the question for you is how important do you think that team versus team model is to our esports success? 

44:18
Yeah. So I'm going to answer this kind of a phased approach, which, if you've been here the whole time, you kind of hear me do the step level increase of how we're viewing things or at what moment in time we need to really start thinking about this. But what's really important today and for the short term, is that our one V one, so that Cortic experience is balanced. It's fun. It's something that people can continue to pick up and play, and it's something where, let's say, your opponent doesn't have a mic or your opponent maybe is griefing or they just aren't very good. No offense, but that balance is really difficult to strike, and we really need to balance the one V one before we start tackling this two V two conversation. 

45:09
But I will say what is very important in the future, if we're able to successfully grow Wildcard in the way that we're set up to do, is there are a lot of esports. Rocket League is a great example of this, where two V Two is their primary or three V three is their primary esport kind of format and mode. And I do think that is really important if we do get down that path and going to this more sanctioned event route. But that one V One core experience is the heart of Wildcard, and that is what we need to do the best on before we start introducing these new formats and these new modes. I am hopeful that there's opportunity for us to kind of share more about our progress and our plans there in the future. 

46:06
BuT for now, just making sure that one V One is as good as possible, and then we can take some feedback into some community tournaments, for example, and then progressively move on from there. 

46:18
Thank you. So we've got a question from Sedale, and I think we've touched on this a little bit, but there might be more to say here. So they said that esports and competitive can be integrated in a way that is community first. It isn't completely upside down that there's a lot of different ways to approach this. So how important will competitive play be to the game? For example, some games dedicate entire sections to esports. Would that be the case for Wildcard? 

46:51
Yeah, I think the jury is out. We are really looking at Wildcard. 

47:01
To kind of organically move. 

47:04
I know there are some game studios that put all of their chips on becoming a professional esport game, becoming a game where from the moment they started designing it to the launch is how are we going to become the esport? How are we going to take that over? That's not the approach we're taking. It is very important that it's organic from a community perspective, but that we are really setting up the community and the grassroots scene to thrive and to flourish and to have opportunity where us as the game studio or the developer is really giving the opportunity to the community and then from there just ushering in that. And if that goes really well, then up leveling as we go and we see this actually work very well in the fighting game scene. And so Street Fighter is an incredible example of this. 

48:08
I think another good example of this is Super Smash Brothers. This is incredibly good example of a game where they did not go out thinking they were going to be an esport, but they are one of the most flourishing esport communities in my in where they have events all the time, all over the place, ran by different people. Also, the developer comes in and resembles. 

48:32
Too, but it's really. 

48:38
We get an opportunity to bring that in. 

48:48
Okay, then. 

48:49
Might be good. Almost. 

48:55
You. 

48:57
Sorry, Chelsea. 

48:59
Is it better now? 

49:01
Not quite. 

49:04
Is it better now? 

49:05
It just gets like a little bit of static, but I can still see your audio, kind of. 

49:13
How about now? 

49:14
It's a little bit better now. Let's go for it. 

49:19
I feel like I'm in a Verizon commercial. 

49:23
Can you hear me now? 

49:24
Can you hear me now? 

49:26
Yes. It is better now, though. You're good. 

49:28
Well, hopefully that made sense, but at the end of the day, I'll just tie that question up. Is it's up to the developer to really enable the community and provide the tools, the opportunities to really let that scene flourish before we go spend all of our money on trying to become an esport when we don't have the indication that will be successful. 

49:54
Thank you. Okay, I think we have time for maybe one or two more. But Ultra para chimed in with a question and said that from the outside looking in, it seems like we've got great traction in North America. But are there any strategies in place for how we're going to do a more global rollout and nurture our international communities as well. 

50:18
Yes. So localization is super important. And one thing that I am currently focused on right now is the gaming stack. So what technical pieces do we need to implement? So, working really closely with our engineering team on how do we potentially reduce latency between players from Southeast Asia, North America, that's traditionally not something that works ever. And somebody always has really high paying and somebody always has really bad experience. But as some of you guys may know, technology has made such big strides towards the future that there are some technical platforms out there that do reduce that latency between those regions. And as a result, we are evaluating different ways where we maybe don't have to be so clear about where we're localizing. And we can start to bring in the community from different communities or from different areas or locales as a result. 

51:21
And so, especially from a Web3 perspective, our audience comes from everywhere. From a game perspective, that might be different, but we're doing things very transparently and in a way where we want to bring everybody along. And so we are evaluating tools where we can close that gap. 

51:38
Thank you. Okay, let's see one more question from Luke. So we talked about having a grassroots tournament presence. Can we imagine a world where we scale up to Wildcard alliance running its own first party official tournament? 

51:59
Yeah. So sanctioned events is something that I think as we get closer to moving into closed beta and it really access is something that we definitely will need to start thinking about. And so what's really important to me. 

52:12
Is how do we potentially test some. 

52:15
Tournament formats in a play test environment? 

52:18
And maybe these are lower level events, but I think the answer is we. 

52:25
Will inform the strategy on how we can operate sanctioned events in the future if we kind of see that's the direction that theme is. 

52:42
Oops. 

52:43
So we lose you, Chelsea. 

52:49
I think I'm back a little bit. 

52:52
A little bit. 

52:56
But before I move on, were you done answering that question or was there more that you wanted to add? 

53:02
I think so, yeah. Hopefully it sounds like Luke said. Thank. 

53:06
Yeah. 

53:07
All right, cool. Well, y'all, we are about at the end of our time today, so we're going to go ahead and wrap it up. Of course, Chelsea is in our discord, so if you have more questions or want to provide feedback or connect for partnerships and opportunities, you can always ping her in there and I'll make sure that she sees it. I thank you guys all for all the great questions along the way and for really participating. This is the first kind of like full Q a fireside that we did and I loved the engagement, loved seeing you guys get involved in the conversation. There's going to be many more of these to come. We talk with new members of the Wildcard team all the time, so. 

53:51
Keep an eye on our community events section. 

53:55
Chelsea, is there anything else that you wanted to say before we sign off? And also, I don't know if you want to answer this, but the question did come in. Is there anywhere that the community can follow and connect with you even outside of Wildcard? 

54:09
Yeah, I do try to stay fairly anonymous, but you guys can definitely DM me on Discord. Hopefully that's open. If not, please just write and I'll get to all of your questions. What I will say is it's really important to me to start getting closer to the community. And so yesterday I joined community play test and just sat there with Shady and had some kind of organic conversation with him. I will continue to do that. So if any of you guys are in play tests, I will try to be there every so often. 

54:46
So that will be a good opportunity for me to hear feedback in real time and in the future, I will make sure AMI and I if this is something that was valuable, when I have some bigger updates to provide, we'll find time to carve out to continue bringing you guys along on the journey. Amazing. 

55:05
Well, thank you, Chelsea, for your time again, thank you to everyone who tuned in. That's our time for today, but we will see you in community and we'll. 

55:14
Keep the conversation going as always. Thanks, everyone.