Swoops Season 2 Mint & Player Evolution
Season 1 of Swoops is almost in the books, which means we are very close to two of the most meaningful (off the court) events in the Swoopsverse: Mint Day & Player Evolution (Progression).
Let’s dive in.
Season 2 Mint Quick Facts
Dates: August 16 (Owners & Presale Signups) & August 17 (Public)
Supply: 750 Swoopsters (any unsold supply will be burned)
Swoopster Breakdown: Rookies only (1 attribute rating revealed)
Cost: 0.05 ETH
Bonuses: 2 Limited Edition Swoopsters will be part of the supply minted on Day 1 — not available on Day 2
Limits: 3 per wallet, per day
The Season 2 Mint will be unique because it is the first time that the entire supply (750 new Swoopsters) will be comprised solely of Rookie players (Season 0 Mint featured Swoopsters in their 2nd through 7th Season, and Season 1 Mint had Swoopsters in the 1st through 3rd). Rookie Swoopsters are incredibly difficult to evaluate, so be patient! With 15 attributes available on the player card, Rookies will only have one rating revealed, and if it is outside of their top 3 rated attributes (these are highlighted yellow on the player card) we have no idea if that revealed rating is part of their floor or their ceiling. That’s 14 unknown qualities — at least 93% of the puzzle is still missing!
Mint Day 1 (August 16) is limited to owners of a Swoopster (there will a snapshot cutoff date) or those who sign up for presale access. The perks of access to Day 1 are that the 2 Limited Edition Swoopsters (Tronny Quick, a 5-star Guard, and The Tinforcer, a 5-star Center, each of whom come with their own personal logos) will be minted on this day, and it’s an opportunity to mint 3 additional Swoopsters. Mint Day 2 will be open to the public, and limits will reset, so eligible wallets from Day 1 will be able to return and purchase up to 3 more mints while supply lasts. The Swoops team has reported that any unsold mints will be burned.
Minted players are not immediately revealed. Previously, the process has been that about 24 hours after the mint ends, the players are “revealed” on OpenSea and on your Swoops Locker Room page, and I would expect a similar timing this go-around. This is a pretty awesome experience akin to ripping open a pack of cards and seeing what your luck was, and you’ll want to clear your schedule. The unique part here is that with all the mints revealing at the same time, there’s an opportunity to quickly scour the market and try to identify high caliber players listed near the mint price. People will mint at 0.05 ETH and then may list that unrevealed player not much higher — it could be a 1-star Rookie, or it could be a 5-star!
The prospect ratings should follow the proportions that existed in the first two mints:
- 5% will be 5-stars
- 10% will be 4-stars
- 25% will be 3-stars
- 30% will be 2-stars
- 30% will be 1-stars
The positional breakdown should also remain consistent:
- 45% of the supply will be Guards
- 45% of the supply will be Forwards
- 10% of the supply will be Centers
- Additionally, 30% of the supply should be capable of playing a second position — 15% holding Guard/Forward positional flexibility, and 15% Forward/Center
If you are a new team starting your franchise in Season 2 of Swoops, the mint is a great place to pick up a couple of players and hope that you hit the lottery in terms of a landing high prospect player. Ultimately, if you want to try to field a more competitive squad out of the gate, I’d encourage you to 1) stay patient and remember that not all expansion teams are the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and 2) acquire some veteran players (either off the secondary market or through trades with other owners). The two Limited Edition Swoopsters from the last mint (Vector Wembotyama and Swoop Renderson) were amazing players as Rookies this season and both made the All-Star Tournament, but even they were unable to lead their teams past Round 1 of the Swooper Bowl. Make no mistake about it, there are some special young Swoopsters, but how often do you see an NBA team reach the Conference Finals with a Rookie in their starting lineup? With a season in Swoops being 13 weeks, you get 4 seasons within a calendar year, but that’s a long time to wait on a team made up of only Rookies to develop. With some floor players from the last mint currently available around 0.02 ETH, you could pick up 2 players for the price of 1 mint — and doing so now before Player Evolution is the perfect time to do that!
Player Evolution
Swoopsters are dynamic — meaning that what they are this season is not how they will always be. Just like real NBA players need playing time in order to develop their game, and generally will improve over time until reaching their prime, your Swoopsters benefit from playing games and aging up to a certain point. This past season, players needed to play in at least 50 games in order to avoid “rust” — if a player failed to reach this number of games by August 7, they will not hit their best progression for the upcoming Player Evolution Day (August 15).
On Evolution Day, Swoopsters “age” one season, meaning the “Season” on their player card will increase by one, and they will have an additional attribute rating revealed. Users only see the amount of growth on revealed attributes, so keep in mind that there is likely lots of unseen changes going on with players (ratings going up or down)! The top 3 attributes on a player card always represent the highest 3 ratings for a player, so these can change, and they help you “solve” some of the puzzle of learning a Swoopster’s abilities. To learn more about Player Evolution, check out this article.
Evolution Day following Season 0 was unique because the initial mint featured players between their 2nd and 7th season, and they hadn’t undergone any sort of progression up that point, so there was a bit of a “catchup” period. We likely saw much more growth on average during that Evolution Day than we will see in the future — it was not uncommon to see 4- and 5-star players having growth of +8 or more on multiple attribute ratings. Coachability and Age should play a larger role in progression this time around, but keep in mind that a large part of the progression equation is impacted by a player’s prospect rating (which does not change — a 4-star player is always a 4-star player).
As much as I love the Swooper Bowl and having my team hit the court, the dynamic growth of Swoopsters is a huge part of what drove me to this project in the first place — I live for the off-season! Player Evolution and Mint Day are special occasions, and we’re lucky to experience them four times a year in the Swoopsverse!
Whether you are now a seasoned veteran in Swoops or are looking to get started for the first time, we want to help you on your journey! Please, never hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have.
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