AMA Recap: MegaFans
Date: Aug 26th, 2022
Host: DeFiNaut
Guest: Zachary Fingerle
Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts!
We recently hosted an AMA with MegaFans. Here’s the AMA transcript for those who missed the live session. We sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it as we did while running the AMA!
INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Hope you are all ready #raccoonfam! Today we’re having another educational follow-up AMA with Zachary Fingerle, Operations Manager at MegaFans!
That’s correct, today is the second time we’re being honored with their presence! And they’re here today to share us many of their exciting updates and releases.
As you know there will be 2 parts, the muted part where me and Michael will be talking about MegaFans in general aswell as the latest news and updates! Then we’ll unmute an have the community ask questions and some winners will be chosen. We’ll also choose some twitter questions while we’re at it. A total prizepool of $100 (2 live chat and 2 twitter qs will be winning $25 each).
So Zachary, without further ado, can you please briefly tell us who you are and what your role is at MegaFans? We’d like to just get a few introductory questions for the raccoons that have not yet heard about you and MegaFans!
Visit them here raccoons! https://www.megafans.com/
[Zha]: Absolutely! Thank you so much for the intro! I am the Operations Manager at MegaFans so a large part of my tasks are helping everyone on the team but I work very closely with leadership and our CEO on a lot of projects and big tasks that need to be completed.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Cool! Thank you. Could you share with us how you ended up with MegaFans in the first place? After this we’ll move to the elevator pitch 😉
[Zha]: I actually first met teh CEO of MegaFans when I was doing esports and gaming journalism for a small company over 2 years ago. Jeff really liked me and I was interested in what MegaFans was doing and I joined the team a little over 1 year ago!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: aha I see how you fit the team for sure, especially with the experience in the esports scene. I generally always like to know how people ended up in a project or what their experience up until then looks like! So don’t mind me asking 😄
[Zha]: Not at all! I think that is agreat question!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: But let’s get together in the elevator shall we
[Zha]: We shall!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: haha. Can you give the raccoons the infamous elevator pitch about MegaFans? What is it all about, and what key unique features are you looking to bring to the web3 gaming /esport space?
[Zha]: An Elevator pitch is actually quite difficult becasue there are so many aspects to the company but I will do my best to cover it all in as short as possible! MegaFans has created a mobile Play2Earn environment SDK with single point, universal access to Web2+Web3 assets, where players earn digital currency and developers increase user LTV.
MegaFans is building the world’s first mobile eSports community using blockchain technology with products such as crypto and NFTs in an enriched play-to-earn environment for gamers, collectors and developers.
Players immerse themselves in an experiential, play-to-earn ecosystem using tokens to enter into mobile esports tournaments that are inside real games. Players earn an opportunity to win NFT’s, crypto, and real-world prizes.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I think it’s quite interesting for sure. Esports is just growing at such an enormous space, I’m happy you guys are trying to onboard them to web3. Let’s have another look at the team, if possible 🙂
Please tell us about the core members building this amazing platform. What kind of talent and experience do each of your team members bring together to make this a success?
[Zha]: Our team is incredible! Specifically regarding our CEO and CTO who have a combined 50+ years in igaming, development, and marketing and more. Specifically our CEO, Jeff Donnelley has worked for several notable companies in the past including DraftKings and Ubisoft! For the rest of the team, we have built it around what have their past experience taught them and how do they bring it to the table. Specifically, I played competitive Call of Duty for a period of time in the University League that runs parallel to the Professional Call of Duty League (CDL) and I passionately follow esports in my free time.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Nice, that tells me most of the people on your team must really love what they do day in day out 🙂
[Zha]: Without a doubt!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: If you can do something with a passion, it doesn’t feel like work and that’s how it should be. Can I ask, since you guys are all very connected in the esports space. When you bring the idea of WEB3 to gamers and developers from traditional space, how do they react? Like do they welcome the idea, do they think it’s interesting?
[Zha]: From my personal experience it is sort of 50/50 with an asterick attached
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yeah probably also because it’s an unknown and something new
[Zha]: Meaning people like it or dont like it but everyone is curious where it can go but does not like where it is right now, but we are still truly in the infant stages of the space and what we have now is not necessarily what will be around in several years
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: true. Time will tell I guess, but we need to builders and innovators like yourselves! So I have some questions about the type of games on the platform. I read that your multiplayer tournament platform lets you play one’s favorite mobile games and compete with people around the world in e-sports tournaments and earn tokens. Can you please tell us which games we can play once we’ve signed up? Can you share some footage of the games?
Here’s a short explainer on MegaFans from their website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2lRYUU79ao&feature=emb_title
[Zha]: Thats why we are so passionate about what we are doing and persevering through the Bear market
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: for sure!
[Zha]: Currently we have 5 games across 4 major app stores: Apple, Google Play, Samsung, and Hua Wei. They are all casual games that you can play in passing but you have to be better than your other competitors to win a prize! We do want to highlight that our SDK is designed so we cna drop it into any mobile game and create a competitive environment where player can compete for prizes! We are currently in talks with 13 developers ranging from AA to AAA, but we cannot share too many details about that now!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: spill the beans ser, it’s just me and you talking anyways. Haha
[Zha]: Well there is actually one that I can share
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: let’s hear it
[Zha]: We have had extensive discussions with Green Rabbit Gaming a metaverse project that has developed an internal racing game within the Metaverse and will be utilizing the MegaFans Esports Software in their game
We are still having discussion of how we can go further but we have finalized a partnership so far
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Nice so that’s what the SDK is for
[Zha]: Correct!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Proper way of accelerating adoption! We’ll be on the lookout for the partnership announcement 😉 Is there a cost to play? Or can you also play these tournaments for free?
[Zha]: We do offer a free to play version of the game, you can enter a practice tournament at no cost or play the single player mode. Although the tournaments to win prizes do have entry fees. Ranging from $1 and up depending on the prize pool that is being offered. Right now we are holding our Summer Extravaganza which is giving away over $100k worth of prizes in the last few months and going forward!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: damn, that’s quite a juicy prizepool! I indeed saw a tweet where some person won a big prize
https://twitter.com/Omdelux7/status/1560918838148886528?s=20&t=j5Y3ftzK9kxDxEghCQZfBQ
How hard is it to win a prize, would you say for an average ok gamer, it’s possible? or do you really need to be good
[Zha]: I think it is completely possible for the average player! It also depends on what game you like to play and how you work. You can have some good results in one game but not in another. You can try another game!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok sure, thanks for explaining. So now time for some big news 😉
Elephant in the room! I read you have an upcoming NFT release. Can you please tell us more about this event? Where can we find more info on it?
[Zha]: Absolutely! We have been leading up to our NFT Launch for awhile now! We have been actively adding users and members to our Whitelist for the last few weeks. The Presale begins on Sept 1st with the actual NFTs being live and out in the space on Sept 15th. Just one of the utilities that comes with our NFTS is the ability to offer up your own NFT as a prize for the our worldwide audience and you receive a % share of the tokens paid as an entry fees to your account!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: That sounds great. That sounds like there are other utilties, can you share some more?
[Zha]: I saw several twitter questions that were asked by the fans about the NFTs I can only assume you picked one more about NFTs, consider it building suspense😂
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: hahaha, ok that sounds fair. Let’s talk a bit about that cool conference I saw on your twitter space
You’ve recently attended EsportsNext 2022 which is a 2 day esports event in Chicago with all the big names attending like Twitch, Evil geniuses, Red Bull and so many more. Can you please share your insights on how Web3 is transforming the esports scene and how MegaFans is positioning itself to embrace this movement?
[Zha]: This event was truly amazing! It was wonderful to get to speak with so many people in the space that have a passion for growing esports! I think the better way to word it is how is Esports shaping the Web3 Gaming space. The web3 gaming industry is not in love with the Play2Earn model any longer and it is shifting to the “Play and Earn” model with a focus on actually enjoying the games they are playing. In the large Tier One level esports such as Valorant, League of Legends, do not have any clear steps to truly integrate Web3 and more but the esports brands and teams are making some moves but they do not share the steps they are taking yet.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok I can understand that, and I agree with the play 2 earn model being outdated. It was a thing that was enormously hyped but didn’t prove sustainable
[Zha]: 100%
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Just looking at how some ingame economic models completely collapsed… So yes that indeed seems true that play and earn is the way forward! Talking about earning… Can you share with us some insights on your revenue model? How do you stay competitive in this market? (you see what a nice transition there). let’s talk business ser. $$$
[Zha]: We have 3 revenue streams built into the company as a whole. White Labeling is the first, selling our tournament software to game developers and more so they can create own and operate their own esports systems in their own games.. The second stream is Sponsorships/Advertising in our games. We have our own proprietary ad server allowing companies to advertise to our player base as well as sponsor a tournament where companies can giveaway any prize they want to our players. The third revenue stream is focused around the NFTs and Tokens during the sales as well as the on going sales and more in the future of our Web3 assets.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Cool. Revenue is definitely important to wither the bearmarket!
[Zha]: Yes! We have made a lot of choices and changes to survive the bear market and it is bearing its fruits recently!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I like how it’s “bear”ing fruits 😄My jokes are on point today!
[Zha]: Oh my 😂 Not missing one yet!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: nope not yet!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Anywho… let’s look at the partners 🙂 I’ve seen some familiar names so I would like to highlight this during our AMA session. What partnerships do you currently have, and what value do they bring to the project both short-term and long-term? Have you gone through any pre-seed or series A fund raising yet?
[Zha]: Our partnership list is extensive so I cannot cover all of them here today. The most prevalent ones that hgave been by our side are Ferrum and LaunchPool Labs. Ferrum has been incredible in bringing in partnerships and opportunities as well as helping us bring in further pre seed funding. They have introduced us to a long list of game developers that are very interested in our software. LaunchPool has been by our side since the beginning helping us get into the TechStars Accelerator and helping us through the Pre Seed where we were oversubscribed in investment from their audience. We have done a pre seed and other early rounds of token purchases with a list of partners, having brought in over $1.5million so far and looking to bring in more with finalizing our private sale before launch of our tokens.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: We’re big fans of Ferrum Network! Happy to hear that you guys are actively working together with them
[Zha]: Oh great! They are one of our title Partners in teh sense that the value thye have brought us cannot be measured!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I know Ian quite well. Ian Friend
[Zha]: Yes!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok well that’s just great, we’ll probably have another AMA with them soon too and when we do, I’ll ask them about MegaFans 🙂
[Zha]: We speak with Ian and Nathan very closely! Sounds Great! Ill have to see what they say!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: So it’s time for the final question of the muted part, and then we’ll be moving to community questions! Can you tell us about the roadmap and what plans do you have for 2022?
[Zha]: Aside from the NFT Launch that is coming up we walos have our token Launch in Q4 of this year and through partnerships and more we expect to have 1 million regsitrered users in the MegaFans ecosystem and playing games by the end of this year! Not couting the expected growth of our social channels and more that will come with the growing playerbase.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Please do keep us posted when the time comes! 🙂 1 million is a huge number!
[Zha]: And we have a prediction to 10x that in the next 1–2 years
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Just like the e-sports scene
[Zha]: After all, mobile gaming has 3Billion DAU and we are among the first to tap into that market!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I think you will agree with this sticker 😄 ok so are you ready for the community questions?
[Zha]: Yes!
LIVE QUESTIONS
Q1: What do you think about Asia’s market? Is your team planning to reach other countries with potential crypto markets, and big teams and investors want to work and cash in on crypto??
[Zha]: We actually have extensive partners and goals to reach the Asian Market As well, we are working very closely with GEMS the esports 3.0 platform that is working on growing the space as a whole!
That does not include our CEO’s plans to make it Token 2049 in Singapore as well as visiting a variety of developers and potential partners while he is overseas!
Q2: What is the speed of transactions in your blockchain? Is it faster than similar blockchains?
[Zha]: We will actually be minting both our NFTs and our upcoming Tokens on the Ethereum chain that has shown to lower the cost of gas fees by A LOT with the latest merger! It is a last minute change but we believe it is in the best interest of the business!
Q3: You mention that MegaFans will leave the traditional model of the gaming industry that focuses only on finding users, and will migrate to a model that you have called “Gamer Relationship Management” (GRM). Can you explain to us what this approach methodology consists of? What exactly do you achieve with this?
[Zha]: This is built into our companies philosophy of putting Community First, everyone says they truly care about their community but we understand if we truly want to bridge Web2 and Web3 we have to have a closer connection to our users and support them in their journey to transition and work between both!
Q4: 🔵 Since “Paypal” uses a lot of commissions which is causing problems in some Countries, are you planning to be able to deposit or withdraw in cryptocurrency as well? And Are MegaFans planning to add more payment methods to deposit or withdraw winnings for the players?
[Zha]: We do indeed offer payouts via PayPal at this time as it is a secure option for both the Winners and our team! We already do transfer some winners their winnings via BUSD depedning on their winnings as well as we offer Digital Gift Cards up to a certain amount instead of PayPal if users wish!
TWITTER QUESTIONS
Q1: I read that your technology is limited to mobile Esports. May I ask, are you planning to reach out and extend your technology to PC devices? What kind of development does MegaFans have for now?
[Zha]: We are indeed working on expanding out from just Mobile esports. We are going to be opensourcing our SDK allowing developers and fanatics assists us in building this software for HTML5, Web3, Metaverse as well as Console versions. This is a process that is only just beginning but we will be growing into other avenues soon!
Q2: MegaFans is building the Mobile eSports Community using blockchain, NFTs in environment for gamers, collectors and developers. But Most gamers, collectors and developers in Traditional eSports are still not familiar with Blockchain technology, So how will MegaFans educate them?
[Zha]: We are here to bridge the Web2 and Web3 audiences through mobile games that anyone can play. That includes onboarding the players and individuals that are Crypto curious, we are happy to welcome them on board and our support team to assist in anyway possible of helping users understand what is happening when completeing payout and receiving winnings to their crypto wallet. We have had internal talks of building a knowledge base about Web3 as a whole but that is something that is potentially slated for the future as we are already slammed with our NFT and IDO this year
Q3: I read that on September 2022 MegaFans NFT collection comes with a killer utility. What the utility killer that you mean? And can you explain in more detail how this utility mechanism works? And what privileges does the owner get?
[Zha]: Our NFTs comes with several utilities depending ont eh rarity level of the NFT that you have. All of our NFTs come with access to an exclusive section of our Discord server that allows the users to talk directly to our team , ask questions, and give input on further games and opportunities that MegaFans has going forward. NFTs also can access exclusive tournaments that only NFT holders may access that can have larger prize pools and exclusive prizes form our partners and more. As mentioned before you have offer up your own NFT as a prize to receive a share of the entry fees to your own tournament with naming rights and more control over the tournament.
Q4: I read MegaFans seems to designate “VIP Status” to a limited group of individuals within the MegaFans community and platform. So Can you tell me more about your VIP Status? How to become a VIP Member? And what are the advantages and benefits of becoming a VIP MegaFans?
[Zha]: The VIP system is what it used to be called, that is what is now the new NFT membership exclusive chats and more that come with the ownership of an NFT. I would love to know where you may have found remnants of the VIP system, we have tried to edit or remove those sections as they are no longer accurately describing what is offered and how to enter!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: well it was such a pleasure Zachary to have you with us again today! I hope you’ll be passing by again in the future and definitely when the tokensale is coming near 😉
[Zha]: Absolutely! I cannot proimise that we will be here but I can promise that I want to be here! This was easily one of my favorite AMAs that we can done!
If the community wishes to hear more from us you can join our Telegram, https://t.me/MegaFans_eSports
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