AMA Recap: Monkey League
Date: October 3rd, 2022
Host: DeFiNaut
Guest: Oren Langberg — Head of Marketing and Partnerships
Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts!
We recently hosted an AMA with Monkey League. 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!
Table of Content ∘ INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
∘ TWITTER QUESTIONS
∘ COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
∘ ABOUT DEFIRACCOONS
INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Hope you are all ready #raccoonfam! Today we’re having an educational AMA with Oren Langberg, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at MonkeyLeague!
That’s correct, no monkey business today! Well… maybe there will be some, but we’ll remember to stay raccoonish! He’s here today to share with us what their game is all about and talk us through their upcoming mint, their partnerships and their latest progress and updates.
As you know there will be 2 parts, the muted part where me and Oren will be talking about MonkeyLeague! 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. There’s a total prizepool of $100 (2 live chat and 2 twitter qs will be winning $25 each).
So Oren, without further ado, can you please briefly tell us who you are and what your role is at MonkeyLeague? We’ll be having the elevator pitch in a minute!
Did you see what I did there 😄
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: 🙈 Let me dive in!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Check em out here raccoons! https://www.monkeyleague.io/
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: First of all thanks for having me here! I always enjoy meeting new communities and spreading that MonkeyLove!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: For sure, that’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: My name is Oren Langberg and I am the Head of Marketing and Partnerships at UnCaged Studios — developers of MonkeyLeague.
I am originally from the states — but have lived in Tel Aviv for several years now. Starting a year ago, I was employee #2 at UnCaged/MonkeyLeague and I oversee all marketing, community, and partnerships.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Ahah Tel Aviv, yes I know a solid marketing agency over there actually! Happy to meet you Oren, and welcome to the raccoons. So now that we know who you are let’s get to the real part shall we
Can you give the raccoons the infamous elevator pitch about MonkeyLeague? We’d like to get a brief rundown of what the project is all about and what vision and mission you have.
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Elevator pitch — sure thing! — let’s say the building has 1200 floors 🤣
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I see we’re going to top floor 😄 I love it
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: MonkeyLeague is the first in a franchise of web3 sports games that our studio UnCaged is developing.
From day 1 we had a rock solid vision and mission for web3 gaming. From day 1 we said the market lacked high quality games.
Web3 gaming has the immense potential of becoming the bridge between web2 and web3 because gaming is something that connects billions across the planet and will make web3 and crypto less intimidating. However for web3 gaming to go mainstream it NEEDS to be high production and entertainment value quality, a top quality look and feel, fun first gaming and high quality game mechanics.
When we set out most game “projects” out there were low quality games that just focused on the earning component
Gone are those days racoons. Everything our studio does is done in house. Now to the game and then can touch on the vision for it
MonkeyLeague is a fast, turn based soccer game that’s easy to learn yet hard to master. Build your dream team of 6 MonkeyPlayer NFTs, compete against real players and climb the league ranks!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Thank you for that! Yes and I have to say, those monkeys indeed do look badass!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Yessir they do. So the MonkeyPlayer NFTs are born with 32 total traits that cover their Appearance traits, Game Skills and Game Perks
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: And they’re trading on MagicEden right
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Game skills come with starting stats and max potentials that you can reach. Improve your player’s skills through gameplay and level them up!
To my knowledge, we are the only game that will allow players that will enable updating the NFT with updated stats
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: looking for the collection atm. https://magiceden.io/marketplace/monkeyball
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: They are currently trading on Magic Eden, FTX.us and Opensea
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: We’ll have to look for some monkey that looks a bit like a raccoon later 😄 Allthough I’m not so sure that will be easy to accomplish!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: ha, maybe we need to get some DeFi Raccoon Branded Monkeys
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Can you tell us about the idea that brought you to build MonkeyLeague? Aside from the stuff you’ve already explained in the elevator pitch 🙂
What problem are you trying to solve or what are you bringing to the space that is unique?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Sure and i appreciate the second question — what problem are we trying to solve. Because during the bull anyone and their mother could create a “game” and put it out with no clear strategy and what they’re setting out to do
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: yeah we’ve seen dozens of those types of games… let’s launch a game, get some play to earn token in there and boom let’s go
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: ponzi scheme, First and foremost we saw a major gap in web3 gaming for high production value, FUN-FIRST gaming
We saw major issues with how some existing games were operating and saw many as unsustainable.
This is #2 — sustainable web3 gaming
We are on an undeterrable mission to pioneer AAA-quality casual web3 gaming that lasts a lifetime
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok yes because a lot of web3 games forgot that first and foremost, gaming should be about having fun too
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: exactly, the rise of play to earn brought many people in their moms garage to make a low quality game that used earning as the primary way to get people to play. unsustainable
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Couldn’t agree more my sir
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: We are on a mission to take web3 gaming mainstream. and to do that it needs to be fun first
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I have the perfect saying for all those low quality games, monkey see monkey do 😄
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: haha So there’s a lot of people outside of web3 that doubt its potential and say its bullshit. We strongly disagree. In fact web3 gaming will just be called gaming and will take over and we will make sure we do that with the right strategy
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Thank you for sharing the clear vision and strategy to tackle this industry. Can I ask something about the team?
I’d like to take a look at those that make this project possible and invest their time and resources in it. How many of you are working on MonkeyLeague right now and what’s their background? How many developers are there?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: sure thing, so as i mentioned above everything we do is 100% in house — from art to blockchain dev to game dev to marketing 😉 we’re at about 46 now, have already moved a few offices haha
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]:
46 monkeys!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: in web3 not only does doing everything in house make us unique but also our studio has over 150 years of combined experience designing and developing mobile games
Our founders bring together the best of web2 gaming and crypto. Our co-founder and CPO, Raz Friedman was the first employee and CPO of Playtika for over a decade and has been in gaming for two decades.
Shahaf Bar gefeen has been in crypto since 2013 and is currently co-founder and ceo in a layer one protocol called coti.
This experience and knowledge has benefited us greatly.
Top down — our studio is full of ninjas
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yes I’ve heard about Coti a few times. Impressive lign-up for sure!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: we don’t mess around, or monkey around ha
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Also I was so free to share the trailer which looks very nice! I can see that, you cheeky monkey!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: 😜
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Is there already any other footage availablme that you can share by any chance?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: sure1 !
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: nice!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]:
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: looks like something I would actually play and have fun
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: tons of videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3zjOir54FuBt9cHplxaxuw
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: not like many of those autogames
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: we’re now finding the right balance and sweet spot for the mechanics. We want it to be lively and engaging 3–5 min matches, no idleness but also not like autogame lilke u said
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Definitely, so probably something that will be on people’s minds is how they can potentially earn something — like $MBS
Can you explain how the token $MBS fits in the game? What utilities does it have? Is it linked to the NFTs that are available in your native marketplace?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: sure thing, so i mentioned above our studio’s experience. Playtika was one of the pioneers of freemium gaming
So our game economy is a unique mesh between a free to play and a play and earn game economy. MonkeyBucks $MBS is the main in-game currency.
It will be used to purchase essential game items from our in-game store like Nutritional items, MedCare items or Energy to play matches. It will also be used at our future marketplace. You will be able to earn $MBS through skill based achievements, not a play to earn scenario, score goals, win matches and tournaments and climb the league ranks. climbing the leagues gives you league points
What’s super interesting and visionary is that we will have multiple ways to play and earn
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: looking forward to learn more about all the ways!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: The franchise of sports games will form the foundation of the UnCaged Ecosystem.
Just like in real life sports, we are building an ecosystem around the game. So, having MonkeyPlayers and playing matches will be one core way to participate in the economy and ecosystem.
People will also be able to own land, train players, be a breeder, a liquidity provider, a promoter, manage tournaments and so on
I can be a stadium owner and host matches and events, if that makes sense
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok thank you for sharing, probably we can find this also on the website right, all the other assets will be represented as NFTs?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: https://monkey-ball.gitbook.io/uncaged-studios/ whitepaper
Core NFTs will be MonkeyPlayers, stadiums and wearables
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok cool
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: whitepaper includes our whole vision and player trajectory
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Oren, I want to address the monkey in the room 😄
I mean the elephant. There’s a huge partnership that was announced most recently with none other than AC Milan! Can you please tell us more about what it entails and how it will help MonkeyLeague forward?
Announcement:
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Yes!
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]:
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: super proud of this partnership
They also just tweeted the auction this thursday. So this partnership is key and just the first step in a long term strategy to go mainstream
We have several partnerships lined up that will help us create that bridge between web2 and web3
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok very cool indeed, that’s indeed a big partnership!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: AC Milan is significant because they are our flagship strategic partnership and out of 100s of proposals they receive, maybe even 1000s, they chose us
We have another big partnership coming out in november, and a few more after, we are definitely NOT messing around
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: I can see that. So about this breeding feature, I didn’t know monkey bred actually
I read that that soon on October 26th the breeding feature will go live. Can you explain to us what this is and how people can get started or prepare?
Announcement:
More info:
Let’s talk about this
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: sure thing. We are super excited to launch Breeding on October 26th!
With 2 Breedable Monkeys (not parent-child or siblings) and a breeding capsule you will be able to create a new MonkeyPlayer NFT
So whether you want to collect, put on the market, fill out your team or create more teams — breeding is a great feature to do it
Breeding will also be, more or less, continuous and it will be guided by seasons, or themes.
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: What would you say to players that might think, can this dilute the nfts? or make the floor go down since supply increases?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: AC Milan will open up our Breeding by being the first season. Meaning if you have 2 non AC Milan Monkeys you have solid chances to generate a new Monkey that has AC Milan branded traits
Great question. so we put a ton of thought and planning of this feature, especially since it has such an impact on the game economy and player ecosystem.
Breeding capsules and the breeding cap are two levers we have to use in order to grow the population responsibly. with the game
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok that makes sense
Following the announcement, I see there’s also an upcoming mint on Oct 6th. Where should the raccoons go to be present for the mint? Also how do these assets differ from the existing ones?
Announcement:
the differences are probably mostly about the AC Milan branding? Or does it also offer unique utilities?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: These are the first of AC Milans game assets in MonkeyLeague
They are 16 super limited edition AC Milan MonkeyPlayer NFTs. These 16 are very special because they are Retro — celebrating a couple of their epic teams in history
The 16 is composed of 4 different tiers. each tier has their differences, including initial bid
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: so only 16 NFTs, nice!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: but these 16 have super unique appearances, making them rare and killer game skills, making them WARRARIORS on the field
We will do more game assets later
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok thank you for that!
Besides from AC Milan that we’ve already talked about, what partnerships do you currently have, and what value do they bring to the project both short-term and long-term?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: partnerships are a cornerstone to web3, some web3 “projects” out there “partner” with anyone and everyone. important for us are meaningful partnerships
we have partnered with some of the best in web3 and we will continue to build that up. And as I mentioned more strategic partnerships with organizations outside of web3
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: ok, and indeed the partnerships that you do make are very interesting, just like AC Milan
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: yes
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Before we finisht he first part off, can you tell us about the roadmap and what plans do you have for 2022?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: of course, happy to, we actually are gearing up for a crazy q4 ahead
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: thank you for the link, I’ll share a graphic from the website
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Breeding Launches October 26th — with first dibs reserved for MonkeyPioneers (verified monkeyholders in our discord)
Thats slightly outdated
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Looking forward to the closed game core alpha!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Breeding and breeding capsules this month — with AC Milan as the first breeding season
November — a closed mini alpha
December — Closed beta + special world cup
January — Softlaunch of game in several countries
nonstop several months ahead indeed
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: OK so that’s it for the prepared part 🙂 it’s now time to unmute the chat and have the community ask some questions, but first we’ll do the twitter questions if that’s ok 😉
TWITTER QUESTIONS
Q1:
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: This doesnt refer to being inactive in the game for a certain period of time. It refer multiple ways to play and potentially earn within Monkeyleague — whether as a player with Monkeys or a Stadium owner that hosts matches and events
Q5:
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Yes we will have a Player vs Environment version, a player vs player game mode and team vs team later on.
We will also have a free to play version that people will be able to download, play for free before taking it up a notch
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: it’s time for the community questions!
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: lets do it!
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
Q1: I read that the Mokey NFt needs “Energy” to play the games. Can you explain what are the ways to get this energy inside MonkeyLeague? Do I have to pay to get this energy? Any way to acquire it for free?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: Sure and I didn’t get to explain this in the ama so happy you asked.
In MonkeyLeague, just like in real life, you won’t be able to play your MonkeyPlayers endlessly. They have stamina and health points you need to maintain. players will get free daily supply packs but if you want to play more matches you will need nutritional items, medcare items and Energy. Energy is used to play matches.
Q2: Many games don’t support mobiles, and that reduces the attraction of many players around the world. Can I play #monkeyliaugh Game on mobile and on PC? Is there a version for Android and iOS, what does my PC need to be able to play it?💥❗
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: to be true pioneers of web3, you need to go mobile. When we began a year ago we were desktop oriented but several months ago changed to be mobile first
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Yeah mobile first is definitely very good
Q3:
- Congratulations on becoming official partners with AC Milan. How will this partnership with Serie A champions impact the long-term development of the project?
Kindly tell us the pros, cons and potential outcomes of this collaboration. How can you both contribute to each other? - I’ve read that there will be auctions on September 6th for the sale of AC Milan NFTs as a result of the collaboration. How many NFTs will be sold and what is the price? What will be the utilities of the ACMilan NFTs in the Monkey League?
In face-to-face matches with opposing teams, will it provide me an advantage?
[Oren | MonkeyLeague 🐵 ⚽️]: these kinds of partnerships are significant for numerous reasons. It expands AC Milans brand into web3. It provides our studio a stamp of approval, because they dont just partner with anyone. It brings in a lot of web2 people into web3 and into monkeyleague. And it expands our game assets.
We will do a bunch of game assets but these first are up for auction. these monkeys will be able to be used in the game of course
[DeFiNaut 🦝 | founder @DeFiRaccoons]: Awesome! 🙂 well I want to thank you so much Oren for being with us today, we learned a lot about the game and hope to play it in the near term!
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