YGG: 2022 Year End Retrospective

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Yield Guild Games

10 min readDec 28, 2022

The year 2022 saw Yield Guild Games (YGG) expand and evolve the blockchain gaming ecosystem and the open Metaverse. In this article, we celebrate the milestones that our guild members, partners and community have achieved in anticipation of what’s next to come.

Growing Number of Game and Infrastructure Partners

One of the cornerstones of YGG is its community and game partners. This year saw the guild further its mission to secure partnerships with the world’s best games and infrastructure projects that will help advance the web3 ecosystem.

To date, the guild has over 80 game and infrastructure partners. This year, YGG added the following games and studios to its partnership portfolio: Mavia, Nyan Heroes, Synesis One, Solarbots, Nitro League, MetalCore, Civitas, Wildlife Studios, Crypto Unicorns, MOBLAND, Walken, Tatsumeeko, My Pet Hooligan, G4AL, Storyverse, Trial Xtreme, DigiDaigaku and Thirdverse.

YGG also partners with infrastructure projects that will deliver value to the YGG player community in the long term. In 2022, YGG partnered with Strider, MetaGoons, BreederDAO, Cassava, Oasys, Nas Academy, StemsDAO, reNFT and Elixir.

An Expanding SubDAO Network

As YGG aims to further its global reach, the guild established additional subDAOs to address challenges and opportunities in each region’s local markets and ensure language-specific content, education and hyper-localized support is made available for player onboarding.

Each of the YGG subDAOs is autonomous from the main DAO and has the authority to make its own decisions, develop products, formulate strategies on treasury management and business model development, and more.

The following is an updated list of the YGG subDAOs around the globe and the Metaverse:

YGGLOK, the game subDAO for League of Kingdoms
YGGSPL, the game subDAO for Splinterlands
YGG SEA, the regional subDAO for Southeast Asia excluding the Philippines
YGG Japan, the regional subDAO for Japan
SKYGG, the regional subDAO for South Korea
IndiGG, the regional subDAO for India
TROY, the regional subDAO for Turkey and Egypt
bayz, the regional subDAO for Brazil
Ola GG, the regional subDAO for the Hispanic community
AMG DAO — the regional subDAO for Central and Eastern European countries

The first YGG SubDAO Summit took place in November 2022, where YGG’s regional subDAOs discussed their plans and took the opportunity to learn valuable insights from each other. Read more about YGG’s SubDAO network and its plans for the future.

YGG x Nas Academy: Web3 Metaversity

Another partnership formed this year is with Nas Academy, a creator-focused educational platform. Together with YGG, the platform built Web3 Metaversity, an educational program that enables YGG Guild Badge holders to learn new skills and uncover earning and career opportunities.

Through the partnership, members of the Web3 Metaversity community can participate in learning sessions via the platform in a supportive environment as they upskill together. YGG and Nas Academy’s long-term vision for the program is to empower participants to build promising careers in web3 across a range of in-demand roles as community managers, content creators, crypto traders, NFT artists or specialists in other areas.

Learn more about the YGG x Nas Academy partnership.

Launch of the Guild Advancement Program (GAP)

In April 2022, YGG launched its Guild Advancement Program (GAP), a system designed to reward and acknowledge guild members who make meaningful contributions to the YGG community, its projects and its operations.

By gamifying the distribution of community-allocated YGG tokens, the program is part of an on-going initiative to help guild members build their on-chain reputation, digital identity and Metaverse résumé.

“The next phase of crypto will be all about people’s web3 reputation,” said YGG co-founder, Gabby Dizon.

Below are some of the highlights from GAP Season 1:

GAP Season 1 consisted of 45 missions, called “achievements,” developed to help the guild grow and prosper so that individual community members could take a more proactive role in running the guild.
BiGBOSS | YGG topped the leaderboards with 14 achievements throughout the season.
League of Kingdoms was the game with the most number of quests that players could compete in for achievements.
GAP Season 1 participants collectively earned over 102,160 YGG tokens, and over 1,030 NFTs were distributed to them, which determined the precise number of tokens to be allocated per participant.
The GAP Season 1 NFTs were created by 45 artists commissioned by YGG from Cryptopop Art Guild (CPAG).

Launch of Reward Vaults

In July 2022, YGG’s Reward Vaults were launched to deliver a long-term, sustainable reward program that bridges YGG’s passionate play-to-earn community with its extensive partner network.

YGG’s Head of Product Development, KnightAV, designed the original Reward Vaults concept. By staking YGG tokens, YGG Guild Badge holders get exposure to other web3 game tokens such as Aavegotchi’s GHST and Crypto Unicorn’s RBW. After the program’s successful launch, League of Kingdoms’ LOKA and Thetan Arena’s THG were added to the vaults in November.

Growth of YGG Esports

YGG Esports saw significant growth in developments this year. Recognizing the many opportunities that esports can bring to web3 gaming communities, the guild has placed great focus on strengthening its leadership, players, and community while participating in various tournaments. Along with this, esports-focused game bootcamps and community streamer initiatives were created to develop YGG’s esports community and attract talented players in the web3 gaming.

Led by Mike Ovecka, ex-Blizzard esports head for Hearthstone, YGG Esports currently includes two teams: YGG Elite, a premier roster of blockchain game players who have secured top spots in local, regional and global tournaments. In the Axie BYOD Series, YGG Elite team member Zeliaser secured third place, taking home US$14,695.12. At the YGG Origin Stadium Series, Elm0momo placed second and Tersaik placed third.

Meanwhile, YGG Rising Star, is a prospect pool of players with aspirations to advance further in the esports initiative.

Beyond Axie Infinity tournaments, the YGG Splinterlands subDAO were triumphant at the Splinterfest tournament held in Las Vegas on October 8–9, 2022, where YGG players BryBro and DToughStuff overcame tough competition to finish first on the leaderboards.

Other key events for YGG Esports in 2022 included:

Learn more about YGG’s vision for web3 esports here.

Continuing YGG Events

The following are some events that YGG hosted this year:

YGG Pilipinas Roadtrip
YGG’s First Managers Summit
Philippine Web3 Festival, co-hosted with BlockchainSpace

Now that COVID travel restrictions have eased, over the coming year, YGG looks forward to hosting and co-hosting more events all over the world so we can celebrate the people and nurture the communities that make up the foundations of YGG.

A Successful Philippine Web3 Festival

The inaugural Philippine Web3 Festival was a huge success. Hosted by YGG and BlockchainSpace, the event saw more than 2,000 in-person attendees plus more than 10,000 tuning in online and from satellite watch parties all across the archipelago.

Coming together at the global epicenter of web3 adoption was a great opportunity for games, guilds, NFT projects, and crypto VCs to discuss and collaborate on ideas, as well as meet the local communities that are shaping the web3 ecosystem. The week-long event had big-name participants including Binance, Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Polygon, Tezos, Globe, and Nas Company. A number of YGG partners were also present such as Emfarsis, Crypto Unicorns, MetaverseGo, BreederDAO, and XLD Finance.

*On top of the PHP 1M donation to his charity from PH Web3 Fest, Apl.de.Ap was gifted a painting of a Carabao by* *Sevi Agregado* *to celebrate his upbringing in the Philippines.*

Apl.de.Ap, the Filipino-American rapper, singer, producer and founding member of the Black Eyed Peas also joined the speaker lineup to talk about how web3 and NFTs can empower Filipino artists. After the panel, Apl.de.Ap performed two songs and the PH Web3 Fest community announced a PHP 1M donation to the Apl.de.Ap foundation.

Sky Mavis co-founder and long-time friend of YGG, Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin, delivered a keynote address that reflected on Axie Infinity’s strong history in the Philippines and shared his vision for the future of the game going forward.

The following are some panels that featured YGG representatives:

The week of festivities also included side events that celebrated a successful year for YGG:

YGG Representation at Global Events

YGG continues to grow the blockchain gaming space not only by building infrastructure and bridging communities but also by sharing its vision for the web3 ecosystem. This year saw YGG representatives attending major conferences and panels. Many of these aren’t crypto or web3-exclusive, so it’s not only the greater cryptosphere learning about our story but the rest of the world as well.

The following are some of the most notable events YGG representatives participated in:

February 4, 2022 | DICE Summit 2022 | Las Vegas, USA: YGG co-founder Beryl Li joined a panel titled “The NFT Discussion,” with John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games, Jonathan Lai, partner at Andreessen Horowitz general partner, and Min Kim, developer at Bonfire Studios.
May 1–4, 2022 | Milken Institute Global Conference 2022 | Los Angeles, California, USA: Beryl spoke about opportunities in the open Metaverse accessed through AR, VR and blockchain.
July 6–8, 2022 | IVS Crypto 2022 Naha | Kyoto, Japan: YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon spoke about the latest developments in GameFi and guilds.
July 19, 2022 | ED3N House at EthCC | Paris, France: In a panel titled “Web3 Gaming’s Impact on Emerging Markets,” Beryl, along with Leah Callon-Butler and Nathan Smale, directors on Emfarsis, Ron Hose, co-founder of Coins.ph, and Nico Del Pino, co-founder of Ola GG, discussed how blockchain games have positively impacted the lives of people in countries where job opportunities are limited.
August 2–6, 2022 | Neckerverse Summit | Necker Island, British Virgin Islands: Gabby attended Bill Tai’s annual event to educate tech entrepreneurs about X-to-earn models, like play-to-earn, move-to-earn and learn-to-earn, and how they can empower people to pursue their passions.
September 7–10, 2022 | AxieCon 2022 | Barcelona, Spain: YGG was present at Axie Infinity’s first-ever conference where Gabby shared his perspective on the future of guilds in Web3. Gabby also joined Coins.ph Wei Zhou in a fireside chat about the history of crypto adoption in the Philippines. YGG’s esports team, YGG Elite also joined its esports tournament.
September 28–29, 2022 | TOKEN2049 Singapore | Singapore: Beryl was on a panel about the Metaverse with Ciara Sun, Founder and Managing Partner of C² Ventures, Miles Anthony, Co-Founder and CEO of Decentral Games, and David Shin, Head of Global Adoption, Klaytn Foundation.
November 1–4, 2022 | Web Summit 2022 | Lisbon, Portugal: Beryl joined Bozena Rezab, CEO and co-founder of GAMEE, Sarojini Mckenna, CEO and co-founder of Alien Worlds, and CoinDesk’s Zack Seward, to discuss how web3 games continue to grow despite uncertain market conditions.
November 17–18, 2022 | Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit 2022 | Abu Dhabi, UAE: Beryl participated in an invite-only roundtable about the migration of the internet from Web2 to Web3.

Key Hires

Growing YGG and web3 gaming requires the finest talent. Here are some of the key drafts we made in 2022:

Andrew N. Green — Head of Developer Relations, Andrew plays a key role in further developing the YGG ecosystem by building a team to interact with game developers in all segments of the industry.
Mike Ovecka — Head of Esports, is a former Head of Esports for Hearthstone by Blizzard. He leads the growth of the YGG Esports team.
Mark Tan — Community Product Lead, is in charge of working with the wider YGG team to help develop, and improve YGG’s products. One of his projects is the Guild Advancement Program (GAP).
Jen Yu — Head of Design, is in charge of the design and branding side of the guild. Prior to joining, she held creative roles in various companies from San Francisco’s bay area for more than 10 years.
Nam Le — Head of Software Development, focuses on leading the DevOps team and stakeholder management to deliver the build-out of YGG’s product roadmap.

YGG Leads the Evolution of Gaming Guilds

This year, YGG demonstrated adaptability and its vision for growth by continuing to evolve its models and services. As web3 gaming grows, the space will see trends come and go. By being open to change and putting the needs of its community first, YGG is evolving to continue delivering value to the web3 space.

YGG would like to extend its sincerest gratitude to its community and partners for the value and support they have brought to the guild in 2022. The team is excited for the coming year as we continue to build the web3 gaming sphere, our communities, and the open Metaverse.

Visit YGG’s Discord or follow us on Twitter for future updates.