Written by Sasquatch and Maty

Goal

Proliferate Nouns through esports initiatives. Fuel the growth of a sub-community within the Nouns ecosystem.

Description

Continuing the work of Prop #68, #91, and #112, this Esports Pod (comprised of esports-native Nouners and Nounsfolk) will function in a manner similar to the thriving small grants initiative within Nouns. It will use a delegated treasury to look for outsized opportunities within esports to continue proliferating Nouns with the best ROI possible.

Didn't we just pass an esports proposal?

• All of our esports proposals so far have been game-specific.
• We have a very deep talent pool of esports native Nouners and Nounsfolk who can capably proliferate across a variety of titles.
• Having quick access to funds will allow for better proliferation, as the competitive landscape has an ever-evolving calendar that makes the formal proposal process slow.
• The pod has already been pitched multiple proposal ideas from high-level esports operators.
  • Sending international players to the largest fighting game event.
  • Sponsoring a high-level Dota LAN.
  • Signing a League of Legends team.

Esports Pod

• Consisting of Nouners and Nounsfok who are familiar with esports and aligned towards the mission of proliferation across the DAO.
  • Sasquatch (Nouncil, Esports background)
  • Brennen (Nouner, Esports background)
  • Maty (Nouncil)
  • Oni (Nouner, Esports background)
  • Brian Cho (Nouner, Esports background)
  • Jason Oliver (Nouner, Esports background)
  • Deeze (Nouner, Esports background)
  • thebeautyandthepunk (Nouner)
  • Brax (Esports background)
  • PPD (Esports background)
  • Griff (Esports background)

Pod Structure

• The structure of the pod will be flexible, this means members can be added/removed based on a supermajority vote.
• Upon initial deployment, the pod will functionally operate inside of the Nouns Esports Discord server.
• Members of the Pod will vote over each proposed use of funds.
  • Any member can sponsor a proposal.
• A multi-sig consisting of Sasquatch, Brennen, Maty, Brian Cho, and Oni will operate funds.
• All use of funds will be documented in a manner transparent to the Nouns community.

Budget: 369 ETH

• This budget will be governed by the members of the Esports Pod and controlled by a 3/5 multi-sig.
  • Address: 0x8b45D1CACcb3593E9F1015BA8e97AFB68DE3a0d1
• For operational purposes, we will keep a portion of the standing budget as the stablecoin DAI.
• Distribution:
  • Proposals (~90%)
  • Operations (max 10%) - We've already had a broad range of contributions, any compensation related to those efforts (outside of individual proposals) will have to be voted on internally and awarded retroactively.
    • Running weekly meetings, onboarding esports operators into Nouns, Discord & Twitter management, building the prop, multiple people taking calls and evaluating pitches, etc.
    • May explore using Coordinape.

Potential Use of Funds

• Flexible funding towards infrastructure costs for each team we sign to Nouns Esports.
  • Bootcamps, logistics, special events.
• Sponsoring additional players, streamers, or teams.
  • Each game is its own vertical to build within.
• Funding Projects:
  • Nouns Network
    • We see the talent network at Nouns to be one of the best features to leverage as we grow. These projects may already be independently funded, we would have standing budget available to work with them in an esports capacity.
      • Examples:
        • Nouns Esports x Nounish (Prop 64) - Filming our players at events, advising on marketing strategy.
        • Nouns Esports x Nouns Brand (Prop 109) - Designed outfits for the players at events, merch for fans.
        • Nouns Esports x NOUNS ON THE GROUND (Prop 110) - Sending the Proliferation Pod to events our teams compete in.
        • Supporting an Esports Prop House.
  • Event Sponsorships
    • Outsized opportunities to have high brand exposure through streaming or physical events.
  • Streamers, Pros, or Casters with AR or Physical Noggles.
  • Creating gamer Noggles with blue light filter.
  • Creating team jerseys for players and fans.
• Forking Nouns to create an esports-specific subDAO
  • Designs created to represent games we participate in.

Future

• Sustainability
  • We believe Nouns Esports inherently works to proliferate the Nouns brand, but we are still interested in exploring a path towards creating a self-sustaining sub-community.
  • Pillars this could be built on:
    • Forking Nouns
      • Exploring a subDAO mechanic which allows for fans to engage with the team at a greater level than existing esports organizations.
    • Sponsors
      • Traditional web2 sponsors.
      • Web3 sponsors that the DAO chooses to affiliate with.
    • Nouns Esports in-game items

Testimonials

e-sports has been one of the highest ROI proposals (in terms of attention generated) thus far...the success of nouns e-sports clearly demonstrates the power of handing the reigns to the community
-Nounder 4156

I was a bit skeptical at first I'll admit but it was our Dota team that got my brother (a perennial crypto skeptic) to go from "all NFTs are a scam" to "all NFTs except for Nouns are a scam" ... which to me felt big
-Nouncillor brianj

One of the reasons why I bought a noun was because I saw the positive impact that the nounsesports was creating to the greater gaming community...watching the dota 2 esports community (hardcore pc gamers) embrace the nouns ⌐◨-◨ meme has been incredible
-Nouner Brian Cho

Nounsesports was how I first learned about nouns and was really impressed with how the group was able to resonate with a hardcore gaming audience such as pro Dota 2 fans. Given my background helping to build esports at Riot and then as a board director at Astralis, I’m a big believer that esports helps gamers turn their love for games into part of their broader identity. I’m excited to work with the Nouns esports team to proliferate the nouns brand to gamers through esports.
-Nouner Jason Oliver [via DM]