When eSports Clubs Enter the Blockchain: The New Species of "Professional Players" in Big Time
Imagine this scene: at three in the morning, a five-person team has been struggling for six hours in Big Time's "Time Rift" dungeon. They are not ordinary players — the captain is a former professional player from (World of Warcraft), the healer supports his sister's college education in the Philippines with gaming income, and the DPS is a quantitative trader who resigned from Wall Street. The "time machine" space beneath their feet, glittering with gold, is worth the equivalent of a Tesla Model 3, yet it belongs to five people.
Welcome to the new world of AAA blockchain games. Here, YGG is no longer just a guild that "lends you money to buy game assets," but is building a set of infrastructure that truly allows professional players to become "professionalized" in blockchain games.
3 AM conference call: When esports thinking meets NFT.
Last November, on the night when Big Time's first team instance 'Odin's Temple' was launched, Lisa, head of YGG's Los Angeles branch, received an urgent voice request.
"Lisa, our team's 'time machine' is broken," the captain of the Singapore team, Amin, said on the phone. "The repair requires 5 'time crystals', but we only have 3. The other 2 are priced at $500 each in the public trading pool. Is that reasonable?"
Similar requests received 17 times within 24 hours.
YGG's management suddenly realized: Big Time is not another Axie. What it needs are not 'scholarship managers', but asset maintenance workers, tactical analysts, team brokers — a complete professional esports service system, where all assets are on-chain.
Big Time's 'sandwich economics'
To understand what YGG is doing, you must first break down Big Time's clever design.
This game divides NFTs into three layers, like a sandwich:
Top layer (decorative layer): skins, decorations, space design.
· Fully NFTized, can be freely traded.
· Purely ostentatious consumption does not affect combat power.
· YGG's strategy: bulk purchasing, unified style for the guild.
Mid-level (functional layer): 'time machine' space.
· Limited edition NFTs are essential for team instances.
· Supports up to 5 people co-owning.
· Requires regular maintenance consuming in-game resources.
· This is YGG's core entry point.
Bottom layer (core layer): equipment, weapons, skills.
· Most are non-tradable, relying on players to earn themselves.
· Retaining the fun of growth from traditional MMOs.
· Prevent 'pay-to-win' from disrupting game balance.
"The designers of Big Time are very smart," said Mark, YGG's game strategy director. "They separated 'what can be speculated' from 'what must be played by oneself'. Want to show off your wealth? Buy decorations. Want to get stronger? Go grind instances. Want to form a top team? You need a shared 'time machine' — that's our opportunity."
The 'time machine' dilemma: When a Tesla has five owners.
The question arises: how to manage a 'time machine' NFT worth $10,000, jointly owned by players from five different countries?
The traditional solution is a 'multi-signature wallet' — three out of five people must agree to operate the assets. But in practice, there are a lot of issues:
1. Maintenance disputes: Defeated in the instance at midnight, the machine broke and needed immediate repair. But five players are in different time zones, waiting to gather three people to vote, and it's already dawn.
2. Contribution measurement: Player A is online for 40 hours a week, Player B only plays on weekends, but asset appreciation earnings are split evenly? Unfair in the long run.
3. Exit mechanism: If a player wants to leave the team, how is their share valued? Who takes over? How is the takeover money distributed to the other four?
In December last year, YGG's internal statistics showed that among players who formed teams independently, the team dissolution rate due to 'time machine' management disputes reached 67%.
Therefore, the YGG Laboratory launched the 'TimeVault Project'.
YGG's solution: a third-party managed 'digital garage'
The core of TimeVault is a three-party structure:
First party: player teams.
Holding the actual usage rights of the 'time machine', responsible for daily game operations.
Second party: YGG Asset Custody Department.
Providing technical custody services, including:
· Emergency maintenance fast track (prepaid fund pool, post-settlement).
· Using data to automatically record (who used it when and for how long).
· Exit valuation model (based on instance clearance records, maintenance history, market quotes).
Third party: Community Supervision Committee.
A DAO composed of other team leaders, arbitrating major disputes and voting to decide updates to custody rules.
Sound complex? Look at the actual operation:
Last month, YGG Southeast Asia team's 'time machine' obtained a rare skin drop while completing an epic instance. According to the rules, the skin belongs to the team's shared asset, but all five players wanted to equip it on their characters.
Traditional methods lead to arguments. TimeVault's solution:
1. Skins are on-chain, ownership marked as 'team shared'.
2. The system automatically generates a 7-day rotation schedule (each person equips for 1-2 days).
3. If someone wants to monopolize, they must buy out the shares of others at valuation.
4. Buyout funds are automatically proportionally distributed to other team members.
"We are like a property management company for digital assets," Lisa metaphorically said, "but what we manage are ‘super garages’ worth tens of thousands of dollars, that can traverse time and space, and drop loot from monsters."
A new profession is born: YGG's 'on-chain team broker'.
With the launch of the Big Time professional league, an unprecedented position emerged within YGG: team broker.
Jason used to be a player manager for a traditional esports club and joined YGG last year. His daily work includes:
Monday: Analyzing the efficiency data of 'time machine' usage from various teams last week and finding optimization space.
Tuesday: Negotiating asset restructuring plans for two teams wanting to merge. Team A has advanced machines but lacks healing, Team B has top healing but old machines. Jason designed a mixed plan of 'machine rental + performance sharing'.
Wednesday: Assisting in handling player transfers. Calculating the contribution value of exiting players, contacting potential buyers, and organizing 'trial matches' to help new players integrate with the team.
Thursday: Meeting with decorative designers to discuss unified procurement of seasonal limited skins for their teams, negotiating discounts in bulk.
Friday: The most exciting part — bidding for new 'time machine' NFTs at Big Time's official auction. Jason holds YGG's joint procurement fund pool, bidding in real-time against brokers from other guilds.
"In traditional esports transfers, we talk about player contracts," Jason said, "what we discuss here are NFT shares, maintenance responsibilities, drop distribution rules. I spend one-third of my time analyzing game data, one-third calculating economic models, and the remaining one-third learning legal terms — because the legal status of on-chain assets is still in a gray area."
Data does not lie: the returns from professionalization.
After six months of operation, how has YGG performed in Big Time?
Regarding asset appreciation:
· YGG manages 37 'time machines', with an average appreciation of 220%.
· In contrast, the independently managed small teams had an average appreciation of only 85% during the same period.
· Key difference: YGG's regular maintenance and professional use significantly extend asset lifespan.
Regarding team performance:
· YGG teams occupy 73% of the server's first kill records.
· Among the top 100 teams, 41 are YGG-managed or partnered teams.
· More astonishingly: YGG teams' average daily online time is 15% lower than independent teams, but their instance clearance rate is 40% higher.
"This shows that professional management doesn't make people 'grind' more," Jason explained, "but makes limited time generate greater value. Just like professional athletes' training — it's not about training longer, but training smarter."
That DPS player from Wall Street
Remember the Wall Street quantitative trader mentioned at the beginning? His name is Alex, who left the investment bank to join YGG's Big Time division last year.
"I used to build trading models on Wall Street, now I'm building instance strategy models at YGG," Alex said with a smile in an interview, "but the essence is still about finding market inefficiencies."
He gave an example: In Big Time, there is a material called 'Void Crystal', which is essential for repairing 'time machines'. The official drop rate is fixed, but Alex discovered through data analysis that:
1. After server maintenance every Wednesday at midnight, the drop rate increases by 12% for the first two hours.
2. If the professional combination in a five-person team meets a certain pattern, the drop rate increases by 8%.
3. Under certain specific 'time machine' skin enhancements, the drop rate increases by an additional 5%.
"I sold this model to three YGG teams, and their maintenance costs dropped by 25%," Alex said, "I take a 10% cut from that. It's less than what I earned on Wall Street, but it's much more fun - and my 'research results' are NFTized, generating royalties continuously."
The future: from 'custody services' to 'professional leagues'.
Big Time's officials recently announced a professional league plan with a prize pool of $5 million. What does this mean for YGG?
First, asset securitization. YGG is discussing with compliant platforms to package the 'time machines' and performance records of top teams into investment products. Investors can buy shares and share team bonuses and asset appreciation.
Secondly, player professional certification. YGG is developing an 'on-chain esports resume' that will record players' performances in all YGG partnered games. Big Time's performance, Axie's arena rankings, The Sandbox's architectural works — all on-chain and tamper-proof.
Finally, a cross-game team brand. Imagine a team brand that runs instances in Big Time, builds bases in The Sandbox, and pilots ships in Star Atlas — all assets and fan economics managed uniformly. YGG is already testing such a 'metaverse club' model.
A moment of realization at four in the morning.
Back to that instance at three in the morning. With the support of YGG's emergency maintenance channel, the Singapore team finally cleared 'Odin's Temple' at four o'clock and achieved the first kill on the server.
Captain Amin later shared in the community: "When the five of us stood in front of Odin's throne, and the system prompted 'time machine durability is only 2%', I suddenly understood what YGG was doing."
"They are not 'organizing players to play games', but building a trusted infrastructure that allows players to confidently become 'professional players'. I no longer need to worry about teammates running off with equipment, no longer need to argue over maintenance costs, no longer need to research complex NFT transactions myself — I can focus on what I do best: being a good captain and leading my team to victory."
This may be the ultimate promise of AAA blockchain games: not to make everyone rich, but to allow top players to earn a decent income based on their expertise, like professional athletes, artists, and programmers.
And YGG is becoming the 'Professional League Office' for this new world — establishing rules, providing support, and building the stage.
Next time you hear someone quit their job to 'play games full-time', don't rush to shake your head. Go check out the entrance to the top instances in Big Time, those decisive team leaders, those strategists calculating equipment combinations, those brokers managing million-dollar NFT asset portfolios —
They may not be 'playing games'. They may be at the dawn of a new profession, becoming the first brave ones to take the plunge.
And behind them, almost all can see a common symbol: YGG. That gaming guild that emerged from rural internet cafes in the Philippines is now becoming the new infrastructure for professional players in the digital age.
@Yield Guild Games #YGGPlay $YGG
