FirstBlood Looks To Reshape eSports Following $6.1M Crowdsale
FirstBlood Technologies, an Ethereum-based, decentralized sports platform based on smart contracts, has begun work on development and solidifying its team in preparation for the upcoming alpha release of its decentralized eSports rewards platform this December, according to Zack Coburn, smart contracts architect. The FirstBlood app allows eSports fans to compete in games through an automated, decentralized platform.
FirstBlood noted its crowdsale raised $6.1 million in an exclusive announcement to CCN.com. The fundraising campaign has enabled the company to increase the size of its development team, as well as move its core team to a central location in Boston, Mass.
Development Team Makes Progress
“The core dev team has gathered to implement the vision outlined in the white paper,” Coburn said. “The team has already made progress designing and developing smart contracts, user interfaces, APIs and features.”
Marco Cuesta, head of business development, said the company will stick to its 18-month plan originally outlined on the platform’s official website, adding that the team seeks to strengthen its brand within the industry and show that their platform is not just another addition to the eSports ecosystem but an improvement on current issues.
“We have prioritized building a presence in the traditional eSports space and the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Cuesta said, adding that people in the industry have acknowledged FirstBlood as a viable answer to persistent problems in the space.
FirstBlood’s decentralized method of handling payouts is a solution to competitive gamers who are dissatisfied with the way eSports organizations manage financial assets, Cuesta said.
FirstBlood Takes Questions
The team recently held an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, giving the public an opportunity to ask questions about the platform’s development and future goals.
Points raised included the platform’s operation, mainstream adoption, and questions around payouts, cheating and dispute resolution.
“The anti-cheating system we are designing is revolutionary in the way that a user will now have the opportunity to present evidence against cheating opponents,” said CEO Joe Zhou. “In the long term, we want to combat cheating by flagging cheaters through machine learning and data collected from dishonest users over time.”
Cuesta said FirstBlood has started to form relationships with some key organizations, but did not wish to elaborate at this time.
On the technical side, developers are working to increase the platform’s ease-of-use for mainstream adopters.
Coburn said the development team “will be designing our UI/UX to be more intuitive and ergonomic for mainstream users without sacrificing the benefits of blockchain technology.”
Also read: Decentralized sports platform FirstBlood raises 465,312.00 ETH, set to improve eSports
Presentation To E-Sports Industry
FirstBlood recently presented at the Naruscope eSports conference, dedicated to covering innovation in the eSports industry.
The team expects to launch an alpha version of the game in December, with plans to further expand its development team in early 2017 in preparation for the beta release.
FirstBlood also announced it will be closing public registration for its alpha test on Nov.24, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST. Registration will remain closed until later versions of the platform are released.
“We have reached our alpha registration goal for the premier version of our platform. However, we are providing fans with a final opportunity to invite their friends and colleagues to compete,” said Cuesta. “Community familiarity is very important to keep testing fun and engaging.”
Featured image from Flickr .
