Published on: 21/09/2022
META8 prevails in Axie Infinity’s largest tournaments
Web3-focused esports team META8 emerged triumphant in the two largest Axie Infinity events, including the recently concluded Axie Infinity’s first World Championship, and took home a combined $229,000 in winnings.
Theeban “1437” Siva was a dominant force in the Axie Infinity “Origins” tournament at AxieCon, claiming the title without dropping a single game. He previously competed in other esports titles such as Dota 2 on well-known teams such as Cloud9 and Dignitas before moving to play Axie Infinity. There, he co-founded the META8 guild alongside Youtuber and content creator Elijah.
“We wanted to have the best possible team, and something that’s just all about competing and making each other better and stronger. We were making sure that the players in our guild are able to fulfill their dreams of being full-time players, essentially,” said Siva, as per Decrypt.
Siva is also joined by Sebastián “Superchería” Pozzo, who was previously active in the Magic: The Gathering scene for over a decade, placing fifth at the 2019 World Championship for Magic: The Gathering Arena.
It’s worth noting that Pozzo briefly retired from Axie Infinity due to the release of the “Origins” version of the game, which he did not enjoy as much. However, he came out of hiatus due to the World Championship being played on the legacy version of the game and ended up claiming his first competitive tournament title.
“It was amazing. I’ve done pretty well in ‘Magic’, but I had never earned a major, individual title. This was something special, because going home knowing that nothing could have gone any better is unique,” Pozzo said.
Axie Infinity and META8’s plans for the future
Due to its previously collapsing economy, the developers of Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis, have changed the game’s reward structure and core gameplay to revitalize the player base and become more approachable to the mainstream audience.
The “Origins” version has free-to-play trial monsters to get new players to compete and play faster while also changing the gameplay in significant ways. Gameplay changes include the removal of random critical hits, the use of simplified stats to promote “a fast, turn-based game design”, as well as the introduction of various equipable items to enhance gameplay richness and possibilities.
Sky Mavis also previously announced at AxieCon that the competitive aspect of the game would continue to be supported, with over $2 million in AXS tokens being offered as grants to develop the Axie Infinity esports ecosystem.
According to Siva, this competitive focus separates Axie Infinity from the other NFT games on offer. “A lot of Web3 games are about, ‘OK, how can we make the most amount of money from our users?’ and are kind of forsaking the entertainment aspect of the game,” said Siva.
Since META8 is looking to branch out to compete in other Web3 games, Siva was asked by Decrypt if he thought that the META8 Axie Infinity team could remain dominant in the future due to the organization potentially splitting focus from the game. The pro player replied that there was “no doubt” that his team would continue to dominate the scene.
