Welcome back to your weekly PlayToEarn newsletter where we bring the latest news, announcements, and opinions on the world of blockchain and web3 gaming!

Hello all! One of the biggest digital gaming, play to earn events is finishing up this weekend. And by that I’m referring to the yearly, DOTA2 International tournament. The final matches are this weekend, with over $2.5 million in prizes for the top 16 teams! With prizes like this, it’s no wonder that many web3 games have eSports in their sights!

And though not directly related to web3 gaming, I found this story interesting. In short, an NFT enthusiast, who held a fractionalized part of a CryptoPunk NFT through a defunct site called Nitfex, was able to make legitimate use of the fractional smart contract to buy out the other fractional owners for 10 ETH. This particular CryptoPunk has already received a bid of 600 ETH, giving the owner a potential 60x return!

This shows both the power of blockchain (even though the site wasn’t maintained, the smart contract functionality lived on), and the potential danger of trusting your funds and/or NFTs to smart contracts without understanding all of the available functions. Of course, not everyone (myself included) is a smart contract expert. And at some point, you have to be able to trust others to get anything done. But nonetheless, this is still an interesting story.

Here are our hot topics at PlayToEarn this week for web3 and blockchain gaming.

MOBAs in web3 gaming

The MOBA, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, genre seems like a perfect fit for web3 gaming. It’s already a hugely popular game genre, particularly in the world of eSports, character skins would be perfect as NFTs, and it would be easy to encourage players with a play and earn economy.

And while web3 MOBA games have a long way to go before they can even begin to challenge the web2 versions, we do have quite a few in development.

The list of web3 MOBA gems includes Sparkball, a combination soccer match and brawler, Spider Tanks, Arena of Faith, Robokiden, Evermoon, League of Ancients, and many, many more! And you could even include games like The Machines Arena in this list.

Will any of these be able to rise above the pack and claim their spot in the eSports world? Hopefully we will find out soon!

The Rise of SocialFi

Social gaming platforms, otherwise referred to as SocialFi in some circles, are making more noise in the blockchain gaming space. Sites such as Zealy and DeQuest have been around for a while, but the new contenders such as Tribally, CARV, and the newly launched Lizard Lounge are trying to create something more, bringing gaming, community, and earning through participation together into one, centralized location.

And while most web3 games have their own, focused version of this concept, these apps that are pulling together multiple games in a broader format will be the ones to set the tone moving forward.

If you’re already playing web3 games, then you might want to take a look at the new SocialFi sites and see if you can earn a little extra along the way!

Latest Play to Earn and Play to Airdrop News🪂

Moving Money: Funding, Tokenomics, and other related stories from web3 gaming 💰

Top News Stories in Web3 Gaming This Week ⬆️

Here are a few other top web3 gaming stories from this week.

Of course that’s not all! Be sure to visit our website, follow us on Twitter, and join our Discord chat for all of the latest in web3 and blockchain gaming!

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