In today’s episode as part of our Swoops Whitelist collaboration, we are excited to have Josh, the lead community manager of Swoops! So let’s dive into his story 🖌
Interview 📝
Hey Josh, so excited to have you here!! For people who haven’t heard of Swoops, can you give an intro to what you guys are all about along with your role in the team? Would love to know how you got started with them too.
Josh: My name is Josh and I am the community manager for Swoops. I was so blown away by my discussions with both Manish Sintha and David Goldberg that I left my position and came to work fulltime for Swoops in the Web3 world! What is Swoops? I’d love to tell you. We are a Web3 Play-and-Earn Basketball simulation game in which you take the reins and become the GM of your very own team(s) to be entered in real-money games and tournaments!
Similar to real NBA athletes, players will progress over time and usage! We are minting this month and will have live gaming this summer! Players from genesis mint will come in a variety of ages and skill levels with internal DNA and trajectories mimicking that of real NBA players. Some may mint a veteran with more traits/skills fine-tuned and revealed while others could mint a rookie player with limited traits known. Eventually, players will be able to be added to the free-agent pool to be rented for passive income.
Wow didn’t know that the game is coming that soon! So hyped for it haha. Very curious, what’s the inspiration behind specifically creating a basketball game? And why with NFTs?
Josh: Whether you grew up idolizing Jordan or spent your childhood shooting deep 3’s like Steph, basketball has impacted many of our lives and sports fandom both domestically and abroad. Unlike some other sports that may have larger roster sizes, basketball is 5-on-5 in most forms and within those five players there can be chemistry, cohesion, strategy, and possibly even one player taking over in a way that is not imaginable in other sports.
This is where the NFT element comes into play. NFTs offer that rare ability that is lost in typical daily fantasy sports, which is ownership. In any given tournament on DFS, many rosters will resemble that of others and once the game is over, that is it. In Swoops, each player is its own unique one-of-one to be utilized by that user as they see fit, whether that be playing in tournaments or renting out for passive income!
Exactly! It makes so much sense as people have already been doing similar things with trading cards for a very long time now. What made your designers want to create futuristic/cybernetic players? It’s very unique!
Josh: The idea behind the player style we chose for the genesis mint was to show that this is the future. These are our next generation’s players. We are no longer held to the traditional constraints of sports including injury and time. We are also not held to a look either, which can leave us open to some exciting collaboration or future season opportunities.
Love the message for the future 🌟. So I see you guys are also partnered with Polygon like us! What made you start on Ethereum and then want to transition to Polygon later too?
Josh: We’re starting on Ethereum because it is the home for premium, tier 1 NFTs from PFPs and NFT games. We’ll move to Polygon because we’ve been impressed with their technology, specifically their ability to perform at scale with other NFT games. We’ll share a blog post in the coming weeks detailing our decision-making process.
True, we believe Polygon will definitely provide more scalability to various audiences. What do you guys feel will be the most important things to focus on moving forward to succeed long term?
Josh: A fun experience for users. Between daily games and tournaments, there will be a variety of ways to engage with other users while building your team for the future! At Swoops, we have put an emphasis on the idea of Building in Public.
We have and will continue to engage with our community to fine-tune upcoming ideas and objectives! Whether it be sharing thoughts on types of tournaments that could be offered to the literal design of the webpage, we are constantly looking to work with our audience to put out the best possible product!
Your concept of building in public was definitely one of the aspects of Swoops that caught my eye. Can’t wait to see more developments! How are you guys planning to navigate the bear market in terms of community building?
Josh: This is a spot we are more fortunate than perhaps some other projects in the space. Because of our money raised through such exciting investors as Gary Vee, some NBA Ownership groups, the Draft Kings CEO, etc., we are able to put our heads down and focus on building out a top-tier product. We are not as affected by the current downswing as perhaps someone that was relying on their mint to fund future ideas.
We have the ability to assemble a top-notch team and put our best foot forward long before a single player is minted. We are also in a position to keep in mind the current state of the market and reflect that in the pricing of our genesis mint, which after much discussion has been decided will be .05 ETH.
There are some very big players right there! So what benefits do people get from minting a Swoops genesis NFT? What can they do with it?
Josh: That will be your token into the Swoops universe. As long as you own one player, you will be able to compete in daily games and tournaments!
Sounds great haha. What are you guys currently working on right now? Any big events incoming?
Josh: WL mint is right around the corner and not long after will be the public mint! For those that will be attending NFT NYC, look for us to be hosting a party with VaynerSports and Knights of Degen on Monday, June 20th in NY!
Awesome, hope you guys have fun! Most important question, Warriors or Celtics?
Josh: Hard to go against Steph and the Warriors right now. The Celtics have been very exciting and it has been wonderful seeing Tatum blossom into a superstar but I think the Warriors may just have a few too many weapons. Game one was a surprise though so we shall see!
Yup hard to go against a 3-time champion. We’ll see if the young Celtics can handle them 🏀. Thank you Josh for doing this interview! Where else may people find you or learn more about Swoops?
Josh: Couple of places! For the latest and greatest, stay tuned to our Discord and Twitter. Also, please check out our site!
Thank you beloved Definians for tuning into our nineth episode! If you would like a certain guest on or would like to provide feedback, feel free to message us. Until the next one 👊.
