Something a bit different today, an overview of a genuinely different style of Fantasy Game. Oval3 is a free Daily Fantasy Rugby game covering the Six Nations, RWC, Top14, MLR, URC and ProD2, but with a modern Web3 twist.
It’s taken me a number of weeks to write this as firstly, on the face of it, it seems quite complicated (actually having now played for some weeks, it is not as complex as I initially thought), and secondly it has a strong Web3 foundation that combines elements of NFT’s and Crypto (MATIC and the game’s own Crytocurrency, OVL3), that I wanted to ensure I fully understood before sharing. I also want to be upfront in saying that the link I have provided to the game here is a referral link, so if you sign up and buy 2 cards, you and I will both receive 1 card (However it is important to flag that you do not need to buy cards in order to play). So here goes with an overview of Oval3!
Oval3 has two main elements, firstly, the Fantasy Game (which is very reminiscent of the old Six Nations “Pick 4” game) and, secondly, the NFT Marketplace where you can trade the player cards that you win playing the fantasy game. Both are closely interlinked, but I’ll start with the Fantasy Game…
The Fantasy Game
Oval3’s multiplayer “Pick 5” fantasy game mode is actually incredibly simple (a summary of the rules are here). You simply need to Pick 5 players you think will do well that week, no salary cap or budget constraints, no team constraints, no designated kickers.
You have to pick 1 Front row player (Props and Hookers), 1 2nd/3rd row player (Locks and Back Rowers), 1 Half Back (Scrum-halves and Fly-halves) and 1 Back (Centres, Wingers and Full Backs) and 1 Extra (you can choose a player in any position). Then you’ll need to select your captain who’ll have 20% bonus on the player’s game points.
Once you’ve selected your team, you’ll automatically participate in that competition in the upcoming gameweek and all the following ones during the entire season. You can change your team every week and points are reset every week. Depending on how your team gets on, your teams performance will get you ranked in a leaderboard with every other manager playing.
You will be able to edit your team and transfer any player at any time before he starts playing in his real-life game. After that he’ll be locked until the end of the gameweek competition, so you’ll have to wait until Monday to transfer him for the gameweek after.
Just focusing on the free to play games, the scoring system is quite complicated and is covered in more detail here, but in short, the player score is based on more than 50 statistic points from the matches, to determine the overall performance on the field. It is calculated by adding the player’s RealScore and AttributesScore. For example, if a player gets a RealScore of 15 and an AttributesScore of 84 then their PlayerScore is 99. Important to note that if the number of points exceeds 100, it remains capped at 100.
Based on your ranking you’ll have a chance to win rewards. These rewards range on your final ranking and in the free game a typical set of rewards include the following (this is what is being offered in the Six Nations game this weekend)…
- 1st Place: 1 Limited OVAL3 card (Category Star) + 1 Jersey from your favourite Six Nations team + 750 $OVL3 (The OVAL3 Cryptocurrency – 750 equates to about GBP 11.00, USD 13.50, EURO 12.50 and ZAR 255 on todays exchange rate)
- 2nd and 3rd Place: 1 Limited OVAL3 card (Category Star) + 375 $OVL3
- 4th to 15th Place: 1 Limited OVAL3 card (Category 1) + 180 $OVL3
- 16th to 50th Place: 1 Limited OVAL3 card (Category 2) + 90 $OVL3
- 51st to 150th Place: 1 Limited OVAL3 card (Category 3) + 45 $OVL3
(More on what Limited OVAL3 cards are later)
There are typically three free-to-play (aka Common) competitions; one is the All Star Free game where you can select players across multiple competitions (e.g. Top14, URC and ProD2 all in the same fantasy competition), one for the MLR and the other is a competition specific game (i.e. Six Nations).
Having played for a month now, I’m still learning but from what I can see, the big tips for success are going for Hookers in your front five picks, picking big metre-makers in your back row, take a good kicker for you half back choice and for the remaining two gaps go for try scoring and metre making back 3s.
As above, if you end up in the top 150, then you win OVAL3 cards, which brings me onto the marketplace (which has a lot of similarities to Sorare if you played that).
The Marketplace
Okay, this is where the crypto and NFT element comes into play. And again, if you just want to play the free “common” games, then you don’t need to worry about this too much. Indeed, the makers of the game have said that they want the players to have a firsthand game experience before focusing on collecting cards. However if you play the free games and win cards, you’ll probably want to know what to do with them.
Ultimately the cards are a tradeable asset and are NFT’s. There are 5 types of cards with an increasing level of scarcity and also increasing value when used in games.
The levels are…
- Common: Unlimited number of cards (free and non-tradable)
- Limited: 100 cards per series
- Rare: 20 Cards per series
- Super Rare: 5 Cards per series
- Unique: 1 Card per series
As you acquire cards, you can start playing in other weekly games beyond the free Common game. The games are based on the rarity level, so there are Limited, Rare, Super Rare and Unique games and they have an increasing level of prizes for each leagu you enter.
In addition, you get extra points based on the rarity of your cards…
- Common : Base player points
- Limited : Base player points +25%
- Rare : Base player points +50%
- Super Rare : Base player points +75%
- Unique : Base player points +100%
To get cards you either win them in the games our you can trade them in the marketplace using the the OVL3 coin or buy newly minted cards using the wrapped MATIC coin (again both forms of cryptocurrency – which I am certainly no authority on). The marketplace within OVAL3 is a platform for buying, selling, and trading the cards and is built on the principles of blockchain technology (therefore ensuring verifiable ownership and secure transactions).
Getting started
To get started, you can join the game here. You can start right away playing the Common Daily Fantasy games and you don’t need to spend any money to do this but you are still eligible to win the prizes. In order to play, I believe you need to set up and link a crypto wallet (I used MetaMask – I’ve had a MetaMask wallet for a few years, and it is free to set up).
The support team is really good for any questions you have, and there is also a great community of players on the Oval3 Discord.
The verdict
I, like many out there, instantly get a guard up when anyone mentions NFT’s and Crypto and so I started playing Oval3 with a significant degree of scepticisim. However I had seen good reviews and a burgeoning and passionate community of players grow around it, so I was keen to approach it and play with an open mind.
Now having played it for a month I’ve enjoyed it way more than I was expecting and have already started building a good portfolio of cards despite not spending any money on it at all. The game is still in Beta and and so has the odd bug here and there to squash, but ultimately, once you get used to it, it is a simple and enjoyable game (and pretty low maintanence, just pick 5 players at the start of the weekend’s matches) and the free rewards of cards and OVL3 tokens are great for enaging players and bringing them back to the game each week. Visually it looks great and has a great community of players around it on the Discord who are always happy to help with any questions from novice players like myself.
So on balance it’s a thumbs up from me. I know the crypto element will put some off, but this is a very original and forward looking approach to fantasy rugby.
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