Welcome to the 1st volume of the Challenge Blog! For those of you who don’t know me, I go by “Th3Badlands” on Discord and Twitter and have been working on Challenges at NBA Top Shot for roughly a year. As a former collector, Challenges were my favorite part of collecting on Top Shot, and I hope to bring that same passion for playing along with the NBA to everyone.
If you’re a passionate participant in Challenges during Series 4, make sure you read until the end!
Our Goals For Challenges
- Give all collectors an opportunity to engage with Top Shot in a way that is accessible, rewarding, and fun.
- Each collector should feel like they have opportunities to engage with their collection and the NBA.
- Challenges should direct attention to what’s happening on the court every week.
- Fans should have the opportunity to play as much as possible.
How are we achieving these goals? Let’s take a look!
Predictive Challenges
Introduced during the 2023 All-Star Game Weekend, Predictive Challenges allow fans to use Moments from their collection to earn prizes based on the accuracy of their prediction.
In many cases, the prize rarity increases as the number of correct predictions decrease. Predictive Challenges open the door for ALL collectors to engage with their Moments and think strategically about who they want to collect, while keeping NBA action at the focal point.
We have also recently added sort and filter options in the Challenge builder to make participating in Predictive Challenges a seamless experience.
A brief word on the future of Predictive Challenges: While varying tiers of Predictive Challenges are on the way, fans can also look forward to Predictive Challenges with more than one slot. This means future Predictive Challenges can ask for multiple predictions!
Revamped Challenge Tiers
Tiers allow fans to participate in Challenges at multiple collection levels! Difficult Challenges may require fans to lock a combination of Rares, Legendaries, or Top Shot Debut Moments, while easier Challenges might ask users to add certain badged or fandom Moments, or burn any qualifying Moments.
No matter what Challenges look like in the future, ensuring accessibility and enjoyability for collectors at all levels will remain a driving force for Challenges.
A brief word on the future of Challenge Tiers: There may be times, or stretches of time, where a Challenge night may only have 1 Moment Reward, while offering packs and/or predictive Challenges at varying tiers.
Challenge Gating
In Series 4, we introduced gated Challenges based on:
- Top Shot Score
- Marketplace transactions
- Challenges completed
While we are in the process of testing these existing gates and developing other gates, I’d like to be clear on the intentions behind gated Challenges.
Gating allows collectors to “level up” their collections and gain access to something they previously were unable to participate in, and also ensures we can create entry-points into Challenges for newer collectors in the community.
While more upgrades are coming to Challenges, there isn’t too much more we can chat about yet. But as soon as we can announce and implement new Challenge designs, you can be sure to find a new volume of the Challenge Blog to walk through everything!
Let’s take a brief look at some interesting numbers from Challenges!
Challenges: Locked Moments
- From December 8, 2022 to March 9, 2023, collectors participated in 38 Moment Reward Challenges that required some form of locking. Cheat Codes, Plays and Tags, The Tour, and Pack Challenges are not included in this data.
- In those 38 Challenges, collectors locked 66,734 new Moments.
- This means Moment Reward Challenges in that span averaged 1,756 new locked Moments per Challenge!
- In that same time span, 157,252 total Moments were used in Lock slots. This number includes newly locked Moments and previously locked Moments which were re-used for the Challenge.
- When looking at both numbers, we can see that 42.4% of all Moments locked in those Challenges were newly locked!
- A brief note on Pack Challenges: 34,429 additional Moments were newly locked via Pack Challenges in this time frame.
Challenges: Cheat Codes
- There were 28 Cheat Code Challenges that required locking a Legendary Moment in that same time span.
- In those 28 Cheat Code Challenges, collectors locked 544 new Legendary Moments!
- Overall, 2,263 Legendary Moments were used in Lock slots. When looking at both numbers, we can see that 24% of all Legendary Moments locked in Cheat Code Challenges were newly locked!
- There was 1 Cheat Code which required locking Rares in that time span and 2,063 Rare Moments were newly locked.
- There was 1 Cheat Code which required locking Commons in that time span and 1,062 Common Moments were newly locked.
When adding all newly locked Moments via standard Moment Reward Challenges, Cheat Codes, and Pack Challenges, there have been 104,832 new Moments locked via Challenges since December 8, 2022.
Challenges: Burned Moments
At the time of writing this, the full season of Challenges thus far (including pack Challenges) have accounted for 317,270 Moments burned.
Let’s total all Moments newly locked, burned, and distributed via Moment Reward Challenges for The Challenge: Champion, Icon, and Pro, including Cheat Codes, as of March 9, 2023:
- Moments burned in "The Challenge Set" Challenges = 177,849
- Newly locked Moments in "The Challenge Set" Challenges since December 8, 2022 = 66,734
- Total Moments distributed via "The Challenge Set" Challenges = 115,206
- Total net negative thus far = -129,377 Moments
Today we are excited to announce the Set Rewards for completing and locking each of The Challenge Sets!
The Challenge: Champion Set Rewards
Have you ever wanted to wear your favorite Moment artwork?
In addition to receiving 1 Legendary Pack and 2 Rare Packs, The Challenge: Champion Set will reward all collectors who complete and lock the set with custom Top Shot Merch!
Each collector who has completed and locked the Challenge: Champion Set will receive the following personalized limited edition jersey with their TS username (or last name) on the back:
Please keep in mind that the Challenge Sets are still open and more Moments will fall into Sets through the end of the NBA regular season. Collectors must complete the full Set, including any future Moments which fall into each Set, to receive the associated Rewards. You can choose to complete each Challenge and/or purchase the Rewards in the Marketplace.
Additionally, the Donovan Mitchell mis-mint Moment will not be needed to complete The Challenge: Champion Set.
The Challenge Set Locking Details and Rewards
The snapshot to own and lock the complete The Challenge: Champion Set, Icon Set, and Pro Set, and earn the corresponding Rewards is April 14th, 2023, at 4 PM ET.
Complete and Lock The Challenge: Champion Set to earn:
- 1 Holo Icon Pack: If 65 or less collectors lock The Challenge: Champion Set, all collectors will receive 1 Holo Icon (Series 2, Drop 2) Pack. If 66 or more collectors lock The Challenge: Champion Set, some collectors will receive 1 Holo Icon (Series 2, Drop 2) Pack, and some will receive 1 Holo Icon (Series 3, Release 2) Pack.
- 1 Run It Back 1986-87 (Series 4) Pack
- 1 Premium Pack (Series 2, Drop 2)
- 1 custom The Challenge: Champion jersey
Complete and Lock The Challenge: Icon Set to earn:
- 1 Throwdowns (Series 2) Pack
- 1 Hot Pack (Release 3)
Complete and Lock The Challenge: Pro Set to earn:
- 1 All-Star Standard (Series 3, Release 1) Pack
- 1 NBA Top Shot 50 Reveal: Hot Pack
In Closing
Thank you for taking the time to read the first Challenge Blog! We are excited about the future of Challenges and love to see your passion for Challenges. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to the mailbag at mailbag@nbatopshot.com.
