FAST FACTS:
- We’ll be introducing a handful of epic new sets to NBA Top Shot with a triumphant return of many community favorites.
- This roadmap will outline Edition Sizes for tiers of Moment™ collectibles in Series 3.
- We are imposing strict limits on the number of plays any one player will have in Series 3. Read more for a deeper dive.
- While we plan to release some great new features and create more utility throughout Series 3, this blog is focused on NBA and WNBA content and not meant to capture feature and product updates.
In the year and change since NBA Top Shot opened its beta, our team has seen and learned a ton. And if we’ve learned anything, it’s the importance of proactive communication as a means of giving our collectors as much information and context as possible in their pursuit of a more perfect collection.
That’s why, entering Series 3, we’re providing our most comprehensive content roadmap to date. The next eight months are going to be absolutely incredible, and we cannot wait to share the journey with you all. Lengthy discussion and tireless planning throughout the year have yielded a roadmap that’ll span the entire 2021-22 NBA season.
Now, with the NBA’s 75th anniversary season off and running, consider this your ultimate tool-kit as we gear up for Series 3.
THE ROADMAP FOR CLOSING OUT THE SUMMER 2021 SERIES:
Before jumping into the full roadmap for the NBA regular season ahead, we’d like to highlight what remains in Summer 2021:
- WNBA Legendary drop from the WNBA Playoffs and Finals. This is scheduled for Tuesday, October 26th.
- Common Archive Set - Drop 2, which will include all of the Archive Moments from Drop 1 and some new ones from NBA stars (retired and active) that were not available in Drop 1. We expect this drop to occur around the end of October.
- Numerous NBA and WNBA Showcase Challenge rewards which will overlap with the beginning of Series 3, including Vintage Vibes from legends of the game.
Below is a deeper dive into the specifics surrounding the roadmap for the Base Set, other Commons, Rares and Legendaries during Series 3.
One important thing to note is that the numbers below are not inclusive of any historical content that may come during the season (historical, by definition, means anything that isn’t from the current season). These numbers are specific to the 2021-22 NBA Season and not Series 3 as a whole to the extent there are Series 3 historical drops (some of which are outlined below). We will provide updates around historical content as soon as we have updates to provide.
The Base Set has been and will continue to be the most wide-ranging set in the Top Shot ecosystem. After clocking in at 533 Moments in Series 2, the Base Set will see no more than 519 Moments in Series 3. Bear in mind that the 2021-22 campaign will be 82 games long, up from 72 in 2020-21. There is a limit of two Base Set Moments per player.
As far as Edition Sizes go, we will have a two-pronged approach for LE and CC+. LE stands for Limited Edition and means that the count will not grow in the future. CC+ means Circulating Count and refers to collectibles which may have more minted in the future.
The LE Moments will fall into three categories: 3-Star Rookies (plays from a rookie’s debut game), Top Shot Debuts (a player’s first Moment on Top Shot), and specific noteworthy ones we will hand select based on player and play quality:
While players with two Base Set Moments may have both start out as CC+, there will not be any instances in which the same player receives two LE Moments before we retire the series after the 2022 postseason. This means that if a player has one Moment at a 4,000, 9,999, or 12,000 Edition Size, then the other Moment will remain CC+ until the series wraps up.
All other Moments in the Base Set will be minted to CC+ counts starting at 60,000. The “CC+” means that the Edition Size could grow over time if necessary, to ensure we have enough for packs. Of course, in this case, the Edition Size would only grow beyond 60,000 if our collector base grows enough to justify the increase.
We are starting with a higher mint count than Series 2 for several reasons:
- We want to limit the number of times that we have to raise the CC+ cap while also making sure that as the number of people collecting Moments grows, we have a set that can provide a suitable entry point for all new collectors.
- By starting at what we think is a more fully baked number, the packs will come with serial numbers spanning the whole duration of the season instead of having the lower serial numbers frontloaded in the early part of the season. This means that collectors should see a healthy mix of high and low serial numbers in Base Set packs all season long.
- Additionally, with the Base Set, we have a goal of transitioning away from a drop-centric approach to a more on-demand pack purchasing experience. In this system, collectors will be able to purchase up to 10 Base Set packs a week. While this may not be ready for day one of Series 3, we envision it being a big part of NBA Top Shot at some point during this regular season.
Throughout the year, we will have other Common Sets that allow us to tell unique stories of the season through specific types of Moment™ collectibles.
For other Common regular season sets (non-Base Set), players will have no more than two Moments in drops and one Moment as a reward.
Edition Sizes for non-Base Set Commons, excluding rewards, in the regular season will all fall between 10-20K per Moment. There will be no more than 157 regular season Moments across these sets excluding rewards.
As we’ve said before and will continue to emphasize throughout Series 3, Common Moments are meant to be accessible to all. By defining Edition Sizes rigidly around 3-Star rookies and Top Shot debuts, we give you, the collector, information to make informed decisions upfront.
Now the fun part… Here’s a first look at the sets we plan to include throughout the season:
Early on in the NBA season, we plan to debut a brand new Common set featuring the first LE Moments for many key players who changed teams this offseason. This set will also feature a second drop later in the season for players who change teams on/around the NBA trade deadline in 2022.
Moreover, we can confirm our plans to go back to one of the community’s favorite sets from Series 2, Hustle and Show. Planned for two drops, this set will highlight great hustle plays and jaw-dropping show-stoppers from this season.
We also plan to debut a brand new Common Set dedicated to street-worthy moves, instant-classic celebrations and Moments that result in memorable on-court player reactions that remind us all of why we all fell in love with the game in the first place.
This year we plan to celebrate the Rising Stars again, but in a new, more-accessible way through the Common Set. This will highlight plays from some of the game’s most exciting up-and-coming players.
In a nod to the globalization of the NBA, there will be a Common set focused on players from a specific geographic region or two. Of note, this will be one of our smaller Common sets in the series.
Appearing throughout the regular season will be one of the most exciting first-time sets in Series 3. This set will consist of multiple drops, featuring a small number of new Moments curated specifically by current or former NBA greats, fitting a drop-specific theme chosen by the players themselves. Often these drops will be accompanied by a reward from the headlining player, including ones they self-select as their own favorites.
Lastly, we plan to have a slimmed down Common 2022 NBA Playoffs set. This set will have a maximum of 82 Moments (including rewards) covering every round of the playoffs. Advanced collectors may note this is substantially less than the 112 we saw in the 2021 NBA Playoffs set.
In the 2022 NBA Playoffs Common set, players can have a maximum of two Moments across the various drops and just one as a reward. More details will come about the breakdown and mint counts of this set later on in the year.
A note about rookies: While the above allows for players to have two Base Set Moments, two other Commons (plus one reward), and two playoff Moments (plus one reward), we will be limiting rookies to four total Commons plus one total reward across the entire tier.
Rare drops are among the most exciting releases in all of Top Shot. These drops will include highly coveted Moment™ collectibles across the board, all minted with low counts.
For Rare sets, there will be a maximum of four Moments per player in drops and one as a Challenge Reward. These four would consist, at the very maximum, of one per player in the MGLE set, one per player in the Conference Finals Set, and two per player in the other Rare sets combined.
Edition Sizes for Rare sets will not exceed 2,022* during Series 3 (with most Rare sets featuring Edition Sizes in the three-digits) and there will be no more than 258 total Moment™ collectibles across these sets, excluding rewards and potential Run It Back Moments from historical seasons we haven’t yet ventured to.
The Metallic Gold LE set is our flagship Rare set in NBA Top Shot. Throughout the series, we plan to have multiple drops highlighting exactly five of the most popular and collectible players on each team for a set of exactly 150 plays. This set will be broad in scope, but really double down on quality with an emphasis that every highlight is not only Top Shot-worthy, but stands out above others. Appearing as our rarest Rare Set, the Edition Size for the Series 3 Metallic Gold LE set will be 749*.
We will also be bringing back the 2022 All-Star Game set in Series 3. We will not have a Seeing Stars set this season, meaning these will stand out more distinctly. Boasting our largest Rare mint count (2,022*) in the series, this set will be designed to put Rares from fan favorites within reach for many collectors.
Throwdowns will be making its third annual appearance featuring many of the absolute best dunks of the season in what will be a slimmed-down set from its Series 2 counterpart. While Throwdowns in Series 2 featured 51 different players, we anticipate that Throwdowns in Series 3 will feature significantly fewer players as we take valuable learnings from Series 2 to make Series 3 as exciting for our community as possible. With Edition Sizes of 888*, we expect this set to be special for collectors who love high-flying athleticism.
Head-nodding the basketball purists in our community, we will also be debuting a Rare set in 2022 that celebrates teamwork. This set will feature exactly one play from every NBA team and focus on plays that show off fantastic ball movement like the Series 2 Kevin Durant MGLE or the Deandre Ayton layup from the NBA Finals in the 2021 NBA Playoffs Set.
Lastly, we will be going back to the well with a Rare set featuring plays exclusively from the Conference Finals. This set will have a mint count of 1,000* or less.
Legendary drops are the most exclusive in all of Top Shot, but due to our multi-queue drop system, all collectors can find them within reach. When curating the sets in the Legendary tier, we pay special attention to curating jaw-dropping plays that will forever be immortalized on the blockchain as elite collectibles.
For the 2021-22 season, players may appear a maximum of one time in Holo Icon, one time in the Rookie Legendary, and one time in the NBA Finals set. This means that any non-rookie who does not make the Finals will only appear once in the Legendary tier from the 2021-22 season. The only way to get three Moments in this tier is for a rookie to leave their mark in such a way that they earn their spot in all three sets -- an accomplishment worth commemorating if and when it ever happens. This does not include appearances by current players in historical sets.
We will mint no more than 132 Editions in the Legendary sets in Series 3, historical content and rewards notwithstanding.
Our first Legendary set of Series 3 will start off with a bang. Around the holidays we will be releasing our first historical Legendary set with a focus on Christmas Day games of yesteryear. Maintaining the name Deck the Hoops from Series 2, we will venture back to a dedicated time period for memorable performances. We anticipate this to be one of the most exciting drops of the year and the narrow focus on Christmas games allows us to give you all exciting plays from league history without dipping into content that overlaps with future Run It Back sets.
Our flagship Legendary set, Holo Icon, will be returning as a set that mirrors the makeup of Holo Icon in Series 2.
As a refresher, Holo Icon is made up of exactly 90 plays, commemorating three star players hand-selected to represent each NBA team for the 2021-22 season. Join us out in the community and on social as we have these conversations and advocate for the three biggest impact players putting in work for your squad, whether they’re chasing a title or simply reloading to chase one down the road.
As a consideration in making sure we have the ability to source all of the top plays we need for such an important set - and to avoid situations where we’re handcuffed due to early season transactions and injuries - we are not planning to drop the first of two Holo Icon packs until January with the second scheduled later in the season. The Edition Size for Holo Icon will be 99 through Series 3*.
Sometime in the middle of the series we plan to debut a second historical Legendary set with a narrow focus. As mentioned above, there will be careful consideration given to ensure that these Legendary Moments feel special without stepping on the toes of Run It Back as a set that is special to collectors and us alike.
Around the end of the regular season we plan to highlight some of the year’s top rookies in a set dedicated to the very best prospects in the league. Focused on a defining moment from their rookie season, we expect this all Rookie set to be particularly popular with fans. So that there is no ambiguity as to who will and will not make it into this set, we do plan to include the select few rookies that appear in Holo Icon here as well. Moments in this set will have Edition Sizes of 75*.
Finally, the marquee event of the NBA season will be commemorated again on Top Shot with the 2022 NBA Finals Legendary set. The only way you’ll see plays from your favorite team here is if they grind their way through the season and earn their chance at the ultimate prize (a Legendary Finals Moment™ collectible, of course).
This blog doesn't capture our plans for continuing our landmark partnership with the WNBA, but we’re beyond excited to be able to release new WNBA content in 2022. We'll update with plans as we close in on the next W season.
The above is not necessarily exhaustive of the content coming during the 2021-22, but it does cover the vast majority of what we have in store. There is still a possibility of other sets in each tier during the series, but the per player maximums and total amount minted are caps that any other content will be constrained by.
Where Edition Sizes are included already, we have full confidence to etch it in stone. Meanwhile, for other sets, we are still evaluating our options but will remain within the ranges we have set for each tier.
As you may have noticed in the above, rewards are being considered in the discussion around sets. During Series 3 we anticipate that we will house many rewards in specific sets instead of in Fandom tier. The total limits described above pertain to Moments distributed through drops and thus exclude rewards. This is a departure from Summer 2021, but a return to the Series 1 and 2 model.
We do still anticipate that Fandom tier will be a meaningful part of Top Shot, but found that having rewards in sets worked better for many purposes. That said, Showcase Challenges with flexible requirements will likely remain a consistent part of the Series 3 experience.
Any non-rookie can be used up to three times in the Fandom tier while rookies can be used twice in this tier.
We hope you find this information helpful and informative as we embark on Series 3. Until next time, happy collecting.
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*Edition Sizes of Challenge Rewards may vary
**We are committed to this roadmap. Of course, there are extreme circumstances in which plans might need to change. We will advise as quickly as possible if, for whatever reason, something changes.
Editor's Note [1/14/2022]: a previous version of this blog's final graphic has been updated to accurately reflect that players will be capped at 1 Common Reward in the NBA Playoffs, as it was correctly stated in two other places in this blog.
