NBA Top Shot is opening up beta to players and we want you to know what to expect. The roll-out is structured to gain valuable insight from early participation, and gain momentum into launching to the world. Each step of the way, additional players will be invited to join, starting small and ending with the entire waitlist, currently at 11,000+ excited fans.
New packs will be released along the way and early packs will sell out, so make sure to keep an eye out for new drops.
What is NBA Top Shot
High flying dunks. No look dimes. Game saving blocks. The level of drama and skill in NBA basketball is simply unmatched in the sports world. Now you can own a piece of that action.
The NBA, NBPA, and Dapper Labs have teamed up to create NBA Top Shot, a revolutionary new game in which jaw-dropping plays and unforgettable highlights become collectibles that you can own forever.
Why is it special
Top Shots are the first of their kind NBA digital collectibles. For the first time, NBA fans can participate in the digital economy of basketball, buying, selling, and trading Moments, while showcasing the authenticity and depth of their fandom.
Collectible Moments make up the core of NBA Top Shot, but Challenges, Showcases, and the mobile game (currently in development) bring those Moments to life.
Wheel and deal with other fans: The hottest new Top Shots will drop in limited edition packs, but you can put the ones you don’t want (or the ones that might have popped in value) up for sale in the peer-to-peer marketplace. More than anything else, this differentiates traditional gaming from blockchain gaming. Not only is selling your assets not a violation of our TOS, we encourage you to do it!
Show off your favorite moments: You’ve gotta have a trophy case. Want to put together a showcase of the top international born players? Us too! Want to brag about your extensive collection of rookie cards? Love it! Want to assemble a group of the most savage dunks to taunt your Fantasy league? Yes. Express your fandom here.
Win new Moments every day: Top Shot-driven collection challenges will unlock your Baller Status (aka who tops the Top Shot leaderboard) and also unlock collectibles that money can’t buy. Imagine completing a challenge with 9 of the top Dunks from the last decade, only to unlock one of the best Dunks of all time. You can’t buy that one, so you better step up to get it.
Build your dream team, beat your friends: Already well into development, the mobile game of Top Shot will be the best way to build not only your dream team, but the best and strongest collection of on-court moments from NBA basketball. Imagine if a deep manager game and a tap sports game had a baby. Yeah. We love it too. COMING SOON
Early holders of Top Shots will be invited into the mobile alpha this summer, so keep an eye out.
What to expect in beta
In order to ensure NBA Top Shot is a smooth experience, testing is required. Internal testing is on-going, but external testing to ensure the product works and is fun is critical. To test in a controlled environment, we’ll be rolling out the following plan:
Phase 1, Short test windows: In order to test specific areas of the product and make improvements, we’ll be opening up the product for 48 hour spurts to start. This helps us put all eyes on how you use the product and then take immediate action on the data. It also will help us with prioritization exercises to ensure we’re delivering upgrades on the most important things to collectors.
Phase 2, Beta opening: Once we feel confident, we will leave the product open to those who are on the short-list of invitees. Rather than closing after 48 hours, we’ll run through LiveOps and test engagement tactics.
Phase 3, Inviting friends: We’ll give each beta participant 5 invites to bring your friends into early access. Whether your motivation is to give your crew exclusive access to early Moments or have them make Showcases for you to trash talk, that’s your business. We want friends and family to be able to access first and help stress test the system with more users. This isn’t part of the affiliate program as it won’t have launched yet. Just good old-fashioned bringing your friends along for the ride.
Phase 4, Adding the full waitlist: The next step after the 5x stress test will be to start providing access to the existing waitlist, now near 12,000 emails. If things are going well here, the sky's the limit. After this step, all that’s left is to let the whole world know they can come and get ‘em.
Expect to see new packs hit the ecosystem during each phase. Since everything during the beta is on-chain, limited quantity packs that sell out, will be sold out. If you are dying to cop something specific, don’t sleep on it! It might be gone before you get back to it.
What’s in Packs
While the marketplace is still in development, the only way for you to purchase Top Shots will be through packs. Each pack will have several Moments, as clearly outlined in the pack page.
Moments are tiered, so some Common Moments will live in every type of pack, but Rare and Legendary Special Edition Moments will be limited to higher tier packs.
Unsold content will not be burned. Anything that doesn’t sell out, or is time-capped, so not in limited quantity, will remain in the store. Limited quantity packs that sell out will not be re-issued, so you can be sure the scarcity is preserved.
Check out examples of three different types of packs from our inaugural drop here.
How to connect with our team
Hopefully you know by now that your feedback is critical to the success of this product and the economy this product will create. Never hesitate to give us feedback, harsh or friendly. Learning about what you love, hate, and are ambivalent about will make this product great in the end. You can connect with our team members directly on these platforms:
Usman Patel, friendly community manager: Usman | Dapper Labs#6305 on Discord, Twitter
Caty Tedman, lover of all things hoops: Caty | Dapper Labs#2190 on Discord, Twitter, email
Alan Carr, marketplace wizard: 0xfa1c0#0546 on Discord, Twitter, email
We’re all sharing information to ensure the whole team knows what feedback we get, so hit up anyone you feel most comfortable with.
