# Nouns Esports Proposal - Nouns Dota 2023 #### Authors: Sasquatch, Maty ## Introduction [Nouns Esports](https://twitter.com/nounsesports) was founded with the passing of [Proposal 68](https://nouns.wtf/vote/68), which brought a professional Dota team under the [Nouns banner](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Nouns). This proposal's aim is to double down on what seems to work and extend the signing of our world-class Dota roster until after [The International](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International) in 2023, with the mission to continue proliferating Nouns through esports competition. ## The Past During the last six months (funded via proposals [#68](https://nouns.wtf/vote/68) and [#112](https://nouns.wtf/vote/68)) - Our team won BTS Pro Series, the largest Dota tournament in the Americas outside of the Dota Pro Circuit. - We had a strong result in the latest season of the Pro Circuit, with the final season score of 6-1. - Unfortunately losing 3-way tiebreakers put us at the third place, which meant we did not qualify to the Arlington Major (the only DPC LAN outside of NA). ![](https://i.imgur.com/i2KoPUA.png) - This was considered a standout performance from the team, early in the season [Gunnar highlighted the impact of sponsorship on the team.](https://clips.twitch.tv/PoorVibrantElkDxCat-hLLjPlqB8biwwP_z) - We went to Singapore to compete in [The International LCQ](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2022/Last_Chance_Qualifier) - an international LAN to qualify for The International. ## The Future We are confident in our ability to secure a world class roster for this competitive season, and already have a team in mind to work with throughout 2023. This roster includes three of our players from last season ### What is different from the last proposal? - We have more established supporting infastructure due to efforts from [Proposal 119 - Nouns Esports Pod](https://nouns.wtf/vote/119) - Content Production - Co-supporting other Nounish brands, e.g. Nouns Coffee ### Timeline While the DPC schedule is announced in advance, many third-party events are not announced until much closer to event date. We expect that there will be continued support from operators such as BTS and ESL for online competitions or international tournaments. #### Dota Pro Circuit Schedule Winter Division 1 Regional League & Major Tournament in Lima: January - March 2023 Spring Tour - Division 1 Regional League Tournament: March 13 - April 2, 2023 - Major Tournament: April 28 - May 7, 2023 Summer Tour - Division 1 Regional League Tournament: May 15 - June 4, 2023 - Major Tournament: June 30 – July 9, 2023 The International 2023 - Dates TBD - Depending on yearly Dota Pro Circuit results, our team will either be directly invited or have to play in qualifiers. This season, as an North American Division 1 Team, we will be competing regularly against teams such as: - Shopify Rebellion (ex-EG) - TSM - B8 (Russian team including legendary player Dendi) ### Budget The total ask is 350 ETH (including volatility buffer) - 430,000 USD converted to USDC upon receiving - Remaining ETH will be sent to [Nouns Esports Pod](https://nouns.wtf/vote/119) multisig Budget Breakdown: * Salaries: * Talent Compensation: estimated 260000 USDC * Targetting 4000 USDC base compensation per player (five) over the course of a season of 10-11 months * We will implement incentive structures so players are rewarded for additional streaming, content creation, and other Nounish proliferation efforts outside of competitive play. * Support Staff: estimated 90000 USDC * This includes social media support, organizing practice, video content, organizing travel and bootcamps. * This season we will be looking for a sports psychologist to work with the team. * The most recent winners of The International attiribute a good portion of their success to having one. * Bootcamp Expenses: estimated 80000 USDC * This bootcamp fund will be deployed pending a successful qualification for an international event (DPC Major, The International, etc.) * A likely minimum of four bootcamps * Three DPC Seasons and The International * Potentially more based on unannounced events, but we can work with the pod budget to facilitate them. Detailed expense documentation can be found in our Nouns Esports Notion #### Dota x Esports Pod "Why are you not funding this via Esports Pod budget?" - While the pod indeed still has enough to cover this whole proposal (with around 480k USD remaining, [detailed expense documentation](https://nouns-esports.notion.site/8d8d70a0128541ad945daa1daaf8008d?v=24419ddf3932475bac265fcaa73e9954)), part of the remaining treasury is commmited to proposals that flow through the pod. #### Dota Pod Members We will be using the same multisig that was created via Proposal 68 consisting of Nouners and Nounsfolk. Multi-Sig members: - Sasquatch - Brennen - Maty - Brian Cho - Oni ### Deliverables - During the past 6 months our Dota team won the [BTS Pro Series Season 11: Americas](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/BTS/Pro_Series/11/Americas), finished top 3 in the [North American Pro Circuit](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Dota_Pro_Circuit/2021-22/3/North_America/Division_I), participated in [The International Last Chance Qualifier](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2022/Last_Chance_Qualifier) in Singapore and more. - For the next season we hope to deliver at least the same level of competitive results? - Competitive Results - From the last 6 months of Nouns Dota... - They won the [BTS Pro Series Season 11: Americas](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/BTS/Pro_Series/11/Americas) - They finished with a 6-1 match result in the [North American Pro Circuit](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Dota_Pro_Circuit/2021-22/3/North_America/Division_I) - They participated in [The International Last Chance Qualifier](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2022/Last_Chance_Qualifier) in Singapore - While competitive results are always unpredictable by nature, we expect that this roster will be comparably strong to the previous season. We hope to see them at multiple international LAN's throughout the upcoming season. - Audience - Dota remains the second most played game on Steam, and October 2022 broke year long records for peak players. - Our North American regional matches consistantly had some of the highest viewership - Peak viewership last season was our match in The International LCQ against Vici Gaming with 116,388 concurrent viewers (excluding China) ![](https://i.imgur.com/yvevCK1.png) - The International 2022 had [1,700,000 peak viewers] (https://escharts.com/events/international), excluding China. - Individual stream viewership - Players individually stream and regularly present the Nouns brand on stream - Our player Gunnar has been the most active streamer regularly getting a [few thousand viewers.](https://twitchtracker.com/gunnardota2) - In game branding - Dota allows for DPC teams to have in-game branding through assets placed inside of the game's landscape. - Shown below is our nouns glasses "spray," nouns glasses team banner and ingame logo, and purchasable team stickers ![](https://i.imgur.com/CtgTLQJ.jpg) - Dota allows for DPC teams to have in-game branding through assets placed inside of the game's landscape. We have used this to show off noggles during all of the tournament games in front of tens or hundreds of thousands of live viewers. - Stickers - As part of participating in The International 2022. Purchasable by fans. ![](https://i.imgur.com/vK4vjxd.png) - Name branding - The team will continue to operate as Nouns/Nouns Esports - Player name branding - Player names will include a Nounish sponsor tag in-game e.g. *nouns.Gunnar.⌐◨-◨* ![](https://i.imgur.com/yvevCK1.png) Thanks for reading! Planning to add a recap video for the on-chain iteration of this proposal, but I wanted to get the structure up on Discourse for community feedback.