Authored by Sasquatch, Peter, Brennen, Gatsby, Maty, Mach and Sam with contributions from the broader Nouns Esports community.

TLDR

We are on a mission to expand the ​ ⌐◨-◨ ​ footprint by disrupting the esports industry model with an unapologetic community and athletes-first approach.

Nouns has established itself in tier-one esports competition. Let's keep the momentum going! This is our opportunity to become a globally recognized legacy brand in esports. ​

• Dota 2: The highest placing North American team, achieving an impressive 7th place at The International 12 this October.
• Counter-Strike 2: The #2 ranked team across North America.
• Super Smash Bros. Melee: Our player, Aklo, is now ranked 11th globally.
• Pokémon UNITE: A fan favorite roster in the European scene.
• And More!: Fostering onchain innovation with Prop House and the all-new Nouns Esports Pass. ​

Re-Introducing Nouns Esports

We’re Nouns Esports. A tier-one esports organization on a quest to disrupt esports one victory at a time while proliferating Nouns across the competitive gaming space in all sorts of unique, engaging, and nounish ways. It all started with Prop 68, where we picked up our first team. Since then we’ve seen tremendous growth and success, now competing at the highest level in numerous esports.

We’ve had a crazy journey so far, and now that we’ve established Nouns within the esports ecosystem we want to double down and make 2024 the year that Nouns Esports charts the path to becoming a globally recognized legacy brand.

Want a quick look at what we do? Check out the short documentary “A New Model” by our friends over at nounish.

Dota 2

Our story begins in early 2022 when Nouns Esports jumped into an outsized opportunity by signing Dota’s 4th best North American team. Our goal was to give these players the top-level support needed to hone their skills to become contenders at The International.

The International is Dota 2's most prestigious event, bringing together the best 20 teams from across the globe to compete on one stage for millions of dollars, and this year we not only qualified for the event, but we made waves and finished in 7th place as the highest ranked NA team in the past 4 years.

One of our highlights of the tournament was beating the reigning TI champions, Tundra Esports, in front of an audience peaking at over 903,210 viewers.

Dota 2 is known for its open ecosystem, which fosters brand and business incubation. Unlike other publishers, Valve embraces a liberal approach toward IP rights, making it a ripe frontier for brand proliferation. Nouns already have numerous permanent assets within Dota and will continue to acquire more with each season that we support a top team.

Building upon our success of last season, we want to assemble a roster capable of being not only the best in North America but the world. Top 8 at The International was an impressive achievement, but in 2024, we're setting our sights even higher. We plan to use our improved status in esports to aim for even more significant accomplishments.

We're committed to putting our players first and are proud to take an industry-leading 0% of prize money from any of our teams. Our in-game success is imperative to proliferating Nouns across esports so we always want to incentivize consistent top-level performance from our players.

Our contribution to the post-TI roster shuffle excitement was met with tons of community hype for our announcement of Nouns veterans Gunnar and Lelis returning to the roster and the new addition of Dota 2 legend, Tal "Fly" Aizik.

Counter-Strike 2

In September of last year, we picked up an unsponsored CS Team that was released suddenly by their previous organization. Since then we've worked with the team to establish themselves as the #2 ranked team in North America.

Along the way, our CS team has qualified for numerous top-tier events around the globe:

• USA — IEM Dallas 2023
• SWEDEN — IEM Road to Rio RMR 2022
• MEXICO — Paris Major RMR 2023
• SERBIA — CCT Online Finals #2
• POLAND — Thunderpick World Championship
• SWEDEN — ESL Challenger Jonkoping 2023

Our goal is to immortalize Noggles within CS, and by qualifying for a Major we secure our own in-game stickers which can generate millions in revenue and significant brand proliferation.

CS2 was released this past September and saw an all-time high in player count. With over 40 million monthly players; new faces, new fans, and new opportunities have been introduced to the scene providing multiple opportunities to grow.

In the esports world, when a new game drops it creates opportunities for new players to out-hustle the previously established professionals. We are optimistic that our current positioning in CS2 could lead to significant growth of Nouns Esports revenue streams and brand awareness.

Following a successful prop.house proposal we've begun supporting a second Counter-Strike team, nouns.fe, who will be representing nouns as they compete in the rapidly growing women's CS2 scene and the ESL Impact circuit.

Currently ranked #7 in the region, we're super excited to help in their improvement and support them along their professional journey.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Meet our sponsored player Aklo, a rising star in the competitive Smash scene who now ranks among the top dozen on the global stage. Our relationship with Aklo has strengthened since we recruited him last year and his growing enthusiasm for our vision has motivated him to take on a greater role within the organization.

Since joining Nouns Esports, Aklo has championed the team across 35 events while taking top placements in many tier-one tournaments.

The Smash community's enthusiasm has enabled continued growth two decades after the game's initial release, solidifying its standing as a paragon of esports. Smash boasts one of the most extensive fighting game communities, with a broad array of local events in numerous major cities, creating an aura of invincibility reminiscent of 'Fight Club' (without the explosions).

Smash is here to stay and our goal is to expand our presence within this community through Prop House in 2024.

While numerous organizations in the community allocate funds towards events, none offer the level of openness provided by onchain products. That's why we've chosen Prop House — it has a huge competitive advantage of being onchain, which provides complete transparency in both the funding and details of proposals.

Pokémon UNITE

In Europe's tight-knit Pokémon UNITE scene, our team consistently stands out, peaking with a second-place finish in the 2022 World Championship. This year, bolstered by promising new talent, we're set to solidify our position at the top.

While this roster operates with relatively modest support compared to the larger esports ecosystems we engage in, their role as exemplary brand ambassadors for Nouns cannot be overstated.

Engaging in Pokémon UNITE presents a unique opportunity to blend the distinctive Nouns IP with one of the world's most beloved character franchises.

Our Vision for a Sustainable Legacy in Esports

At Nouns Esports, our goal is to become a legacy brand that stands the test of time while fostering sustainable growth. Over the next decade, our focus is on nurturing a business model that aligns with our vision and supports our ongoing expansion.

• We're committed to transforming the esports industry by:
  • Moving away from private contracts that often disadvantage players, towards a more transparent and equitable system.
  • Shifting the revenue model to a community-centric approach, where revenue is generated through products and experiences that resonate with our fanbase.
  • Bridging the gap between gaming and crypto, showcasing the exciting aspects of owning digital assets.

Revenue Opportunities:

• Enhanced Partnerships
  • Partnering with an esports team offers an accessible and familiar gateway for new partners to immerse themselves in the Nounish ecosystem and learn more.
  • Case Study: Nouns Esports x Adidas
    • Initiated by community member Benjamin, this collaboration with world-class brand Adidas marked a significant step towards attracting more high-profile partnerships. For the upcoming season, we hope to further collaborate.

• In-game Monetization
  • Our involvement in Dota & CS opens the door for lucrative branded in-game item opportunities.
  • In-game items present a unique chance to immortalize the Nouns brand in some of the world's most renowned games, enhancing our long-term visibility and legacy.
    • Valve (the publisher of both games) offers a share of the revenue to participating teams, potentially reaching millions of dollars.
    • Qualifying for a CS Major or selling a viral in-game Dota item could play a significant role in covering our yearly operational costs.

• Merchandise & Nounish Products
  • At The International in Seattle we released a limited line of merch and sold thousands of dollars worth of product.
  • With our top-of-funnel marketing strength, we plan to run a sophisticated merch & collectable program in 2024.
  • Besides highlighting Nouns Esports with our products, we also want to continue promoting other nounish projects.

• Nouns Esports Pass
  • This season, we are set to develop and implement a groundbreaking onchain experience for esports fans. The pass will function as a gamified passport, enabling fans to interact with our team across various platforms, including Prop House, Twitch, Discord, Farcaster, and more.
    • Fans will be rewarded based on their level of engagement through metrics such as time watching matches, completion of quests, and voting in Prop House.
    • We’ll make mints exciting for traditional esports fans with the regular onchain publishing of key gameplay moments and highlights.
  • It will be designed from the ground up leveraging new and innovative tech including Smart Wallets and Passkeys so that users don't have to think about wallet popups, gas fees, or seedphrases. This will allow non-native users to enter the Nouns ecosystem and adopt Nouns' onchain values with no friction.

Prop House

The transparent nature of Prop House helps us shine in a murky industry. Besides being helpful in contests and media creation, it will allow us to involve a broader section of our community in key organizational decisions, despite Nouns Esports not being a DAO. It’s a blessing for Nouns Esports to be part of the same community as the team behind Prop House.

Prop House invites fresh talent to propose their ideas and having a dedicated PH budget helps us find new opportunities and keep innovating.

Previously Supported Initiatives

• Tipped Off 14
• Galint Melee Open 2023
• nouns.fe CS2 Impact Team
• Nouns ComShow: Marvel Snap
• Nouns Esports NBA2K Team
• Go to EVO2023 Japanese Street Fighter Player

Budget

2,098,600 USDC for 2024

The budget for Nouns Esports is a strategic move to match the rising stock of our team and players in a competitive market. Higher player salaries are essential to retain top talent against other organizations' offers. We're also introducing structured payments for support staff to ensure steady operations year-round, an aspect previously under-budgeted.

Breakdown:

• Player & Coach Salaries — 1,118,000 USDC
  • Dota, Counter-Strike, Smash Bros. Melee, & Pokémon UNITE.
  • Salaries increased to match market rates of our new and existing talent. ​
• Support Staff — 471,600 USDC
  • Core team being paid to work full time on the project. ​
• Operational Expenses — 419,000 USDC
  • Bootcamps, Travel, Content, Equipment, and Performace support. ​
• Prop House — 90,000 USDC
  • Multiple rounds supporting players, tournaments, and content creators.

Why an annual budget?

• This is the typical term of operations within esports. This is what players expect and given the nature of the competitive landscape, what makes sense.

The Team

This year, we aim to resource our rosters with full-time staff, a change from our historic reliance on volunteer-based contributors.

Esports teams need more than just talented players. Our support staff works hard to ensure that our squads can focus fully on competition in an optimized environment created for them. ​ Team Staff:

• Sasquatch — General Manager
• Chan — Content
• DoublA — Logistics
• Mach — Merch
• Sam — Web Dev/Smart Contract
• Gatsby — Socials
• Oni — Partnerships

Advisors:

• Brennen
• Peter
• Boosh
• Teague
• Pat Yiu

Nouns Esports Brazil:

• Joao, Bower, and JP have been instrumental in growing our audience in this region through their success in Brawl Stars.

​ Contributors:

• A massive thanks to our amazing 100+ dedicated volunteer contributors all in part responsible for making Nouns Esports what it is today. ⌐◨-◨

Multisig

We will be using the same multisig that was created for Proposal 119 & 263 consisting of Nouners and Nounsfolk. We will be adding Nouns community member Sam to the signers list, making our multisig 3/6.

• Sasquatch
• Brennen
• Maty
• Oni
• Peter
• Sam

Nouns Esports 2023 — Commemorative Mint

Celebrate the past, own the present, and be part of our future. Immortalize a monumental first full year of Nouns Esports by minting our 2023 Recap.