Phantasia: all you need to know
A deep dive into a fledgling Fantasy Sports project on Solana
Phantasia is an online game that brings the benefits of blockchain technology to the world of Fantasy Sports. It is built on the Solana platform, and follows the Play-to-Earn (P2E) model.
Fantasy Sports is a $22 billion market. Traditional models of Fantasy Sports – like the Fantasy Premier League – have seen sustained interest and participation over the years. Phantasia seeks to tap in to the same interest and participation, with a disruptive ace up its sleeve: web3.
Web3 refers to a new phase in internet technology. It uses public blockchains and smart contracts to create a ‘decentralised’ version of the internet, characterised by ‘disintermediation’ and peer-to-peer transactions. Online games developed on web3 – like Phantasia – have many new functionalities that were erstwhile unavailable to traditional online (or web2) games. In theory, this makes participation in web3 games (and web3 products in general) more rewarding for players.
In this post we deep dive into Phantasia, starting with the basics of the game (including an onboarding guide) and slowly progressing into details about its future plans and its model for sustainable growth. If you are here, this is your one-stop-shop for all things Phantasia!
Basics: Interface, Gameplay and Rules
No capital investment or ‘wagering’ is required to play Phantasia. In order to play Phantasia, one only needs two things: (1) an account on Phantasia; and (2) a Solana wallet, linked to you Phantasia account. This wallet will receive and hold your P2E rewards. Before exploring Phantasia further, make sure you have a Solana wallet (this guide will help).
Once you have your wallet set up and ready, head over to the Phantasia website. You will land on the following page:
Further down this webpage, one can find a broad overview of the Project, what Play to Earn means, how the project integrates NFTs and what the Roadmap for future development and sustainability is. These are things we cover in great detail in the paragraphs that follow.
For now, let’s click on the sign-in button and create a Phantasia account. Clicking on the sign-in button takes us to the following page:
As a new player, one must register on the platform. Go ahead and click register. It will take you to the following page:
At the moment, the game is in beta and registration is by invite-only. Pop into the Phantasia discord server to get yourself an invite! Head over to the #request-beta channel and ask for an invite to try beta. One of the admins or moderators will get in touch and help you get a username which can be registered.
Once you receive a username from one of the admins, head back to the Registration page on Phantasia. Fill in the appropriate details, register yourself and sign into the platform. Upon successfully signing into Phantasia, you will land on the following page:
Welcome to your Home page! You’re almost ready to start the game. At this point, all that remains to be done is connecting your Solana wallet to Phantasia. Go ahead and click the ‘Select Wallet’ button in the top right corner. The following pop-up will appear:
Select the type of wallet you own. For this example, I used a Phantom wallet, and I went ahead and clicked on Phantom. When you do so, the following pop-up will appear on the right, asking you to login to your wallet:
In this pop-up, enter the password you used to secure your wallet’s browser extension (not your Phantasia password, neither your secret recovery phrase. Remember, never disclose your secret recovery phrase to anyone). Once you successfully unlock your wallet, the pop-up will disappear and you will return to the Home page. Your wallet is now connected to Phantasia.
The ‘Select Wallet’ button will have been replaced with a button that represents your wallet. Voila, you’re all set to start your Phantasia journey!
Gameplay
What is Fantasy Sports?
Phantasia is a Fantasy Sports game. Players create a ‘fantasy’ team of real-world athletes, ahead of upcoming real-world sports match(es). Based on their performance in the real-world, each athletes accrues some points. The Phantasia player’s goal is to anticipate which athletes will perform the best and create a team which can earn them the highest points. Players with high-performing teams, as represented by their points total, win.
Contests on Phantasia
On Phantasia, this model of Fantasy Sports operates on a ‘contest’-basis, as opposed to a season plus gameweek-basis. Fantasy Premier League (FPL) – perhaps the most popular traditional Fantasy game across the globe – follows the latter model. Players on FPL compete in a season-long contest, where they accumulate point across all 38 gameweeks in an English Premier League season. A winner is declared only when the season ends.
Phantasia, on the other hand, follows a ‘contest’-based approach. A group of upcoming matches are selected and bundled together to create a ‘contest’. Athletes who belong to the teams scheduled to participate in these upcoming matches are bundled to created a ‘Player Pool’. Each athlete in the Player Pool has a different value (‘Salary’) attached to him. A capped-budget is assigned to each Phantasia player. Players use their budget to select athletes of different values from the Player Pool and create a team within their budget.
Based on their performance in the matches that are included in the contest, every athlete earns some points. The total points that accrue to a Phantasia player’s selected team represents their final score. Once all the matches in the contest are over, the contest is over and a winner is declared based on the final score.
Phantasia contests typically last between one to seven days. This makes Phantasia a faster game with quicker payouts, as compared to FPL.
Who wins and what’s the prize?
A contest on Phantasia may be of two types: (i) Multi-user, or (ii) 50–50. Multi-user contests follow a winner-takes-all approach, where the entirety of the prize goes to the highest scoring player. In a 50–50 contest, the prize is evenly split between all players who find themselves in the top half of the competition. This dual approach to declaring winners makes Phantasia flexible and allows players to choose their preferred mode of competition.
Every contest has a predetermined prize. This may be a predetermined amount of $FANT tokens or a specified NFT. It is this feature of Phantasia that makes it different from traditional Fantasy Sports. Players are rewarded in tokens and NFTs that have real value. In other to understand the value proposition of these tokens and NFTs, skip to the sections titled ‘NFT integration’ and ‘The Phantasia DAO’ below.
Which sports are included in Phantasia?
At present Phantasia contests are limited to the NBA (basketball) and the NFL (American football). Plans are in place to introduce more sports and leagues.
Gameplay Interface Guide
On your home page, check out the contests open for participation under ‘Open Contests’ on the left.
Alternatively, head over to the ‘Lobby’ section of the website to access a comprehensive list of all open contests, along with a filter functionality. This is what the Lobby page looks like.
The contest banner gives Phantasia players important information about the contest at a glance. In this particular example, we see that the ‘Week 8 NFL — Phantasia Public’ contest is based on the NFL (American football), that it is a Mutli-user contest (winner takes all) and that the contest entry closes on Oct 29 at 05:50AM (player’s local time, IST in my case). The banner also tells us that a maximum of 100 participants are allowed to participate in the contest, and that the contest has 15 matches in total (GB, AR,… represents the teams that are scheduled to participate in these 15 matches). The contest prize is denoted at the right. Since this is a screenshot from the beta-version, this particular contest has 0 FANT as the prize.
In order to participate in a contest, click on the ‘Enter Contest’ button. This will take you to the following page:
On the left side of the page, you see the ‘Player Pool’. This is the list of all athletes available for selection to you. A filter functionality at the top allows you to filter athletes based on their position of play. A search functionality allows you to type in the name of any athlete you want to find. On the absolute right, you see the matches included in this contest, along with their kick-off times. Between these two columns lies your budget and your team.
On the Player Pool column, each athlete has the following details indicated: their position, an image of the athlete, their team, their projected score (Proj.), who their opponent team is and the strength of their opponents (Opp. + number in brackets) and the amount it will cost to add the player to your team (Salary). The higher the number in brackets against a team, the weaker the opponent team is (also indicated in green colour). The lower the number, the tougher the opponent team is (also indicated in red colour). In the case of some players, one can see a small red circle with the letter ‘O’ against their images. This red circle indicates that the athlete is ‘Out’, i.e. that the athlete is not expected to participate in the upcoming real-world match. Similarly to this red O, a yellow ‘Q’ can also be found against some players’ images. This indicates that likelihood of the player’s participation in the upcoming real-world game is uncertain or ‘questionable’.
The ‘How Do I Play’ button at the top right gives details of the rules of the contest. It has important information like what happens in the case of a tie, as well as details of which specific real-world actions (like scoring a field goal) result in how many points scored in the Phantasia contest.
Clicking on any athlete’s name brings up detailed information about their real-world performance. This is what you see when you click on ‘Cooper Kupp’ for instance.
Coming back to the contest page, the central column shows your total budget, as well as the average budget remaining per player. The average budget remaining per player is a useful tool that allows players to plan their acquisitions appropriately. Go ahead and add players from the Player Pool to your team. Make sure to be on the look-out for any players who are ‘Out’ or ‘Questionable’ or are scheduled to face a tough opponent. Here’s what my team looks like after my selections.
Go ahead and click ‘Finalize Roster’. This will bring up the ‘Review Your Team’ page. Here you can see the ‘Projects Points’ total for your team as well.
Give your team a name (I named my team ‘Juggernaut’), and join the contest!
Once you have entered the contest, head over to ‘My Contests’ to find and track your contest. Upon clicking on the contest you just entered, a page opens up with information on how your players are doing in the contest and what your position on the leaderboard is. The screenshot below represents that page. but has no information since the contest has not yet started.
You can use this page edit your team as well. Please note that while a contest is underway, you may edit your team only to change athletes whose specific matches have not yet started. Once an athlete’s real-world team starts its game, that athlete is locked into your team and cannot be replaced.
Since the particular contest used in this example (Week 8 NFL) hasn’t started yet, there is no information to display. Usually, when a contest is underway, this page displays relevant information, like the top performing athletes in the contest so far (‘Top Performers’) and the current Leaderboard of Phantasia players. To get a sense of what this page looks like while a contest is underway, look at the following screenshot from an earlier contest:
As you can see on the page above, the ‘Contest is live’ and information is provided about how your players are performing, as well as where you stand on the leaderboard.
When all matches in a contest are over in the real-world, the contest is over as well. A banner to this effect appears at the top of the contest status page. You can also see all match scores on this page, as well as whether you won any prizes or not. This is what the contest status page looks like when a contest is over.
You can also scroll down on this page to see how each of your players performed.
Having covered how Phantasia works at present, let us take a look at their future plans.
Roadmap
Phantasia has a 7-phase roadmap. Phase 1 is complete, and work on the following phases is underway.
The segments below capture thematic ideas from the Phantasia roadmap. If things go to plan, the following features will characterise Phantasia: (1) NFT Integration; (2) Private Contests; (3) Club Levels; (4) The Phantasia DAO.
NFT Integration
NFT integration is an important pillar of Phantasia’s plans.
NFTs – or Non-Fungible Tokens – are unique digital assets, with proof of ownership. The value proposition of an NFT lies in the fact that it confers public, indisputable ownership over a digital asset. A digital asset can be anything that can be represented online – a jpeg, a tweet, digital land, in-game skins, in-game characters, etc. The value proposition of NFTs lies not so much in the content of the NFT, but rather in the fact that ownership can be proved over that content publicly, beyond doubt.
This confers digital asset with the quality of tradability. Since ownership can be proved conclusively, it is possible for such ownership to also be transferred conclusively. As long as a community sees value in the digital asset secured as an NFT, there will be demand for that digital asset and the NFT will have real monetary value.
Phantasia’s plans for NFTs
Phantasia’s plans for NFTs centres on the concept of a ‘Fan Card’.
‘Fan Cards’ are envisaged to be personalised cards owned by each Phantasia player. These cards are meant to have three components: (1) a skin, i.e. the background of the Card; (2) multiple badges, i.e. small pieces of art representing things like trophies, flags and memes; and (3) a Mascot, i.e. the centre-piece of the Fan Card which represents the Phantasia player and effectively works as a PFP.
It is envisaged that these three categories of NFTs: skins, badges and mascots, will be made available to Phantasia players for purchase on the soon-to-be-launched Phantasia NFT storefront. These NFTs will also be available to be earned through gameplay, in the form of contest reward or in-game quests.
Players will be able to customise their Fan Card, by combining different skins and badges with a mascot. The utility value of a player’s NFT collection can be seen from two perspectives: Firstly, the NFT collection has a vanity utility. A player’s NFT collection is meant to represent his prowess at the game. The better one’s collection, the better the player. In other words, NFTs give a player serious flex value. Secondly, the NFT collection will also give players access to restricted features of the Phantasia game — features that can only be accessed by the holders of certain NFTs. In other words, Phantasia plans to ring-fence certain features of the game, and make them available only for the holders of particular NFTs.
It is important to remember that ownership over NFTs and different Fan Card combinations, will be secured on-chain. This will allow for players to freely transfer NFTs amongst themselves and use them within the game — without requiring sanction from anyone else. From this perspective, participation in Phantasia can be seen as an investment which will give a player returns in the long run. Imagine a player who loves playing Phantasia, and builds a solid NFT collection. If (for whatever reason) this player one-day decides to stop playing Phantasia, he can simply sell his NFT collection to other players in the game, and cash-in on the time he spent playing the game. This is a serious shift from traditional games, where players get no returns (other than enjoyment) from playing a game.
The Phanatics Collection: First Drop
The first collection of Mascots, the Phanatics Collection is expected to be released any day now! This will be a collection of 8,888 pieces of generative art, with over 10 million possibilities of trait combinations. What this means is that each art-piece is created by an autonomous algorithm, that creates different combinations of pre-set traits. In more details, the team behind the NFT project creates a base character, and a number of traits that can go on top of that base character. Simultaneously, an algorithm is also created, which will randomize these pre-set traits, assign them to the base character, and create a unique art-piece in the process.
Consequently, each NFT ‘generated’ by the algorithm will have a unique combination of traits. The Phanatics Collection is designed in such a manner that a total of approximately 10 million different combinations of traits can be created. This NFT collection will be launched via the Fair Launch Protocol — a mechanism developed to ensure that the NFT distribution process is fair. Allocations will be made on the basis of an auction system.
All participants in this auction will be entitled to a participation NFT as early adopters (different form the Mascots themselves). Holders of the Phanatics Collection NFTs will get early access to Phantasia features and access to testing the game on the mainnet, before it launches for the masses. They will also get priority allocation for future NFT drops.
This first Phanatics Collection drop will be followed by more such drops in the future. It is envisaged that the Phanatics team will create and release such NFT collections based on sports seasons or major sporting events. (think, an NFT collection representing a World Cup, or the Super Bowl.) Such continued NFT drops will create a rich marketplace, and a nice user-experience.
Private Contests
Another feature in the pipeline for Phantasia is private contests. These are contests created by users or by the Phantasia team, which have restricted entry. To create a contest, the creator simply has to select a group of real-world matches that will be a part of the contest; select the mode of restriction of entry and create the contest. Entry to a private contest may be restricted in one of two ways: (i) by white-listing certain users; (ii) by restricting the contest to the holders of specific NFTs.
Private Contests by White-listing
White-listing users refers to creating a list of users who will be allowed access to a private contest, to the exclusion of everyone else. A Phantasia player can decide to create a private contest where only a select group of friends is allowed to participate. This can be accomplished by entering the Phantasia usernames of all friends in the group to the ‘white-list’ of usernames (as shown in the screenshot above).
This functionality allows beginners to create private contests for beginners only; and for advanced players can do the same for identified advanced players. In fact, private contests can be used for any group of individuals: members of a university course, inhabitants of the same neighbourhood, colleagues in an organisation — the possibilities are endless.
The fundamental utility of this feature is that it allows players (and player-groups) to personalise their Phantasia experience. It adds more flexibility to an already flexible game-ecosystem.
Private contests for NFT holders
Private contests can also be created by restricting entry to the holders of specified NFTs. The contest will be created in such a manner, that a specific type of NFT is mentioned in the contest’s parameters (say, a Mascot from the first Phanatics Collection). When any Phantasia player tries to join such a private contest, the application will check to see if his wallet (or Fan Card) contains the NFT on the basis of which entry is restricted. Only those wallets and players who hold the required NFT will be allowed to participate in the contest.
This feature adds a new dimension to the Phantasia platform (as compared to traditional Fantasy Sports) — it allows people to create private contests, even amongst people whom them may not know personally. It is also a source of value for NFTs, since it confers utility upon the specific NFT used to restrict access. NFTs may be used to restrict access to contests with big prizes, driving up demand for those NFTs.
This is particularly pertinent for Phantasia, since the more utility its NFTs have, the better the game’s internal economics will be. Access to NFT-restricted private contests can become a form of rewarding the adopters of an NFT project. Furthermore, private contests may be created in reference to any NFT project on Solana; and not just Phantasia NFTs.
Phantasia Clubs and Club Levels
‘Phantasia Clubs’ is envisaged as a future feature, which will allow a group of Phantasia players to come together and form a ‘Club’. All clubs will have a restricted pre-determined size, beyond which no new players may be added to the club. It will be possible for private contests to be held within this club, and for leagues to be started within the club as well. Each club will have an ‘owner’ who represents the Club in its dealings with the Phantasia platform.
‘Club Levels’ is envisaged as a feature that will give utility to the idea of creating a Club. Based on a subscription fee paid to the Phantasia platform, the owner of a Club will be able to ‘level-up’ his club. A total of 7 levels from 0 to 6 have been envisaged at present. As a Club moves up the levels, a higher subscription fees will have to paid to level up even higher.
A Club stands to gain two clear benefits by ‘levelling-up’: (1) larger size, i.e. more players will be allowed to be a part of the Club; (2) access to restricted in-game features, i.e. features and tools that help the members of the club perform better in contests. These are features like advance data analytics from real-world matches and automated decision-making, which will help Club members make better decisions about which athletes to pick for their team. Consequently, Club members will stand a better chance of winning contests and prizes. In other words, as a Club levels-up higher, it will get access to professionalised decision-making services, which will boost the performance of its members’ teams.
A good way to think about Club Levels is that it is a mechanism to allow different players to approach Phantasia with different levels of seriousness. Players who play Phantasia as a hobby would be comfortable in a Level 0 Club, with no need to pay subscription fees and still having the possibility of creating upside by winning contests. At the same time, players who wish to play Phantasia as professionals, will have the option of trying to move up the Club levels towards a Level 6 Club, where they will receive high-quality professional tools, giving them an edge in their team selection. Such professional players will be able to deploy these professionally developed teams to win high-stakes contests. Eventually, the hope is that a vibrant pyramid of Clubs at different Club Levels will emerge, giving different players the opportunity to approach Phantasia at their own comfort level.
The Phantasia DAO
A defining feature of applications on web3 is that they are not controlled by any singular entity. Rather, ownership and control vest in all people who participate and interact with the application. The ‘community’ controls the platform. This is where the $FANT token becomes relevant.
The $FANT token is the native currency of the Phantasia game. Holding a $FANT token gives a player two main abilities: purchasing power within the game (to buy NFTs and to pay subscription fees for ‘levelling-up’ their club) and platform governance rights.
A player can acquire $FANT tokens by winning public contests and gaining $FANT as the prize. $FANT can also be acquired by selling NFTs won in contests or in in-game quests. Phantasia also plans to undertake an Initial Decentralised Offering (IDO) whereby the $FANT token will be made available for purchase on the open market. $FANT tokens can be used to purchase NFTs on the platform, and to pay subscription fees to level up Clubs.
Apart from the transactional capacity of $FANT tokens, it is envisaged that these tokens will also be used for governance of the Phantasia platform. The Phantasia platform will not be controlled by a singular entity. Rather, it is meant to function as a DAO or a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. This means decision-making power will be decentralised to all participants/players of Phantasia. Decisions that affect Phantasia will be taken, not by the developers behind the project, but rather, but all the players who use the platform – i.e. the community of Phantasia players.
The $FANT token essentially, will represent decision-making power within the community. Anyone who holds the $FANT token will have the power to contribute to the collective decision-making process which will steer PhantasiaDAO towards sustainability.
This is an important feature, and a huge win compared to traditional Fantasy Sports. In 2020, the winner of the Fantasy Premier League (by points), was disqualified by the platform, in light of allegations of racist comments made in private by said winner. While this may have been the correct decision to make, in the world of DAOs, such decision-making will not be the domain of the people behind the platform, but rather of the platform itself. In other words, if such a scandal were to hit Phantasia, the decision regarding disqualification would be taken not by a select few, but by the entire community of $FANT holders at large.
SoRare – a different model of web3 Fantasy Sports
Phantasia’s main competitor in the web3 Fantasy Sports ecosystem is SoRare – a Fantasy Sports game on running on the Ethereum blockchain. The SoRare model, however is very different from the Phantasia model. On SoRare, there is no Player Pool from which a player can select athletes. Rather, a player can only have an athlete on his team, if the player owns an NFT associated with that particular athlete. In other words, SoRare’s utilisation of NFTs is very different from that of Phantasia. While SoRare seeks to make athlete cards into collectables, Phantasia allows free access to atheltes, and instead uses NFTs are in-game rewards.
Both SoRare and Phantasia present different value propositions. On the former, the pinnacle of achievement is owing a super rare NFT that represents an athlete. On the latter – i.e. on Phantasia – the pinnacle of a player’s achievement would be membership in a Level 6 Club, where they are running a professionally managed Fantasy Sports team, competing in contests with high-rewards, and stacking $FANT tokens in the process.
Given the wide distinction between the value proposition of the two games, a detaield comparison may not be entirely appropriate. SoRare and Phantasia both run on different blockchains, and have different associated fundamentals like gas fees and transaction speeds, as well.
Conclusion
At the present moment, Phantasia is just starting out. If you like Fantasy Sports and appreciate the value brought in by the use of NFTs and $FANT tokens, it might be worth your while to consider participating in the ecosystem.
The game has a user-friendly interface and the gameplay is easy to understand. Contests are short-term and victory pay-outs are regular. The team also has a clear roadmap in place, which incorporates NFTs to capture and spread value within the ecosystem. Advanced features like private contests and Club Levels are also in the works, which will create sustainability for the platform’s internal economy.
A discord server is the staple of every web3 project. The Phantasia discord server is buzzing with activity, and has a number of admins and moderators (with a ‘CM’ name tag) who are willing to answer questions promptly and help on-board newcomers.
As a platform, the apparent aim of Phantasia is to make professional participation in Fantasy Sports a viable option for players. The idea of Club Levels is a step towards this direction. A thriving NFT ecosystem plans to add a new dimension of fun to the game, while also giving players the ability to accumulate valuable assets in the long-term. Phantasia’s DAO structure will also offer players an entirely novel proposition – the ability to shape the future of the game they love. Interesting times lie ahead for Phantasia, will you be a part of the journey?
