After months of blank cards following the termination of the partnership between the MLSPA and Genesis League Sports, the team finally released the new portraits for GLG players. New names, new faces, same stats, and the game has not changed at all. I guess I am satisfied with the new art, although my expectations weren't that high. I'm glad they don't look like Moonkarts drivers, but they give a bit of "uncanny valley" effect, especially in-game where those high resolution images get stuck into a tiny frame. There are still a few that don't render in game, but a real effort was done to fix that problem. It should get totally fixed eventually.
How significant is this latest update for the game at large? Will our NFTs be worth more? Will market activity pick up? Are we going mainstream yet? Probably not in the short term, but the credibility of the game was in the gutter while we had only blank NFTs to play with. Some people told me privately that they weren't feeling good about the game at that point, but thankfully that time is behind us. At least now people outside the game can look at it and see an actual game, and not just game mechanics playing out. I like the game mechanics, and I didn't mind the blank pictures, but obviously things could not stay that way forever. Not if this game is to have any chance of success.
This bleak period of the game's history is behind us now, and the project is no longer bound to a real world IP or organization, and is free to chart its own way forward. The next thing to look forward to in the GLS ecosystem is Prime Pick, which might appeal to traditional sports betting fans, not being tied to a game that people may or may not like playing, or own assets for. This will only require GLX, and could be a serious shot in the arm for the token price. If that was to happen, meaning if Prime Pick leads to a rise in GLX value, this will put GLG in a very interesting position. The best way to earn GLX regularely is through GLG. If people want GLX to stake and earn rewards from Prime Pick, one way to earn it will be to buy GLG assets, build a team and go earn a steady stream of GLX.
This leaves me confident for the future, and I don't regret having been in the game since the start and having built my team over time. I integrated it in my routine and play my 20 manual battles per day. I tried autoplay for a while, but the results were less than stellar, and in order to maximize GLX, it is necessary to play games manually. But if you really don't have time, the autoplay will let you earn smaller amounts over time, but it could kick you out of global league if your team doesn't perform well enough.
In conclusion, I want to thank Aggy for not giving up on the game. It's a cool, low maintenance game that can just run and serve its purpose as a GLX faucet, thus providing value to the NFT assets and the wider ecosystem. If Prime Pick gathers the attention of a larger audience, the game of GLG will become a more mainstream way of earning GLX to stake, but the scarcity of cards will be felt and it will be difficult to build more 7 or 8 star teams with top players. It will be interesting to see what the future brings in the next couple of years.