Hello again to the lads and lasses of the Photo Finish™ LIVE game and ecosystem!
We’re back with a quick update. The TL;DR
- Our inaugural season (named Season 2, since the horses are 2 years old), is being extended ONE WEEK, ending at 10am ET on May 29, 2023
- The minimum guaranteed stimulus of 1,000,000 $DERBY will be airdropped to accounts (as a prorata of race entry fees paid on run races in season 2) on May 29, 2023, 10am ET.
- The $DERBY payouts to track owners will be airdropped to accounts on May 29, 2023, by 10:30-11:00 AM ET
- With regard to Season 3 (May 29 – June 26), the “Breeding Window” has been moved to the final week of the season (June 19-25)
PROTIP: The main page countdown (the one that says SEASON 2: APRIL 24 – MAY 22) will not update to the new date until likely later in the day on Thursday as we solidify and test the new races being added to the schedule.
With that out of the way…some context!
❓Why extend the season?
If you’ll remember, the first season actually started 4+ days later than originally planned. Along with this, we lost a good 2-3 days of dev effort during the madness of CROWN’s release and the Kentucky Derby weekend. Along with that, we’ve seen fewer horses racing than we originally expected so adding an extra week gives us more time to prepare for the next phase of the game – BREEDING!
❓What’s the deal with the 1,000,000 DERBY airdrop?
As mentioned in our “Real Money Racing” deep dive blog, we’ve promised a minimum of 1M $DERBY this season as a way for fees from breeding / marketplace / etc to help fund the early days of the racing economy, As expected, with no breeding fees this season, we have to provide the 1M ourselves (there aren’t enough fees around to fill the chalice). When racing is finished in season 1, we use a very simple calculation of pro-rata entry fees to determine how to distribute the $DERBY. You can view the leaderboard [on-site link coming soon] here.
❓What’s the deal with the $DERBY payouts to $CROWN stakers?
Out of an abundance of caution, we are manually verifying the rewards after racing completes, so we just want the track owners to know the $DERBY will be coming soon after the season rollover, not immediately after.
❓The Breeding Window is shifting? Can you tell me how I should feel?
You should feel overwhelmed with joy and bullishness. But seriously, the community as a whole seemed the most behind this idea, which would help encourage more racing in these early seasons. As we have mentioned, we simultaneously would love to see more racing and more horses in the population, so we’re all wanting to make sure we do everything we can alongside you the players to keep racing as active and healthy as we can in these early months.
That’s all for now, see you on the track!
Third Time Team
