Introduction to Sorare: An MLB NFT Game
Have you ever looked through your baseball card collection and wondered how good your team would be if they were on a real team? With Sorare, your dream can become a reality.
Unfortunately, you can’t put the cards in your bicycle spokes or play “closest to the wall”, and there’s no old gum staining the final card. The cards are digital.
In short, you can collect cards and make a lineup from your cards and participate in tournaments. Additional cards are awarded as prizes. You can also buy or trade for extra cards. The cards carry over to the next season and you never lose your cards, even if you don’t win a tournament you’ve entered.
I will be upfront; this is my first venture into the NFT (non-fungible token) world. That being said, I do know a little about baseball cards and putting up a lineup, so this is the perfect entry into the market. Each week I will share my experiences and track my team.
What follows is an overview of the basics and a look at my first card collection. If this is of any interest, please check out Sorare and tell them ToddZ sent you.
Fees
It costs nothing to join. The game is free to play. However, you can buy, sell or exchange cards.
The digital cards
After you register, you will be asked to choose a community card, and then you will be dealt 12 more, which will make up your initial collection. The positions will be distributed so that you can set a legal line-up. In addition to your chosen community card, your package will include
- Four starting pitchers
- Two relief jars
- Two corner players
- Two midfielders
- Two outfield players
Initially, your collection will consist of 13 regular cards. In addition to these regular cards, there are four levels of the NFT cards:
- Limited
- Rarely
- Super rare
- Unique
Acquiring and winning higher level cards allows participation in higher level tournaments. This is all explained on Sorare, but I will document the process as I navigate through the game.
Scoring
Points are awarded as follows:
Meeting
- Race: 3 points
- RBI: 3 points
- Single: 2 points
- Double: 5 points
- Triple: 8 points
- Home Run: 10 points
- Walk: 2 points
- Extent: -1 point
- Stolen base: 5 points
- Hit By Pitch: 2 points
Pitching
- Inning Pitched: 3 points
- Extent: 2 points
- Hits allowed: -0.5 points
- Earned run: -2 points
- Walk: -1 point
- Hit the Batsmen: -1 point
- Victory: 5 points
- Save: 10 points
- Hold: 5 points
Alignment
An active lineup consists of the following:
- A starting pitcher
- A relief pitcher
- One Corner Infielder
- A midfielder
- An outfielder
- An extra hitter
- An extra batter or pitcher
Game
Sorare runs two tournaments a week, Monday to Thursday and Friday to Sunday. The better you do, the better cards you are dealt. When many higher level cards are collected, you can enter a higher level tournament.
With only a couple of weeks left in the MLB season, access to higher levels will be difficult, but let’s learn the process now and do some damage in 2023.
My first team
The first player was my choice. Sorry, I should have written down the options. I chose Corbin Burnes. I haven’t had much time to think through the scoring, but with tournaments twice a week I wanted to make sure I have at least one ace and I have no idea what Sorare will award me.
As it turns out, I got an elite arm in Zac Gallen and solid Drew Rasmussen, but with the super-utility spot, I can use both hurlers if they’re both going to start in a tournament. The other starters included in the first set of regular cards are Bryse Wilson and Joey Wentz.
The replacements are Giovanny Gallegos and Collin Snider. I suspect the first course of action will be to learn how to acquire a cheap reliever. Holds aren’t worth as much as saves, but at least they’re scored.
My corners are Charlie Culberson and Alec Bohm while the middles are Donovan Solano and Luis Garcia. The hitting is rounded off with Bubba Thompson and Victor Reyes in the outfield.
The first tournament starts on Friday. Burnes, Rasmussen and Wentz all worked Wednesday, so they are not slated to pitch over the weekend. Gallen is the clear choice over Wilson. The entire lineup is
- SP: The gall
- RP: Gallegos
- CI: Bohm
- MI: Garcia
- BY: Thompson
- OUT: Solano
- UT/P: Wilson
The final spot came down to Wilson, Snider or Reyes. Snider hasn’t caught since May 17, so I took the chance that Wilson doesn’t get crushed by the Mets.
End
The basics of the game are presented. There are a lot of nuances to discover, but it’s best to learn how to crawl before you go. I hope you will join me as I embark on this new adventure. Let’s just hope this old dog can learn some new tricks.
