Crown Weekly: Road to the Derby
Back like we never left — it's the first 2024 edition of the Crown Weekly!
To say we're back insinuates that, at some point, we left, and we know that was never the case. Even while the holidays were in full swing, the Third Time team and the Photo Finish™ community continued horse business as usual.
A new year brings new opportunities, so let's get these words out of the way and get back out there, making things happen.
Let's Ride: 2024 Edition
ICYMI: We dropped a community blog that gives a nice look back at what we all experienced and accomplished in 2023 before taking a look ahead at what we have planned to crush in early 2024.
If you missed the New Year catch-up, give it a read here.
Meet the Business & Marketing Team
Meet the Team!
This past week, Third Time Games was thrilled to pull back the curtain and introduce you to the brilliant minds steering the growth ship, with a particular focus on their business and marketing missions.
As we begin a monumental year for the blockchain gaming industry, these individuals are gearing up to stand at the forefront of our goal to bring Photo Finish™ center stage in the lead-up to the 150th Kentucky Derby.
ICYMI, we introduced them in the blog and followed that up by chatting with them on Spaces this morning.
Season 11: Race Updates
ICYMI: Third Time Games CEO & Founder Ian Cummings notified the community in Discord of a few upcoming changes to the racing schedule in Season 11.
A summary below:
- Most grade-based allowances and grade-restricted stakes races will be replaced with benchmark races.
- Most benchmark races will be a 5-point rating band, with no weight allowances applied, towards the bottom end of the benchmark range, where there aren't as many horses in every archetype. There may be wider band benchmark ranges or races with weight allowances.
- The benchmark rating will be calculated from every race, not just non-weighted races, and the FF accounts for the weight applied.
- We will try to get season race previews available and easily viewable next week.
Expect further communications and context this coming week. As always, we will give the community ample advance heads-up of any changes and communicate their reasoning and thought process.
Message from the Boss
Speaking of communications around changes, Third Time CEO & Founder Ian Cummings provided just that, detailing some thinking behind the plans to change some race formats moving forward.
If you missed our fearless leader's tweet, read the full message to the community here. Expect much more where this comes from ahead of Season 11.
Artemis Meet
This week's Artemis Meet consisted of five races totaling $18,000 in free entry prize pools. For those new here, that's right — $18,000 in purse prizes were awarded in just a handful of races on Saturday night, all free entry.
Congratulations to this week's winners:
Styx Bridge Gallop — Ted Racing (115,200 $DERBY)
Mercury Dash – Stable Income (115,200 $DERBY)
Silver Bow Stakes – Grape Syndicate (115,200 $DERBY)
Cup of Dionysus – Breaking Bad Stables (115,200 $DERBY)
Artemis Cup Sprint – IcedHog Stables (225,600 $DERBY)
The JPeg Lord was at it again, dominating this week's $6,000 Artemis Cup Major Race with a stellar showing from his stable's racehorse, Timeout.
Timeout takes home the massive $2,820 first-place prize and the title of this week's Artemis Cup champion – hoorah!
Next Week: The Virtual Kentucky Derby
It's that time of the season again! The Road to the Kentucky Derby begins once again as the best-of-the-best battle it out on the tracks this week for a chance to be one of 20 lucky horses that vie for a chance at Web3 gaming glory.
Ready to claim your piece of Web3 gaming history? Get in on the Derby leaderboard by entering these weekly qualifier races. The Top 20 make it to the big race on Saturday night!