Esports organization and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves made its NFT debut yesterday, handing out over 300,000 free Polygon NFTs to users within 24 hours.
But to the surprise of many, the words “NFT,” “blockchain,” “Polygon,” or any other crypto-related term did not feature in the 100 Thieves announcement “LCS Championship Chain” on Wednesday. Instead, they adopted “commemorative digital collectibles” for their initiative.
100 Thieves Championship Chain.• 100% free to claim (we will cover all transaction fees).• Not intended for resale. We make no money from this. • Same carbon impact as sending 2 emails.• Available now until our first LCS match on Saturday.Claim: https://t.co/JlKpzrHMnH pic.twitter.com/pI9hAK7Hyd— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) February 2, 2022
Each 100 Thieves NFT displays a 360-degree animated view of a diamond chain, which CEO and co-founder Nadeshot handed to his League of Legends” team after they won the 2021 LCS Championship.
Strangely enough, Nadeshot has never referred to them as NFTs even though he owns a CryptoPunk NFT, which serves as his Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Instagram profile picture.
The CEO has been beefing up his own personal NFTs since at least August 2021 when he declared that he owned two Crypto Punks and one Chromie Squiggle.
Tweeting that the chain collectible had been claimed more than 300,000 times, Nadeshot exclaimed the popular NFT community rallying cry “wagmi,” which means “we are going to make it.”
wgmi.Over 300,000 claims of our 2021 LCS Championship commemorative digital collectible. Thank you again for the overwhelming support. pic.twitter.com/Pidw4zIMCG— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) February 3, 2022
Most suspect that the reason Nadeshot and 100 Thieves are avoiding the term “NFT” is because of the enormous backlash NFTs have received in the gaming community.
The makers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Worms had to cancel earlier in-game NFT plans due to social media backlash from fans. However, the 100 Thieves Polygon NFTs have been met with only positive reviews so far on Twitter and Instagram.