British-based Semper Fortis Esports have decided to move into play-to-earn crypto titles like Axie Infinity and began a pro division for just that. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and other cryptocurrencies are growing in value, no matter what people may think of them. NFTs alone have reached 10.7b in value, which is all based on unique digital art. This style of digital currency has made its way into the gaming space, with titles like Axie Infinity. Semper Fortis Esports are ready to embrace Axie Infinity and similar games with their new pro division.

As Semper Fortis Esports looks at Axie Infinity and other crypto-based games, they recruit Hearthstone player Iner, who also actively plays Axie Infinity. According to Semper Fortis Esports, this is the result of eight months of work, and now they have made their way into the play-to-earn space. Aleksei “Iner” Bakumenko will compete in both Axie Infinity (NFT-based online game) and Hearthstone. That’s a pretty huge move. 

Semper Fortis Esports’ CEO, Kevin Soltani spoke about the move:

“Our latest signing will pioneer our strategy to build out the SMPR play-to-earn division, opening doors for a new pool of players entering the esports space and diversifying the company’s revenue model.”

The contract is a short one, perhaps in the event that this does not take off the way they’d like. Iner’s contract is for three months, but it can be extended by six months. Axie Infinity players can acquire tokens in-game that can be traded on Binance. The characters themselves (Axies) are NFTs and can be bought and sold this way. 

It’s going to be interesting and see if other esports players embrace Axie Infinity and play-to-earn concepts like it, or get recruited as esports pro players in the field. Thus far, Axie Infinity raised 152m in investment funds and currently is valued at nearly 3b. Hopefully, this gets pushed into funding the game and making it bigger. We wish Iner and Semper Fortis Esports luck on this new pro division experiment.