GROWTH GRANT APPLICATION – vrtuhub – Tier 1

[isitbathtime]

TERMS OF USE

I have read and understand the CONFLUX ECOSYSTEM GRANTS OVERVIEW, and determined that my proposal is best for the Growth Grants stream (YES).

I understand that the Conflux Growth Grants are subject to a No Sale Rule, and I have read the terms of this rule (YES).

I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Conflux Foundation to receive this grant (YES).

I understand that I will be required to follow public grant reporting requirements (YES).

APPLICATION INTRODUCTION
Hi, my name is Bilal Khan. I am the CEO and Founder of Vrtuhub Ltd, a UK-based startup which means it’s incorporated. I have invested considerable effort in developing the web 2 aspect of our platform, with a fully functional responsive website and a team dashboard for event organization, team management, and content publication.
You can explore our fully responsive website at https://www.vrtuhub.com.
I’ve designed it to be responsive on mobile and desktops with an easy-to-use, welcoming UX and a clean user experience that focuses on the content and delivery.

Conflux wallet: cfx:aapgejf90ry7n21nceumrfng44jajkpu5yhck822cv

I am the sole contributor to the project thus far, the team is just me. I will be hiring contractors for the live streaming and eSports commentators. This is to minimising overhead costs and allows me to focus on development and planning. I am committing all of my time and skills to building this platform and taking it to the top!

Team

This section describes the team of the project, their skills and roles. Please include the following information for all team members:

Bilal Khan
Role and Responsibilities: CEO & Founder - Leading on Sveltekit, managing business inquiries, partnerships, and overall company operations.
Social Media: Find me on Twitter @ItIsNeverMyTime or use our contact form.
Relevant Experience: While I may lack extensive experience, I bring a fresh perspective to crypto and Web 3, aiming to reshape how communities and projects interact and expand. I don’t like the current system and the way things are done so I’m building this platform to make an impression and lasting impact going forward.

TOTAL BUDGET AND FUNDING TIER

• Grant Tier: Tier 1
• Grant Size: $3000
• Justification: $2000 for venue hire and broadcasting two tournaments, including commentator fees and a live stream director. A small proportion of this will be set aside for the prize fund.
• The remaining $1000 will fund the tech review initiative, incentivising project ambassadors to improve content quality through SEO-optimized articles or video reviews. In the long term, I expect projects to support this initiative because of the quality improvements and publicity tech reviews could bring to their project and team.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Overview

Vrtuhub is an All-In-One Esports, tech, and marketing HUB, fostering community potential through team management, player scouting, and engaging tournaments.

Teams
Teams set up team profiles that they can manage with their core team and players, ambassadors & reviewers etc.
Team players can sign up and represent teams by showcasing the team banner on their profile and having opportunities to enter tournaments to win prize money and build their reputation/following.
They can write tech reviews for a unique approach to marketing and building brand credibility whilst giving ambassadors tech makeovers to increase quality and professionalism.

Players

Players create social gaming profiles, think of it as a LinkedIn for esports which allows teams to easily scout talent and skill to bring into their ranks.
They can enter open for all tournaments or apply to enter closed tournaments

User Base
Targeting gamers, crypto community members, and tech enthusiasts, Vrtuhub aims to leverage existing communities for events, gradually expanding its user base through conventional Web 2 games that generate a buzz. As we grow, we expect streamers and influencers to take notice of us and the partnerships and prize pool on offer would elevate the platform and build our credibility.
Our website currently has 10 users but we expect this to grow quickly once the word gets out there about the upcoming eSport tournaments players could enter.
Market

Unlike predecessors, Vrtuhub avoids excessive investment and a large executive team. This closed-loop ecosystem they create capsizes and eventually finishes them off.
Vrtuhub is focused on organic growth, strategic partnerships, and a sustainable business model. This makes it harder to get started, to get moving but these sacrifices will do well in the long term and I’m resourceful to grow this out and build it and ultimately put the community and
The emphasis on Web 2 games ensures a broader user base, enhancing the platform’s credibility. Web 3 gaming is fun but few play them, It is mostly just investors and traders holding the tokens when gaming is supposed to be about fun and engagement.
There is untapped potential in the existing communities of projects, providing tools for software to make it easier for projects to organise events is a a necessity. There shouldn’t be a service fee for this, my kids organise tournaments with friends or in Discord servers. We are making it more accessible by extending its reach., it is something team members could enjoy and this will become an effective marketing tool.

Technology

Prioritizing user experience, we’ve focused on Web 2 functionality for initial growth. For that, I’ve built the platform on Sveltekit and the backend is on Appwrite. It works well, the UX is very responsive and I’ve designed it using Tailwind CSS how I like it so it has an original look.

The plans for Web 3 are to set up a DAO for handling prize pool distribution, similar to the governing body in football or racing. We are planning a user-centric token so I focused on growing the platform first and foremost before launching any tokens.

Traction

The eSports tournament is pending, and our tech review section is gaining traction. Notably, KingBank provided review kits, highlighting potential collaborations between tech companies and Web 3 projects. This ties in with eSports as it opens up the possibility of community-backed teams getting sponsorship from big tech companies and becoming a profitable community-run marketing platform for the projects onboard.

Crypto Projects have a vast community that we help utilise!
SEO optimisation is a big focus of mine which plays well with the tech reviews. Tech reviews can generate a lot of traffic and there is always a demand for honest reviews however most tech reviewers will not endorse or promote crypto projects. This led me to the thought of why not build a platform for ambassadors to create their honest reviews whilst being able to promote their projects.
Most often when someone wants to buy a tech product they’ll search online for reviews, either using YouTube or a search engine. The person looking to buy a portable monitor, or some new mic etc are the potential users you should engage with and reach out to? If other reviewers won’t work with you I’ve built a platform that lets project ambassadors do it themselves to generate growth and reach new audiences.

This solves a big issue I’ve been seeing where projects keep marketing to other crypto users who are already invested in other projects, simply traders or merely trying to build their networking. This initiative solves that and gives ambassadors a leading role in the growth of the project.

Stage of the Project
Pre-revenue, we’ve secured a $10,000 grant from Venus Protocol to kickstart hardware acquisition and an additional $5000 to initiate a racing tournament.

Security
The Web 3 element, including the token, has not been launched yet.

ECOSYSTEM FIT
The benefit to the Conflux Ecosystem:
Establishing a Conflux esports team on Vrtuhub enhances engagement and reaches the vast gaming community. The platform can host game nights and tournaments, promoting discoverability as other users, projects and teams can get involved in engaging and skill-based events. With the possibility of broadcasting the events with commentary, we could amplify the engagement by allowing even those not playing to watch and cheer/support their players.

Competitive skill-based gaming tournaments are also a way to eradicate bots and airdrop hunters. I see too many projects ignoring bots and even allowing them to enter campaigns as Twitter following is seen as status, projects don’t seem to mind having inflated followings and bot entries on campaigns and Twitter as props them up. I find this unfair to the end user so eSport campaigns with a governing body will address this.

As we grow our player base, we will partner with promising and fun Web 3 titles to organise and market events for those titles. Establishing ourselves in the industry will turn us into a platform for game developers to partner with to gain access to the Vrtuhub community.

Economic Benefit
Anticipating a snowball effect, our initiative is poised to create a buzz, drawing interest from other projects and communities seeking to join the platform.
We hope to use this as a showpiece, an example event to pitch to and show other projects what is possible and why they should get involved in this.

GROWTH PROPOSAL

The section describes your plans and how they will be tracked and measured. Please provide the following information:

Grant Plan

Esports
Organise two competitive gaming weekends with Conflux and Venus Protocol (or some other agreed project) with commentary and have these events broadcast onto YouTube for both communities to cheer on and support.

Tech Review

Do a trial run with Conflux and maybe some other projects where they could buy better microphones or some other content creation equipment from the likes of Alliexpress (they offer worldwide shipping) and have them write up a review and publish it onto our site to claim a reimbursement. Whilst writing the review they can take pictures and strategically represent their projects to build credibility and also give mentions of their project in the review.

Users Acquisition
We leverage the communities of existing projects for big events and target Web 2 gamers through popular titles by offering prize funds for the champions. Broadcasting the events on YouTube will extend our reach and increase our visibility and the marketing reach of everyone involved.

Proposal OKRs:

• Aiming to get 15 projects to create community-backed eSport teams and sign up with us.
• Have 1000 players signed up.
• Start broadcasting events with commentary every week.

ROADMAP

Milestone 1 ($1000 Q1) - Establish an agreement with a project to offer a reimbursement of upto $1000 in CFX for audio recording equipment (mainly microphones as too many ambassadors on Discord/Twitter have low-quality audio that is unpleasing to the ears). Aiming to get 10 mics and boom arms out to ambassadors. They’ll agree to review it on our site and they can promote Conflux and their project alongside the review. This can be arranged with the Conflux ambassadors.

Milestone 2 ($2000 Q1) - Set a date for two live broadcasted eSports Tournament. Loads of games to choose from, Mobile, PC or PS5 titles. It’s going to be fun and it will change how other projects approach engagement.

MAINTENANCE CONSIDERATIONS

We have a sustainable business model where projects pay an entry fee to enter tournaments. The split depends upon the organiser but roughly 70% of the entry fee goes towards the prize pool with the remainder going towards the organiser for fees such as directors, editors and commentators. This minimises the cost for everyone involved and creates a sustainable business model.

The web 2 platform is ready to go and when it kicks off development on the web 3 portal will begin.

[Geoff]

Thanks for your application @isitbathtime! eSports is definitely an exciting market!

Quick question - is Vrtuhub already deployed on Conflux eSpace?

Thanks!

[isitbathtime]

Nope, vrtuhub is not deployed on conflux espace or any blockchain. It is not a dApp yet but the web 2 platform is live and functional.

You probably want something to be done on espace. I want Vrtuhub to champion every blockchain. I want projects establishing teams for different game genres. This is something your community can take on and grow it shouldn’t be too much work and we’re here to support that and make it easy to get onboard. Games are supposed to be fun and engaging, I believe crypto communities would love to have matches organised! I want to broadcast games and events onto video platforms and metaverses.
I am building this up to ultimately have projects and communities represented in our upcoming DAO.

I’m applying for a growth grant to get our initial two esports tournaments going with broadcasting and commentary so everyone can be entertained - you don’t need to be playing to have fun. The video footage is also a great way to increase engagement and grow your following.

I want to match you up against the Community of Venus Protocol in a capture-the-flag tournament on a mobile-friendly game Kart Racing (pictured below). This is an existing game developed by someone else that people are already playing. Thats what esports is about

Plans for the Dapp

I’ve bootstraped the project thus far, and I’ve focused on building the Web 2 platform to bring this to market. The plans for Web 3 are still being worked on and Blockchain interoperability is a must as the last thing I want to do is lock down this platform I’m building. I want every project to establish a team with us.

Some of the plans:

• DAO for handling prize pool distribution
• Set up a Governing Body which would consist of the teams, supporters and backers for Vrtuhub.
• Once the Governing Body is established, new projects will need to be approved by the Governing Body to join us.
• Users will have the ability to MINT NFT Scorecards with the results and finishing positions for events.
• Right now, any approved team can create events but plans for a security deposit requirement for creating events which contain a prize fund.
• Projects can buy into tournaments (which can go towards covering costs such as venues, commentators & organisers etc.

Token distribution is key, the token needs to fall into the right people to set up the Governing Body. My strategy is focused on bringing this concept to life, getting projects onboard and organising some gaming tournaments to build hype and excitement. Once the eyes are on us and projects are requesting to join, we’ll have a community to bring out our Web 3 platform and get our token out there. I expect this to be a snowball effect once the momentum gets going.

We intend to do a bigger Esports event with Venus Protocol afterwards which you are welcome to join, this will be a three-weekend event on a skill-based realistic SIM racing tournament. We are aiming to invite 15 projects for that one. There is a separate entry fee of $2000 (paid in VAI, a Venus Stablecoin) and we are aiming to have a prize pool of $20,000. Dates have not been set for this.

I need to organise something smaller, a team vs team match to show everyone else what this could be like, the impact this has level of engagement they could expect.

Growth Grant

I’ve reached out to Conflux for this Growth Grant to invite your community to get involved in competitive gaming and represent you in virtual tournaments. We will get to show everyone else that there is a demand for this, there’s an initiative for it and projects do benefit from this. Venus Protocol is already onboard and I’m searching for another project that is excited about this and wants to be amongst the first to roll this out.

The Growth Grant is not being used for any level of technical development, the first $1000 for the tech reviews will be given back to the community. The remaining $2000 will be used to pay for commentators and venue hire to broadcast the virtual event with around $150-200 worth of conflux for prize money per event, so $300-400. The players entered will be able to play from anywhere.

I am not making any money out of this, I’ve come this far unpaid and I’ll continue to be unpaid until the business can support me. The equipment to broadcast the events to a professional level has been supplied by Venus Protocol the largest lending platform on BNBChain and they’ll be expanding onto other blockchains very soon. $10,000 was spent on equipment. The remaining $5,000 is for their big SIM Racing event that will be happening soon.

I would love to kick things off with a smaller event on Smash Karts between you and Venus so I can show everyone the potential and the quality on offer.

Two Other Proposals
There were two other proposals I have in mind, a TECHNICAL GRANT to develop the Web 3 platform but I do feel the priority should be to do a couple of events to prove the demand. This will cost money and development and audit are expensive.

The site, and the UX I built work well but it just hasn’t been integrated with crypto yet. You are welcome to sign up and create a profile. The Community and Users are more important than tech, which can come after. Projects can even seemingly create events and team lineups on the platform, so it’s ready to go. The Dapp will come later, If Conflux is interested/willing to support that we can discuss that.

The image here shows the create an event page, which is accessible for teams on the platform. If projects just want a place to publish upcoming events this is it. Third-party organisers and commentators are optional once we’ve got teams and a community built up projects are encouraged to create gaming events for others to find and join.

The third option is to discuss a Strategic Partnership and I have some ideas so we could continuously organise events with Conflux prize money as well as enter you into events other projects are hosting. I don’t believe this will fall into a grant but it’s something we could discuss later.

Just me waffling on about other stuff

Most projects in crypto don’t have an eSports team, they don’t take it seriously and seem to overlook the significance of eSports and a lot of crypto managers don’t even understand it or want to, they fail to comprehend its potential and relevance to crypto.

The rare few that do acknowledge it neglect their existing community, opting to simply pay an established eSports team to showcase their logo without tapping into the vast potential of their social media following on Twitter, discord communities etc. I’ve had some individuals tell me they love it but their managers turn around and say nobody is doing this there’s no demand for this. There’s also a big top 20 project that sees potential in this, they’d like to organise an event later but I need to first prove I can do this

I’m getting pretty tired of seeing these competitions on Twitter where you like this and retweet or vote for your favourite project and win prizes. This aint exciting nor is it engaging and it’s usually riddled with bots, airdrop hunters and cheaters. The tokens projects throw away for stuff like that is insane. Bots unfortunately are a grey area for some projects as they want those it bolster their social media followings as it inflates their image.
Esports is skill-based and competitive and it could shake the industry and have a pivotal role in normalising crypto and building its credibility and the reputation of the projects in crypto. We don’t need crypto influencers, and Twitter-like competitions when we could be doing something with so much more real reach. Projects should be reaching out to new markets, and new opportunities instead of everyone already invested into crypto.

By leveraging their extensive networks and communities, we can establish an eSports team that not only boosts their presence but also creates a ripple effect within the crypto space and utilises their communities for an impactful and disruptive change focused on eSports and beyond. The Mainstream audience will take notice and they’ll see the opportunity crypto projects can offer and fans and rally to their favourite teams and players. This will be HUGE! Projects have massive communities and gaming is a great way to utilise them.

My primary goal is to enhance project engagement, increase community interaction and broaden their reach by motivating and encouraging community members and ambassadors to propel their projects to new heights. I am building a complete package, a hub for projects, communities and ambassadors. Esport events, reviews, games, and publish blogs to make this our platform for an all-encompassing marketing solution for the crypto sphere. Our strategy involves drawing traditional gamers, influencers, and consumers to the active communities in Web 3 Discord/Telegram channels. Our approach aims to create a synergy that not only benefits individual projects but also contributes to the overall advancement of the crypto ecosystem.