Some Background

Last week, ZED RUN kicked off their first ever tournament, and it is amazing. If you’re not familiar with ZED, it is a digital horse racing NFT. Unlike so many other projects, ZED boasts legitimate utility, both in the form of racing and breeding your horses. Each horse has its own DNA – breeding two great racers does not guarantee the offspring will be similarly gifted, while horses that don’t excel on the track may still be able to produce winners in the stud barn. Bloodlines, lineage, and rarity matter, with some of the most highly sought-after horses fetching more than that of a Kentucky Derby thoroughbred (for real). One thing to keep in mind about ZED is that it is very hard. Stakes can be high and getting a bona fide stud horse that can return profit racing is difficult. The project is incredibly complex and has spurred a plethora of third-party sites focused on better understanding the nuances of the game. Know Your Horses, Hawku and StackedNaks provide a wealth of information on your horses and the overall market, important tools in a project where strategy can make a huge difference.

Three of the most important genetic variables in the world of ZED are bloodlines, genotype, and breed type. While this article isn’t meant to get into an extensive dissection of the game’s complexities, the basics of these variables are important, as they relate both the wider ZED ecosystem and the ongoing tournament.

Bloodlines: There are four bloodlines in ZED, ranging from rarest to most common: Nakamoto, Szabo, Finney, and Buterin. According to the official ZED guide, “Bloodline plays the most significant role in contributing to a racehorse’s overall ability rating. The more sought after a bloodline is, the greater the chance of consistent success and performances your racehorse will have on the racetrack.” The chart below shows how bloodlines are passed along in breeding:

For example, if you bred a Szabo (on the left) with a Finney (on the top), the resulting offspring would be a Finney. For simplicity’s sake, if bloodlines are mixed, the offspring is considered to have the least rare of the bloodlines.

Genotype: Genotype represents how far down the lineage a racehorse is from its ancestors and is measured by the Z number. There are 38,000 first generation, or “Genesis” horses in the ZED ecosystem, which range from a Z1 – Z10 depending on bloodline. For example, a Z1 Genesis horse falls in the Nakamoto bloodline (and are the rarest, most expensive horses), whereas a Z9 Genesis horse is of the Buterin bloodline – still solid, as all Genesis horses are highly sought after, but orders of magnitude less expensive than Z1 Nakamotos. When breeding two horses, the Z number of the offspring is the summation of the parents’ Z numbers. For example, if the stallion is a Z13 and the mare is a Z16, the offspring is a Z29. According to ZED, “the higher the genotype (or Z number), the lower the chance the racehorse will possess a strong racing ability.” This means that a Z13 has a higher chance of being a successful racer than a Z47, but you occasionally can find a diamond in the rough with higher genotype numbers, which is part of the fun.

Breed Type: Breed type is a classification to identify genotype, placing the horse into one of six categories: Genesis (1st generation), Legendary (2nd generation), Exclusive (3rd generation), Elite (4th generation), Cross (5th generation), and Pacer (6th generation and beyond). Similar to the rationale behind genotypes, where a lower Z number represents a higher likelihood of having strongracing ability, breeds closer to the first generation Genesis horses will have better chances at being a good racer. The chart below shows how breeding impacts breed type:

For example, if the mother (left side) was an Exclusive and the father (top) was a Legendary, the offspring would be an Elite.

All in all, the general rule of thumb in ZED is the further you get from the original crop of horses, the lower your chances of success become.

The State of ZED Prior to Tournaments

Prior to the announcement of tournaments, ZED’s gameplay was very exclusive. Many ZED stable owners did not race their horses, instead electing to use them solely for breeding. The decision was strategic, especially from owners that had Genesis horses. The value proposition was such that racing a horse in their inaugural race, referred to as a “Griffin”, was an incredibly risky endeavor. If the horse did poorly, it could badly impact their value on the secondary market, or hurt their ability to breed. In ZED, male horses are sent to the “stud barn” and female horses can breed with them, if there are any takers. The owner of the male horse receives the stud fee, and the owner of the female horse receives the offspring. Due to the inherently difficult nature of ZED – only one horse can win a race out of a field of 12, many stable owners felt that the juice was not worth the squeeze, electing to play it safe, leave their horses unraced, and hope to capitalize financially via breeding fees if they had male horses, or selling the offspring for a premium if they had female horses.

While this was a calculated move and hard to argue with, the reality was that racing was looked at as a disincentive for many stable owners. In addition to the possibility of cratering your horse’s value, most races required an entry fee. If your horse wasn’t a legitimate stud, racing was probably a losing proposition, as you typically need around a 15%~ win rate to turn a profit racing. While ZED has a class system to try to match horses of similar ability, the system is imperfect and there is still a dramatic skill difference within classes, along with loopholes and strategic approaches to “class down”, allowing good horses to capitalize against worse competition. Given the complex nature of ZED and various attributes that comprised a horse’s DNA this might seem very complicated, but the simple math was that if you had an Exclusive Z39 horse and you were running against Genesis Z6 horses, the odds would generally be stacked against you, and racing would essentially be pointless and a money sink. If you didn’t have a giant stack of ETH or get lucky with some solid breeds, it could be tough and demoralizing to race.

To make matters worse, user sentiment on the platform had been souring. ZED had struggled with the past two Genesis drops – the first was ill-planned and enabled some users to get a haul of Genesis horses while others were shutout, and the second was so bad that it was cancelled midway through the drop. Race times were also taking an exceedingly long time to schedule, with some races sometimes taking 12+ hours to run, killing immersion. There were also a few high-profile scams and scandals, technical issues in both breeding and racing, and serious communication problems from the ZED team, leaving a bad taste in the community’s collective mouth.

Introduction of Tournaments

And then, something amazing happened – ZED became fun again. In fact, outside of TOC (I admit my bias), I would say that ZED’s new tournament is the most fun I’ve had engaging with anything NFT related. First, nearly all the technical glitches were fixed. Breeding is functional, races populate appropriately, the stamina variable has been revamped, and perhaps most importantly, races run mere minutes after filling. While those fixes laid the foundation, the set up of the tournament takes things to the next level for a few different reasons. There are a ton of free races, which is a gamechanger. Rather than simply throwing your money away to see your donkey of a horse run once every 12 hours, you could now run your horses for fun, with a chance to qualify for some serious cash and ZED glory. Aside from this just being a hell of a lot of fun, it also provides an opportunity to gather important information on your horses – what distances do they excel at, what distances they should avoid, level of speed variance at different distances, and all sorts of other quantifiable data that would previously have taken weeks to compile, likely been expensive, and in the event your horse wasn’t any good, ultimately be a frustrating waste. Simply put, ZED was able to change the entire atmosphere from a situation where racing was disincentivized to a situation where racing is highly incentivized, affordable, and super fun.

The Details

So, how exactly does the tournament work? We’re glad you asked. The tournament began on October 15th and will run through October 30th, so you still have almost a week to get in on the fun. Your horse will need to run at least 30 races in a specific “distance funnel” to be eligible for qualification. Distance funnels are comprised of three options: Sprinter (1000m, 1200m, 1400m), Mid Runner (1600m, 1800m, 2000m) and Marathoner (2200m, 2400m, 2600m). You can race your horse in any distance you want, but it can only qualify in one distance funnel, and racing it in distances that it does poorly in can hurt the overall win and place percentages, so strategy is very important.

On October 30th, the top 192 horses in each distance funnel, 576 across all three distance funnels, will qualify for the next round, the Quarter Finals. Horses are scored based on their “place rate”, I.E. how often they come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd. NOTE: In Australia, where ZED originates, coming in 3rd is considering “placing”, whereas in the United States we use “win”, “place”, and “show” for 1st, 2nd or 3rd. For example, if you had a horse that ran 30 races in total, all of which were in the Mid Runner category (1600m – 2000m) and had four 1st place finishes, three 2nd place finishes and five 3rd place finishes, you would have a 40% place rate (4+3+5 = 12 / 30 races = 40%). Keep in mind, if you raced your horse 30 times in the Mid Runner tier and had the results above, but also raced your horse once in the Sprinter tier and twice in the Marathoner tier, your total number of races would be based on 33 total races. Assuming you didn’t place in the races in Sprinter or Marathoner tier, your place rate would then be 12/33 = 36.36%. If two horses have the same place rate, the tiebreaker will go to the horse with the higher win percentage, so getting those 1st place finishes has significant value over 2nd or 3rd place.

During the qualifying period, you’ll be able to view standings to get an idea of what your place rate needs to be for a shot at qualifying. Right now, you’re needing at least a 50% place rate to be in the top 192 as a Sprinter:

At least a 45% place rate to be in the top 192 as a Mid Runner:

And at least a 47% place rate to be in the top 192 as a Marathoner:

Competition is fierce, but a ton of fun.

Qualifying

If you’re lucky enough to qualify for the Quarter Finals, you’ll have a shot at ZED glory (and some nice profits). Each distance funnel will have a total of 16 races, with 12 horses running at a time. Each horse will only run once in the Quarter Finals, and you’ll need to finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in that race to move on. Ultimately, 48 horses from each distance funnel will move on to the Semi Finals (16 races * 3 horses per race = 48). The Sprinter class will run at the 1200m distance, Mid Runners will run at 1800m, and Marathoners will run at 2400m. ZED will automatically match qualified horses up against other similarly rated horses in an attempt to achieve optimal fairness and competitive balance.

In the Semi Finals, the format will be similar, with four total races for each distance funnel, racing at the same distances as the Quarter Finals. At this point, horses will be matched randomly as opposed to by similar competition. Horses that place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in each of the four races will move on to the Finals, equaling 12 horses from each distance funnel.

In the Finals, the last 12 horses from each distance funnel will run against one another in one race. But wait! We’re not done yet. From there, the top four horses from each race will move on, resulting in the final 12 horses left standing, four from each distance funnel, where they will compete for ultimate glory in the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, each horse will run six total races, two per distance funnel. In these six races, each horse will accumulate points based on where they finish: 1st = 1024 points, 2nd = 512 points 3rd = 256 points and so on and so forth with the point total being halved for each additional spot the horse drops, finishing with 12th place = 0 points.

When it’s all said and done, the horse with the highest point total across those six races will be crowned champion!

Final Thoughts

Qualifying for this tournament will be hard, but that shouldn’t take away the fun and strategic importance of this qualifying period. The ability to quickly race horses across various distances can be advantageous going forward. For example, prior to this tournament, I had a handful of less than stellar horses that I simply stopped racing after a few races because they didn’t look very good and I didn’t want to just throw money away to learn that my horse was a donkey. But the ability to race horses in a ton of free races has let me try out a few different strategies. During this process, I have raced a ton of horses I otherwise would have left rotting in their stable, and in a few cases I actually found that they were half decent in certain distances. No longer is it a total waste to run those Z53 Pacers that seemed destined for the glue factory. Even if they’re terrible you’re not risking much or spending money to try them out, and maybe you’ll catch lightning in a bottle. It’s difficult to figure out how good a horse really is without racing them in the same distances a number of times, as you need to account for outliers, both good and bad. This tournament has allowed this to happen, incentivizing stable owners to see what they have. Because the playing field has been leveled, people are racing horses that they otherwise wouldn’t, as there is simply no downside. This has made the game much more inclusive and accessible for everyone, resulting in a healthier ecosystem. After a rocky few months, ZED has pulled something off that has been an absolute blast, a formula we are hoping they replicate going forward. Race your donkeys with pride! Everyone else is, and you might be pleasantly surprised.