The Knight Commander Collection
You probably haven’t heard of the Pittsburgh Knights. They exist on what I assume is a small island of e-sports. But that’s incorrect. The numbers tell a different story.
In 2020, e-sports was already a $1.5 billion dollar market. Growing at 25% per year, it is estimated that by 2027 e-sports will be a $7+ billion dollar market. Turns out, e-sports is big business — professional gaming with big money prizes and sponsors ready to throw down to be apart of it’s growth.
The Pittsburgh Knights are a global e-sports team, participating in competitions with classics like: Gears of War, Rainbow Six, Valorant and Halo. They arrive to ThetaDrop with an NFT collection called: The Knight Commander.
“We wanted to share the story of the Knights — of who we are — in a cool way.”
James O’Connor, Founder of Pittsburgh Knights
NFT’s are many things. They are investments, membership cards, tickets, gaming tokens, etc. But what most stuck-out from the interview with the creators, was how they chose to leverage the NFTs to stretch-out and build on their already established brand. Much like the seminal Hinse drop served to show Theta’s growth and potential as a blockchain ecosystem — the Knights are using the Knight Commander to grow their own brand.
“When we started working on this NFT, we saw an opportunity to create an iconic image that represents the Knights outside of the logo we have created already.”
Imani Lanier, Creative Director
Though his first NFT project, lead designer Stephen Holding has pro-level experience working with blue chip companies such as NFL, PepsiCo, Nike, NBC Sports, and music artists such as Soul Clap and Diplo. To give an idea of how bleeding-edge NFT’s still are, Stephen admits: “It’s been a learning experience…But now having an understanding of how these elements all kind of combine to form an NFT, I really look forward working on (a drop) like this again.”
The Knight Commander is a generative series of NFT’s with at least six variable attributes associated with the Knight’s armor. Not explicitly stated, the vibe from the interview is that these will likely have utility as well. Founder James O’Connor: “I think we’re gonna go further into a metaverse world and we’re gonna be competing…We have a lot of things that we want to build — and we feel comfortable starting here (with Theta Labs).”
The Pittsburgh Knights drop might be indicative of how the NFT space is evolving. The partnership here between two growing companies in burgeoning industries seems like a good match. The cross over is obvious. It will be interesting to see the market’s response to the Knight Commander drop. There’s a lot still to be discovered. The market is certainly ready for fresh blood. Two weeks is just too long to go without a new drop. Happy trading, y’all
“We wanted this NFT to be the Alpha Knight.
-Imani Lanier
And Knight Commander is the Alpha”
