This article is part of our Sorare series.
We introduced Sorare a few weeks ago as a new fantasy game that is different than anything else in the market because it combines fantasy soccer with card collecting, which has seen a dramatic increase in interest and value this year. Additionally, Sorare takes the card collecting one step further by creating digital cards with guaranteed scarcity thanks to blockchain technology that allows the cards to be freely tradeable and usable in a number of different contexts.
The cards are the foundation of Sorare's fantasy game, which is all free to enter but offers prizes in the form of new cards or Ether, the cryptocurrency of Ethereum.
The first time you sign up for Sorare, which you can do here and get 10 free Common cards, you can enter their Rookie contests, which are set up for new managers. Choosing from your 10 cards, you must select five players, including one goalkeeper, one defender, one midfielder and one forward, to enter into their weekly tournaments (called "SO5"). Additionally, you must select a captain, who has a multiplier applied to their point total. Players will score between zero and 100, with most scores landing between 25 and 75. There are two parts to a player's final score: a decisive score, which include stats like goals and assists, and then an all around score, which rewards or punishes players based on certain stats like winning tackles, blocking shots, winning duels, committing fouls or creating big chances, among others.
You can see a much more detailed breakdown of the stats here, but generally speaking, the decisive scores can really make an impact on a player's overall score, as a goal almost guarantees at least 60.0 points on the 100-point scale, with the all around score ideally adding to that 60.0.
Because you use your cards to compete in tournaments, Sorare has set up different divisions to help even the playing field. For example, Super Rare cards earn more points than Rare cards, so anyone who has bought the more expensive cards will already have a leg up on those who haven't. In order to avoid those who spent up on more expensive cards dominating tournaments, Sorare has set up four divisions based on how many of each card type can be used:
- Division 4: at least four Rare cards must be used, including one as captain, and the fifth spot can be a Common card, though it will only accrue 50 percent of the fantasy points scored. Because of the scarcity of goalkeepers (there are many more outfield players and, therefore, many more outfield player cards available), many fantasy players will use a Common card goalkeeper.
- Division 3: at least three Rare cards are required and no more than two Super Rare cards can be included, with the captain having to be a Rare card.
- Division 2: at least three Super Rare cards are needed, while the other two can be Rare or Unique, though no more than one of each. The captain must be a Super Rare card.
- Division 1: at least three Unique cards are needed, with Super Rare cards available to fill the rest of your roster, though the captain must be unique.
Given the cost of acquiring Unique cards, Division 1 is obviously the toughest to compete in financially, but having those players participate against one another allows for fairer competitions for most other users.
Now that we know how we compete and who we're competing against, what exactly do we win? Each tournament has different "payout" structures, but let's focus on the Starter League from last week:
- First Place: 1x Tier 1 Rare Card
- Second Place: 1x Tier 2 Rare Card
- Third Place: 1x Tier 2 Rare Card
- Fourth Place through top 10 percent: 1x Star Common Card
- Top 10 percent through top 50 percent: 1x Tier 1 Common Card
As a reminder, the Starter League is free to enter (as all tournaments are) and use the free Common cards you get for signing up, but it's an easy tournament to use as an example to what kind of cards you can win at the higher divisions.
In addition to the different types of cards (Common, Rare, Super Rare and Unique), there are also different tiers of players for prizes. As you can see above, fourth place through top 10 percent of the Starter League will win one Star Common card, which isn't worth as much as a Tier 1 or 2 Rare card because Rare cards are more valuable than Common cards.
Here are some players who fall into each Tier:
- Star: Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Felix, Romelu Lukaku, Alphonso Davies, Kingsley Coman, Memphis Depay, Angel Di Maria,
- Tier 1: Lorenzo Insigne, Matthijs De Ligt, Juan Cuadrado, Casemiro, Alvaro Morata, Houssem Aouar, David Alaba, Alejandro Pozuelo, Kalidou Koulibaly
- Tier 2: Angel Correa, Masaaki Higashiguchi, Mark McKenzie, Timothy Weah, Maxwel Cornet, Zaidu Sanusi, Cristian Roldan, Valentin Castellanos, Saul Niguez, Clinton Mata
- Tier 3: Jack Price, Rodolfo Pizarro, Duckens Nazon, Alexander Ring, Daniel Wass, Maximiliano Moralez, Nikola Maksimovic, Latif Blessing, Ashley Young, Dejan Lovren
Placing well in the Starter League tournaments will help you acquire better Common cards, but they are also a way to potentially start your Rare card collection if you haven't tried winning any auctions or purchasing them in the secondary market. What's very helpful is that tournaments, which run weekly or bi-weekly, are free to enter, so your next opportunity to win more cards is always right around the corner.
