Now the digital dust has settled and the champion has been decided, it’s time to dissect what was a hugely successful Inaugural ZED RUN Tournament.
How the action unfolded
After a competitive 2-week qualifying period, we watched an exhilarating and fascinating finals weekend unfold before us.
Quarter Finals
Because of the exquisitely brutal format of the Quarter Finals, we saw some big names knocked out early, including Breathless Edge, Grandeur and Insane Hymn. I’d say it was something about horses owned by Poseidon but things seemed to go well for the Poseidon family as the tournament progressed…
Semi Finals
In the Semi Finals we lost Star Strider, Jumbo, Moolah Moulah and even the iconic Billions. With so many great racehorses and a single-race elimination, things became very interesting very quickly.
Finals
The Crimson Chin bowed out of the Sprinters Final and watched from the sidelines as eventual crowd-favourite We’re Going Streaking, a Z17 Legendary Buterin, snatched 3rd in the Mid-Runners Final.
Grand Final
The Grand Final races ramped up the intensity even further, with some of the very best racehorses in the game all jostling for position. In delightful sporting fashion, everything came down to the last race.
It was Figured It Out, owned by Deszies Stud Farm (brother of Poseidon Racing), who came away with the glory, clutching out a 3rd place finish to secure the Inaugural Tournament crown.
A look at some stats
Some interesting stats came out of the Inaugural ZED RUN Tournament. It was great to see a lot of racehorses participating, a nice surprise that some legends returned to the track, and great to give out prize money to elite racehorses and surprise names alike.
$300,000
The amount of prize money given away in the Inaugural ZED RUN Tournament.
Analysis: Go hard or go home, right? We wanted to create a huge inaugural tournament and an event that people could really get behind. The buzz and excitement on the finals weekend was amazing and it was great to give away prize money not only to some of the best racehorses in the game, but also some surprising names. The champion, Figured It Out, took home $37,950 from the Grand Final. Not a bad day out…
18,871 racehorses
The number of racehorses that ran at least 30 races during the qualification period.
Analysis: It was interesting to see around 13% of all the racehorses in the ZED RUN ecosystem attempting to qualify. Future tournaments should bring more and more racehorses into play as different eligibility criteria are utilised. Remember, the donkeys of today are the champions of tomorrow.
When broken down by distance funnel, here’s what we saw:
Sprinters: 6,748
Mid-Runners: 4,473
Marathoners: 3,573
Analysis: There was an interesting lean towards sprinters and a real lack of marathoners by comparison. Something to consider for the next tournament qualification perhaps? The mathematicians amongst you will notice there’s a remaining 4,077 racehorses that ran 30 times that aren’t mentioned. Those racehorses, for whatever reason, didn’t race 30 times in a specific distance funnel.
353 racehorses
The number of ‘retired’ racehorses that returned to the track on day 1 of qualifying.
Analysis: It was cool to see that 353 racehorses returned to the track on day 1 of qualifying having not raced in the month leading up to that moment. Interestingly, we actually saw some big names returning to the racetrack slightly before qualifying started following the tournament’s announcement, perhaps just to check they’d still got it. Grandeur, for instance, had not raced since September 3rd before he returned to the track on October 11th and 12th for three warm-up races. Two 3rd place finishes and a 1st seemed enough evidence that his talent still lingered.
The future of tournaments
With our second tournament, The Fibonacci Cup, kicking off at 12am UTC on November 17th, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of ZED RUN tournaments.
There is so much more to come. Hopefully you’ll join us on the racetrack…
Join the Fun 
Head over to ZED RUN to buy your very own digital racehorse and join one of our fast-growing social channels below.