10/08/2021 Topps Partners With Bundesliga for NFT Release of 2020-21 Season

German professional soccer league, Fußball-Bundesliga, has joined in a partnership with The Topps Company to debut a new non-fungible token (NFT) collection. 

Bundesliga is celebrating the 2020-2021 season with the release of the league’s first NFT collection. According to a press release from trading card company Topps, the collection will be exclusive to ToppsNFT.com in collaboration with Ava Labs and powered by the Avalanche blockchain platform. Avalanche serves as a quick and cheap public blockchain that has been dubbed as an eco-friendly option. The Topps NFT  platform offer uses a centralized place to buy sell and trade their NFTs from licensed Topps properties. 

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The debut collection from the German pro league will feature superstars, rising talent, and notable moments from the previous season of play. “The site unites the familiar, user-friendly experiences of traditional e-commerce applications with the power of blockchain infrastructure,” according to Topps. The goal of the platform is to make collecting NFTs easy and a process that appeals to fans of digital trading cards without experience in digital currency or blockchain transactions. Tobin Lent, Vice President and General Manager of Topps Digital Sports & Entertainment stated in the press release that  ToppsNFT is “an extension of the pioneering vision we’ve had for digital collectibles since our mobile apps launched in 2012.” 

Bundesliga 2020-2021 season celebration NFT collection

Topps’ new Bundesliga collection will be available starting on Tuesday, August 10 at 1 pm ET for purchase via credit card. Cards come via packs much like traditional trading cards and can be either of the standard or premium level. Rarities for the NFT collection range from common to legendary with cards containing video highlights or animated motion effects. Additional features include facsimile signatures of superstar players and classic designs from Bundesliga’s past.

In the press release, Topps quotes Bundesliga International CEO Robert Klein saying, “We are proud to support our partner Topps in bringing the best of the Bundesliga 2020-2021 season to life as NFT digital trading cards for the first time, allowing fans to relive top plays and own NFTs with their favorite moments from a legendary season that saw Bayern Munich earn their fifth star.” The CEO goes on to say that the team wishes to preserve and admire certain moments from last season that “take our collective breath away.” 

The Bundesliga collection is the latest NFT offering from Topps, which has been in the sports card industry since 1938. The company has offered digital sports cards since back in 2012 before NFTs became a thing, and, according to Topps, “is among the first to fully embrace the potential of NFT digital collectibles.”

Arts

https://beincrypto.com/topps-teams-with-bundesliga-for-nft-release/

Interesting NFTs
The Moth Catcher
In this psychologically bed-headed portrait, a creature sets in a trance; his eyes devolved and vestigal, his third eye open but hardened and in a form resembling a Sharingan. The imagery therefore expresses an awareness existing in corporeal introspection. The creature’s mind sprouts, on the left side, an emerging face, grinning. To the right side of the head, red tentacles and fingers intertwine–a collaboration of invertebrate and vertebrate consciousness cooperatively handling paint brushes of the sort used to build an oil painting. The neck and throat bristle with random thorns, as from a rose or the upper portions of a beak sprouting from its flesh. The neck itself disassociates into layers of membranous material, terminating upon an abstracted base of convoluted forms composing its body. The nose is virtually non existent, more a sinus reiterative of the shape of the third eye. Set against the exposed teeth peering out of thick, meaty cheeks, a skeleton-like impression results. That impression sets behind a visceral set of lips and tongue, which is the creature’s prime seat of awareness. Sensual, organic, the tongue organ hangs, meaty, and with consciousness of a sea cucumber. It illuminates at the tip, drawing the attraction of a nearby moth–with mystery of purpose.
SolPunk_#8858
SolPunk #8858 - Female
Discord Assembly
Discord logo factory. 3D animation, 10-second loop, 30 fps. Created using Cinema4D, X-Particles, Octane, and After Effects. Originally posted on TikTok (@jigpx) on 2/20/21. 47.5m+ views, 3.2m+ likes (as of 4/22/21).
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.
Rare Kratos
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