Welcome to this week’s ZED RUNdown! We’ve got a jam-packed week to recap, and even more important items coming in the near future to discuss.
If there was ever a week that the ZED RUNdown was specifically created for, this would be it. From tournaments centred around the biggest sporting event in America to a celebration of the Great American Race, the NASCAR Daytona 500, action continues to ramp up for the community.
Let’s take a look back, a look forward, and a look within, in this week’s edition of the ZED RUNdown.
Super Foal Weekend
We’re now just hours away from all the #SuperFoal Tournament activities kicking off at ZED! In the lead up to the Super Bowl LVI matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, ZED RUN is hosting our own ‘big game’ for Super Coat racehorses.
It’s not too late! You still have time to participate in the #SuperFoal events this weekend. Check out all the details in our community blog to learn more.
2022 NASCAR Cup Series and Racing Challenges
Events continue to escalate beyond the Super Bowl and our #SuperFoal as next weekend, we quickly switch gears to celebrate the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series with the NASCAR Daytona 500.
The team is planning loads of ZED RUN festivities to coincide with the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series, and all the fun kicks off on February 16th with the debut of a new NASCAR Speedway racetrack at ZED RUN, that brings with it our first-ever racing challenges!
Complete details of the NASCAR Cup Series at ZED RUN are available on our community blog.
Roadmap and Product Update
- Progress on racehorse retirement is coming along smoothly, highlighted by our UX team recently selecting nine users from the ZED community to test the Racehorse Retirement prototype. As outlined in our roadmap, the timeline for the racehorse retirement feature being activated is Q2.
- Class system updates will be going live on February 14th. This first phase of revamping our class system was promised to come in early-Q1 in our roadmap, and is now close to being delivered.
- ZED Token continues to progress towards being delivered by the end of Q1. Our community can expect to see token-related content and sneak peeks ramp up in March.
- In our roadmap blog we outlined our plan for racehorse renting, starting with trial racehorses for new stable owners. Our most recent UX Roundup provided more details on the progress of racehorse lending, which is on schedule to be delivered sometime in Q2.
- Racehorse skin activation is concluding the final days of testing and implementation. Contract upgrades will take place next week, marking the first step in preparing our users for the benefits of skin bundling and viewing them throughout the platform. Delivery of this roadmap item is imminent.
UX Roundup
As mentioned previously, this past week was UX Roundup week at ZED RUN, our fortnightly catch-up with the User Experience team. With so many changes to the ZED RUN platform on the horizon, our UX team is hard at work ensuring those changes are presented in a way that hits the ground running at ZED RUN.
Topics this week included racehorse retirement, surface preference, trial racehorses, and much more. If you missed it, give it a read!
User Feedback
Like the post office, a UX team’s job is never done. This week, the ZED RUN UX squad embarked on their latest mission: Racehorse lending. Want to help them perfect this upcoming feature? The team is asking for volunteers to participate in testing the racehorse lending prototype.
If you’d like to be a part of this study, click the link in the above tweet to register. And as always, thank you for helping make our game better through both voicing your suggestions, and participating in the testing of new and exciting features that could help shape the future of ZED RUN.
Winners Circle
As the great Ricky Bobby once said in the movie Talledega Nights: “If you ain’t first, you last!” While that’s factually inaccurate, winning is undeniably pretty awesome. And, as Bobby also said, “You can’t have two number one’s.”
In honor of everyone’s agreement that winning is the best, we’re proud to introduce the ZED RUNdown Winners Circle — a showcase of the racehorses and stables that have tasted victory most often on the ZED RUN racetracks.
Congratulations to all these stables and their racehorses that have been as hard as a diamond in an ice storm to beat on the racetrack.
*Data as of 2/11/2022 3 PM EST
Top Sales
Are you new to ZED RUN, or just in the market for a new racehorse? You’ll want to follow @zedsalesbot on Twitter. It keeps you up to date on all the latest ZED RUN racehorse sales, not only so your jaw can drop, but so you can keep up with the latest market trends.
Below are just a few of the most noteworthy sales that have taken place in the last few days.
Creative Corner: Community Edition
Normally in the Creative Corner, we spotlight something ZED RUN is working on, but this week, we’re spotlighting the graphic design creators in our community. There are many talented artists in the ZED RUN community, but ‘Noon Squad’, best known for posting what can only be described as thirst-trap racehorse skins on social media, stands head-and-shoulders above the rest.
When the time comes that our community will be able to create their own racehorse skins – and that day will come – the services of ‘Noon Squad’ should be in high demand. For now, the art alone gets us hyped for what the future of skins at ZED RUN will bring.
Want to take your ZED RUN stable to the next level? You may want to reach out to community member @BonnieParkerZED for a logo that will make you stand out from the crowd.
Their proof of work is splashed all over ZED RUN and social media via eye-catching logos they’re produced for fellow community members. Reach out to them if you’re in need of graphic design work!
Content Creators
We’re big supporters of the Content Creators in our community that take the time out of their days to dissect the plethora of content and communications the ZED RUN team is pumping out on a weekly basis, condense it, and turn it into content anyone that was off the grid all week can easily understand and utilize to get up to speed. The UnRecruited Podcast, a part of the dGen Network, is one of the best at accomplishing this difficult task.
Give @UnRecruited and the @dGenNetwork a follow on Twitter if you haven’t already.
Community Tools
If you’re shopping for a new racehorse, or just simply interested in dissecting your stable’s current thoroughbreds, Hawku is the one-stop shop to find all the information you’ll need.