This article outlines the changes to Season #1 of The Open League that will make it even more rewarding than ever before. Here we mainly focus on what it all means for The Open League projects, and in another article, we’ll focus on Season #1 for users.

The Open League (TOL) is about turning normal, everyday Telegram users into on-chain Chads, users ready to use every feature of TON’s new and exciting web3 ecosystem inside Telegram. To do that, TOL sets a clear pathway to go from just a little baby newcoiner to factor 50 degenerate. It’s okay not to know what it’s all about. Crypto is complex. A frightening user experience, liquidations, hacks, and rug pulls scare off even the greatest risk-takers. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The Open League is a guided path for anyone with a Telegram account to earn tokens while getting started in crypto. With something for every different appetite for risk. Earn tokens with zero-risk token mining activities and quests or from high-risk liquidity pools and trading contests.

Step into The League, my fren; a world of rewards awaits.

The Open League Season #1 Is Here!

Well, the pilot was fun; it delivered on all fronts:

• Daily active wallets (DAW): up 347%
• WAWs: up 252%
• MAWs: up 137%
• DEFI TVL: up 244%
• Liquidity Providers: up 550%
• Daily Trading Volume: up 624%
• Daily traders: up 710%
• Jetton Holders: up 195%

Safe to say it's working well for all involved! The Open League delivers active wallets, active users, more liquidity, and trading activity to all participating projects.

We’re kicking off Season #1 on April 1 at 12:00 CET. For three months, we’ll have three seasons, each lasting for one month. The fun won’t stop there. This long-term competition will likely run for the next two years.

April 1st? Really? Trust us, this is no joke! The first live season of TOL is here, and if you’re building a project on TON, take this as your guide for the next year. Here, we’ll tell you all you need to do to participate, qualify, and earn the rewards and the glory.

Upcoming changes to TOL Season #1

Changes to leaderboards and the ranking system

From this season, every project will be competing in one of the five Key Performance Indicator (KPI) leaderboards according to their respective project category.

1. Token Leaderboard
2. Meme Coin & Community Token Leaderboard
3. DeFi Leaderboard
4. App Leaderboard
5. Liquid Staking Leaderboard

We believe this approach is fairer as it allows projects to compete with similar projects and focus on metrics relevant to their category. For prize distribution, we will reward the top projects in each category.

The prizes within the KPI-based competition will be distributed at the end of each season (every month). Prize pools and metrics will then reset at the beginning of every season so projects can make a fresh attempt at reaching the top.

Changes to Liquidity Pool Boosts

Liquidity Pool Boosts are an additional incentive for liquidity providers on decentralized exchanges and are awarded to contestants of the Major League (Token Leaderboard) only.

In season 1, we introduce a Minor League as a monitoring ground for up to 50 tokens currently not qualifying for the Major League. However, Minor league projects will not get LP boosts unless promoted to the Majors.

Boosts are provided for one season (one month) for a maximum of 50,000 TON per project and Boosts must be matched by an equivalent of the project’s tokens in the ratio of 2:3, i.e. $2 worth of your tokens for $3 worth of Toncoin. Projects can decide if they want to utilize the full amount of 50,000 in TON or if they’ll go for a lower boost, according to their available budget.

Other LP Boosts requirements:

• The project cannot receive an LP Boost and enter the Major League unless it is prepared to provide its side of tokens for the liquidity pool.
• The project must introduce a simple token mining mechanic for new users to earn the project’s token for free, safely, and simply. We've prepared a Playbook with some ideas to help you understand how to build an excellent incentive system that attracts millions of users to your project.
• The project must choose between DeDust.io or Ston.fi for the allocation of the LP rewards.
• Each project must choose a pair with either TON or staked TON (stTON, tsTON, wsTON, hTON, or STAKED) to be eligible.
• The LP rewards provided by TON Foundation cannot be split into multiple pools; projects can choose only one pool per season.
• Projects are allowed to set lock-ups in the farming pools, but the lock-up period cannot exceed one month (one TOL season)

Projects that participate in the KPI-based competition but don’t have their own token to offer in the LPs can apply to receive rewards to incentivize their liquidity providers. However, this only applies to projects with TVL at risk, so liquid staking projects would not qualify.

Teams without their own token should therefore present a clear plan on how they will significantly increase their TVL at risk for the upcoming months. The final decision on the provision of the rewards is at the sole discretion of the TOL committee.

Intro to the new category-based ranking system

1. Token Leaderboard

This category is reserved only for projects with a token and is split into two leagues: Major League and Minor League. This is the main leaderboard of the entire competition with tokens in the major league the only projects to receive the LP Boost benefit.

1.1 The Major League

This league will welcome all pilot season participants, except the two projects that ranked last in the pilot season and projects that failed to introduce a token mining mechanism. The league is reserved for the best-performing projects of the previous season and the top 3 projects of the Minor League.

The worst performers in the Major League will be relegated to the Minor League at the end of the season. With the exception of receiving a Wild Card, It is only possible to apply to TOL and participate in the Major League by having participated in the previous season.

Note: The four new projects added two weeks after the start of the pilot season ($TONNEL, $FISH, $KINGY, $DFC) are granted special immunity and will NOT be eliminated from the Major League regardless of their performance because of the uneven duration of their participation in the beta season compared with the other contestants.

1.2 The Minor League

This league serves projects new to the TON Ecosystem or first-time participants in The Open League. The projects in this league will compete to place in the top 3 spots and receive delegation into the Major League. It will also host the worst performers from the Major League of the previous season.

Eligibility criteria to enter the Minor League:

• Clean track record and relevant expertise
• Clearly defined roadmap
• Total token TVL on DEXs must be higher than $50,000
• The FDV must be higher than $1,000,000
• The total number of token holders must be higher than 1,000
• Fair token distribution

In contrast to the Major League contestants, Minor League participants do NOT receive an LP boost.

1.3 The Wild Card

A wild card can be granted in exceptional cases and at any time throughout the season. The wild card allows the team to join the Major League without necessarily competing in and winning the Minor League.

The wild card can be given to new TON projects with impressive token metrics right after the launch, projects with substantial traction deployed on other blockchains and migrating to TON, hackathon winners or TON Accelerator alumni, and projects that win in the DeFi or App categories after token launch.

2. Meme Coin & Community Token Leaderboard

This leaderboard is part of the TON Foundation's effort to spur the growth of community projects with no necessary utility, and we warmheartedly welcome meme coins and community tokens in the TON Ecosystem.

The most impressive communities in this category may receive special rewards.

The projects participating in this category are not guaranteed to receive an LP boost or a determined prize pool, and the rewards are at the sole discretion of the TOL Committee.

Eligibility criteria to enter the Meme Coin & Community Token Leaderboard:

• Clean track record
• Fair token distribution (fair launch)
• Total token TVL on DEXs must be higher than $100,000
• The FDV must be higher than $1,000,000
• The total number of token holders must be higher than 1,000

3. App Leaderboard

This leaderboard is dedicated to projects with decentralized applications (dApps) built on TON. Projects with their own dApp who participated in the pilot season are whitelisted to join Season #1 and will receive a priority enlistment to Season #1. dApp projects that didn’t participate in the pilot season can apply through the button below.

To apply, projects must demonstrate performance (based on metrics such as UAW and TX numbers) as good or better than those that rank last in the current App Leaderboard.

All new applications will be thoroughly reviewed, and application teams must provide proof that confirms their declared traction. Any manipulation of metrics will result in permanent disqualification of the project from The Open League.

4. DeFi Leaderboard

This leaderboard welcomes projects active in the DeFi section of the TON ecosystem, such as decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, etc. DeFi projects participating in the pilot season are whitelisted to join Season #1 and will receive a priority enlistment to Season #1. DeFi projects not participating in the pilot season can apply through the button below.

Given that more new DeFi projects are expected to join the competition soon, the current DeFi Leaderboard will likely be split into sub-verticals after Season #1.

TOL Season #1 will continue to have a single DeFi Leaderboard, which will be upgraded with custom metrics and weights to embrace the specifics of the participating projects and ensure fair competition. More details on the methodology can be found in the DeFi Leaderboard (coming soon).

5. Liquid Staking Leaderboard

The last leaderboard is designed solely for liquid staking protocol on TON. Liquid Staking protocols participating in the pilot season are whitelisted to join Season #1 and will receive a priority enlistment to Season #1.

The Open League Prize Pools

The prize pools for each leaderboard will continue growing each season, with the top projects in each category sharing the reward. These prizes are not the final numbers and may increase exponentially depending on how the competition develops.

The Open League Rules of Conduct

To maximize the effectiveness of the TOL initiative and eradicate unfair competition, we’ve created a list of simple rules of conduct that apply to all TOL participants and will be harshly enforced. Any breach of these rules will be harshly penalized, potentially resulting in permanent disqualification from The Open League.

The participants of TOL shall behave in good faith, showing respect towards other contestants and using legitimate and organic tools to increase their token and product metrics.

Participants receiving an LP boost from TON Foundation must NOT:

• Farm rewards in their own pools.
• Collude with others to benefit unfairly from the boosted pools. We are watching closely.
• Sell their project’s token to make a profit.
• Perform other actions of similar character.

The participants of the KPI-based competitions must NOT:

• Fake their metrics through the creation of multiple accounts and the generation of multiple transactions

Please note that these rules and principles are subject to change throughout The Open League initiative. TON Foundation reserves the right to improve and adjust this framework based on the circumstances.

Season #1 of The Open League is here, and we invite all projects within the TON Ecosystem to consider their participation in this amazing initiative. Please, do not hesitate to contact us for more information or if you need help with your application to The Open League.