Not only is METAT8 the dominant guild in the emerging Axie Infinity esports scene, but the pro team’s founders have been instrumental in helping to create the competitive environment.

For METAT8 founder Elijah, that’s true, well, pretty much literally .

Elijah is an Axie Infinity content creator and Youtuber focused on making quality content around team builds, game metas and battle strategies.

Many people who initially joined the Axie metaverse had no knowledge of how to play the game. Elijah’s video content helped Lunacians to become competitive in the Arena and even impacted Axie Infinity’s marketplace.

Soon after, Elijah, along with Dota2 pro Theeban Silva, known as 1437, established one of the first Axie Infinity pro teams, METAT8.

“METAT8 was born out of a love for gaming, crypto, ownership, and self-development. It really formed organically after I began making content and competing in Axie Classic. Before I knew it, I was on a call with 1437 talking about everything Axie and esports related,” Elijah told BSCNews. “There wasn’t much of an esports scene at the time, just the smaller Classic tournaments and season rewards. At METAT8, we envisioned Axie esports blowing up one day; we built our whole game plan around it.”

Axie Infinity heavily invested in developing their esports scene by giving various grants to different tournament organizers. Two notable tournaments were the Axie PH Origins Championship and the Galaxie Cup, the latter being one of the first tournaments that METAT8 competed in. However, the world championships during AxieCon brought a whole new dimension to Axie Infinity esports. And when the dust settled, METAT8 was wearing the crown.

“Our first year was a huge success. It went better than we could have expected. Capping off with two championship wins at AxieCon was a dream come true. We had all been waiting for this moment – a REAL Axie esports tournament. The money and live event simply brought new stakes to the table, it all felt so elevated, it was the big stage. We were on top of the world,” Elijah recalled.

When asked about what sets their team apart, the METAT8 founder had this to say:

“Our culture really promotes taking care of yourself as well; this is something Theeban and I hold each other accountable for. We don’t want to be preachy but we both have our own ways of meditating as well. This ‘METAT8’ thing is real for us. Keeping our minds crystal clear and sharp is actually a hack for crushing competition and living a good life,” said Elijah.

With two world championships, and multiple other tournament victories, it’s hard to argue with their methods. METAT8 is also currently offering competitive coaching for Axie Infinity: Origins. Check out Elijah’s tweet for more details.