ZED Champions: Virtually Human Studio's Plan To Make Web3 Mainstream

Web3 gaming kicked off with a bang—Virtually Human Studio (VHS) launched ZED RUN in 2019, turning digital horse racing into a $400 million empire that paid players $88 million. It was a hit, with thousands racing millions of times and horses fetching $50M at peak, but blockchain’s quirks—wallets, gas fees, crypto complexity—boxed it into a niche, and the NFT winter hit hard.

Now, VHS is back with ZED Champions, a beta launched March 1, 2025, led by CEO Nir Efrat, who helped scale Candy Crush at King. After joining 16 months ago, he saw ZED RUN’s fade as a chance to reboot “Web3’s most successful NFT game” for everyone. “ZED Champions represents our commitment to innovation, accessibility, and long-term sustainability in Web3 gaming,” he says, aiming to shed the speculative shell and go mainstream.

Hiding Blockchain for the Win

Efrat’s first ZED RUN play was a mess—wallets, three-currency buys, a crypto PhD just to race. ZED Champions fixes that: 24/7 automated races (twice daily, no manual fuss), $ZED Token breeding, and augments (Passive, Situational, Progressive) make it strategy-first, tech-second. “An experience accessible for anyone,” he says, echoing Candy Crush’s seamless fun—blockchain’s there, but you’d hardly know it.

ZED Picks, a mobile app launching alongside, takes it further—spectators cheer and win prizes without touching a wallet. VHS’s $20M raise from a16z, The Chernin Group, and Greylock in 2021 fuels this pivot, with “healthy runway” to spare, per Efrat. A shift to Coinbase’s Base blockchain keeps it fast and stable—tech that hums quietly while players race, not wrestle with fees.

A Proven Playbook With Room To Grow

ZED RUN’s legacy isn’t just numbers—$400M in transactions, $88M to players, tie-ins with Budweiser, Netflix, and NASCAR showed Web3 could flirt with the mainstream. ZED Champions refines that with crisp graphics and a Balance System (richer horses vs. tougher foes) for fairness, plus a 40-person team retooled with Web2 and Web3 talent to slash onboarding friction—Efrat’s first play now takes minutes, not manuals.

The reset’s bold—ZED RUN’s NFTs are out, swapped for a hefty $ZED Token airdrop this month to ease the six-year sunset. “We’re creating a flywheel beneficial for all,” Efrat says, eyeing a future where players stick around and spectators pile in. With a leader who’s scaled giants and a playbook that’s hit big, VHS isn’t chasing trends—it’s rewriting Web3’s odds for the masses.