Featured player: MMA fighter Olivier Aubin-Mercier

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The members of the Axie Nation come from all over the world and from all walks of life. We even have an MMA fighter in our ranks!

We caught up with Olivier Aubin-Mercier, an MMA fighter from Quebec, about his eye-opening experience with Axie.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started with Axie.

Hello, my name is Olivier Aubin-Mercier. I am an MMA fighter and I was a UFC fighter for 7 years. Last year, I signed with a PFL, a promotion that hosts a “mortal kombat” (no murder ?? Thank God) style tournament every year.

The winner of this tournament will take home $ 1 million. The PFL has decided to take a break during the pandemic. So that put me in a situation where I haven't fought for over 2 years.

Recently, PFL announced that it will host an event on April 23. I was very excited but had 2 issues.

In Quebec, it was illegal to train, even for professional athletes.
He had no more cash to travel to a foreign country to train.

I decided to borrow money from our friend, the bank, and bought a ticket to Puerto Ricco to train with the Danaher Dead Squad. In Puerto Ricco, a good friend of mine who is a crypto enthusiast introduced me to Axie. My friend told me that he could lend me his Axies to test the game, so that I can decide if I like him or not and earn some extra cash. This is how I discovered Axie.

2. What excites you most about Axie's future?

I believe that if the idea of playing to win works, the gaming industry will change forever. Axie could be the first solid project to make it work. Of course, I'm excited about Ronin and the free mode. Oh, and when is the running game, Jiho? Yes, I am also excited about this.

3. Did playing to win in the real world help you?

So like I said earlier, I borrowed for my boot camp and during the boot camp it's impossible, if you don't mind, to have a little job. Then Axie will help me pay for this training camp. The money I earn from SLP farming will be a welcome addition and it's super flexible, I can play in my spare time while I'm recovering. For example, if I'm in the ice bath recovering, how can I earn during that time other than playing Axie?

4. What do you think makes Axie and the Axie community special?

In short, I feel that the community believes in the project and I understand that it is part of something bigger. They want it to work.

The Discord community helped me a lot when I first started, the start of the journey can be a bit complex so I think that was a very important part of the experience.

5. What did you know about Blockchain before Axie?

I was first and foremost a Bitcoin enthusiast. I had ETH but it didn't interest me too much.

However, I found out about NFT and Axie (Vitalik should thank him), so now I'm using Ethereum. During the pandemic, two things caught my attention: