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Yes, but this is my point. The pieces are too heavy and most likely give white a huge advantage. Anyway, I saw the video of Seirawan introducing the game. From what I gather he seemed like a nice guy and quite honest though there is still a possibility that this variant was invented purely for profit  
which by itself is not bad but not with the flaws it has. 
Anyway, he seemed quite interested  in the new pieces but i get the feeling he has not explored the game in depth and not too interested if the game is balanced. For example he showed a mate in 4 which went something like e4 e5 d4 d3 pxp pxp qxq drop elephant mate. 
He seemed quite excited by that - and yes these things fascinated me when i started out with chess variants. But i have come to realize that very powerful pieces on a board while interesting have their drawbacks esp on a 8x8 board. 
Also you are basically saying it is an advantage to be able to drop the heavy pieces anytime so there should only be a few chances at the beginning.
I am saying though that the move followed by a drop is actually 2 moves. Why not simply keep the same restriction of introducing early but make the drop a separate turn? IN that case that mate in 4 could not have happened and white may not get such a huge advantage. 

Seirawan  also mentioned that their first idea was to have the pieces exist  on the board right from the beginning in a fianchetto and they rejected that idea. It seems to me that they did not playtest before and play around with the different parameters enough before releasing. 

Anyway this whole discussion gives me an idea for a new variant on an 8x8 very similar and in my opinion better. 


I really wish I could stop making variants -- 

and leave it to you to just make every conceivable one possible :) 


i guess the next 2  or 3 will be my encore and i am done for good ...

hopefully :)