The National Basketball Association are looking to stay ahead of the curve and tap into the exploding world of online gaming. Seventeen teams from the NBA will be part of the upcoming 2K League, a competition it created in partnership with the developer of the popular NBA 2K series. The new eSports league will kickoff its first season in May 2018. It’s a big deal for the gamers, and an innovative move by the NBA to expand its market.
Beginning in early 2018, gamers will start competing in “qualifiers” for a chance to be selected in early spring by the 17 NBA teams participating in the first-ever professional eSports league. Each team will be made up of five basketball gamers who will represent the NBA team. They’ll be official members of their respective organizations, which means they will get a contract and sponsorship deals, just like NBA players do.
The NBA 2K eLeague has piqued the interest of fans of professional gaming and conventional sports. Which could be related to the fact that this is the first league where eSports squads are owned by professional sports organization such as the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics to name a few. Traditionally eSports teams have been owned by firms like Cloud9 which fields players for Rocket League, League of Legends, Call of Duty, and other gaming tournaments.
The players will be paid, trained and coddled like professional athletes – and be a key part of the NBA’s aggressive expansion into areas that, for the average basketball fan, are far removed from the squeak of sneakers on the court and cheers of the crowd. The NBA plans to capitalize on the huge popularity of the NBA 2K game, and the large online audiences that highly skilled players can draw worldwide.
The one reason that the NBA feels so confident about the eventual success of their 2K League, is that last year, they hosted an esports tournament that received 500,000 entrants playing in 5-on-5 contests. The championship game stream netted 2 million viewers. This provided the NBA with the incentive that it needed to invest further into the world of online gaming.
This is just not some gimmick for the NBA. They see this as a viable way to grow the game of basketball on a more global scale.
The NBA will run it’s 2K eSports league similar to their league, with teams playing a regular season, participating in a bracket playoff system that will conclude with a championship. They are expected to kickoff the season in May 2018, and it will run through the end of the summer.
