How The NBA Will Impact The Esports Battle
The NBA is the latest sports league to enter the eSports arena, following the NFL and FIFA.
Through its licensing partnership with 2K, the ‘NBA 2K16: Road to the Finals’ has begun in a cross-platform competition on Sony’s Playstation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Gamers can form NBA 2K Pro-Am teams and compete online in any of 16 events. On 21st May, the 16 winners on both consoles will go head-to-head. The winners will then face off in the $250,000 championship in June at the NBA Finals.
Matt Holt, vice president of licensing, NBA, said: “The popularity of competitive gaming continues to grow around the world, and NBA 2K16’s Road to the Finals is a great way to bring passionate gamers together.”
Game developer Visual Concepts created the new Pro-Am game mode to allow gamers to design their own identity and team up with friends to move up the ranks in an NBA simulation environment.
Jason Argent, senior vice president of basketball operations, 2K, added: “Our game has been competitive amongst NBA players, basketball fans, and our community for well over a decade, so this is just bringing that competition element to the forefront.
“We feel that eSports as a part of NBA 2K is a natural fit given the game’s format and the desire from our community for competitive play.
“ESports is all about creating an even playing field where a player’s skills determine the outcome versus their opponent, and we feel Pro-Am in NBA 2K16 delivers that unlike any other sports simulation game.”
Electronic Arts, which is heading up its new internal EA competitive gaming division, integrated its Madden Live Challenge eSports competition into its Super Bowl 50 activities and Madden Bowl XXII earlier this month in San Francisco.
The top four professional Madden players were flown to San Francisco to compete first at the NFL Experience and then at the actual Madden Bowl event.
The FIFA Interactive World Cup 2016 will feature the top 32 EA Sports FIFA 16 gamers in New York City competing for $25,000 in cash and a trip to the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala. Over 2.3 million online gamers from around the world took part in this year’s annual competition.
The article originally appeared here.
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