eSports organisers make good on start date for basketball competition

US interactive entertainment publisher 2K had met its 15 February start date announced in press releases at the start of February, launching NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals – a competition that merges simulation basketball with eSports and culminates over the course of the NBA Finals in June.

Players on PlayStation4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One can form their own NBA 2K Pro-Am teams and compete in a series of in-game events to qualify for the tournament to win $250,000.

The company says that the decision by the National Basketball Association and video game developer 2K to create the NBA 2K16: Road to the Finals eSports competition is another huge stride towards “a video game utopia that only existed in dreams a mere few years ago.”

The initial launch took place this week in the United States with a series of unique, NBA 2K16 in-game events that will continue through May 8.

Teams can participate in any of the 16 qualifying events where they will need to win at least four games in order to qualify. Those four games will be scored based on the team’s performance and then ranked on the event leaderboard. The top score of each qualifying event day will be deemed the winner and will move on to the tournament.

On May 21, the 16 winners on both the PlayStation4 and Xbox One will go head-to-head in a single elimination tournament. The console winners will then face off for the $250,000 championship in June while the NBA Finals are taking place.

Last fall’s release of NBA 2K16 set a franchise record, selling-in over four million units worldwide within the first week of release. This year’s iteration also has achieved year-over-year milestones since launch, including doubling sales through digital download and nearly tripling the number of games played online.

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