The National Basketball Association, or NBA as most of us know it, announced on Thursday that it was about to launch a professional championship, bringing together the best basketball video game players.
As with some European football clubs, the 30 NBA franchises will soon make their first steps into the world of esports, and this championship will be in 2018, so that everyone has enough time to set things up. The Basketball League and Take-Two Interactive Software have just made official their partnership that will allow the creation of the NBA 2K eLeague, a competitive and professional game league that will bring together the best basketball video game players in the world. This is the first official esport league run by an American professional sports federation.
"We believe we have a unique opportunity to develop something special for our fans and the esports community," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. "We look forward to combining our best-in-class NBA sports team with Take-Two's competitive gaming expertise to create a new league experience."
The first teams that will join the competition will be announced in the coming months and will be composed of five esport professionals, who will play with specifically created avatars. The NBA 2K eLeague will adopt the league's classic format, with teams competing throughout a regular season followed by play-offs that end with a final that will crown a national champion.
After the NBA 2K17 All-Star Tournament which is in its second season and has a prize money of $250,000 USD, the well-known basketball license invests further more in the world of esports, an unmistakably booming field. With FIFA growing in terms of esports too, are sports games on the rise in the esports scene?