In February 2017, the National Basketball Association (NBA) teamed up with Take-Two to create an innovative basketball eSports league, the eNBA. The league is better known as the NBA 2K League. Take-Two interactive are the makers of the very popular NBA 2K video game series. More and more NBA franchises signed up eSports teams to compete. 17 out of the 30 NBA teams had their own NBA 2K League team ready for the 2018 inaugural season, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The eNBA, a Big Part of the Future
Defining eSports
Short for Electronic Sports. eSports is the monicker given to professional organized competitive gaming. Such as multiplayer video game competitions between individuals or teams. People competing in this format, in essence, play video games while a live audience watches them.
In addition, there are millions of people that also watch online on various channels via streaming media. Various online casinos also offer gamblers the opportunity to place bets on the outcomes of eSports tournaments and matches.
Streaming the eNBA League
The NBA 2K League announced in April of 2018 that they have entered into a partnership with the Amazon-owned Twitch Interactive to live stream all league games. Twitch is a live video streaming service that mainly focuses on streaming eSports competitions.
Content can be consumed either via video on demand (VOD) or live. Cyberbasketball is becoming popular so it made sense for the 2K League to bring this eSport to the masses via streaming.
Qualifying for the eNBA
For players to qualify for the eNBA league draft, a player had to be over 18. They also had to own the game NBA 2K. Before submitting an application, a player had to win a number of games in the game’s Pro-Am mode. Qualifying players then had to take part in a combine that ran in February 2018. Only a select number of players were invited to the draft.
The Inaugural Format of the Game
The inaugural 2K League season’s duration was 17 weeks. The tip-off tournament commenced at the beginning of May 2018. The first weekly matchups commenced later that month. Playoffs began in August. They culminated in the league final on August 25th. There were two options to stream games with one being the Twitch platform. However, games were also made available on-demand after the live event. The game’s Pro-Am mode was used with five-on-five matches. Players all used archetypes to keep ratings consistent.
The Regular eNBA Season
After the successful inaugural 17-week season, the regular season was shortened by two weeks. It now takes place over 15 weeks. Of which, 12 weeks are used for the weekly match-ups which take place on Fridays and Saturdays.
Tournaments make up the other three weeks. The tip-off tournament pool plays are for a $100,000 prize and teams compete over five days. Each group’s top two teams will advance to the single-elimination playoff rounds.
Trades and Expected Salaries
In the inaugural season, there wasn’t any trading allowed. Two trade periods were introduced for the 2019 season, one being September 27th to October 10th and the other was an ad-hoc announced period. All trading must be one to one so that multiple players cannot be traded for one and vice versa. Each team can protect two players for the previous season before the draft. After the draft, up to two more players can be kept by the team.
eNBA players sign six-month contracts and housing is covered by the team. In addition, players can receive retirement and medical benefits. During the season, travel expenses are also covered. First-round draftees earn $35,000. The rest of the players make $32,000. There are other opportunities to earn money throughout the season between the tournaments and the league championship where a $1 million purse is split. Players can also sign endorsement deals to earn extra income through the year.
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