If you were interested in joining an esports league for NBA2k, I have some bad news for you. Your window has passed. The teams have already had preliminary tryouts. The qualifying phase was in January for gamers 18-or-older on PS4 and Xbox One platforms. We now have an official NBA2k esports league complete with 17 teams which include – well here is a link with all the team names.
The Good News
While your dreams are by now crushed by this news, there are some exciting things to come from a potential esports league, possibly aired on TNT/TBS’s ELEAGUE, following the likes of CS:GO and Street Fighter V. The fact that TNT is willing to pick up the NBA2K Eleague could mean huge things for the city of Las Vegas, but we will get to that later.
The Formation of NBA2k Eleague
When Take-Two Interactive took on the insurmountable task of creating a professional esports league centered on NBA2k, we couldn’t help but write about it. You can find the previous article here. At the time they aspired to create a league with all 30 teams represented. While only 17 teams are now participating, the aim is still at all 30 teams.
The league is set to start in May. According to TSN, it is still a mystery as to what salaries are going to look like or if gamers will have personal avatars for game play. But the good news is that teams will offer housing for those competing in the league. It is still unsure where these events will be broadcasted, but if anyone was watching the NBA playoffs last year there was a serious clue.
NBA2K Eleague in Las Vegas?
The NBA playoffs were, as usual, aired on TNT/TBS. But if you paid any attention to the commercials you would notice that they spent a lot of resources in advertising their new ELEAGUE, which two years ago featured CS:GO and last year Street Fighter V. This leads many to believe that TNT is the perfect destination for broadcasting the new NBA2K ELEAGUE. I mean come on, it just makes since as the NBA is already contracted with TBS.
Why is this huge for Las Vegas? Well, currently ELEAGUE is being produced by Turner Broadcasting studios out of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Chief Content Officer, Craig Berry seems to think that Las Vegas is the perfect esports hub and has told the Las Vegas Sun,
“There’s a real opportunity for any city potentially which is willing to make the investment to end up being a true hub for esports…”
And it appears that Las Vegas is making that investment with the Millennial Esports Arena and the new Arena opening up at the Luxor. In addition, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval has already committed to making Las Vegas the esports capitol of the world. So get ready as the NBA2k Eleague kicks off. Who knows, there may be major events for NBA2K in the heart of the esports world: Las Vegas.