Earlier this year, details were announced regarding the Road To the Finals tournament for NBA 2K16, 2K Sports’ debut onto the eSports scene in which players could compete for a $250,000 prize. The tournament concluded last week, officially marking the NBA 2K franchise’s position in the eSports world.
Road to the Finals took place at the Imperial Art Studios in Los Angeles, drawing in both a live audience and online viewers as teams took part in the $250,000 NBA 2K16 competition. In the end, The Drewkerbockers came up big, beating Team GFG to take the top prize, as well as the commemorative ring pictured below.
https://twitter.com/NBA2K/status/738185969107488768
A lot of build-up went into the tournament, but senior vice president of basketball operations for 2K, Jason Argent, explained (via Fox Sports) that it was all about consumers wanting an eSports-related event for the NBA franchise.
“It’s something that our development team, and, frankly, our publishing and marketing teams probably wanted to do for the same reason that everyone has. You know, we tend to take things a little more deliberate. We wanted to make sure that the fans wanted it, which they seemingly certainly did. So we were taking it a little step-by-step — there’s a lot of momentum from our company and particularly our development team to continue to put resources behind this. And you can see that hopefully in the game.
“The exciting thing for us is what’s coming up, so having something like this is a big deal for us. Going on-stage with something that could sort of happen just online is really big. Yes. We intend to continue to build this. We’re kind of wanting to deliver what the fans want, so we’re excited.”
This could mean the return of the Pro-Am mode that made its debut in NBA 2K16 for the new edition, with more emphasis on competitive play that could mean more possible eSports events in the future. The custom multiplayer mode is a popular feature in the NBA series, where players start in the Jordan Rec Center and move up to setting up five-on-five online contests. Players can even edit the appearance of their courts and jerseys.
As for the connection between eSports and the NBA, Argent noted, “Our userbase is small compared to some of the games you noted (such as League of Legends). But I think we look at eSports as a potential to build that ceiling.
“There’s a lot of things about eSports as it relates to the NBA that I think are very aligned with the NBA game. Just the five-on-five, the fast pace — this lends itself well. So much of eSports happened organically. It grew from the bottom up. Is there a place, do fans want to follow that? Yeah, we think so.”
Finally, as far as how eSports will expand with NBA 2K, Argent notes, “Right now, I think it’s fair to say there’s a bit more of a hardcore following for (Pro-Am) mode. But our goal as it always is to make this open and to engage a bigger, more mass audience–to the extent that it makes sense. We would never dumb down the game or anything like that. But the idea is to bring as many people into the fold as we possibly can and to give them what they want.”
It’ll certainly be great to see 2K become more prominent on the actual sports side of eSports. For the time being, fans can relive the Road To the Finals Championship in full below.
To drum up excitement for the next installment, it was revealed (during the course of the tournament) that Indiana Pacers forward Paul George and retired NBA star Kobe Bryant would be cover stars for NBA 2K17, which will release on September 20th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.