‘NBA 2K eLeague’ is the NBA’s official eSports league

By Gabe Gurwin February 9, 2017

NBA 2K17 - Accolades

With constant debate on whether or not eSports qualify as “real” sports, one major athletic league appears to be signaling the affirmative. The “NBA 2K eLeague,” a partnership between the NBA and 2K Sports, debuts next year, and it will be the first eSports league officially operated by the NBA or any other professional sports league.

The NBA 2K eLeague, which will commence next year, will feature teams individually operated by separate NBA franchises. Much like the actual NBA season, the league will consist of a regular season, playoffs, and a championship, but each team will only consist of five players using custom user-created characters — there won’t be any substitutions here. Teams are expected to be announced within the next few months.

“Through the NBA 2K series, which is renowned throughout the world for capturing the authenticity of the NBA and the passion of its fans, we have a proven track record of highly successful collaboration,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. “With this new venture, Take-Two and the NBA aim to fuel the accelerating growth of eSports and take the thrill of competition to exciting new heights.”

The NBA sees the league as an opportunity to attract a new demographic of viewers to not only watch eSports, but also become fans of basketball.

“The large part of my mission is to grow the game of basketball,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver to the Associated Press. “There’s going to be an opportunity for this first-of-a-kind league to attract a group of gamers who might be playing some other game.”

Though the NBA 2K eLeague is the first to be made an “official” eSport by a professional sports organization, it isn’t the first time we’ve seen a game publisher former a partnership with one. Back in December, the NFL partnered with Electronic Arts to launch programming based on the Madden series, airing footage of the “Madden Classic” event on NFL Network, as well as the Madden NFL Club Series, a program featuring live tournaments “produced by participating NFL teams.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

WWE 2K23 improves the wrestling sim with subtle tweaks and a bit of chaos

Steve Austin in WWE 2K23.

I’m deep into a WarGames match when I find myself locked in a battle with the fearsome Rhea Ripley. Due to the unique structure of the match, where two rings sit side by side surrounded by a cage, I’ve broken off into a one-on-one match on the right side of the cage. I’m so locked into the action that I don’t notice that my teammates are getting demolished on the other side, with Charlotte Flair and Bayley having constructed an ungodly mess of tables. I sprint across the ring, hop into the other one, and even the odds. The sequence ends with me slamming Charlotte through her own table, giving me the kind of hero moment I’d pop for in a real wrestling match.

The WWE 2K series hinges on moments like this, letting wrestling fans live out their wildest fantasies without having to worry about tearing a pec. This year’s edition, WWE 2K23, looks to continue that streak by adding WarGames, a creative spin on its signature Showcase mode, as well as by making a whole bunch of tweaks to smooth out the series’ bumps. There’s essentially one goal here: eliminate any remaining ring rust from the disastrous WWE 2K20.

Gaming

WWE 2K23 brings the pain with John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and Bad Bunny

John Cena stands on a ramp in WWE 2K23.

Publisher 2K Games revealed the first details of WWE 2K23, the next installment of its long-running wrestling simulator. This year's game will focus on John Cena, who will grace both the game's cover and it's signature Showcase mode. The 2023 edition will add new a unique new match type too: WarGames.

WWE 2K23 gets the wrestling series back into annualization mode after 2K Games took two years off between WWE 2K20 and 2K22. This year's edition will come to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and PS5 on March 17, retailing for $60 on last-generation consoles and $70 on PC, PS5, and Series X/S. Those who buy its $100 Deluxe and $120 Icon Edition will get early access starting on March 14.

Gaming

2K warns users to beef up cyber security after support team gets hacked

Borderlands 3 characters preparing for a gunfight.

Borderlands and BioShock publisher 2K Games has been hacked. The company announced the breach on Wednesday, and it is warning customers to change their passwords and not open any emails from its support page.

The 2K Support Twitter account, which was not affected by the hack, posted the following message, saying that the hacker was sending seemingly legitimate emails to certain players containing malicious links, and strongly advised customers not to click on those emails if they happen to receive them. As a result, the company's support page has gone offline while it resolves the issue.