Tag: Tournament

76ers Gaming Club Win Inaugural NBA 2K League Tournament

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The NBA 2K League’s “THE TIPOFF” tournament came to an end on May 5th with the 76ers Gaming Club having secured the $35,000 grand prize and championship banner by beating the previously undefeated Blazer5 Gaming squad 75-65 in the final. THE TIPOFF tournament consisted of pool play from May 1 to May 4 with the top eight teams advancing to the May 5 playoff rounds.

The tournament gave Esports lovers a week of exciting matchups that ended with both the 76ers and Blazer5 Gaming proving that they are the best teams in the league – well, at least for the initial stage of the season. There is still more action ahead as the season progresses.

It became apparent that the 76ers would triumph when they began shining at the knockout round. Majority of the matchups were close save those that featured teams from Philadelphia – the 76ers beat Mavs Gaming by 26 in the quarterfinals, Pistons Gaming Team by 18 in the semifinals and overcame Balzer5 by 10 in the final.

As far as technique goes, the 76ers utilized a balanced scoring approach and perimeter shooting. Both techniques are unique in the current 2K Meta – most of the teams in the league usually bank on the one star that can finish the paint. A typical example is Brandon “Hood” Caicedo, Cavs Gaming point forward that made scoring 40 points look easy.

Leading the 76ers was star guard Ethan “ITZ_Radiant” White who came through with 14 assists in the final. Still, all the members of the gaming club hit threes as the teak shot a collective nine for 17 from deep. As it turns out, Blazer5 was overwhelmed by the strong play and on-court leadership that Radiant brought to the game. This is despite the fact that he was only the 14th out of the 17 total first-round picks in the draft.

Here is a summary of all the playoff match results:

Quarterfinals

Cavs Legion GC 71, Jazz Gaming 70

Blazer5 Gaming 66, Pacers Gaming 46

Pistons GT 61, Warriors Gaming Squad 47

76ers Gaming Club 83, Mavs Gaming 56

Semifinals

Blazer5 Gaming 69, Pistons GT 48

76ers Gaming Club 66, Cavs Legion GC 64

Finals

76ers Gaming Club 75, Blazer5 Gaming 65

To sum it up it all up, the tournament was an outstanding kick-off of the NBA 2K League’s first season. Nonetheless, the NBA 2K League has a long to go before it is considered a major Esports league. The tournament’s Twitch channel had a little under 10,000 viewers during the group stages. This number, however, plunged to less than 6,000 viewers for most of Saturday’s playoffs. The implication here is that the league will have to grow further before it can be able to draw as many viewers as the leading Esports titles such as CS:GO and League of Legends do.

The regular season for NBA 2K begins on May 11, so do keep an eye out for that.

More Traditional Sports Practitioners Set Eyes on Esports

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The Esports revolution already took off and it seems to be waiting for no one. A number of tradition sports leagues are beginning to catch on to this fact. As it stands, the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB and NASCAR are venturing into the Esports space in a bid to appeal to younger audiences. It is no longer surprising to hear of traditional sports ventures into Esports but we are definitely excited about seeing how they will implement it.

Many of these leagues and collegiate programs have opted to integrate Esports into their business models. These integration efforts range from interactive contests to fan experiences or ticket sales for events that are designed to bring younger audiences closer to traditional sports. However, while this has paid off for some hopeful Esports investors, all of them do not share the same level of success.

NBA’s approach is by far one of the most followed in Esports. The league chose to partner with NBA 2K and thus there have been very clear tie-ins between the two – the NBA teams provide the infrastructure for their Esports counterparts. The NBA has taken a less regional approach in promoting its Esports league and this is definitely going to create a very interesting dynamic as the league grows. How the NBA 2K League plays out once it kicks off will determine the establishment of future leagues for other gaming titles such as FIFA and Madden.

But what have the others done?

NASCAR

During the Dayton 500 race weekend, NASCAR got to partner with 704Games and Esports Arena Drive in order to bring NASCAR Heat Champions to Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR’s interest in Esports is almost natural owing to the fact that it has an older and a wide fan base of about 58 years for television viewers.

During the Dayton 500 race weekend, the NASCAR fans who attended got a chance to win prizes while playing NASCAR Heat 2. This mostly oozed of an independent activation feel and seemed to be more of a showcase for new mobile arena instead of a NASCAR-run. Regardless, the activation is off to a great start and if everything goes well it will grace NASCAR with more ticket sales on non-race days while at the same time giving them a piece of the younger audience that everyone is desperately trying to get a hold of.

NCAA

One of the most recent developments in college basketball as far as Esports is concerned is the move by two different NCAA basketball conferences to jump into the Esports add-on world. Mountain West Conference and Horizon League, the two conferences, therefore effectively tied their championships to events.

According to Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson, “Globally, Esports is enjoying a boom in popularity – particularly among young people who are in the same age bracket as the students on our campuses. We are also seeing universities add Esports programming, technology and business to their curriculum offerings.”

Both conferences have organized tournaments that are considered to be extensively valid moves towards making college programs formed at universities more acceptable. Most of them are still run by students making such support vital to their survival and prosperity.

PokerStars NJSCOOP Makes a Come Back with 80 Tournaments

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Touted as New Jersey’s richest tournament series ever, the PokerStars New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker (NJSCOOP) is returning and this time players can look forward to guarantees of over $1.3 million. The series is scheduled to run from April 14 through to April 30 and will feature a whopping 40 events – each of the events will be split into a high and low buy-in for which will sum up to 80 tournaments spread out across the 17-day schedule.

The most anticipated events of the series are set for Sunday, April 29. These are: the $200,000 guarantee $500 No Limit Hold’em Main Event (High) and the $50 Main Event (Low) which has a $30,000 guarantee. Both the high and low winners of the NJSCOOP Main Events will receive a Platinum Pass package.

The highly coveted Platinum Pass packages are each worth over $30,000 and include entry into next year’s $25,000 buy-in Poker Player’s NL Hold’em Championship as well as fully sponsored stay at the Atlantis Resorts in Nassau.

Unlike last year’s event, this year’s NJSCOOP schedule added five more high and low tournaments as well as an additional $100,000 in guarantees with buy-ins ranging from $5 to $1000. Majority of buy-ins range between $100 and $200 for the high events and between $10 and $20 for low events. While most of the events will be No Limit Hold’em, there will be a decent dose of mixed-games such as 8-game HORSE. Still, participants will be treated to a healthy selection of No Limit Hold’em variations including progressive KO, escalating antes and win the button.

Since there is a Platinum Pass on the line, it will certainly be a surprise if the event sees another record turnout – for the very first time, PokerStars exceeded the $200,000 guarantee for its main event last year. Naturally, as proven by the results of previous events and the history of the series the high events are likely to outperform the low events.

888Poker, Poker Central Partnership Renewed for Third Year

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888Poker continues to be the leading face of American online poker with the extension of the poker operator’s partnership contract with Poker Central for the third year in a row. Poker Central, which is a renowned online poker content hub made the announcement that their huge sponsorship deal had been extended and expanded to allow 888Poker to be the exclusive in-show sponsor of the Super High Roller Bowl that will take place this spring. Furthermore, 888poker will feature, to a very large extent, during several broadcasts of poker events such as the U.S. Poker Open, the ARIA High Roller Series and Poker Masters throughout 2018. The World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker were among some of the most notable events that were not included in the list even though both have partnered with PokerGO before. At the moment, there is nothing but speculation surrounding the choice to leave out both events but a likely scenario is that both prominent series are basking in lucrative sponsorship deals that have effectively taken them out Poker Central’s league. Still, nothing is certain at this point.

“This is our third consecutive year partnering with 888poker, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have them on board for our growing slate of prestigious events. Together, we’re looking forward to further growing the sport by offering more tournaments that poker fans and professionals alike will enjoy,” Poker Central Vice President, Sam Simmons said after the announcement.

888Poker is also quite excited about the renewal and expansion of the partnership – they are showing it by offering reciprocal opportunities to Poker Central. Some of 888Poker’s broadcasted events are owned by Poker Central – these include Poker Masters and Super High Roller Bowl. 888Poker will now be giving gamblers opportunities to qualify for some of the exclusive tournament events through highly sought-after packages.

All Thanks to NBC?

Poker Central’s renewed contract with 888Poker coincides with another huge reveal. NBC Sports Group will be incorporating more Poker Central programming into its US schedule all through 2018. This further applies to both NBCSN’s linear and digital platforms and the programming partnership will run through to 2020.

All of the three Poker Central events that we mentioned earlier will be covered by all of NBC Sports Group’s online platforms and will be available for streaming on internet-connected TVs, tablets, desktops and mobile devices. Tournament dates and broadcast schedules are set to be officially announced later in the year.