2K Sports held their very first eSports event June 1. The NBA 2K Road To The Finals event featured the announcement of the NBA 2K17 cover athlete, Paul George, as well as the crowning of the first ever RTTF Grand Champion, the Drewkerbockers HLZDB. Being crowned the champion isn’t a just a meaningless title, the champs also received a $250,000 prize, championship rings and a trip to game one of the NBA Finals. The event overall was a lot of fun. The energy was high for both the participants as well as the audience.

However, all was not golden at the event. There are a few things 2K needs to do in order to become the key figures players in the eSports arena they would like to be.

Where Does NBA 2K Rank Right Now In The eSports Community?
 

“We really want to learn a lot from it.” - Ronnie2K on 2K's first foray into eSports

The eSports world has been dominated by games such as League of Legends, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. We’ve recently seen games explicitly built from the ground up with with eSports in mind. Games like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege and Overwatch have characters that have distinct, non-adjustable attributes to create the rock/paper/scissor dynamic that makes competitive eSports matches so enjoyable.

That being said, it could be argued that the NBA 2K series has greater name recognition in casual circles than almost any other game not named Madden or Call of Duty. If the NBA 2K developers and marketers could figure out how to capitalize on their cache as a gaming powerhouse, not only would it grant them instant gravitas in the eSports community, it would also give eSports the exposure it needs with another area of the populace at large.

There Can Be No Favorites Moving Forward

The RTTF Grand Championship was played between the Xbox One bracket champions, GFG, and the Playstation 4 bracket champions, Drewkerbockers HLZDB. The championship game was played on the Playstation 4. One could argue this immediately gave the Drewkerbockers a “home-court advantage,” even if it was just a psychological one.

GFG was able to use Xbox One controllers modded to run on the PS4, and while that is a solid solution to a potential problem, it’s a less perfect one. A more perfect solution would be to play the championship game on the PC, allowing players to use whichever controller they felt most comfortable using. This provides the championship game with a “neutral site” like you would see in college championship games.

Built For eSports?

While sports games seem like perfect avenues for eSports competitions, some thought on the development side needs to be done in order to make the game compatible with eSports. Balance is key when deciding what games make great eSports choices, and in the case of NBA 2K that means asking, "what do you do about badges?"

Badges are boosts that give your MyPlayer just a little bit of an advantage over another player. Badges are fun when you’re playing casually, and even when you’re playing with your Pro-Am team in the Park. But when you’re in a tournament and you're playing against a team who has unlocked all the badges while your team has only unlocked 75 percent of them, you’re operating at a potential disadvantage.

“eSports is a major initiative for us.” - Ronnie2K on the role of eSports in NBA2K17

What happens if you're playing in the championship game on the other console and your badges haven’t been migrated over with your MyPlayer? (Side note: during the title game the announcers said MyPlayers AND badges were migrated from the Xbox One to the PS4.) Will you feel confident that you’ll have the ability to compete on an even playing field when there’s so much money on the line?

The more perfect solution to this seems to be to limit the number of badges each MyPlayer can use for eSports competitions. Maybe also add some negative effects to badges. This adds a bit of strategy to how you’re going to play the game and what role your player will occupy. (Obviously the more extreme take would be to eliminate badges, but that seems like it would be a bigger discussion and bigger decision.

Bring It To The People

There was a lot of money spent on presenting the RTTF championship game. Not only did 2K have to rent a venue and equipment, they also presented the champions with a quarter of a million dollars. This was not an event they want to do just once. There’s a belief that an eSports NBA tournament can become an institution. The only way it becomes one is if everyday people know about it.

Now that they know they can host a successful event, 2K Sports needs to go into hyper-drive promoting future events. There was a channel dedicated to the streaming of games if you were actually logged into NBA 2K16, but it needs to go beyond that. It needs to go beyond Twitch and YouTube. These are events that could and should be televised. These are events that can draw real sponsorships. We’ve already seen big name athletes like Rick Fox and Shaq fund eSports teams, it’s time for big-name publishers to fund the promotion of eSports for their games.

We’re on the cusp of an evolutionary change in the way people view and consume competitive games. eSports is becoming less of a thing for just MOBAs, and more of a way to display who is the best player or team in one game or another. 2K Sports sees this. They want to be a leader in the space. If they plan and act accordingly, there's no reason they can't accomplish that goal.