NBA 2K Joins the Competitive Gaming Landscape with NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals

[Steve_OS]

2K has announced competitive gaming is coming to NBA 2K16 with NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals, a new competition starting February 15, merging simulation basketball with eSports, culminating over the course of the NBA Finals in June. Form your own NBA 2K Pro-Am team and compete in a series of in-game events to qualify, with a chance to win $250,000.

Read the full press release below.

2K today announced that competitive gaming is officially coming to NBA 2K16 with NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals, an exciting new competition that merges simulation basketball with eSports and culminates over the course of the NBA Finals in June. Players on PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, can form their own NBA 2K Pro-Am teams and compete in a series of in-game events to qualify for the tournament to win $250,000.

“As the world of competitive gaming continues to evolve, NBA 2K is a natural fit to join the growing landscape,” said Alfie Brody, VP of Marketing for NBA 2K. “Our series has long inspired rivalry among gamers, and we’re looking forward to encouraging our fans to enjoy the thrill of competition on a larger scale.”

Road to the Finals tips off on February 15 in North America with a series of unique, NBA 2K16 in-game events scheduled through May 8. Teams can participate in any of the 16 qualifying events where they will need to win at least four games in order to qualify. Those four games will be scored based on the team’s performance and then ranked on the event leaderboard. The top score of each qualifying event day will be deemed the winner and will move on to the tournament.

On May 21, the 16 winners on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will go head-to-head in a single elimination tournament. The console winners will then face off for the $250,000 championship in June while the NBA Finals are taking place.

“The NBA 2K development team has aspired to join the exciting world of eSports for years,” said Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts. “Road to the Finals is our first step, and we can’t wait to add even more excitement and competitive action to our franchise.”

Last fall’s release of NBA 2K16 set a franchise record, selling-in over four million units worldwide within the first week of release. This year’s iteration also has achieved several incredible year-over-year milestones since launch, including doubling sales through digital download and nearly tripling the number of games played online.

NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals is open to legal residents of 50 U.S., D.C. & Canada (excluding AZ, CT, MD, ND & Quebec), 13+. Must be played on Xbox One or PS4. Void where prohibited. GameDays begin on 2/15/16 and end on 5/8/16. Subject to the Official Rules located at http://2kgam.es/NBA2K16RTTFRules.

[E The Rhymer]

I wish I knew how to bold stuff

[Jrocc23]

They should have waited until they did this right. Most of the teams will be in there because they boosted. Doing this for 4 games:

[Kingofthecouch]

Should have made it simple. You win you're in. Leave it up to 2K to come up with silly ideas/rules. This tournament is ruined unless they remove the cheaters.

[Hustle Westbrook]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steve_OS

an exciting new competition that merges simulation basketball with eSports

"Simulation basketball"

Lmao...

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jrocc23

They should have waited until they did this right. Most of the teams will be in there because they boosted. Doing this for 4 games:

But 2k is ready for e-sports they said

[Funk Snuka]

Look at all the ****bag players complaining. You can tell who sucks just by reading the comments

[McG]

Well here comes the two PG, three C line-ups. I'd be shocked if you don't see two quick 5'10"-6'1" PGs and three 7'2" Cs. Good luck to the teams out there competing and I hope that the cheese is at minimum.

With that said, this hardly seems like authentic representation of the game to me, but hey it's video games, what can you really expect? Hopefully, realism will be on the agenda for MyPlayer in 2K17. This game has so much potential to be a realistic, one of a kind sports sim. Unfortunately, MyPlayer/Pro-Am/My-Park misses misses the mark by quite a bit. I hope that the dream of being a real E-Sports game forces their hand.