NBA 2K League


The NBA 2K League is an esports league joint venture between the National Basketball Association and Take-Two Interactive. The league was announced on February 9, 2017. On May 4, 2017 it was revealed that 17 of the 30 NBA teams would have their own NBA 2K League team during the inaugural season in 2018. On April 18, 2018, the NBA 2K League and Twitch announced a multiyear partnership to live stream all games. The inaugural season began on May 1, 2018 and on August 25, 2018, Knicks Gaming won the inaugural 2K League championship. For season 2 the rights to live stream the league's games went to YouTube and twitch the second season began on April 16, 2019 and ended on August 3, with T-Wolves Gaming winning the championship. The third season was going to be starting on March 31, 2020 but the season was postponed to May 5, 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. On May 5, 2020, NBA 2K and ESPN agreed to broadcast the games on ESPN2 and the ESPN App. The third season actually began on May 5, 2020 with 6 weeks of remote play. On June 9, 2020 remote play got extended from 6 weeks to 11 weeks. On July 18, 2020 the league announced that remote play will once again be extended from 11 weeks to 15 weeks including the ticket, the final in-season tournament

Qualifying

In order to qualify for the league draft, a player needs to be over the age of 18 and own NBA 2K on either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Players had to win a number of games in Pro-Am mode and submit a following application. Following that, the players who qualified participated in a combine that ran from February 2–21, 2018. Only a select number of applicants received invites to the draft.

Format

The inaugural season lasted for 17 weeks, beginning with the tip-off tournament from May 1–5, with the first weekly match ups taking place on May 11–12. There was an additional two tournaments during the season before the playoffs began on August 17, concluding with the NBA 2K League Finals on August 25. All games were live streamed on Twitch and available to view on demand after the live broadcasts.
The league used Pro-Am mode for the games, which consisted of 5 on 5 matches where players used archetypes with preset skills instead of their own MyPlayer or NBA players to keep the ratings similar to everyone.
The archetypes to choose from were:
A special build of NBA 2K18-20 on PC was used for the league, with equipment provided by Alienware and Intel. HyperX is the league's headset sponsor, while Scuf Gaming provides controllers for all matches. To go along with the league sponsors, each team also has various sponsors and displays the logos of the sponsors on their in-game uniforms. All games are played at the NBA 2K League Studio in New York.

Weekly match ups and tournaments

The first 2 regular seasons takes place over 15 weeks with 12 weeks for weekly match ups and the other three being for tournaments. All teams will play in a minimum of 19 games, including 14 regular season games and the tournament games. The tournament games will not count towards regular season records, but will be used as a tiebreaker for the postseason. Weekly match ups will take place on Fridays and Saturdays.
The tip-off tournament contained a $100,000 prize and featured pool play with teams competing in four groups over the course of five days. The top two teams from each group advanced to the single elimination playoff rounds. For The Turn and The Ticket, seeding was determined by the records of each team over the four weeks since the previous tournament. The tournaments were single elimination and contained a play-in game between the 16th and 17th seeds. The Turn and The Ticket contained prize pools of $150,000, with the winner of The Ticket receiving an automatic playoff berth.
For the third season the league will begin with 6 weeks of remote play with matchups on Tuesday -Friday from 7–11 pm e.t. With 2 games at 7 pm e.t. And 2 games at 9 pm e.t. which to get a regular season you have to win a best of 3 series
On June 9, 2020 during the nba2kleague broadcast the league Announced that remote play will continue through July 17 and also announced that the tip off tournament will be held remotely on June 16–19
On July 18,2020 NBA 2k announced that remote play will continue until the remainder of the season including the ticket the final in season tournament which will take place on Aug 12-15 the turn will be held remotely from July 22-25, 2020

The Tréfecta

The winner of each tournament will receive a steel championship banner. If a team wins all three, they will achieve the Tréfecta, with all three banners forming "The Banner Chain".

Postseason

For the playoffs, seeding is determined by regular season standings. The seven teams with the best record will make the postseason along with the winner of The Ticket. If The Ticket winner has one of the top eight records, then the top eight teams will make the playoffs.
For the 3rd season they expanded the playoffs to 10 teams as top 9 make playoffs and the rest all compete in The Ticket to decide who gets final spot in playoffs
The quarterfinals are single elimination, while the semifinals and finals are best of three. The playoff prize pool will be $600,000, with $300,000 going to the league champions.

Salaries and benefits

All players signed six month contracts and will have their relocation and housing costs covered by the league, as well as benefits such as medical insurance and a retirement plan. Food, transportation, and housing will also be covered during the season when teams travel for games.
Players drafted in the first round will make $35,000, while the rest of the players will make $32,000. There will be four other opportunities throughout the season to win money as $1 million will be split between three tournaments and the league championship. Players are also allowed to sign endorsement deals to earn extra income.

Teams

On December 11, 2017, the official logo for the NBA 2K League was revealed, with the logos for each of the 17 teams being revealed over the course of the following days. On August 15, 2018, it was announced that the league would expand to 21 teams in 2019 with the addition of teams from Atlanta, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Minnesota.
TeamNBA Team OwnerInaugural Season
Gen G Tigers of ShanghaiGen G2020
76ers GCPhiladelphia 76ers2018
Blazer5 GamingPortland Trail Blazers2018
Bucks GamingMilwaukee Bucks2018
Cavs Legion GCCleveland Cavaliers2018
Celtics Crossover GamingBoston Celtics2018
Grizz GamingMemphis Grizzlies2018
Hawks Talon GCAtlanta Hawks2019
Hornets Venom GTCharlotte Hornets2020
Heat Check GamingMiami Heat2018
Jazz GamingUtah Jazz2018
Kings Guard GamingSacramento Kings2018
Knicks GamingNew York Knicks2018
Lakers GamingLos Angeles Lakers2019
Magic GamingOrlando Magic2018
Mavs GamingDallas Mavericks2018
Nets GCBrooklyn Nets2019
Pacers GamingIndiana Pacers2018
Pistons GTDetroit Pistons2018
Raptors Uprising GCToronto Raptors2018
T-Wolves GamingMinnesota Timberwolves2019
Warriors Gaming SquadGolden State Warriors2018
Wizards District GamingWashington Wizards2018

Rosters

Protected players

Each team protected two players from their 2018 roster prior to the expansion draft, making them ineligible to be selected by the four expansion teams.

Expansion draft

On September 26, 2018, the expansion draft for the four new teams was held.
PGPoint guardSGShooting guardSFSmall forwardPFPower forwardCCenter

Free agency and transactions

During the first season, there were no trades allowed. For the 2019 season, two trade periods were added: September 27 – October 10, as well as a TBA period during the season. All trades must have a 1:1 ratio, meaning two picks can't be traded for one player and vice versa. Before the expansion draft each team protected two of their players from the 2018 team, while the rest of the players were eligible to be selected in the expansion draft. Following the expansion draft, teams were allowed to retain up to two more of their 2018 players who were not selected. To retain more players teams had to sacrifice picks in the 2019 draft. If a team had a player selected in the expansion draft, to retain one player they had to give up a third round pick and to retain a second player, they had to give up a second round pick. For teams who had no players selected in the expansion draft, to retain one player they gave up a second round pick and to retain two players, they gave up a first round pick.

Trades

2018

September 27, 2018
To Pacers GamingTo Pistons GT
Lets Get It Ramo2019 1st Round Pick

September 27, 2018
To Cavs Legion GCTo T-Wolves Gaming
oLARRYHood

September 27, 2018
To Mavs GamingTo Wizards District Gaming
2019 1st Round Pick Dayfri

October 3, 2018
To Lakers GamingTo Warriorrs Gaming Squad
Vert2019 1st Round Pick

October 4, 2018
To Blazer5 GamingTo Bucks Gaming
KinG PeroXide2019 1st Round Pick