By Dorothy J. Gentry
Sports Editor
While most major professional sports leagues remain on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA2K League regular season has begun.
Dallas’ NBA2K team, Mavs Gaming, tipped off its season recently against Hawks Talon GC. Games will be simulcast live on the NBA2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels. The team’s slogan: “Something to Prove.”
“It’s really self-explanatory,” said Dimez, MavsGaming shooting guard and the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA2K League Draft. “This is the league’s third year and we have yet to win anything. So we just feel like we have something to prove.
“Every year we are making a little bit more progress and we are right on the verge of something and that’s where “Something to Prove” comes in. We have to make something happen,” Dimez said. “Season 1 we didn’t make the playoffs, season 2 we made the playoffs and lost to Boston in the first round and now it’s time to prove something.”
Mavs Gaming is the Dallas Mavericks affiliate team in the NBA 2K League. The NBA 2K League is a professional competitive gaming league co-founded by the NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Bringing together the world’s best basketball gamers, this marks the first official e-sports league operated by a U.S. professional sports league.
Over the course of the six weeks of remote gameplay, Mavs Gaming is scheduled to play nine matches that will count toward its regular-season record. Their opponents during remote gameplay include: Hawks Talon GC and Heatcheck Gaming in week one, Lakers Gaming and Kings Guard Gaming in week two, Hornets Venom GT in week three, Nets GC and T-Wolves Gaming in week four and Pistons GT and Wizards District Gaming in week six.
Each match will be played in a best-of-three format, which will allow the NBA 2K League broadcast to switch between games in real-time and give fans more opportunities to experience the league’s most exciting moments. Each three-game-series victory will represent one regular-season win, and each three-game-series loss will represent one regular-season loss.
The 2020 season will include three in-season tournaments (THE TIPOFF, THE TURN and THE TICKET), in which teams compete for banners that link together to form THE BANNER CHAIN, powered by AT&T. All 23 teams will compete in THE TIPOFF and THE TURN. The 14 teams that are not one of the top nine playoff seeds will compete in THE TICKET, which will see the winning team earn the 10th and final spot in the 2020 NBA 2K League Playoffs.
In addition, select NBA 2K League teams will host rivalry matches and round-robin events. The remainder of the 2020 season schedule and structure, including the dates of tournaments, rivalry matches and round-robin events, will be shared as information becomes available.
New for the 2020 season, the NBA 2K League has launched a campaign entitled, “THIS IS NOT A GAME.” From the NBA 2K League Combine to the Draft, regular season to the Finals, the NBA 2K League is more than just a game; it’s a way of life filled with hours of practice and preparation for a season of challenges where only one team can emerge as champions.
“’Something to Prove,’ to me, means we’re being slept on and we have to wake everyone up. We haven’t made any real noise in the league yet, which means we need to turn it up and show everyone why not to sleep on us,” Dimez said.
For more information on Mas Gaming visit https://mavsgaming.nba.com and MavsGaming on all social media sites.
For the latest news and updates on the NBA 2K League and #ThisIsNotAGame, fans can sign up to receive emails at NBA2KLeague.com and follow the NBA 2K League on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch and YouTube.
