PH vies in Esports tilt

With four straight championships in NBA2K Asia Pacific, the national team for esport basketball is expected to contend in the inaugural FIBA Esports Open 2020 set June 19 to 21 to be produced by the band new FIBA Esports Studio in Riga, Latvia.

The seven-man national team of Rocky “Rak” Braña, Philippe “Izzo” Alcaraz IV, Custer “Aguila” Galas, Clark Banzon, Al “Alt” Timajo, Aljon “Shintarou” Cruzin and Rial Polog Jr. has ruled the NBA2k Asian Tournament from 2016 to 2019, which the Samahang Basketbol ng Pi lip in as( SB P) used as basis to tap the squad as country’s representative in the 17-nation meet.

“Since 2002, they’ve been playing the game NBA2K for a long lone time already,” said team manager Richard Bro jan during a Sam a hang Basket bol ng Pilipinas (SBP) press conference via Facebook live yesterday.

“Now with us representing the country this is something that we wanted to do. We’re prepared… the training did not stop even with the pandemic situation. Hindi na bago sa kanila ang international play,” added Brojan.

Aside from the Philippines, other countries in the tournament are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, New Zealand, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Each team consists of seven players with five to play. Games will be played remotely on NBA 2k using the Pro-Am mode and allowing full customization of player avatars, uniforms and arena designs.

The games will be livestreamed on FIBA’s Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels with live commentary.

The first ever Esports Open, in collaboration with the NBA 2k, is part of the federation’s initiatives with an objective to enlarge the FIBA family, and comes at a time as actual competitions are still barred in various countries due to the coronavirus pandemic.