By Neil Shefferd |
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has announced the launch of its first ever international esports competition.
The FIBA Esports Open is scheduled to run from June 19 to 21 as part of a pilot project in which basketball’s global governing body joins the esports movement alongside its national Member Federations.
National teams participating in the exhibition e-basketball tournament include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Each team will consist of seven players, with five virtually on court and two reserves.
Games will be played remotely on NBA 2K using the Pro-AM mode.
All matches played will be streamed live on FIBA’s Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels with English language commentary.
“FIBA is extremely proud and excited to start its esports journey with the FIBA Esports Open 2020, a pilot project of exhibition games between national teams in collaboration with NBA 2K,” said Frank Leenders, FIBA media and marketing services director general.
“The esports initiative was identified by the FIBA Central Board as important and consistent with the strategic objective to enlarge the FIBA family.
“In these challenging times, we feel encouraged by the enthusiasm of some of our National Federations who are already active in this space and have been our charter partners during the last few months.”
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.