The NBA 2K Players Tournament winner will donate $100,000 to a coronavirus-related charity

04/10/2020 A&E, Sports

(NBA 2K20 Loading Screen/2K Sports & NBA)

The NBA 2K Players Tournament started April 3  and the tournament will conclude Saturday, April 11. The tournament consists of 16 NBA players competing for the grand prize and ultimate bragging rights. The grand prize for the tournament, gives the champion a $100,000 to donate to a coronavirus-related charity of his choice.

Each player gets to choose up to 8 teams he would like to play in the tournament and can play a team only once. So many players wait for each opponent to choose a team appropriately, to match up against. There are no rules who gets to decide to go first in choosing a team. Most players used the top two ranking teams in NBA 2K20, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Unfortunately, when the first round came to a close, #1 ranked in the tournament, Brooklyn Nets Kevin Durant and #4 ranked, Utah Jazz Donovan Mitchell, have recently tested positive for Covid-19 or coronavirus and are now in recovery had both lost in stunning upsets.

But fortunately, some players match their court energy towards their video game skills. The most entertaining player to watch by far has to be Patrick Beverly, even though there has been water boys for players like Rui Hachimura or crazy skyline backdrop views from Andre Drummonds penthouse floor or a 30 plus seat theatre/game room like Hassan Whiteside. But no player matches Beverly’s high energy and loud smack talk during each matchup which mirrors his performance on a real NBA court.

Saturday afternoons semi-final will decide the remaining two players, Los Angeles Clippers Patrick Beverly vs. Phoenix Suns Deandre Ayton and Los Angeles Clippers Montrezl Harrell vs. Phoenix Suns Corey Booker.

Both Beverly and Ayton both have not used the Lakers or Bucks yet in their previous two matchups. So that matchup seems to be a good one, where Ayton has been dominate beating #2 ranked, Trae Young in his last matchup and Beverly that had come back to win against his meeting against Andre Drummond using his excessive rants and loud demeanor while playing in front of a backdrop of his self portrait.

Devin Booker going into his matchup has won with at least 10 pts. or more against his previous two opponents. For Harrell, he has a hard matchup going into it after barely winning against #12 Porter Jr. But Harrell hasn’t played with the Lakers or the Bucks, unlike Booker who has played with Milwaukee.

An important stat, the Bucks are 4-1 this tournament so far. And the Lakers record is 2-3. So its benefical to have Milwaukee going into the last two rounds.

Winner of both matches will play for the final later in the evening on Saturday. It could be real life teammates against each other in the final respectively. The semi finals and finals will air tomorrow at 2PM PST. You can catch it on ESPN or ESPN2, stream it on NBA.com or the NBA app. Its also available on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

If you want to catch up before tomorrows matchups, I recommend you watch the ten minutes highlights of each matchup on YouTube by the NBA so you can catch up quickly and pick your favorite to win the tournament.

It surprised me as fellow gamer and fan of basketball, that I would enjoy watching the two together. I did enjoy some games which I provided cheers and grinded my teeth in close matchups, scratching my itch of missing sports right now. There is some drama and personas that got me excited to continue watching this tournament and that has made me look forward to the semis and final game of the tournament. Especially, if its going to help people in need and those who have been affected by the virus are still providing their time for chariatble acts.

This tournament mirrors what Games Done Quick (GDQ), has done, which the best gamers accross the globe raise milllions to the Prevent Cancer Foundations by playing video games, which I have watched for some time now. Not an event that provides a grand prize to esports team or advertisment placements, but give back to people that are in need. Which is needed during this time around the world.

GDQ had announced in late March Corona Relief Done Quick, from April 17-19. Their donations will all go to Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies.

More tournaments and aids with gaming are coming, not just NBA players can make a difference, but all kind of gamers can help provide help during this unprecidented time.

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Frank Rocha