3 things to look out for in Week 3 of the NBA 2K league

Alright y’all it’s week 3 of the NBA 2K League and the longer we get into this league the deeper the storylines become. Here’s what you should expect come week 3

The 76ers are on a bit of a hot streak at the start of the season. After losing their first game to a strong BLAZER5 Gaming team, 81-68, they responded by winning 7 games in a row. Now only two of those games count for the regular season, but they’re formula has proven effective so far. You have a great point guard in Radiant and two sharpshooters in ZDS and Newdini who aren’t afraid to launch from deep.

Now the 76ers are playing twice this week so it will be interesting to see how preparing for two teams will affect how they do. They’re going up against a Wizards District Gaming squad lead by the scoring duo of Boo Painter and Jin and a Raptors Uprising Squad hungry to get their first win.

If there’s anything we’ve seen about the Pacers is that they’re a good defensive team that struggles to capitalize on that defense and not outscoring their opponents. They have their flashes, but sometimes the ball movement and spacing just isn’t there which can lead to some tough shots and 2K’s turnover animations.

They’re going up against a very good Cavs offense that has the ability to score in a hurry against you. The Pacers are tasked with taking care of Hood, Sick, and Godddof2K unless one of them doesn’t play in the lineup. They face off on May 25th at 9 PM.

Short answer: Not with this format and not ever.

It’s been around one month since the 2K League has launched and everyone has opinions on it. There are people saying stuff about the gameplay, the camera angles, and stuff.

These opinions have also leaked out into being from the people that don’t play 2K and are just casual fans. Some even suggest that the league should even use recognizable NBA players. While the league using real NBA players would give casual fans something easier to familiarize themselves with, it would come at the cost of gameplay balance. For example, when you watch an Overwatch match, both teams can choose from a specific pool of characters and what sets teams apart is the skill of the players and the character compositions that those teams choose. With the idea of replacing custom players with NBA players, you would have to take in the player’s rating into account.

Take the Madden League, where players are able to draft their roster with a certain cap in mind. Better skilled players contribute to the cap more in Madden just like the best players in any sport usually take most of the salary cap. The main difference is that in that league it’s one player playing against the other and that there are more people on a football team than a basketball team. Even if the NBA 2K League wanted to do this (and they’re not), they’d have to rebuild the league from the ground up with a process that will have way more questions then the current process has.

Look, I’m not here to sway your opinion either way. I just know that there are a lot of factors that people that don’t play NBA 2K aren’t aware of. One example is the tense relationship between NBA 2K and their player base thanks to an aggressive virtual currency system among many other things. Just magically switching to NBA players doesn’t help.

There will always be obstacles and hurdles to get over when you start something new. How the NBA 2K League deals will said obstacles will be something to watch for.