Unrivaled’s 1v1 tournament pool cut due to injuries, but 23 WNBA stars will participate

Unrivaled’s 1v1 tournament tips off Monday night, but it won’t be featuring the same lineup of WNBA players it was initially going to. That’s because 7 players are out with injuries: Natasha Cloud, Alyssa Thomas, Tiffany Hayes, Marina Mabrey, Kate Martin, Brittney Sykes, and Kayla McBride.

The league announced on Sunday evening that as a result of the reformatting, the new 1v1 first-round match-ups are as follows:

The first round will tip off on Monday, Feb. 10 at 7pm ET. In addition to the 16 WNBA players who will compete in the first round of the tournament on Monday, 7 players will head straight to the second round: Arike Ogunbowale, Rae Burrell, Azura Stevens, Courtney Williams, Satou Sabally, and DiJonai Carrington.

Unrivaled has had to deal with an unexpected number of injuries in recent days, with Saturday night’s Laces-Vinyl game being canceled just hours before tip-off as a result of injuries. Instead of the game, players signed autographs and chatted with fans in attendance.

The 23 players competing in Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament are vying for a $200,000 cash prize. Final Four players will each get $25,000, while the tournament runner-up will make $50,000. And, to build team camaraderie, the tournament winner’s Unrivaled teammates will each be awarded $10,000 as well.

“There’s still a team camaraderie perspective — where you may be eliminated, but your teammate keeps advancing,” Bazzell told SB Nation last month. “Inevitably you want to root them on — not just for personal reasons, but also there’s an incentive for you if your teammate wins the ultimate cash prize.”

Before the injuries, the first-round match-ups were slated to feature:

Five Unrivaled players were never slated to participate: Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu, Angel Reese, Stefanie Dolson, and Courtney Vandersloot. Those players had a clause in their Unrivaled contract that exempted them from participating from the jump.