By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter
ALL IS SET for the staging of the inaugural FIBA Esports Open this week, which will feature various national teams, including that from the Philippines.
A series of exhibition e-basketball games, the FIBA Esports Open 2020 will take place from June 19 to 21.
Competing teams include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
For the tournament each team will consist of seven players, five on the court and two reserves. Games will be played remotely on NBA 2K using the Pro-AM mode and allowing full customization of player avatars, uniforms and arena designs.
At the weekend, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) named the squad that will be competing in the FIBA Esports Open 2020.
Culled from the growing esports scene in the country, the team is composed of Aljon “Shintarou” Gruzin (point guard), Rial “Rial” Polog Jr. (shooting guard), Custer “Aguila” Galas (small forward), Rocky “Rak” Brana (center/power forward), Philippe “Izzo” Alcaraz IV (center), Clark “Clark” Banzon (power forward) and Al “Alt” Timajo (center/power forward).
The entire FIBA Esports Open 2020 series will be produced from the brand-new FIBA Esports Studio located in Riga, Latvia, with a daily four-hour show featuring up to six games.
Each game will be live-streamed on FIBA’s Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels with live commentary in English.
Matches can also be seen over the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) Facebook page.
“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 in a statement.
“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,” he added.
The inaugural FIBA esports tournament comes as the basketball community continues to await the return of regular play after being halted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March.
