Professional esport team Still Trill won the NBA 2K17 All-Star Tournament, securing a hefty sum of $250,000 ($50,000 for each team member). Still Trill represented XBOX One players at the tournament, winning it all against ThrowDown, the PS4 playoff winners. The participating teams were split in two conference-like playoffs, one for XBOX, and one for PS4 players.
During the event, Still Trill also played against real NBA players, as Kevin Durant, Paul George (the game’s cover athlete), Kyrie Irving, Aaron Gordon, and C.J. McCollum made a surprise appearance at the event.
These guys put up a tougher battle than Euro guys pic.twitter.com/FpjDJDt9SY
— S T I L L T R I L L (@Still_Trill2k) February 18, 2017
If this tournament (and the Grand Prize) doesn’t tell enough about the success (and the potential) of the eSports scene, the National Basketball Association and 2K Sports have recently teamed up for an official eSports league.
The organization of the All-Star tournament was announced in December. Players only needed to own or have access to a copy of NBA 2K17 and a PS4 or an XBOX One, create a team according to the rules and be a resident of the US and Canada (with a few exceptions).
Any enrolled team needed to go through multiple qualifying rounds organized from Dec. 31 through Jan. 28. Tournament rounds (console semifinals and finals) were scheduled for Feb. 4 and 11, with the Championship Finals being organized at the NBA 2017 All-Star Game in New Orleans, Louisiana. The final game was scheduled to be played on a PS4 console.
The winning team would win the $250,000 Grand Prize ($50,000 for each team member), and tickets to the 2017 NBA All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
In memorable weekend, stood out to be 1st to show love for winning 2K17 All-Star Tourney! Congrats @Still_Trill2k! https://t.co/bfyjTjfLfC pic.twitter.com/BDhY5lGYSt
— Ronnie 2K 2K17 (@Ronnie2K) February 20, 2017
The Championship game was streamed on Periscope and it had a claimed 739K spectators on Twitter. You can checkout the full championship game below:
