NBA 2K9 Reverse Fantasy League

More details are now known on what is being referred to as the Reverse Fantasy League for NBA 2K9. Registration for this doesn’t begin until release day October 7th. Kevin Garnett, Steve Nash, Greg Oden, Chauncey Billups, Carlos Boozer, Andre Iguodala, Monta Ellis, and Derek Rose will select their own fantasy team of NBA 2K9 gamers to compete on their behalf. You can check out the official website here.

Users receive a score based on the stats of each game (required to be five minute quarters against random opponents). It states that each user must play one full game a month to participate. Points, rebounds, and assists will net you one point while a steal and a block will net you two. On the other end committing a foul will subtract a point and each turnover will deduct two. The total is then divided by the minutes played for an average.

At this point I’m wondering if there will be an incentive to playing more and more games. If not then someone could have a great first game then decide to sit out the rest of the month which to me would defeat the purpose. It looks like people who are selected to one of the player’s teams must play 300 minutes worth in order to qualify for participating in the playoffs but that doesn’t necessarily explain whether there is incentive to play a lot as a free agent trying to get selected for a team.

One thing I do like is that it appears this isn’t based on winning the games but rather putting up the stats. Why this could be good is that it does give a reason to not disconnect or quit and to play games through even if on the losing end. Disconnecting after halftime will apparently result in loss of stats which will hurt a user’s average. Even if someone is losing they could produce better stats in the remainder of the game which would benefit them.

What are your thoughts on this? I find the idea of it to be pretty intriguing however my concern is that things of this nature have limitations and don’t include everyone. While that makes it more exciting for people who are really good it can be discouraging for those who are just playing for fun to know that they’ll probably never have that same opportunity to enjoy this aspect of the game. At the very least though this should be something interesting to follow.