Competition with Pro-Am Mode in NBA 2K16 being held in early 2016

2K Sports today announced an online competition to launch in early 2016 utilizing the 2K Pro-Am Mode that debuted with NBA 2K16. Details are scarce but there will be a “huge cash prize and trip to the 2016 NBA Finals” on the line.

The company is referring to this as “eSports” but given that there is no level playing field – people can pay to level their characters up and max them out – it isn’t going to be considered as such. The idea here seems to be primarily about giving people who want to compete a reason to boost their ratings as high as possible so 2K can make an extreme amount off the sale of VC. With NBA 2K17 they’ll likely introduce a new mode or variant that will allow them to make a real push into eSports similar to the way in which EA Sports is handling their titles now.