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| (Image Source: FIBA) |
The Federacion Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) officially announced an expanded field of 38 countries, including the Philippines, taking part in the second FIBA eSports Cup, set to take place over three different weekends in November and December with six regional conferences. Following the success of its first edition last June which was participated by 17 national teams, the FIBA eSports Open has received substantial interest from most National Federation members across the globe and, for the second edition, conferences will take place across all FIBA regions with a combined total of six days' worth of online action.
Each team will consist of seven players: five on the court and two reserves. The games will be played remotely on NBA 2K21 for the Sony PlayStation 4 gaming system using the Pro-Am mode. Like the first edition, teams will be allowed to have full customization of player avatars, uniforms and arena designs. Teams will be divided into different conferences based on geographical conditions and server distributions: Africa, North and Central America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia. Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia conferences will be played on November 14-15 while the Europe conference is set for December 12-13. The North and Central America and South America conferences will take place on December 19-20. The FIBA eSports Open II finals across all conferences will be played in a best-of-three series format.
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| Here are the participating countries in the FIBA eSports Open II Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia Conferences on November 14-15, 2020. (Image Source: FIBA) |
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| Here are the participating countries in the FIBA eSports Open II Europe Conference on December 12-13, 2020. (Image Source: FIBA) |
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| Here are the participating countries in the FIBA eSports Open II North and Central America and South America Conferences on December 19-20, 2020. (Image Source: FIBA) |
"The first FIBA eSports Open was an important milestone. The growing interest received from National Federations is additional motivation for FIBA to further develop eSports, and we are very enthusiastic for this second edition," said FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis. As was the case for the inaugural FIBA eSports Cup, the entire series will be produced from the FIBA eSports Studio in Riga, Latvia with 54 hours of live content being streamed on FIBA's Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels. Each game will be available online with live commentary in English as well as a daily show featuring up to 12 games.
Argentina, Australia, Italy, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia topped their respective conferences and emerged victorious among twelve other participating nations across the globe last June. These are slated to battle it out again in the coming weeks starting November. For more information about the FIBA eSports Open, visit its official website here.
