Impressive growth for FIBA Esports Open with participation set to more than double for second edition

FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, has announced an expanded field of 38 national teams taking part in the second edition of the FIBA Esports Open, set to take place over three weekends with six regional conferences.

Seventeen national teams took part in the first international esports competition, the three-day FIBA Esports Open 2020 held in June. The FIBA Esports Open has received substantial interest from its National Federation members 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 PS4 Game will be played remotely on NBA 2K21, using the Pro-AM mode. Teams are once again allowed to have full customization of player avatars, uniforms and arena designs.

Teams will be divided into one of the following conferences: Africa, North and Central America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia. Conferences have been set up according to geographical conditions and server distributions.

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. Finals will take place in the FIBA Esports Open II in all conferences, with a best of three format.

“The first-ever FIBA Esports Open was an important milestone. The growing interest received from our 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 Open, this 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.

Australia, Argentina, Italy, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia topped their respective conferences and emerged victorious among the 17 participating nations from around the world in June and will battle it out again in the coming months.

Source: fiba.basketball