NBA 2K League, the upcoming esports organization for the NBA 2K series, run by existing NBA franchises, announced today that it will be running its competitions on PC, exclusively.
Perhaps more intriguingly, the League also won’t be using the public-facing version of NBA 2K18. Instead, a new build is in development specifically for League use, which is being designed for a fair playing field. All officiated games will be played on this new build.
The NBA 2K League has partnered with Dell and Intel to use Alienware hardware for use in competition, and said hardware will also be supplied to team facilities. Games will be played on Alienware Aurora PCs, with Alienware-brand, 25-inch, 240 Hz monitors. This hardware is said in the announcement to be able to run the League build of NBA 2K18 at over 1080p and 60 frames per second, on the game’s ultra settings.
Oddly enough, the online qualifying events held by 2K Sports were held only on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. I imagine the PC exclusivity is due to both sponsorship, and in the interest of performance stability and fidelity for both the competitors and viewers. It also allows a bit more for custom controller use, rules notwithstanding.
All but one of the initial 17 teams are participating in this deal, being outfitted with the Alienware kits. One team, the Warriors Gaming Squad, is pursuing its own deals that it also seeks to apply to the franchise’s League of Legends team.
Source: Polygon