UCM Esports to Host Collegiate Tournament

WARRENSBURG, MO – University of Central Missouri Esports will host and participate in an NBA 2K21 Tournament beginning Thursday, Oct. 29. The tournament will feature 11 to 12 player teams and will run for approximately one month.

 

The tournament will consist of other collegiate esports teams at institutions across the country such as Old Dominion University and Barton University. The winning team will take home a $50 dollar cash prize and Game Fuel from sponsoring brand Mountain Dew.

 

The tournament was created by UCM Esports team captain and software engineering junior Michael Okuly, Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and fellow team captain and software engineering junior Jared Clapp, also of Pleasant Hill. With the help of The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), Okuly and Clapp were able to launch the tournament and supervise it as tournament administrators.

 

“We try to follow the NBA 2K League structure,” Clapp said, “There will be a team pool that will be for the preseason which will then regenerate with either the same pool or different pool at the start of the Round Robin tournament.”

 

A pre-season and tournament bracket is being sent out to participating collegiate teams. Collegiate esports teams participating in these brackets will face-off entirely online. Teams are expected to report their tournament results and standings through a Discord server that is dedicated to the tournament. Players can also record and screenshot issues or complaints they may have with the game they are playing, so the tournament administrators can then solve any disputes and resolve and problems in real-time through Discord. Teams participating in the tournament will follow rules, standards and guidelines developed by Clapp and Okuly.

 

Teams will have their players compete against other players on opposing teams in one-on-one rounds. Teams that win the most cumulative rounds are deemed the winner of that matchup and will advance on the bracket.

 

The conception of this tournament was in response to a lack of collegiate NBA 2K tournaments being held in the fall 2020 season. According to Okuly, “There were a lot of cancelations of tournaments due to COVID that got canceled and delayed again and again. Jared and I finally just took it into our own hands to start our own tournament, get some other schools involved and have some nice competition.”

 

More information regarding the tournament can be found on the UCM Esports' social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Games can also be watched live on Twitch at twitch.tv/ucmesports.

 

About the University of Central Missouri Esports Team:
University of Central Missouri Esports is a nationally recognized National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) organization. The team is rapidly growing with auditions open to students from any major. Currently, the UCM Esports team gaming line-up consists of Overwatch, Rocket League, League of Legends, Rainbow 6 Siege, NBA 2K, Super Smash Brothers and Valorant. For additional information, contact Head Coach Steven Shattuck at sshattuck@ucmo.edu or visit their website.