With my favorite tournament officially underway, it was a pleasure seeing which teams made adjustments and which teams still can’t figure 5v5 out. THE TURN is the perfect mid-season measuring stick for what teams are good and which teams are bad. Our eventual 5v5 champion has always been a major part of this tournament going all the way back to Season 2. If you’re good here, you’re going to be good later. Now, the curse of no team winning a banner and the title still presses on, but who knows, maybe this will be the year it finally breaks. Let’s get into five things for 5v5!

 

1. The Eastern Conference is a Buzzsaw

The conferences have swapped roles and competitiveness multiple times since their inception and this year is no different. While the West is extremely top heavy with four teams dominating the line, the East is a mishmash of good offense/bad defense teams and bad offense/good defense teams creating enough chaos it would make your head spin. We have a good idea of who the “good” teams are. 76ers GC, Gen.G Tigers and NBL Oz have definitely established themselves as the top dogs, but even they aren’t perfect. 76ers GC were excellent on stage and won the TIPOFF, but have stumbled a bit to open up THE TURN with a 1-2 record. Gen.G and NBL both can have pretty ugly offensive stretches making them more beatable than they’d probably like to admit. That leaves the rest of the conference to figure it all out. Teams like Magic Gaming, NetsGC, Heat Check Gaming seem caught in this endless role switch. Who knows who will land in those last two playoff spots. This conference will chew you up and spit you out, whoever makes it out of the East this year should be proud.

 

2. The Silent Teams

This may be a bit of a random point, but it has been on my mind recently. We’ve seen players like Greenlight and Spam calling out the league social and broadcast teams for not featuring them enough in content and I tried giving it a good amount of thought as to why that is. I think it comes down to two things. Firstly, there are 25 teams. It’s hard to cover every player and team evenly, track storylines and narratives and keep people up to date on results and who is good and bad and… See how ridiculous that sentence got? It’s hard, but I also think some teams don’t lend themselves to coverage too well just due to a lack of, I guess the only word for it is electricity? This leads me to my second point – what is driving the season for teams? What’s the plot line to follow? The more obvious and clear it is, the easier it is for us to cover. Like Lakers Gaming for instance. We were hoping they’d be good this year, but they’ve fallen behind into a development year for the team. That’s totally fine, but not easy to cover. Just one example, but the best I can do. If you give us something to cover, we will cover it. If it’s just your usual gameplay with no electricity around it, it probably will fall by the wayside.

 

3. The Return of New York Basketball

Things were getting a bit worrisome there, but it seems like both Knicks Gaming and NetsGC have straightened things out a bit to start THE TURN.. Both went undefeated this week and looked very good while doing it. Greens has come alive with Steez at Center and Shotz at PF. It’s opened the floor a lot and he just seems more comfortable with the flow of everything. Radiant is starting to carry some offensive water again. He’s been a slow starter the past two seasons, but he had his best week of the season so far and has Knicks Gaming in prime position to get out of Group Stage. Selfishly, I wanted these two teams to be good and duke it out this season. We are long past due a real, true New York City rivalry. Maybe we will get it this season.

 

4. Does there need to be fewer 5v5 games?

Another hot topic on Twitter this week was the idea that we don’t play enough 5v5 games and that the 3v3 season is too long. I think this is a complicated issue, so let’s break down both sides of it.

 

First things first, this season most closely mimics Season 2 in 2019. Every team back then played 16 games and the better teams played more games by going deeper into tournaments and playoffs. Back then though, every team played on stage so every game felt a little more intense, but the pure amount of games is similar. This season, every team will play a minimum of 13 games, fewer than Season 2, but the premise is the same. The better you are, the more games you play. For the viewers, this is probably better because it means less watching the bad teams. For reference, T-Wolves Gaming have played 21 games, 76ers GC have played 20, and Gen.G have played 17. The best teams are playing the most games, the strategy is technically working. 

 

My opinion: I like the 5v5 format, but I would also like more 5v5. I’m stuck in the middle. I think the answer is more things like we saw this weekend with Wiz DG vs. Celtics Crossover in the Corridor Cup. 5v5 games put on by teams for money outside the league is a good placeholder for lost games.They may not count towards the season, but it still may work.

 

Secondly, I’ve said already in the recaps I thought the 3v3 season had too many games. I was talking to someone on an NBA 2K League team and we were again referencing just how many games teams had to play. T-Wolves Gaming played 148, Pistons GT with 138, CLTX had 130, Kings Guard had the least and it was still 81 3v3 games. It’s a lot, I feel like there is a middle ground for all of this that will make everyone happy. It’s very difficult to do within the current six-month season structure that we have, so I wonder if that’s what changes first. The league is always changing and evolving. I expect it to continue to do so.

 

5. More Weekend Games!

We need more causal games on the weekends! The one-off games that were live all weekend were awesome. They all had their own style based on the team broadcasting, who was behind the mic, how much was at stake, where the game was located, etc. It was a really fun and refreshing take on the esport that I hope really takes off. Creating things like the Southwest Showdown or the Corridor Cup – these are good events that create legacies and memorable moments that help carry the league into the next generation. Not to mention, it gives us a chance to engage with fans in multiple different cities at once! Did you hear the crowds at the games on Saturday? There were audible fans in D.C, Minnesota, and Dallas and the games were all within two hours of each other! That’s the damn dream right there! That’s what makes this league special. Our fan base may be smaller than some esports, but we are mighty. We show up for events. The events just have to hit the right cities with proper time warning. I think the next generation of the league will be a bit more traveling circus and team broadcast based. The goal would be to get fans involved and in seats and let them see the real product of this league which is in-person competitive pro gaming produced at a high level. We’re getting closer and closer everyday. I’m proud of the league for this weekend.