Through a post on the official PlayStation blog, Sony announced a new partnership with the Electronic Sports League to launch PlayStation Tournaments.
The new feature for the PlayStation 4 allows players to search and sign up for competitions that will be organized by the ESL. PlayStation Tournaments will initially support 1-on-1 games, but John Koller, Sony vice president of brand marketing for PlayStation, hinted that games featuring more players will be supported in the future through upcoming enhancements.
The first competition under PlayStation Tournaments will be for NBA 2K17, which will come just in time to celebrate the start of a new season of the basketball league.
PlayStation 4 gamers interested in participating in the NBA 2K17 tournament will need to have their own copy of the game, an active PlayStation Plus membership and an account with the ESL. Players who do not yet have an ESL account will be assisted to create one during the registration process.
The Major Tournament for NBA 2K17 will run from Oct. 27 to Nov. 26, with Major Cup rounds to take place every Saturday. The top three players for the Major Tournament will receive prize packs that include a DualShock 4 controller, other PlayStation gear and much more.
The games in the NBA 2K17 tournament will feature traditional games of one player going up against another player, with each controlling separate teams. The games will not be held in the MyPark or 2K Pro-Am modes.
The signup process for the NBA 2K17 Major Tournament has already launched. Once a player has signed up for the tournament, the PlayStation 4 system will send out reminders on when the matches assigned to the player will take place. Live tournaments can be found in the Events section of the PlayStation 4 system menu, where the details of the tournament will be shown.
There are still certain questions surrounding the NBA 2K17 Major Tournament, specifically on whether the teams will be randomized or how players can select the teams that they choose. It will be interesting to see how the Electronic Sports League polices this, as without a restriction, most players might be selecting the Golden State Warriors. More details will likely be released as the Oct. 27 tournament start draws near.
More games will be featured in PlayStation Tournaments in the near future, including Project CARS and Mortal Kombat X. European PlayStation 4 owners, meanwhile, can already sign up in tournaments for NBA 2K17, FIFA 17, WRC 5 and Project CARS.
