ASB is hosting an NBA 2K20 Tournament this month, with games taking place next week. Sign-ups for the tournament will be closed on Friday.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and cases rising exponentially, many schools have been unable to reopen for the first semester, and Hoover’s sports events have been put on an indefinite hiatus until further notice.

Despite all the concerning issues, Hoover’s ASB is looking for ways to overcome the limits of this pandemic. One idea is through the NBA 2K Tournament, where each player has to play with a regular team only, and find out who is the best 2K player at Hoover.

“I’m pretty excited for this tournament,” Dino Azadians, a Hoover student and participant in the tournament, said. “I’m assuming that the NBA 2K tournament is about playing 2K matches and competing for a prize. I haven’t played 2K in a while, but I am hoping for the best.”

One of the most important rules of this tournament is that the players will have to select regular teams in the tournament to play, which means NBA legends like Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan cannot be allowed in any of the teams.

The tournament is single-elimination, so if a player loses one game, that player will be eliminated from the tournament.

“I think this 2K tournament is about bringing some fun and enjoyment for students at home while also giving them an opportunity to show off what they spend a lot of their time doing,” Daniel Simon, a participant, said. “It is a good way to get students excited and involved. I spend a lot of my free time playing video games and 2K in particular, so it is cool to have a tournament with my fellow students to show off my skills.”

The winner of the 2K tournament from Hoover will receive a $50 gift card as their reward.

NBA 2K20 launched on September 5th, and had the biggest launch of any sports video game, surpassing FIFA 20, Madden 20, and NHL 20, according to data from the NPD. The NBA 2K series is the sixth-best-selling video game franchise in history, passing the Guitar Hero series.

The NBA 2K series has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, and has made over $90 million worldwide. The next entry in the series, NBA 2K21, is expected to release sometime in late 2020 for $59.99, and will appear on next-generation consoles, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, as well as current-generation consoles, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Pre-orders are currently available.