A special NBA 2K18 tournament is happening later this year and LPL has teamed up with Maori Television in order to broadcast it nationwide.  In this tournament, LPL will stage competitions in both the North Island and South Island to find the country's 16 best players at NBA 2K18.

It will be sudden death elimination and the event wil run for 8 weeks and all of the action will be shown live and free to air on Maori Television.  Incentives to win the tournament are pretty cool because it includes an impressive $15,000 prize pool with cash prizes. One lucky winner will get tickets for two to see an actual NBA game in the United States.

Online qualifiers start on July 21st and once eight finalists are selected, players will be flown to Auckland to compete in best-of-three playoffs each week. All of this will conclude in a grand final happening on September 30th with a live audience, special guests and more.

Duane Mutu, director at LPL, expects this year's tournament to be hugely popular. “The 2017 championship was a huge success. New Zealanders have a strong connection with basketball, and this was highlighted by the high level of talent we saw come through” Mutu says.

He expects only better things this year, as professional level esports continues to grow.

“We're pleased to continue our collaboration with the LPL team to bring a North Island vs. South Island NBA 2K18 esports tournament to New Zealand this year,” said Alfie Brody, VP of Marketing for NBA 2K. You need to be over 18 in order to participate in this tournament. For more information, you can click here to visit LPL's official website for additional details.