Photo: FIBA

COPENHAGEN/MIES (Denmark/Switzerland) – FIBA and ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) today announced the launch of the inaugural season of FIBA’s official NBA® 2K23 tournament: eFIBA Season 1.

From January 20, 30 National Federations from across the globe will be fighting for glory in the first eFIBA Season 1 on NBA2K23 using the Pro-Am game mode. eFIBA has had three successful editions of FIBA Esports Open in 2020 and 2021 and Season 1 has now been launched across social media.

“We are excited about the upcoming tip-off of the eFIBA Season 1, FIBA’s eBasketball tournament on NBA2K23, and our collaboration with EFG,” said FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis. “These upcoming seven tournaments will provide National Federations with the opportunity to compete against the best eBasketball national teams in the world, building on the momentum created from the FIBA Esports Open events in 2020 and 2021.” 

“The NBA2K community and game is in the top 3 sports game titles globally,” said Roger Lodewick, President Sports games at EFG. “We’re therefore thrilled to start this long-term cooperation with FIBA and develop and serve the eFIBA community. It will enable us to complement the NBA2K offering with competitive national team eBasketball and provide the community with bold and entertaining online and in-person events at our DreamHack events.” 

eFIBA Season 1 consists of seven online regional events across the four FIBA Regions of Europe, Americas, Asia and Africa.

Regional Qualifiers
   • eFIBA 2023 Qualifiers Asia – January 20
   • eFIBA 2023 Qualifiers Africa – January 21 
   • eFIBA 2023 Qualifiers Europe – January 22

Regional Finals
   • eFIBA 2023 Finals Asia (Middle East & South East Asia) – January 24
   • eFIBA 2023 Finals Africa – January 24
   • eFIBA 2023 Finals Americas (North & South America) – January 25 
   • eFIBA 2023 Finals Europe – January 25

A total of 30 National Federations are divided into six conferences and will be competing for the title of Conference Champions.

Photo: FIBA

Each National Federation is represented by a team of a minimum of five players, each playing their own personal in-game avatar.

Several of the FIBA Esports Open 2021 champions are participating in Season 1 and the tournaments will be all about national pride as the very best players from each nation fight it out on the digital court to gain glory for their own country.

All the action will be available on the eFIBA_official channels on TwitterInstagram and TikTok and can be followed on each regional event website in Africa, the Americas (North and South), Asia (Middle East & South East Asia) and Europe. Broadcasts will be live on Twitch and YouTube via FIBA.