UPDATE (December 6th 2019): The NBA 2K League has announced the event will take place at the Gfinity Arena in Fulham Broadway, London.
Scrimmages will get underway on December 13th from 4pm to 7.30pm; the double-elimination tournament will be hosted on December 14th from 10am to 8pm.
Original article (published November 20th 2019): The NBA 2K League European Invitational, the league’s first-ever qualifying event in Europe, will take place on Friday December 13th to Saturday 14th in London.
The two-day event will identify several elite players from Europe who will become eligible for the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft.
The NBA 2K League European Invitational will feature 20 players from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Turkey and the UK competing over two days of gameplay, including scrimmages, a double-elimination tournament and interviews.
The NBA 2K League identified players for the event through the NBA 2K League Combine, NBA 2K community Pro-Am tournaments and historical performances in NBA 2K events.
“We are excited to bring together the best NBA 2K players from across Europe for our first-ever European qualifying event,” said NBA 2K League MD Brendan Donohue.
“Building on the success of last season’s APAC Invitational, which identified several draft-eligible players from the Asia‑Pacific region, it is important for us to further strengthen our player pool by providing more opportunities for top international players to qualify for the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft.”
Brendan Donohue, NBA 2K League
The double-elimination tournament on December 14 will be livestreamed on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels. At the end of the European Invitational, a committee comprised of league representatives and team managers will identify several players who will become eligible for the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft.
NBA 2K League representatives who will serve as scouts at the European Invitational include Pacers Gaming Senior Director of Esports Operations and Head Coach Cody Parrent, 76ers GC Head Coach and 2019 NBA 2K League Coach of the Year Jeff Terrell, and Knicks Gaming center Harry “HazzaUK” Hurst (from the UK).
Three European players have competed in the NBA 2K League: the UK’s Harry Hurst, Jamie ‘vGooner’ Bull and Germany’s Jannis ‘JLB’ Neumann.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
