Pistons GT Awarded No. 5 Selection In First Round Of Upcoming NBA 2K League Draft
DETROIT, Mich. – The NBA 2K League held its first NBA 2K League Draft Lottery today as it prepares for the upcoming season and the Pistons Gaming Team (Pistons GT) was awarded with the No. 5 selection in the first round of this year's NBA 2K League Draft.
In the non-weighted draft lottery, each team had an equal chance to receive the first overall pick. The lottery was conducted by drawing ping-pong balls in random order from the official ball machine used for the NBA Draft Lottery. Every team had one ping-pong ball, featuring its logo, in the machine.
The drawing process occurred in the following manner: All 17 balls were placed in the lottery machine and mixed for 20 seconds; then the first ball was removed. The remaining balls were mixed in the lottery machine for another 15 seconds, and then the second ball was drawn. The same process was repeated for the remainder of the ping-pong balls until all 17 had been drawn.
The draft order for the first round was revealed on the league's Twitter account, @NBA2KLeague, beginning with pick 17 and counting down to the first pick.
"We're excited to begin the historic first season of the NBA 2K League and all of us associated with the Pistons Gaming Team (Pistons GT) are prepared to get this exciting season underway," said Mike Donnay, Vice President of Brand Networks for the Detroit Pistons. "We look forward to learning more about the draft candidates as we finalize our draft board."
The inaugural NBA 2K League Draft will take place on Wednesday, April 4 at 1 p.m. ET in The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden's Lobby in New York. The draft will consist of six rounds with each team selecting six players and will be snake order, with the order of picks reversing after each round. For instance, the team with the first overall pick will have the last pick of the second round, the first pick of the third round and so on. Given Pistons GT first round draft position and the subsequent snake order – Pistons GT will have selections No. 5, No. 30, No. 39, No. 64, No. 73 and No. 98 in the upcoming draft. The 102 players available in the draft will have been selected by the league following an extensive tryout process that began in January.
Pistons GT is one of 17 franchises participating in the inaugural season of the NBA 2K League, a professional esports league featuring the best NBA 2K players in the world. The NBA 2K League is the first official esports league operated by a U.S. professional sports league. According to Newzoo, by 2020 the esports industry is expected to grow to $1.5 billion worldwide while the audience for esports is expected to reach 385 million in 2017, including 191 million dedicated enthusiasts and 194 million occasional viewers.