Wild Card
Let's talk Basketball, well digital basketball that is. NBA 2K20 to be specific. I've been a devoted 2K player for years. As a huge basketball fan it's great to have a game that facilitate my hooping needs. This game series is massively popular and always does monster sales numbers. If you aren't familiar with the franchise it offers multiple modes which have spawned competitive scenes of their own. For example there is an entire league for 2K itself. These gamers are under contract much like real players which is fitting because the 2K leagues teams are direct affiliates of their NBA counterparts.
Another example of competitive play is from the MyPlayer mode, tons of youtubers have made careers off of MyPlayer videos and pro-am content. MyPlayer is a game mode in which you make a player of your choice and are drafted by an NBA team, you play through NBA seasons and upgrade your player. Once you get your player's overall (rating) up you can attempt to play Park Modes. These are against other gamers with their custom built player. Park is notorious for being full of hardcore players. Pro-am allows you to take teammates you meet in Park as a team of 5 against others online. I personally am not a fan of these modes, they are extremely frustrating for someone who doesn't have a massive amount of time to devote to grinding their players skills up to a serviceable level.
There is also a mode in which you play as an NBA General Manager and run a team but we'll skip over that seeing as how it is painfully boring to most people. I enjoy having the power of GM but I also enjoy playing the actual games as well. This is why I mainly play MyTeam. This game mode is the best of both worlds. You collect player cards from all times in the NBA to build a team that you can play several game modes with. Your objective is to build the strongest team possible, the players are classified by gem colors, this site breaks down the tiers, keep in mind it's visuals are outdated.
"They are 10 card tiers. 4. Amethyst (90-92 Ratings)
Above shows special "evo" cards. These players can be upgraded after completing certain challenges like "score 800 points". This was a new feature added this year, one that many people loved. Another addition to MyTeam this year was called position lock. This caused problems among the community. As the name implies it locks players into specific positions. Last year the shortest player on my starting team was 6'9 seeing as most of my players were forwards. Needless to say this limited who could play where. For example I would love to use Tracy McGrady as my point guard since he is 6'8 with amazing ball handling, speed, and shooting but alas I can't. 2K angered fans even further by releasing "glitched" and "out of position" cards. As you can guess they are players who play at strange positions. One card I own from this series is Galaxy Opal Hedo Turkoglu. While I was outraged at them giving the option to have a 6'10 demigod as point guard, after I played with the card I stopped complaining. Hedo has been a 2K favorite of mine for years and using him to bully people in online 3v3 mode is satisfying. Since then they have released cards up to 7 foot tall that can play point guard. This was a smart way to exploit position lock because people spent tons of money on packs trying to pull these cards so they can stay competitive. I never spend money on 2k so that does make it harder for me to keep up but I still have a fantastic 3v3 team and regular team as well. I've been trying to break the system by building a team similar to last year, my team is a 6'10 PG, a 6'6 SG, a 6'11 SF, a 7'0 PF, and a 7'7 C. I have a massive lineup which is my metaphorical middle finger to position lock.
While I can play competitively online due to my skill and team a lot of people cannot because of cheese. No not the dairy product, "cheese" is a term for techniques that are borderline cheating. I can say I'm guilty of doing but sometimes it's necessary. A good example of cheese is "off-balling" this is when you let the a.i. players on your team guard the ball handler on the opposing team. I don't blame people for off-balling. My team is full of fast giants so I can see why it might be hard to clamp them up. As much as I complain about this game mode I'm sure I'll keep playing it every year due to my sheer love of basketball. Below is a photo of my current team.
Another example of competitive play is from the MyPlayer mode, tons of youtubers have made careers off of MyPlayer videos and pro-am content. MyPlayer is a game mode in which you make a player of your choice and are drafted by an NBA team, you play through NBA seasons and upgrade your player. Once you get your player's overall (rating) up you can attempt to play Park Modes. These are against other gamers with their custom built player. Park is notorious for being full of hardcore players. Pro-am allows you to take teammates you meet in Park as a team of 5 against others online. I personally am not a fan of these modes, they are extremely frustrating for someone who doesn't have a massive amount of time to devote to grinding their players skills up to a serviceable level.
There is also a mode in which you play as an NBA General Manager and run a team but we'll skip over that seeing as how it is painfully boring to most people. I enjoy having the power of GM but I also enjoy playing the actual games as well. This is why I mainly play MyTeam. This game mode is the best of both worlds. You collect player cards from all times in the NBA to build a team that you can play several game modes with. Your objective is to build the strongest team possible, the players are classified by gem colors, this site breaks down the tiers, keep in mind it's visuals are outdated.
"They are 10 card tiers. 4. Amethyst (90-92 Ratings)
1. Galaxy Opal (99 Rating Only) 5. Ruby (87-89 Ratings)
2. Pink Diamond (97-98 Ratings) 6. Sapphire (84-86 Ratings)
3. Diamond (93-94 Ratings) 7. Emerald (80-83 Ratings)
8. Gold (75-79 Ratings)
9. Silver (70-74 Ratings)
10. Bronze (69 and below Ratings)"
Above shows special "evo" cards. These players can be upgraded after completing certain challenges like "score 800 points". This was a new feature added this year, one that many people loved. Another addition to MyTeam this year was called position lock. This caused problems among the community. As the name implies it locks players into specific positions. Last year the shortest player on my starting team was 6'9 seeing as most of my players were forwards. Needless to say this limited who could play where. For example I would love to use Tracy McGrady as my point guard since he is 6'8 with amazing ball handling, speed, and shooting but alas I can't. 2K angered fans even further by releasing "glitched" and "out of position" cards. As you can guess they are players who play at strange positions. One card I own from this series is Galaxy Opal Hedo Turkoglu. While I was outraged at them giving the option to have a 6'10 demigod as point guard, after I played with the card I stopped complaining. Hedo has been a 2K favorite of mine for years and using him to bully people in online 3v3 mode is satisfying. Since then they have released cards up to 7 foot tall that can play point guard. This was a smart way to exploit position lock because people spent tons of money on packs trying to pull these cards so they can stay competitive. I never spend money on 2k so that does make it harder for me to keep up but I still have a fantastic 3v3 team and regular team as well. I've been trying to break the system by building a team similar to last year, my team is a 6'10 PG, a 6'6 SG, a 6'11 SF, a 7'0 PF, and a 7'7 C. I have a massive lineup which is my metaphorical middle finger to position lock.
While I can play competitively online due to my skill and team a lot of people cannot because of cheese. No not the dairy product, "cheese" is a term for techniques that are borderline cheating. I can say I'm guilty of doing but sometimes it's necessary. A good example of cheese is "off-balling" this is when you let the a.i. players on your team guard the ball handler on the opposing team. I don't blame people for off-balling. My team is full of fast giants so I can see why it might be hard to clamp them up. As much as I complain about this game mode I'm sure I'll keep playing it every year due to my sheer love of basketball. Below is a photo of my current team.
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