On the hardcourt, three on three has gotten a lot of attention and basketball esports isn’t far behind. Rallying on the snowball of popularity, gamers pitch in to the 3×3 craze.

The NBA 2K League, the popular video game franchise’s professional esports branch, just recently announced a trio of 3v3 events for the NBA 2K, all sponsored by crypto currency trading and exchange platform Coinbase.

The Steal Open, one of the tournaments set off in this movement, is also hosting a qualifying series for teams from the Philippines, Korea, and Australia. This is rather great news for Filipinos who are known to be avid fans of both basketball and esports.

The Steal Open APAC Qualifiers will begin on June 22 and will be played with 3v3 Pro-Am rules. Players interested must be 18 years old or older to register, and registration closes on Sunday, 19^th of June. NBA Australia has already produced a teaser trailer for the game, which has piqued the interest of both basketball fans and sports gamers alike, fans worldwide.

The cash prize will be a cool $2,500, or around P133,000. Plus, the winning team will get a ticket to the US to face off against pro 2K League teams in the Coinbase Steal Open.

Professional and amateur gamers compete against one another in organized video gaming events or tournaments that result in championships at regional and worldwide levels. The rapidly rising phenomenon of eSports (electronic sports) continues to gain traction, as the combination of gaming and sports provides millions of people around the world an innovative wave of branding opportunities, compelling content, and activations.

Global audience and reach of eSports today

In the next few years, eSports’ ease of accessibility will undoubtedly attract a larger following. The number of eSports fans and casual spectators reached just about 400 million in 2019. By 2024, at the present rate of growth, there will be over 285 million regular eSports viewers and 291.6 million occasional spectators globally. Battle royale games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone are among the most popular among eSports players and spectators.

Significant monetization of games: money made in eSports

Official eSports tournaments are able to provide big payouts for the finest players in the globe due to the immense popularity of games like these around the world. In the first half of 2021, the total prize pool for global Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions was about $8 million, with total eSports prize pools expected to climb much more in the next few years.

The top players in the world are able to make a livelihood from video games as a result of the increasing money in the market, something that would have been inconceivable in previous decades. Johan Sundstein of Denmark, commonly known as N0tail, is one of the top players in the world, with revenues in the millions of euros thanks to his success in the online battle arena game Dota 2.

There is obviously a lot to expect with the rise of sports based games entering the eSports arena as individual sports have a massive following on their own.