From Sep. 11 to Sep. 19, faculty intramural director Brad Legant hosted an NBA 2K20 tournament as a way of keeping students connected through video games in the midst of a pandemic. 

There were two tournaments: one for XBox and one for PS4 (Playstation 4). Each tournament was further divided into two brackets. There was a lower bracket for underclassmen and an upper bracket for upperclassmen. The winner of each won a $25 Amazon gift card. 

The PS4 upper-bracket tournament winner was junior Vincent Sampson. Sampson explained, “I was not worried at all when entering the tournament. I knew that I was going to win this tournament easily, and I was feeling very motivated after last year’s first round exit because a lot of people were clowning me for that.”

He continued, “I knew my performance last year didn’t reflect how good of a 2K player I am because I got the game two days before the tournament and was not very familiar with the mechanics of the game yet. and that I performed the best in the tournament with the Milwaukee Bucks.”

The winner of the Xbox upper bracket was another junior, Ian Brown. 

Brown said, “My initial thought was that I wanted to win [the tournament]and win money. The team I played with during the tourney was the Bucks. And the closest game I had was in the final against James Sullivan. It was a very positive experience.” 

Both Sampson and Brown picked the Milwaukee Bucks, which allowed them to play with a virtual version of two time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

Antetokounmpo has been a very dominant player both in real life and in the video game. It makes sense that the two winners used one of the best players in NBA 2K20, and more students will be looking forward to using him in the next tournament.