A new force to be reckoned with is entering the Dallas metroplex and it’s sure to be a knockout — it’s called Mavs Gaming. Everyone is always concerned about what the next biggest thing will allude to — a peek into the future, the next chapter.
What is certainly on the rise for the sports industry is e-sports and its tech-savvy influence upon society. For the Dallas Mavericks, a new endeavor into the tech world has begun with the launch of Mavs Gaming- the official name of the Dallas NBA 2K League team. The NBA 2K League is a professional sports league allowing for the most elite of “gamers” in the world to compete against each other via the notorious basketball video and simulation game — NBA 2K.
Mavs Gaming features a field of five players who were selected from the League draft this past March of 2018.
Receiving the number one pick in the draft, Mavs Gaming selected Artreyo Boyd, who most “2Kers” refer to as “Dimez” (his gaming handle) or better yet, the 2K doppleganger of Lebron James. Boyd, who just last year won $250,000 in the 2017 NBA 2K League, now plays alongside five of his fellow selected team mates: Waseem Talbert (“BALLIKESEEM”), Jannis Neuman (“JLB”), Harry Hurst (“HAZZAUK2K”), Ryan de Villon (“DEVILLON”), and Ryan Conger (“DAYFRI”), to make up the roster
Since the start of the League’s season in April, the team has gone 4-2 and has traveled across the country to make appearances.
We caught up just recently with the Mavs Gaming superstars at a fan event held at Nebraska Furniture Mart on June 14, for a night to be “inspired” and watch these gamers do what they do best — game! The event highlighted a recent partnership between Mavs Gaming, BEDGEAR (a performance bedding company), and HyperX (a high-performance headgear company), allowing fans the chance to go up against the players themselves. To shed some light on eSports and Mavs Gaming, both Harry Hurst and Ryan De Villon (pictured above) answered some questions, exclusively for Inspire N Style.
Inspire N Style: Give us a background about what you do and what Mavs Gaming and the League means to you.
Ryan De Villon: “Mavs Gaming and the 2K League in general, is a once in a lifetime opportunity; it’s a big dream for a lot of people who have been playing this game for years and years. To finally get the chance to play this professionally and make a living off of it is incredible, and now that it is being backed by the NBA, there are so many resources being allocated to us and it is going to be a big thing for years to come.”
With this new partnership with HyperX and BEDGEAR, how will it affect the prosperity of the team and the future of Mavs Gaming?
Harry Hurst: Headsets play a major part [for] us in terms of gaming. You can hear a lot, communicate with your friends and teammates much clearer, and it’s quite useful for us in regard to better performance. When you are playing the game upwards of 10 hours a day, it’s certainly the little things that count and BEDGEAR helps with gaining a good night’s sleep and waking up refreshed. So, having these two sponsorships really helps us produce and game the best we can every single day.
Seeing as innovation and technology have certainly made an impact upon the sports industry, people are saying that e-sports are going to be the ‘new force to be reckoned with.’ Would you agree with this notion?
Villon: Definitely. E-sports is an upcoming industry, and though it is in its beginning stages and is on the rise right now, 5-10 years from now e-sports will definitely hold much more weight. There is talk about it becoming an olympic sport, and other leagues like the NHL for instance, are starting a league. It is sure to create a domino effect.
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