Knicks Gaming won the “Ticket” tournament. Yes, 15th-seeded Knicks Gaming rode a wave of upsets to claim $75,000 USD and an automatic spot in the NBA 2K League playoffs. How expected was this? In a bracket challenge run by NBA2kLab, an online NBA 2K analytics site and the official strategy partner of Pacers Gaming, a whopping 0.0146 per cent of entrants picked the Knicks to win it all. When the patch was first introduced, the question arose as to whether it was worth it to upend the narratives that the league had built in order to find some parity. Well, it seems worth it, because this tournament created a ton of lasting, indelible memories and an upset for the ages. It took out familiarity and substituted another feeling.
Insanity.
Knicks Gaming 75, Raptors Uprising GC 70: This loss looks a lot better for the Uprising in hindsight. RUGC squandered an eight-point lead after the first quarter. The team changed their lineup from Week 8’s successful outing in order to match up better with a frontcourt-heavy Knicks Gaming squad. Yusuf_Scarbz returned to the lineup and scored 23 points, AllHailTrey added 22 points, while Kenny chipped in 16 points and 10 assists. It wasn’t enough, though, as the Knicks finished with a plus-9 rebounding advantage, got a double-double from Goofy757, and most importantly saw iamadamthe1st explode for 33 points on 75 per cent shooting across the court. Iamadamthe1st averaged nearly 27 points over four games and won tournament MVP, Goofy757 never missed a double-double, and the Knicks rode momentum to a well-deserved, emotional victory. Hindsight, as well as the scoring of the iamadamthe1st/IdrisDaGoat duo in three games, is 20/20 or—for the Knicks Gaming duo—far more.
Uprising Forecast: The horizon darkens a little for the Uprising after they bowed out early to the eventual champions. With the 15th-place team locking up a playoff spot, only the top seven teams will qualify for the playoffs. Raptors Uprising, at 4-6, are 1.5 games back of a playoff spot with four games remaining. It’s likely they’ll need to win all four remaining games and get a little help due to their poor point differential. On tap are: Bucks Gaming, who upset 76ers GC in the first round of the “Ticket”; Cavs Legion GC, who bowed out to the Knicks in the semifinals; Grizz Gaming, who also enter the home stretch 4-6; and Heat Check Gaming, who are currently tied for the final playoff spot. The Uprising aren’t out of it, but they know well that they’ll need to play their very best to qualify.
Canada Watch: Mostly a rough tournament for Canadians. Besides Yusuf_Scarbz, 24K Dropoff and AuthenticAfrican were bounced from the “Ticket” in the first round. 24K Dropoff posted a well-rounded if small line of four points, steals and blocks apiece in a loss to Wizards District Gaming, while AuthenticAfrican recorded a customary double-double (19 points, 12 assists) in a big loss to Celtics Crossover Gaming. Devillon’s 14th-seeded Mavs Gaming won a game, as he scored four points in a start at power forward, but he recorded just six more in a second-round loss to Cavs Legion GC. Speedbrook and Celtics Crossover made it all the way to the final, but Speedbrook averaged just less than nine points in four games.
Upset Roll Call: Let’s set aside the Knicks and appreciate the multitude of upsets in this tournament. Fourteenth-seeded Mavs Gaming beat 3rd-seeded Pacers Gaming, which barely moved the needle on the Upset Scale. The Knicks’ upset of the Raptors was an impressive one in terms of seeding, but as the tournament showed not a miraculous one: the 3-7 Knicks beat Boo Painter and Wizards District Gaming in round two, shut down Hood (who had set a league-best scoring mark of 52 points in the previous game) in the semifinals before coming back to beat Fab and Celtics Crossover Gaming in the final. Far more tremor-worthy was Bucks Gaming’s opening-night defeat of 76ers GC, which I will maintain as one of the best defensive games of the season. 76ers GC cannot be feeling confident with a 1-2 record on the patch. The upset of the tournament, and the upset of the season, belongs to Kings Guard Gaming, who as the No. 17 seed won a play-in game to earn a meeting with top-ranked Blazer5. The two teams had engaged in a boot camp during the preceding week, playing from dawn till dusk. Kings Guard had not won a single game. So of course they shocked the entire league with a 69-63 win. The cause? The team shifted worthingcolt to point guard (he had played exclusively as a big man previously), opening the paint for Mootyy and throwing an unexpected offense at opponents.
What’s going to happen with the playoffs? Good question. With the sixteenth-ranked Knicks locking up a playoff spot, the top seven teams will qualify. The fifth-through-ninth teams are all 5-4. Celtics Crossover, who have two final game losses in tournaments, are tenth at 5-5, meaning the tenth-place team is all of two games behind the second-ranked team. There are no easy schedules remaining. Only the Pacers have six games left. Point differential may well come into play, which bodes well for Mavs Gaming (+55) and Wizards District Gaming (+29) and less well for Heat Check Gaming (-15) and Magic Gaming (-31). But we know point differential isn’t everything: Pistons GT, in third at 6-3, has a -33 differential, while last-place Warriors Gaming Squad is six points better at -27. As Knicks Gaming showed us once again, any game is winnable. Any team can lose any game.
Insanity.
