The NYU Abu Dhabi Athletics Department announced on Sept. 9 that they are sending teams to play NBA 2K at the Abu Dhabi Inter-University Sports League this fall. This is not the first time esports is being played at ADISL, nor is it NYUAD’s first time sending a team. In 2017, a similar attempt was made with FIFA, but participation in the league subsided owing primarily to a lack of central organization. This year, however, with rising interest in esports amid the Covid-19 pandemic, NYUAD is both hosting the league and participating in it. The league commenced on Sept. 18, when two NYUAD teams — “Curry” and “Big Baller Boys” — played their first game against each other.

Over the past week, an internal selection tournament was held to determine three men’s and three women’s teams, each consisting of three players. As an insufficient number of female players have signed up, the women’s teams are yet to be determined. The three men’s teams representing NYUAD are as follows:

NYUAD 1 “Free Agents”: Josh Oyos, Nahom Molla, Youssef Abdelhamid

NYUAD 2 “Curry”: Ayaan Shah, Abdul Kamran, Navya Suri

NYUAD 3 “Big Baller Boys”: Arb Mehmeti, Ewan Lewis, Matthew Jagdeo

Other universities currently competing in the ADISL NBA 2K league are UAE University, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi University and Khalifa University.

League play will involve a round-robin stage followed by the playoffs. In accordance with the official rulebook, qualifying matches will be played on Superstar difficulty with five minutes allotted per quarter. Players will not be allowed to pick the same team as their opponent, and both will have to choose from the 30 current National Basketball Association teams. The top three teams at ADISL will compete in the national Higher Education Sports Federation league and possibly in international intercollegiate events.

Jim McGrath, Head Basketball Coach and Intramural Sports and Campus Recreation Manager at NYUAD, took the initiative to organize the league so students could engage with competitive sports in spite of the restrictions imposed on physical sports. He believes that esports will allow the Athletics Department to reach out to a higher proportion of the student body.

“As it is now, without PE, we’re close to 45 percent or so of students actively participating in something we do, so I’m hoping to bump that to over 50 percent,” McGrath explained.

The organizing team stated that their biggest challenges are students’ lack of access to consoles as well as restrictions on cross-platform play. They are looking into more accessible games for future leagues. Some of the titles under consideration are League of Legends, FIFA and Mario Kart.

PAUSED, a Student Interest Group centered around gaming, are currently working together to plan esports events for the NYUAD community.

League schedules for future games can be found on the ADISL Instagram page.