NPB to Launch Splatoon 2 Esports Series
The Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the premier baseball league in Japan, has announced that it will be launching a Splatoon 2 esports series in cooperation with Nintendo Co.
The Splatoon 2 esports series will begin in the spring of 2019 and will feature all 12 baseball teams from the NPB participating. The teams will sponsor the 12 teams in the Splatoon 2 league. Each team will consist of four players for a total of 48 people. Only teams who participated in the Fourth Splatoon Koshien district conference can apply for this event.
“The NPB esports series is a competition that aims at the development of the whole sports culture beyond baseball and adopts content that you can enjoy with confidence for a wide range of people,” according to official NPB Splatoon 2 series website.
The website also went on to add, “this tournament aims to improve the cultural liberal arts through the way the players are active in practicing and those who support them.”
If you are unfamiliar with what Splatoon 2 is, it is a team-based third-person shooter video game that was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen professional sports leagues get involved with esports. The National Basketball Association (NBA) has their own league with NBA 2K that features 17 teams that are owned by NBA franchises. Many European soccer clubs have esports teams like Manchester City F.C., Werder Bremen, and Villarreal C.F.
I think this will be interesting to keep an eye on because Nintendo has had a lot of success with Super Smash Bros. in esports, so it makes sense that they’d try for another game. The Splatoon series is a logical choice because of how highly competitive the gameplay is and how entertaining it can to be to watch as a spectator.
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