Magic Gaming Excited to Begin Inaugural NBA 2K League Regular Season
May 9, 2018
ORLANDO – “It’s a dream come true.”
“It’s surreal.”
“It’s a passion.”
“This is like make believe for me.”
“We feel we are top five talent.”
With the regular season of the inaugural NBA 2K League about to tip off later this week, those five remarks voiced by members of Magic Gaming most accurately tell the story.
Magic Gaming Director Ryan DeVos, team manager Christopher Toussaint and all six players are proud, eager, amazed, excited and confident.
While they all have unique tales to share as it relates to their life journeys and gaming resumes and despite assimilating just a few weeks ago with a goal of bringing a championship to Orlando, Magic Gaming is ready to embark on this innovative and remarkably exciting adventure.
“It’s pretty incredible,” DeVos said. “It’s amazing to actually get it off the ground and running. It’s really exciting that it’s finally here. It’s going to be a good one.”
Christopher “KontruL” Cantrell, the team’s point guard and first round draft pick, has always been a big gamer. He remembers playing Pokémon when he was 3 years old. But, he wasn’t always great at NBA 2K. In fact, Cantrell says he wasn’t even an average player when he first started playing the game and would lose games by 40, 50 points.
With incredible hard work and devotion, however, Cantrell transformed into one of the premier 2K players in the world.
“How I became better is I tried to get into the competitive gaming web sites such as GameBattles and I played against the better players in the world,” he said. “I also watched YouTube videos on how to get better. I’d sit in the practice mode on NBA 2K for three, four hours and I’d be playing the computers by myself. The score would be like 1,000 to 500 but I just would mindlessly play and I just enjoyed it. I didn’t think about how much I was playing. It’s a passion.”
Magic Gaming’s power forward and second round pick, Emmanuel “UCMANNY” Cruz, has also been playing video games nearly his entire life and vividly recalls playing Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo and Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis.
Never did he imagine, though, in his wildest dreams that an opportunity like this would come along. From New York, which is where the team will travel to each week to play against other NBA 2K teams, Cruz is extremely grateful.
“I never knew gaming would take me this far,” he said. “I have a 9-year-old son and he’s happy I’m in the league. He can tell all his friends that my dad can beat you in video games.”
Practices are rigorous. Before flying to New York for games throughout the season, which runs from early May to mid-August, the team will be in the practice studio Monday through Thursday for several hours a day. There, they will strategize, design plays and develop better chemistry.
On and off the virtual court, the team is having a blast bonding with one another. All six players are living under the same roof, and they all concur that Orlando is an awesome place to call home for these next several months.
“I’m in Orlando, this is literally my favorite spot to be at,” said small forward Bilal “SUPREME PULLER” Almashni, who was Magic Gaming’s third round draft selection. “I always said I wanted to live in Orlando. I’m from Chicago, so this is like make believe for me.”
“We all get along really well,” center Jorge “marley213s” Renteria added. “It’s a good experience. It’s a nice brotherhood.”
Tune in to Twitch.tv this Friday at 9 p.m. ET when Magic Gaming takes on Blazer5 Gaming in their first regular season game of the year.