D’Andre Forbes, team manager of the Jamaica basketball e-national team, said they hope to follow in the footsteps of the men’s senior team when they make their debut in in the eFIBA North America Pre-Qualifiers.
Jamaica, making their first-ever appearance in the international gaming competition, have been drawn in Group B, alongside the Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic and Guatemala.
Forbes said this is an exciting milestone for the nation and they are ready to compete against the best in the region.
He admitted they are unaware of how they measure up against the more experienced national teams who have competed in the tournament before.
Forbes is, however, confident they can give a strong performance as the team contains several of Jamaica’s top-ranked basketball gamers.
“We will have to see when the competition time comes. We’re new to this region. We’re one of the two teams that are new to the region and we weren’t even placed in the same zone so we’ll be playing against experienced players,” he said.
“Our team members have been working with each other. A few of the top ranked players in the country make up the team so we’ll look to see how well we can do when it comes to the competition.”
FORMAT
The eFIBA Pre-Qualifiers are the first step in Jamaica’s road to the eFIBA World Championships.
The top three teams from each group will advance to the regional qualifiers, where they will compete for the top spot.
The winners of the North America Qualifiers will then move on to the World Championships which will be held in Qatar.
Forbes is hopeful a successful pre-qualifiers campaign can bring a huge boost to the gaming community.
He is hopeful the team can build on Jamaica’s progress in the sport, months after the men’s senior team advanced to the FIBA Americas Qualifiers for the first time in history.
The JamRockerz had topped off their campaign with history-making back-to-back wins against Puerto Rico.
“We really want to piggy-back on the progress that we have been making as a country in basketball competition. We want to be involved in more basketball-oriented competitions,” Forbes explained.
“The players are aware of what it means to the country, what it means to them and what it means to everyone interested in Jamaican basketball.”
He believes this could bring a new wave of excitement in Jamaica’s gaming community and said they are in conversations to host local tournaments to build on the e-national team’s strength for the future.
“Next year, we are considering a lot more local tournaments to push, to motive and to let people know that this is a way that they can represent the country.
eFIBA is the official esports basketball competition organised by FIBA, where national basketball federations from around the world compete for the prestigious World Championship title. The tournament is played on the NBA 2K video game, using the version specific to the year of the competition. Each match follows a 5v5 format in PRO-AM mode, with players controlling their personalized avatars.
The pre-qualifiers are set to begin on January 23.
