Basketball Ireland is swapping thoughts of court play for console play this week and has named its 6-man Ireland team for this week’s FIBA Esports Open III.
There is a crossover to the real-world game with Mick Curley, who plays basketball for Glasnevin and is a former Ireland U16 squad member, captaining Ireland’s esports side.
22-year-old Dubliner John DeLara plays NBA 2K internationally for Vendetta Gaming and has also been named in the side The five players who competed for Ireland in the FIBA Esports Open II last December retain their places – Mick Curley, Dale West, Eoghan Daly, Josh Stedman and Jack Tobin.
The FIBA Esports Open III has almost doubled in size, with 60 teams now competing worldwide. Ireland are competing in the Europe Conference ‘Current Gen’ competition and will play Estonia, Poland and Latvia in the group stage on Friday. The knockout stage, which is now a best-of-3 playoff series, takes place on Saturday and Sunday.
“I am delighted to be chosen to represent Ireland,” said DeLara. I watched the team compete at the last tournament and they were desperately unlucky not to emerge from the group stage. I am hoping that I can help us progress to the knockout stage.”
“We were unfortunate to miss out on a spot in the quarter-finals on points difference last time out, but it was a learning experience for all of us,” added Curley.
“We’ve been practising a lot more this time around and we have added another talented player to the team, so hopefully we can make a good run in this tournament.”
“The team is preparing well at the moment against strong international competition. The guys are more familiar with each other, having played together before and we’re excited to see how John’s addition gives us more depth and variety too. Having won a game in the last tournament, the team are hoping to go further this year and make the knockout stages.”
This tournament will also see Ireland’s team feature Hula Hoops on the team jersey. The long time partners of Irish basketball are supporting the esports team for the first time.
You can watch all of Ireland’s games on FIBA’s digital channels with live content being streamed across Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels.
We will have a report on how the team gets on in next Monday’s esports weekly, our new partnership with Legion esports Series
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