One of the biggest reasons PS4 has proven so successful is that from the beginning, Sony doubled down on hardcore gamers. Yes the PS4 had media features and other related stuff but all Sony wanted to talk about and did talk about was games. Now, four years into its life cycle, Sony is continuing to double down on that strategy by announcing PlayStation Tournaments that’s sure to get the interest of, you guessed it, hardcore gamers.

John Koller, Vice President, PlayStation Brand Marketing, SIEA writes on the PlayStation Blog:

 We’re excited to announce that PlayStation is partnering with ESL to introduce Tournaments, a new PS4 feature that will allow players to participate in Tournaments with games that gamers want to play.

We’re kicking off the first Major tournament with NBA 2K17, to celebrate the beginning of the NBA season. The Major Tournament runs from October 27 to November 26, with Major Cup rounds occurring every Saturday. Top 3 winners of the NBA 2K17 Major Tournament will receive a prize pack that includes items such as a DualShock 4 and PlayStation gear.

If you’re interested in entering, signups open today. You’ll need a copy of NBA 2K17, a PlayStation Plus membership, and link an ESL account to register and compete. The registration process will prompt ESL account creation if you do not already have one.

Once tournaments are live, you can find them under Events on your PS4 system menu to view the details. Once you have signed up for a tournament, your PS4 will automatically prompt you when it is time to play your matches. There are many types of Tournaments and matches taking place, so check out the PlayStation Tournaments feature and compete!

Initially, Tournaments will support 1 on 1 matches, and we’ll continue to enhance the feature in the future. We’ll be kicking off more exciting tournaments in the future, so make sure to come back to PlayStation.Blog for the latest info! 

Gaming tournaments are slowly turning into a more mainstream event, thanks in part to ESPN which now regularly covers them. With PlayStation Tournaments, Sony is ensuring that PS4 is the place gamers will want to be by making participating in gaming tournaments an easy affair.

Also for those playing at home, ESL stands for Electronic Sports League – and yes, I had to look it up.

Discuss:

Does competitive gaming interest you?