NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donohue responds to corruption allegations

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NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donohue has responded after the qualification for the league was shrouded in controversy.

The league had a very open tryout process which meant any player who picked up 50 wins during the January qualifiers. There were 72,000 applicants who were then whittled down to just 250 players who would move on to the next evaluation phase.

However, problems quickly ensued when a conversation leaked between Anthony Muraco, the general manager of Cavs Legion (the 2K team of the Cleveland Cavaliers), and NBA 2K player Mr Stylez.

The NBA 2K League was hit with controversy as players alleged the qualification was rigged

The conversation showed Mr Stylez, who is a popular streamer and has been successful at previous tournaments, had not recieved an email. However, Muraco denied that - saying Stylez was in the group of emails before saying he would let him 'get snubbed like that.'

This caused a conspiracy theory that the skill of players didn't matter, the 2K League knew what players it wanted from the very start.

Donohue denied this was the case, saying that Stylez and a few other players had simply not received his email yet was always meant to be in the final group. 

He goes on to say that some fantastic players did not make the cut because there just were not enough spots. The statement says every player was judged on four factors: advanced statistics, consistency of gameplay, matchmaking rating and drop rates/stats from dropped games.

You can understand why players are so upset as there is a lot at stake. Every player who makes it into the league is guaranteed at least $32k (£23k) salary over six months and the actual league has a prize pool of $1million (£723k).