Basketball 23–24 Season Update
🏀The 23–24 season of the EuroLeague is set to launch very soon, and along with the first ever full UC basketball season starting there will be some exciting updates to the basketball gameplay and rewards!
But first of all, the most important part of a new season: the 23–24 Basketball Ultimate Cards.
Introducing the 23-24 Basketball Ultimate Cards
✨ Flashy enough to match the energy of the sport, but still super clean — this is some of the hottest cards in UC yet! (if we do say so ourselves)
Get your hands on some of the first mints with the first new cards arriving VERY SOON!
And yes, this means there are Holders First Program airdrops on the way for Champs that have at least 100 Collection Score of Basketball cards!😉
📖23–24 Season Framework
Jumping into the new season there will be a new set of regular tournaments and rewards to expect, with a similar format to the 23–24 Football update, but with some key difference. The update features:
- More Tournaments and Divisions
- Significantly increased total reward pool
- MGC rewards and store
Stacking penalties will continue to NOT be applied to Basketball, as there has not been a clear need in Basketball simply due to differences in the sport.
You can complete the small survey HERE to share your feelings about the changes, to ensure we are heading in a direction that the community agrees with. 3 Lucky Champs who complete the survey will receive a random Epic basketball card! The proposed plan is subject to change before the new season, depending on your response!
🏆Tournaments and Divisions
Tournaments
When both leagues have ONE fixture in a week (which is most weeks) they will be combined into a single gameweek. In gameweeks that the EuroLeague has TWO fixtures in a single week, there will be two gameweeks - one with both leagues (Tuesday/Wednesday), and one with only EuroLeague (Thursday/Friday).
The tournaments are similar to last season, with the key differences being:
- One tournament for each League guaranteed each gameweek (last season generally had one or the other)
- A permanent Underdogs tournament
- A lower point cap in league tournaments
A few notes on the reasoning behind these choices:
- Point caps — Basketball was the first sport with the point cap, and a standard has already been set with the 1400 point cap in global which we did not feel a strong reason to change. This also means that the point cap does not change between divisions.
- EuroLeague/EuroCap point cap — While we are generally happy with the point cap in Ultimate Champions/Global, a common feeling has been that it is so high that it is not a strong limitation. We think a good solution to this is to offer the EuroLeague and EuroCup tournaments at a reduced cap; this will give a wider range of athletes value without needing to change the Global tournament. Strategically build your league teams, before going all out in the combined flagship tournament!
- Underdogs — While Football received a permanent Allstars, the high cap in Basketball Ultimate Champions leaves more room to include Underdogs over an uncapped tournament.
Divisions and Division Requirements
The tournaments will follow a similar format to Football with varied divisions per tournament, starting with entry level league tournaments and peaking with the flagship Ultimate Champions.
While the formula is similar to Football, the exact divisions and division requirements have been redesigned exclusively for Basketball. This is because in addition to the sports simply being different the different team size makes for a very different progression through tournaments, and there are still far less Basketball cards available overall as UC Basketball is only just entering its first full season.
- All tournaments are full court 8 athlete teams — due to the smaller team size and only having 2 nationals to chose from the Beginner league divisions should be easy for new players to get into without needing a downsize
- World class has boosted rewards compared to Football, as the new Basketball top tier Division (for now)
Tournament Divisions
Division Requirements
Why no Legends? The smaller team size means that there is less difference between divisions, and World Class can already fill the role of absolute top end gameplay with only Mythics or higher allowed. Additionally, with less Champs owning Uniques and less total cards distributed, it also makes more sense to aim for a lower barrier to entry for now — thus we opted for World Class which does not have the required Unique. Divisions will be re-adjusted in the future as the sport progresses.
Rewards
Tournament rewards will be changed to the newer format, with random card rewards being replaced by MGC rewards and permanent packs in the MGC store to choose from.
Sports will share the same rewarded positions format for both MGC and CHAMP (podiums, top 5, and percentage positions). There has been some discussion and feedback around this format recently, and if the format is changed both sports will be updated. Basketball has slightly scaled down rewards compared to Football to account for the smaller team size which in turn means a smaller investment required — which is the same as it was last season.
💰Between the additional tournaments, divisions and updated $Champ rewards, Basketball will receive a HUGE boost to rewards compared to last season!
Tournament Reward Scaling
The rewards are adjusted based on the tournament, to account for the prestige of the tournament and the investment required.
📓 While the EuroLeague is a tier above EuroCup, there is not as much of a significant difference in level of professionalism or average scores between the leagues as we have seen in some Football leagues. We do still believe that the better known athletes competing at a higher level of play should offer more returns; however this is already inherently true — as EuroLeague teams will play 34-43 fixtures this season, while EuroCup teams play 18–26.
League Rewards
League rewards will also be updated to match Football. While there is less MGC rewarded compared to last season, this is offset by MGC being more useful and the addition of the “Beginner” tournament divisions, which allows even new players to enter multiple tournaments with only commons — resulting in a larger total MGC reward.
🎁MGC Store
You just finished a gameweek and have a nice stack of MGC saved! What can you spend it on?
The MGC packs available will start as the same as those available for Football. The only difference is that they have a much lower collection score requirement, with less cards required overall in a Basketball collection and less cards available in Basketball to date.
We hope you are as excited for the new season as we are! 🎉
Remember to share your feedback in the short survey HERE for your chance of a free Epic Basketball card. Your feedback can still make a difference!
https://forms.gle/JdYpXbh5Uk3rtyun8
See you on the court Champs!! 🏀
