Blazer5 Heads to Vegas-based TURN Tournament as #3 Seed & Favorite

Hot off a six game win streak, Blazer5 Gaming is off to Las Vegas, Nevada for the NBA 2K League’s first-ever tournament held outside of New York City. THE TURN will take place May 9th-11th at the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas at The Luxor. By virtue of their 6-1 record (with two unbeaten teams still remaining in the league), Blazer5 earned the #3 seed in the tournament and will face a yet-to-be-determined team after play-in games conclude on Thursday. Despite being the third seed, Blazer5 Gaming is the overwhelming favorite to win the tournament they dominated one year ago. B5 has the highest point differential in the league currently (+13.7), and since falling to Bucks Gaming in Week 1 on a buzzer-beater in overtime, have not looked particularly vulnerable.

Going into THE TURN, Mama Im Dat Man leads the league in total points and assists, OneWildWalnut leads the league in total rebounds, and Lavish_Phenom is #1 in total steals, with rookie Daveed 3X ranking #2 in takeaways.

Tipoff for Blazer5’s first game is 4PM Pacific on Friday, May 10th. All games can be streamed on the team’s official Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/blazer5gaming. Below, see what the experts have to say about Blazer5’s chances.

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Jeff Eisenband
Social Media Host, NBA 2K League

i) THE TURN Champions: Blazer5 Gaming
Is this a lazy pick? No, it’s just the right pick. No team is as hot as Blazer5 right now. As OneWildWalnut said going into the 76ers GC game, this team’s goal is to blow people out and sometimes they have to settle for just a standard victory. MamaImDatMan is on another level right now and no archetype ban is going to stop that. Blazer5, the Pacers and the 76ers are currently a tier of their own.

ii) THE TURN MVP: MamaImDatMan
He’s the best player in the world right now and he will play even better at The Turn. Blazer5 should ban opposing locks, which is going to leave the floor wide open for Mama, even if the opposition bans his go-to sharpshooting playmaker build. Mama has a different swagger about him this year. Last year, he played with a fiery spirit. This year, he’s loose and is clearly having fun demolishing the souls of the rest of the league. Mama and Walnut have tasted losing and they seem vehemently against it.

Josiah Cohen
Managing Editor, DIMER

i) THE TURN Champions: Blazer5 Gaming
I don’t see any way to not pick Blazer5, the hottest team in the league right now. They won last year’s Turn tournament, perhaps the peak of their season, and with the way the entire squad is playing there’s no reason they can’t repeat. Having the tournament in Las Vegas, closer to home, can’t hurt, but it’s the nonpareil pick-and-roll duo of MamaImDatMan and OneWildWalnut that could have Blazer5 rolling to another banner.

ii) THE TURN MVP: MamaImDatMan
Picking Blazer5 Gaming essentially means picking either Mama or Walnut for tournament MVP, assuming no valiant, vanquished player does enough to win it. Mama and Walnut are both phenomenal options, but how can I go against the league’s leading MVP candidate? There’s no doubt in my mind that Mama wants to make it two years in a row.

Ronnie 2K

i) THE TURN Champions: Blazer5 Gaming
Biggest point differential in the league, that one loss was a small blip and they’re hotter than wild fire right now. Like 76ers in Tip-Off, they’re repeating in The Turn coming off their win last year.

ii) THE TURN MVP: Mama Im Dat Man
He wants to rip that MVP trophy right out of his teammates hand and he’s putting up pure numbers. Early MVP candidate leaps to clear cut favorite this weekend.