A big new addition coming to NBA 2K21 MyTeam is Seasons. In his NBA 2K21 MyTeam Courtside Report, Executive Producer at Visual Concepts Erick Boenisch wrote, “I have become very interested in structuring that evolution into a mechanism that you, our community, can really sink your teeth into.”
Seasons are free for all NBA 2K21 players and there is “no paid component to it.” Seasons will last about six weeks each and will include a range of different content and rewards for players to experience.
In his blog post, Boenisch was purposefully vague so as not to spoil future plans but he did mention that Seasons will add new content like Spotlight Sims, new features or special and unique rewards.
NBA 2K21 MyTeam Seasons
For the duration of the six weeks of each season, players will be tackling Daily, Weekly and Seasonal Agendas. By completing objectives, players will earn XP and raise their Season Level. Each time a player levels up they earn a reward.
Players who’ve ever experienced a Battle Pass will find all of this very familiar.
Once players max out their Season Level, they’ll earn the Grand Prize for the season. Boenisch says reaching the grand prize is going to take a lot of playing but will be worth it. The first grand prize available in NBA 2K21 the first Season is a Pink Diamond Steph Curry. Boenisch also says he wants to have prize updates across most modes each season.
In NBA 2K21 MyTeam, new Vault prizes will be updated every Season in Triple Threat. These prizes will be updated during the season as well in order to maintain a level of freshness in the mode. Also in Triple Threat, every Season there will be Cumulative Win prizes. When players play Triple Threat in NBA 2K21, there will be 300 wins on the win ladder. Once a player achieves 300 wins they are unable to accrue anymore until the next season, however, they are able to continue trying to claim the Vault prizes. For reaching 300 wins, players will be rewarded with a Diamond Card.
In future Seasons, the win ladder will be expanded and players may need to reach 450 wins in Season 2 as an example. Each of those additional wins will have prizes and by reaching the 450th win, players will earn the Season 2 Grand Prize. Boenisch says this system is better than NBA 2K20 because;
NBA2K20 launched with 1,000 Wins available to you, and a Galaxy Opal waiting at the end. The problem was, that card became outclassed pretty quickly as MyTEAM evolved. It effectively made Triple Threat less valuable as the year went on.
As we add new ‘Wins’ available to you with each passing season, this enables us the opportunity to provide rewards that fit the current Season within MyTEAM. To summarize this, it basically means we can give you better prizes that will match the time and effort you have invested to get there
Both MyTeam Limited and MyTeam Unlimited 2.0 will have new prizes every season and there will be new Combinations added to The Exchange every Season. Finally, every Season will see new cards added to the Reward Market.
The Exchange is brand-new to NBA 2K21 and is a new system where players can trade in their cards for prizes. The Exchange ties in with NBA 2K21 MyTeam Seasons as each new season will see new prizes to exchange for. Cards available from The Exchange are exclusive to The Exchange and Boenisch has promised some “truly elite” cards.
The quality of the reward is going to dictate how much effort is required to complete the Exchange. For example, an Exchange may require you to trade in a Western Conference PG rated 90 or higher and an Eastern Conference PG rated 90 or higher to earn a higher rated player. The system is incredibly flexible and will allow us to create Exchanges geared toward our newest users as well as some of our most dedicated and passionate users.
According to Boenisch, some cards in The Exchange won’t look overly impressive, however, he hints they may be very useful for MyTeam Limited at some point. In the middle of Seasons, Visual Concepts will add additional simple exchanges so players can trade in silver and gold contracts in order to gain a Diamond Contract or Diamond Shoes.
The Exchange is a way for players to use the cards that would otherwise sit around carrying virtual dust and tying it to the new Seasons system means there will always be something to trade for.
Another new way to earn cards and prizes which is tied to Seasons is Ascension. Ascension is a brand-new prize mechanic which allows players to earn cards across three vertical tiers of prizes. In each tier, there are a number of cards that when turned over reveal a prize. There is also one card in each tier that sends players up to the next tier.
On the third tier, there is a special grand prize that when flipped over grants a high-level card. This grand prize card will change every season and finding it isn’t going to be easy. Players have a limited number of picks available and finding the Ascension cards amongst all the others will be tricky. If a player runs out of picks before moving to the next tier, you miss out.
For the first Season, the grand prize in Ascension is going to be a Pink Diamond card.
With Seasons and updated prize mechanics and constant updates, NBA 2K21 MyTeam looks like it’s going to be an ever-evolving experience that dedicated players are going to get a lot of mileage out of.
NBA 2K21 launches on September 4, 2020.
