Professional Baseball Enters e-Sports! KONAMI and NPB to Hold eBASEBALL Power Pro League

The Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Konami Digital Entertainment (KONAMI) announced today that they will jointly host the eBASEBALL Power Pro League, a professional baseball e-sports league.

The "eBASEBALL Power Pro Pro League" is the first e-sports league in the history of professional baseball to be jointly organized by the NPB and KONAMI, with the aim of further expanding the baseball fan base in addition to existing baseball fans by offering a new way to enjoy baseball.

The league will register e-sports players for each of the NPB's 12 professional baseball teams, six in the Central League and six in the Pacific League, and will be available on the PS Store on July 25, 2018 (Wednesday) for the PlayStation®4 software title "Powerful Pro Baseball Live Championship 2018" as well as the PlayStation®4 software title "JIKKYOU PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU Championship 2018" for PlayStation®4 and "JIKKYOU PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU 2018" for PlayStation®4 (online update required), which will be released on PS Store on July 25, 2018 (Wednesday), will be used as competition titles for the pennant race. Details will be announced on the official website.

In addition to the distribution of information on the schedule and results of the games, a draft meeting in which each team will select e-sports players, and live distribution of all games are also scheduled on the official website and the comprehensive sports media "SPORTS BULL" (*).

Comments from Atsushi Saito, Commissioner of the NPB, and Hideki Hayakawa, President of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.

＜ NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito's comments
I hope that eBASEBALL, which will be held in cooperation with Konami Digital Entertainment, will provide new ways for everyone to enjoy baseball and sports, and will lead to a further expansion of the baseball fan base in addition to existing baseball fans.

＜We hope that eBASEBALL will provide new ways for people to enjoy and get involved in baseball and sports, and will help to further expand the baseball fan base in addition to the existing baseball fans.
Through the eBASEBALL initiative with the NPB, we will strive to promote baseball by broadening the scope of enjoyment of the game through participation as a player, cheering at the games and watching videos.


Future Plans
＜eBASEBALL Professional Baseball e-Sports Player Selection
Online preliminary round: July 30 (Mon.) - August 5 (Sun.), 2018
Offline West Japan Selection: August 26 (Sun.), 2018
Offline East Japan Selection Round：September 1, 2018 (Sat.)
eBASEBALL Draft Conference: Saturday, September 29, 2018
eBASEBALL Pennant Race
Section 1: Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11, 2018
Section 2: Saturday, Sunday, November 17-18, 2018
Section 3: Saturday, Sunday, November 24 and 25, 2018
Section 4: Saturday, Sunday, December 1 and 2, 2018
Section 5: December 8 (Sat.), 9 (Sun.), 2018

＜eBASEBALL League Representative Tournament＞
First Stage：December 16 (Sun), 2018
Final Stage: Same as above
＜eBASEBALL Japan Series
Saturday, January 12, 2019
The schedule is subject to change for various reasons.

<Players' Rewards
Professional baseball e-sports players will be rewarded according to their performance as a promotional cooperation fee.
The total amount of player compensation for this season is expected to be 12 million yen.

About "SPORTS BULL "
SPORTS BULL is a comprehensive sports media operated by KOJIRAO KUROTOBI, President and Representative Director of KOJIRAO KUROTOBI Co. (President: Kojiro Kurotobi). It is based on articles from affiliated newspapers and specialized media, and delivers approximately 700 free video clips a day, including competition highlights and original programs. We will continue to expand our article and video content, aiming to enhance our value as a free sports media. Currently, we have media partnerships with more than 60 media outlets (as of June 2018), centering on major national newspapers and sports-oriented web media.
SPORTS BULLL" official website URL: ##

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