Japan’s professional baseball league the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Nintendo of Japan have teamed up to create a Splatoon 2 esports league. The NPB eSports Series will feature Splatoon teams representing each of the 12 NPB clubs, and is set to kick off in Spring 2019.

Over the last few years, traditional sports leagues like the NBA, NHL, and F1 have all launched their own esports programs. However, each of these leagues has stuck to sports simulation games that represent their real world counterparts. NPB has taken things a step further by not only launching its own baseball esports league, but expanding into a game with no foundation in traditional sports.

Starting With Simulated Sports

NPB also took its first steps into esports with a sports simulation title. In 2017, Japanese developer Konami hosted its second annual Pawapuro Championships—a tournament for its baseball title Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū (known internationally as Power Pros). The tournament was officially recognized by NPB and featured promotional content involving NPB stars. According to Konami, the finals event was watched by 7400 live spectators with over 1.5M viewers online across the finals and local qualifier events.

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[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Baseball is the country’s most popular sport, and not just at the professional level.[/perfectpullquote]

Last week, NPB announced plans to take its relationship with Konami a step further by launching the Pawapuro Pro League. This new baseball esports league will operate similarly to the NBA 2K League, each NPB club drafting three players to represent them. The Pawapuro Pro League will closely mirror NPB’s format, splitting teams into the Central and Pacific Leagues and ultimately finishing the season with the top three teams from each league advancing into the playoffs.

NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito said in a news conference that the league and its clubs view esports as “a big chance,” adding that “this ebaseball will give fans a new way to enjoy and engage in baseball and sports.”

The National Pastime, Now With Extra Squid

In the United States, baseball has fallen behind other sports like football in popularity. The same cannot be said of Japan. Baseball is the country’s most popular sport, and not just at the professional level. Each Summer, Japan holds a nationwide high school baseball tournament known as the Summer Koshien, which draws crowds and fan fervor akin to college basketball’s March madness.

“Basically, baseball is the sport in Japan,” explained Japan esports liaison Alex “Vayseth” Varga. “Imagine this is like Nintendo doing a Splatoon league with 12 of the biggest football teams in the U.S.”

Of course, Splatoon would be an unexpected choice for the NFL’s first esports venture outside of sports simulation. While Nintendo’s multiplayer shooter has fostered a passionate competitive community, it is far from a major esport in the U.S. In Japan, however, the game has a much greater following. As of January 2018, Splatoon 2 had sold 2M copies in Japan, making it Nintendo’s highest-selling game in its home country in eight years. The Japanese representatives also won this year’s Splatoon 2 World Championship at E3, having finished second in 2017. With Japan’s greater emphasis on mobile gaming, a title on the portable Switch console with such a large install base has the potential to become a major esport in the region.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]With Japan’s greater emphasis on mobile gaming, a title on the portable Switch console with such a large install base has the potential to become a major esport in the region.[/perfectpullquote]

Splatoon’s Japanese esports scene also shares a unique symmetry with the country’s baseball community. Each year, Nintendo hosts a Splatoon Koshien. The event operates similar to baseball’s Summer Koshien: eight locations throughout the region host tournaments to qualify local players for a final tournament. This year, NPB will take advantage of that synergy by sending scouts to the Splatoon Koshien to select its players for the eSports Series, as well as sponsoring the event itself. Further, clubs can only sign players who compete in the Splatoon Koshien.

NPB clubs will announce their rosters in March 2019. No official start date for the season has been announced, nor have any details regarding ruleset or prize pool been released. However, the language on the official Splatoon eSports Series website suggests that there will be no prize pool, but that players may receive compensation for participating in the league. This would be consistent with Nintendo’s operating procedure, as official Nintendo tournaments—including the Splatoon Koshien—generally do not award monetary prizes.