Some members of the Duke basketball program will be getting back to competition and battling their Blue Blood foes in an unorthodox way.
The effects of COVID-19 on the sports world have been massive and drastic, but it has brought some unique ways of connecting players and incorporating fans into their personal lives, which are typically private.
On Thursday afternoon, that idea takes another step as college basketball players who attend Blue Blood schools will face off in a way that’s never been done before.
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Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Villanova will head to the video game monitors for ‘The Battle of the Blues: A Call of Duty COVID-19 Relief Tournament’.
For those who do not know, Call of Duty is a very popular video game among NBA players and is often streamed on Twitch when players are on their off days.
Thursday’s tournament will also be streamed live on Twitch, in which viewers have the ability to donate to the Mavs Foundation COVID-19 Relief Efforts Fund.
The four Blue Blood programs all have captains for the video game tournament as Seth Curry will represent Duke, Justin Jackson leads the Tar Heels, De’Aaron Fox will spearhead the Kentucky team, and Jalen Brunson takes over Villanova.
Each team captain built a team to help him compete in this tournament, but the captains could only use players that played for their respective schools, while also getting some help with a professional video game player on each team.
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Joining Seth Curry on the Duke team are Tre Jones, Grayson Allen, Cam Reddish, and professional video game player Methodz.
The Villanova team will be made up of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, Eric Paschall, and professional gamer Crimsix.
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Neither Justin Jackson’s North Carolina team nor De’Aaron Fox’s Kentucky squad has been officially announced.
The tournament is set to go live on Thursday, April 23 at 2:00pm EST.