NBA 2K18 League hopeful GPxTempest talks to us about the process

George 'GPxTempest' Osakwe is an NBA 2K18 player who's hoping to catch some eyes in the upcoming NBA 2K18 League draft, and he's already hit his 50 wins, which means he's already registered for the second round of the competition, the Tryout Phase. We caught up with GPxTempest recently via a video call to talk about the league, and he told us a little bit about the process and what's he's hoping to achieve.

"Hopefully some NBA GMs will take a look at the gameplay up here and how people are playing, because I play with some pretty cool dudes [...] and we got through the 50 games because we just love playing 2K, so we just hopped on Pro-Am, started getting our wins out, and that's my hope to see when the draft comes out," he said when asked about his ambitions. "I hope to see a lot more players that are looked at as role-players, like people that are playing within their strengths rather than Kyrie Irvings with the ball running around doing dribble moves and pulling up from three, it's also very rewarding from the three point line. I just want to see some diversity and I hope it's very competitive with everyone's different positions because, you know, there's a lot of talented people playing the game as well."

We also asked about his biggest strength as a player, to which he said: "I think my intelligence with the ball would be my biggest strength, like I can play with any offence. The kind of archetype that I chose this year, I know that 2K has become somewhat of a game that's more rewarding to players that can pull up from deep because of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Damian Lillard and all these three point shooters. Everyone wants to make nimble players that are very quick or very light on their feet that can pull up from three, so what I decided to do was to create a shooting guard that could play off the ball, but is dominant enough to create a mismatch with a point guard in the sense where, if I'm matched up, because I have playmaking abilities, I can still run the court, but I'm so heavy that I can just drive straight to the rim, so in that way I'm a slasher."

"In other ways, when it comes to scoring, I can catch, often shoot off the dribble, because I have the shot-creating archetype as well. And the best thing about 2K I find is that it gives everybody an equal chance. If you're actually very good at the game you can create your own jumpshots, so I've become a master of my own jumpshot, which means I don't really need a Catch-and-Shoot badge. I can just pull up from anywhere that I'm comfortable with as a hotspot and I'll get a green light. So I think that's really where I want [people] to take a look at my game. It's more about working within the offence and doing what I have to do to score my points and help us get the win."

"My composure, also [is a strength], in the fourth quarter," he continued. "Like in the end of a game there's a lot of times where things will go south for us, you know, it's a big strength of mine to heat up. I've got the Microwave badge and I know how to use it very well. I can get a lot of green lights and a lot of quickshots up very fast, and I'm very effective with the ball. I don't need to take 20 shots to score 20 points - I can get 30 points with 15 shots, and I do make a high volume of my shots, and I don't take too many threes. I'm very selective with all of my shots. Because of that, in the fourth quarter when big possessions count, we don't really find ourselves turning over the ball too much."

GPxTempest, for those who don't know, has over eight years of experience playing NBA 2K games, and his player is a heavy 220lb guard who is 6'5", so he's definitely going against the meta. He works together well as a duo with fellow player SillyJoeyOHB, and for more on his own individual play and his ambitions, check out the full interview down below.

Could he be a standout player in the league?