Our virtual Basketball goes National this Monday for Bristol Metropolitan Academy

#boombasketball goes national for the follow up to May’s successful (inaugural) live-streamed virtual basketball game, with Bristol Metropolitan Academy set to face arch rivals Holy Trinity Storm, on Monday 22ndJune, 2020.

The game will be live-streamed on http://boomsatsuma.com/basketball and streaming platform Twitch from 5:45pm, with tip-off from 6pm.

The first game brought two Bristol schools and 485 viewers together on May 18th, promoting teamwork and comradery through lockdown isolation. Tom Hooper, head of PE at Bristol Metropolitan Academy and running the Basketball Program, commented:

“While it wasn’t quite the same as being on court, all the players loved coming together with their teammates and it was a real boost during lockdown. Every one of them wanted a repeat match. Crawley-based Holy Trinity are our biggest archrivals and when they saw the live-stream they were more than happy to take up the challenge.

“We’re delighted that boomsatsuma has made this possible and look forward to replacing last year’s actual National Championship win with a virtual contest.”

Five players from each school will take to their gaming consoles for a competitive NBA2K20 game between the Bristol Met year 11 team and their West Sussex-based competition.

Daniel Hildreth, Head Coach of Holy Trinity, states:

“There’s a lot of respect and a very healthy rivalry between the teams and we always relish the prospect of a game with Bristol Met. Given that Covid lockdown has deprived sporting teams of their season finale this is a brilliant, if unexpected, chance to let the guys exercise their competitive spirits – albeit remotely.”

boomsatsuma Games, VR and VFX students coordinated the use of Twitch, setting up the live stream technical aspects of PS4 console to PC connectivity and Steam Labs OBS to enable a seamless live broadcast, along with motion graphics. Sports Media students created digital assets, including ‘Top Trumps’ style player cards and took over the output of social media around the game. Dance students created in-game entertainment from isolation, recorded on their phones, introducing highly entertaining interludes between the digital on-court action.

boomsatsuma Creative Project Manager, Lyndsay Davies, states:

“We were particularly pleased with the positive reaction from the players and our own students who created the assets to make the game possible. There will be a few tweaks to the format for this second game and I’m confident it will be a thrilling watch for players and fans from both schools.”

Watch live on Monday 22nd June from 5:45pm

at boomsatsuma.com/basketball