Repost of Tua's great guide from last year -
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/groups/AusNBA2k16/discussions/0/412449508276972636/

With the substantial inflow of new players the group has acquired, I believe its time we had a proper guide on how Pro-am is organised and what new players can do to better prepare themslves for their first games!


Founded during 2k15, to allow Aus-NZ based PC players a way to communicate and solve the 2 main issues in organising co-op 5v5 basketball:

• Having enough players online at the same time, considering small size of PC community (empty MyParks, Walk-on lines etc).
  
  
• Even when 10 players were found, lack of in-game communication meant these games were often very low quality. Issues included positional mismatches (teams lining up with 3+ centres, or no centres at all!) and lack of accountability to teammates (both in the quality of shots being taken and early quitting from games).
  
  To best deal with these, the original members of the group came up with a very specific ritual in organising Pro-am; for everyone to meet in the group chat, nominate 2 captains, and these captains would pick the teams they wanted, as I'm sure we all once did on the school courts!

The process itself is simple and basically summed up in a few steps. It is repeated at the end of every game, before the start of the next one.

1. Minimum of 10 players brought into chat. Done through announcements, inviting friends or sometimes not required at all if enough people are waiting between games.
   
2. Two captains volunteer to pick the teams (captains are generally both the same position e.g. PG caps vs PG, or C vs C).
   
3. The order of picking is determined by a fair method (rock-paper-scissors, coin flip etc).
   
4. The captains take turns picking 4 players each, until both teams have 5 players total.
   
5. This year the easiest way to play Pro-Am is by each team assembling in park.The captains will then invite their respective 4 picked players to a squad.
   
6. Squads will then wait near the Pro-Am gate until the captains say in chat that they are both ready to enter it. Please note that ONLY THE CAPTAINS enter the gate. Squad mates will receive a notice after their captain enters and will be automatically taken to the loading screen shortly after.
   
7. With any luck you might start the game at this point with everyone making it to the court and are ready to play Pro-Am!
   
8. However, NBA2K unfortunately is always riddled with bugs and this year is no different. Sometimes squad mates don't make it to the court during load screen or load to a black screen. Players should pay attention to chat immediately after loading up to see if their teammates have all made it onto the court. If players are missing from your team, your captain may call for your team to resquad back in park. If you crash/have problems loading up the Pro-Am court, immediately let your team know in chat so that your captain can call for a resquad in park if necessary.

Patience is crucial to get games started!

Although usually it will only take 15 minutes to go through this process, a lot of things can go wrong when you're trying to get 10 human beings doing exactly the same thing at the same time! Common delays include the infamously unreliable 2k servers, AFKers among the picked players, individual internet outages and first-time captains still learning the ropes. The best thing you can do in these situations is staying patient and communicating . If a teammate is taking an unusually long time to join your team's court, feel free to send him a PM and find out what's wrong!


1. How do I join the group chat in the first place?

There is a big "Join Group Chat" button available from the main group page of the forum you are reading. More generally, go to your friends list, change to the "groups" tab, click on the extension arrow for "NBA 2K17 Australia & New Zealand Group" and the first option should be "Join Group Chat Room".

2. I joined chat but nobody is saying anything!

This almost always means that there is already a game in progress- players have no time to type in chat during a game unless there is a break for free throws, a timeout or between quarters. Just stay in chat, and you will be noticed before the start of next game! You can always ask if there is a game going in chat too; at the next stoppage someone is likely to tell you what quarter the game is in, so you know how long to expect to wait.

3. I was in chat during picking but neither team selected me!

Don't panic! Often there will be more than 10 players in chat, and captains will have to leave a few players on the bench. These are more often than not the new members, since captains don't know your position(s) or playstyles. To this point- the first few times you join chat, tell everyone your position and overall rating during picking! It will help introduce yourself, and you may even get picked ahead of a few older faces if there is a positional need.

More importantly though, the group runs a no man misses twice in a row policy. If you missed the last game, and are still paying attention to chat, you will get put into a special pool together with anyone else that missed, which the next two captains have to pick ahead of everyone else.

4. I'm not sure if my player is ready for Pro-am?

A lot of the players you will be facing have been playing 2k MyCareer since the game's release in October 2015. As a result, you will be facing mostly players rated in the 90s overall, and a few 99s! However, overall only counts for so much in this game, and if you have a lot of skill you can keep pace even against players statistically superior to you. As a rule of thumb, I would suggest 80OVR as a minimum benchmark for staying competitive in Aussie Pro-am games.

As a sidenote; when using "under-rated" players, I would suggest specialising in one area of the game that you have commited attribute points to.If you have max shooting but no playmaking, shoot your open shots, but pass instead of doing dribble moves if your match-up closes out on your shot! In this way, you can play a role and learn how the games work while you level up your own player into a more complete threat.



1. Am I able to captain?

As you might have guessed from the above sections, captains carry a lot of responsibility in organising games. Technically anyone can captain, as long as your IP is in the Aus-NZ region. This doesn't mean everyone should captain however. If you're completely new and don't have anyone in the group as steam friends, its going to take you a long time to get everyone on your court. If you don't know the group's core players and their positions, it's going to be very hard for you to pick a balanced team.

I would recommend at least 3 Pro-am games playing under other captains before you'e ready to show off your own team team colours. However, don't shy away from captaincy just because of the responsibility. It also carries a lot of perks:

• Ability to pick the players you enjoy sharing a team with.
  
• Guaranteed playing time, in the position that you want to play
  
• Speeding up of the entire picking process; we lose at least half an hour of playing time every night just waiting for suitable volunteer capatins!
  
• Increasing your profile in the group, so that others pick you more often when its their turn to captain
  
  A strong captain is worth his weight in gold in this group, so don't hesitate if you feel you're up to the challenge!

2. About Uniforms and Courts...?

This section is only relevant if you are creating a Pro-Am team. The vast majority of Pro-Am games played are via walk on from park which doesn not require a custom court/uniforms.

We are ballers in this group, not artists, so its completely fine if your court and jerseys are not masterpieces ,as long as they are not racist, jokes in bad taste, or painfully bright to look at (JayPark!!)

The one thing we can't stand is colour clashes! We need to be able to clearly tell which team is which during a game. For this reason, the only rule concerning jersey colours is:

White for home uniforms, anything else for away!

Follow this rule, and you will never throw an alley-oop to an opposing player, as so many unfortunate captains have!

3. A strong captain is...

• Attentive. He pays attention to chat and the details of his particular draft (ie knows which players missed last game and need to be picked in priority). He keeps an eye on who the other captain is picking and adjusts his plan accordingly. He remembers everyone that he picked and doesn't pick in a way that will put his players completely out of position.
  
  
• Responsive. He communicates with his players, helping them through the process of getting them into his squad and reassembling his squad in park if necessary due to team mates crashing on Pro-Am load screen. He keeps an eye on players withdrawing from the game, and replaces them if necessary for various reasons. He keeps in touch with the other captain, announces when his 5 are ready, and is ready to start as soon as the other team is too.
  
  
• Patient. 2k doesn't always allow games to start in a timely fashion, and a volunteer for captain will stick with his team even if the game is taking longer than anticipated. He will nominate a replacement on his team if he does need to leave urgently because of unexpected circumstances, not because he got bored of waiting.

There are several things that new players often tend to do (unfortunately these are not just constrained to new players) that might annoy fellow players, particularly the veterans. I'll update this list as required .

• Squadding
  This one may seem harmless, especially when playing with your mates but try not to freeze out people who have been queuing up for the next game. This wouldn't be a problem with a larger population base, but since ours is so small; squadding is detrimental to the group as it discourages people (particularly newer players) from playing. Last couple of years a lot of our vets would split up to even talent/positions on teams.
  
  
• Steal Spamming
  There's a lot of people that do this to exploit 2K's retardedly low reach in foul call frequency. Most vets consider this a cheap exploitative tactic which noobs that don't know how to play defence/boxout use. Aside from ruining gameplay, this tactic will often leave a man open on the other team, or allow your man to drive straight past when you commit to the steal. So this is one to avoid since you'll likely be berated by the other team and even your own teammates!
  
  
• Poor Floor Spacing
  This is another one that a LOT of people tend to do badly (especially in PRO AM). It can also be one of the harder things for new players to get used to.
  
  A basic good floor spacing for a halfcourt offence has both guards and SF split on wings with one near top of arc with C low post and PF opposite side high post. Obviously this would vary based on group makeup and builds (for e.g. a stretch PF/C could interchange with a perimeter player). Captains should keep floor spacing in mind though when selecting teams.
  
  Setting too many screens is a big part of poor floor spacing. If you're a PG/SG/SF and you see your PF/C setting a screen for the ballhandler, run to the opposite side of floor as the other G or SF. The point of the pick is to create space for a shot/drive for the ballhandler/pick man, poor floor spacing often negates the space created. Spacing the floor allows greater opportunity for your team mates to score, or if they force a double team could create an open shot for you.
  
  Setting meaningful screens is another thing that new bigs sometimes struggle with. If you set a pick for the ballhandler, either try and find an open lane to basket (Roll) or an open spot to take a jumper (Pop/Fade). So often people just set screens and just stand there (admittedly sometimes due to floor spacing from other players). If your man tries to double ballhandler before they use pick, slip the pick and cut back to hoop if you have an open lane. Rolling to hoop will often draw another defender to cut you off in paint, so keep an eye out for your open team mates on wings/high post!
  
  Filling lanes in fastbreak properly is another fundamental you should be aware of. If you are running a 2v1 fastbreak force/allow the defender to commit to one player while the other team mate runs down a lane which allows himself an easy score. For e.g. ballhandler drives to paint forcing defender to commit then kicks to team mate who has run out to corner for an open 3.
  
  Following these floor spacing basics will make your teams offence flow much better.