Washington, D.C. (February 26, 2022) – Wizards District Gaming (WDG) selected two players in Saturday night’s NBA 2K League Draft at the Alarm.com Demo House in Falls Church, Virginia, to complete its roster for the 2022 season and position them to compete for a three-peat, after having won back-to-back NBA 2K League championships in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
From Decatur, Georgia WDG selected Tyrell “Ty” Johnson with the 22nd pick, a hybrid player with skill at both the point guard and shooting guard positions. Ty is coming off a great Pro-Am season where he showed his versatility and off-the-ball prowess. At the 43rd pick, Brandon “BRich” Richardson was selected to complete the season 5 roster. He returns to the team after helping WDG to its second straight NBA 2K League championship.
“We’re excited to welcome our new point guard Ty and returning shooting guard BRich to complete our roster,” said Patrick Crossan, Wizards District Gaming Head Coach & General Manager. “We’re eager to add these players and their elite skills to the team to give us the spark to compete for another championship. Now, we take this energy and get ready to get to work on dominating season 5.”
The draft picks will be coached by Patrick Crossan, 2021 NBA 2K League Coach of the Year who has been Head Coach of the team since its inaugural season in 2018, also the inaugural season for the league. The players will join Ryan “Dayfri” Conger, 2020 NBA 2K League Finals MVP, League MVP finalist in 2020 and 2021, and Defensive Player of the Year finalist in 2020; 2021 All-NBA 2K League Second Team forward Antonio “Newdini” Newman; and 2021 Defensive Player of the Year Justin “Just Awkward” Howell. Conger and Howell were named to the first-ever NBA 2K League All-Star Team in 2021 and WDG Head Coach Patrick Crossan was selected as the head coach for the Eastern Conference All-Star Team.
Wizards District Gaming 2022 Roster
| Gamer Tag | Name | Position | Acquired |
| Ty | Tyrell Johnson | Point Guard | 22nd pick, 2022 Draft |
| BRich | Brandon Richardson | Shooting Guard | 43rd pick, 2022 Draft |
| Dayfri | Ryan Conger | Center | Returning Player, joined WDG in 2018 |
| Newdini | Antonio Newman | Power Forward | Returning player, joined WDG in 2020 |
| Just Awkward | Justin Howell | Small Forward | Returning player, joined WDG in 2020 |
During the 5th Annual NBA 2K League Draft, all 24 NBA 2K League teams completed their five-person rosters in three rounds. In celebration of its fifth season, the NBA 2K League has launched #NBA2KL5, a season-long campaign highlighting the top moments, performances and players throughout the league’s history. The 2K League’s Draft broadcast kicked off #NBA2KL5 content and featured NBA 2K League President Brendan Donohue announcing select picks, technological advances showing hosts and broadcasters in a new LED immersive studio, a variety of viewing options through Twitch’s Command Center, clips from NBA 2K League original content series “Draft Hopefuls”, broadcast segments of the top 5 Draft moments and shared livestream footage of select team “war rooms”.
Alarm.com is celebrating its third season as a Wizards District Gaming partner and opened its Demo House doors to Wizards District Gaming to set up its draft war room to provide the team with the smartest home available to strategize and make its picks. Alarm.com’s Demo House is equipped with the latest technology and Wizards District Gaming utilized the connected features of the Demo House to tell the story of its draft through social media, including a Twitch livestream. Alarm.com is the leading platform for intelligently connected property and for more than 20 years, has been pioneering smarter solutions that deliver total protection for millions of homes and businesses.
Wizards District Gaming has consistently shown an upward trajectory in revenue growth, including 43% revenue growth between FY19 and FY20 and 25%+ compound annual growth on revenue between FY19 and FY21. The franchise has already achieved breakeven status and in FY21 moved into a profitable position, years ahead of initial projections. Wizards District Gaming grew both its partnership revenue and its number of unique partners by 67% YoY coming into the 2021 season. This is expected to continue to grow as the 2022 season is launched. Since its inaugural season, the team has had 22 unique corporate partners and 37 total partners (i.e., shared with fellow sports teams under the Monumental Sports & Entertainment umbrella) – among the highest number of net partners in the league as well as net revenue generated. WDG expects to exceed this in the 2022 season.
Every Wizards District Gaming game will continue to be live on the Monumental Sports Network in 2022, as it was in 2021. Wizards District Gaming is the only team across the other 23 teams in the league to show all its games locally. Last season, eleven (out of a possible fourteen) regular season game broadcasts were live on NBC Sports Washington in Season 4 – up from five broadcasts in Season 3. Wizards District Gaming also added pre-and post-game show sponsors National Landing and Bud Light in Season 4, a first for the franchise. The postgame show was simulcast live on Wizards District Gaming’s Twitch channel in addition to Monumental Sports Network and NBC Sports Washington.
The NBA 2K League tips on April 5 with the opening stages of The TIPOFF Tournament. Games will be broadcast live on Monumental Sports Network and the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
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About Wizards District Gaming
Wizards District Gaming, owned and operated by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, is part of the NBA 2K League, a professional esports league co-founded by the NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO). Launched in 2018, the league features the best NBA 2K players in the world. Wizards District Gaming drafts and/or retains gamers as part of a team that competes as unique characters in match-ups against 24 other teams in a mix of regular-season games, tournaments and playoffs. For more information about Wizards District Gaming, visit http://www.wizardsdg.com/.
