Chicago Huntsmen and NBA All-Stars to battle at Call of Duty event

Star players for the Chicago Huntsmen Call of Duty franchise will face off against the best players in the NBA in a Pros vs Pros match at the Huntsmen Homecoming event on February 13, before NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago.

Esports and traditional sports will come together yet again, in the city of Chicago on Thursday, as the biggest names in CoD and basketball go head-to-head.

NRG Esports and the Chicago Huntsmen are putting on a Huntsmen Homecoming event after their win at CDL London, and have invited members of the public as well as NBA All-Stars to join them.

Starting at 2pm on Thursday, February 13, and running till 6pm, The CDL London champions will play “friendly exhibition matches” against select NBA All-Stars. There will also be time for meet and greets with the both CoD and NBA stars. Unfortunately, there’s no official livestream planned for the event, so it’s a truly exclusive experience.

Representing the Huntsmen will be stars like Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper, Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson, and their leader Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez. NRG Esports co-owner Andy Miller and content creator Will ‘BigTymeR’ Johnson will also be in attendance.

• Read more: H3CZ and Arcitys explain why esports team houses don’t work

In addition to the matches, there will also be exclusive Huntsmen merchandise, discounted Chicago home series tickets, and meet & greet opportunities. At the end of 2019, H3CZ announced that the Hunstmen would not be producing any more merch themselves, and that CDL would handle all the merch going forward.

However, it was then revealed that there would still be unique merch available to fans during home series events, but it’s unclear whether the exclusive merch is designed by the team themselves or by the league.

NBA All-Stars take on CoD stars

The list of attending NBA players has not been revealed, yet. Some likely names include Minnesota Timberwolves’ star Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT), as he is an avid fan of the Call of Duty series. Other known gamers in the All-Stars lineup include Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, and even NBA 2K19 cover star Giannis Antetokounmpo has dabbled in gaming in the past.

• Read more: Vince Staples pokes fun at Call of Duty pro Scump at Modern Warfare Pro-Am

KAT played alongside Scump at the Modern Warfare Pro-Am during the game’s beta phase in September, and was scheduled to compete with at-the-time teammate Andrew Wiggins, as well as actor Michael B. Jordan, in a showmatch at the CDL Launch Weekend in Minnesota. That match was canceled after the untimely and tragic death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant earlier in the day.

KAT could potentially bring the Wolves’ newest star player, D’Angelo Russell, to the All-Star event as well. Both Towns and Russell competed at the September Pro-Am, and after a February trade, found themselves teammates in the NBA.

This could potentially be just the first Hunstmen Homecoming event, and the team will likely host a similar event during the team’s Call of Duty League home series, which takes place April 4-5.