Charlotte NBA 2K League Team Will Be Known as Hornets Venom GT, Set to Debut in 2020

Hornets Sports & Entertainment have announced their new NBA 2K League team, that will debut in 2020, will be known as Hornets Venom GT. They also revealed the team’s logo and wordmark.

The name and logo both invoke the intensity and intimidation of a hornet, with the teal and white logo designed to represent its piercing, ominous gaze.  The white “V” ties to the name while doubling as a portion of the head.  The logo is simple and clean, designed to convey its message in any size or format, whether that be digital within the game, in print, on merchandise or in other uses.  The wordmark and logo were created by RARE Design.

Along with the name and logo, Hornets Venom also launched their social media sites on Twitter (@HornetsVenomGT), Instagram (HornetsVenomGT) and Facebook (HornetsVenomGT), along with a Twitch channel (HornetsVenomGT).

As part of the team’s identity announcement, 20 sidewalk stencils with the Hornets Venom logo and social handles have been placed throughout Charlotte.  Fans posting photos from the locations of the stencils today will be entered to win Hornets Venom prize packs.

Tomorrow morning, the team will be giving away free coffee and team items at the Charlotte Transportation Center station on the LYNX Light Rail from 7:30-9:15 a.m.  Tomorrow night, from 6-8 p.m., the team will hold a launch event at Triple C Brewery with free beer tokens to the first 100 fans and giveaways.

Hornets Venom will unveil the designs of their court and jerseys in the upcoming months.  Fans can visit HornetsVenomGT.com for more information and to register to receive future announcements.

The NBA 2K League, a professional esports league co-founded by the NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., launched in 2018 and features the best NBA 2K players in the world.  Hornets Venom will become the 22^nd franchise in the NBA 2K League, which is the first official esports league operated by a U.S. professional league.

Each NBA 2K League team features six players who compete as unique characters in 5-on-5 play against the league’s other teams in a mix of regular-season games, tournaments and playoffs.  The NBA 2K League’s 18-week second season began Tuesday, April 2, with THE TIPOFF powered by AT&T and culminates with the NBA 2K League Playoffs and Finals (Aug. 3).  All regular-season and playoff games take place at the NBA 2K League Studio Powered by Intel in Long Island City, New York, and are livestreamed on the league’s Twitch and YouTube Channels.

In 2019, the global esports market will exceed $1 billion in revenue for the first time, which is a year-on-year growth of 26.7% (Newzoo, 2019).  The global esports audience will grow to 450+ million worldwide in 2019 and is expected to reach 557 million by 2021. NBA 2K is currently the highest-rated and best-selling sports title of the current console generation among U.S. sports leagues.  NBA 2K18 sold approximately 10 million copies worldwide and was the best-selling edition in franchise history.  In 2017, NBA 2K18 was the top-selling sports video game in the U.S. and second best-selling overall (behind FIFA).  There are 1.6 million daily active users and 5 million monthly users.