Behind the Scenes of eFIBA Season 4

Behind the Scenes of eFIBA Season 4, Producing a Global NBA 2K Esports Championship

One year after helping deliver eFIBA Season 3 and doing an amazing Season 4 online, we found ourselves packing our bags once again, this time heading to Doha, Qatar, for another eFIBA World Finals.

What started months earlier with regional qualifiers across six regions would eventually lead to two days of live competition at Mall of Qatar, where the world's best NBA 2K national teams competed for the title of eFIBA World Champion.

For Goexanimo, Season 4 wasn't simply another project. It was another opportunity to improve our esports broadcast production, refine our tournament operations, and continue working alongside FIBA to grow the biggest international NBA 2K esports competitions in the world.

A Global NBA 2K Esports Competition

Around 60 national federations and approximately 300 players took part in eFIBA Season 4, making it another truly global competition.

The season began online, where national teams battled through months of regional competition to earn a place at the World Finals.

This year introduced double elimination brackets for every region except Europe. Europe continued using its unique Swiss format followed by playoffs, a system that has consistently produced some of the most competitive NBA 2K esports matches.

The updated formats gave teams more opportunities to recover from an early loss while creating exciting lower bracket storylines that kept viewers invested throughout the season.

By the time the final regional matches concluded, only the strongest nations remained.

Improving Our Esports Broadcast Production

Before Season 4 began, we looked at every part of our workflow to see what could be improved.

One of the biggest upgrades was our new clean feed system. Instead of handling multiple games as part of one larger workflow, every match was produced individually. This gave us greater flexibility throughout the tournament and made the overall broadcast workflow much easier to manage.

Another major improvement came through a brand-new statistics collection system. Every game's data was captured accurately and automatically, allowing statistics to be integrated into the broadcast with far greater consistency than before.

We also refreshed the broadcast graphics, refined animations, and improved the overall presentation.

Most viewers will never notice these kinds of changes, and that's exactly the point. When everything works together, the broadcast simply feels smoother.

More Than Just a Broadcast

Goexanimo was responsible for virtually every aspect of the competition and its esports broadcast production.

Our team managed tournament operations, competitive administration, live broadcast direction, graphics, replay systems, technical execution, observer workflows, and production management from the first regional qualifier through to the World Finals. A huge shout-out goes to our referees, Kieran & Utqh!

Before the tournament began, we also produced player interviews hosted by Jasmine McKoy, allowing fans to get to know many of the competitors before they stepped onto the virtual court.

While we focused on the competition and broadcast, our colleagues at TREND Agency delivered the tournament's social media coverage, helping share eFIBA with basketball and esports fans around the world.

Hundreds of Hours Before Tip-Off

Although viewers saw 18 broadcast days, the work began long before the first stream went live.

Around 20 Goexanimo staff members worked behind the scenes throughout the online season, preparing graphics, tournament systems, broadcast assets, schedules, production tools, and technical infrastructure.

Inside our production studio, approximately 28 screens were active throughout every broadcast. Every monitor had a purpose, whether it was observing games, directing the broadcast, monitoring stream health, updating graphics, tracking statistics, communicating with tournament staff, or coordinating the production team.

Across the season we produced:

• 264 broadcast hours on YouTube

• 95 broadcast hours on Twitch

• 18 broadcast hours on TikTok

Together these broadcasts generated more than 225,000 organic views, while the tournament reached a much larger audience across social media through FIBA and TREND Agency.

Behind every broadcast hour were hundreds more spent preparing, testing, planning, and refining every detail.

Preparing for the eFIBA World Finals

The online season was only half the story.

Nearly a week before the World Finals began, our team arrived in Doha to prepare the venue and make sure everything would be ready when players arrived.

Forty PlayStation 5 consoles had to be configured, updated, tested, and prepared for competition. Every setup had to function flawlessly before the first official practice sessions.

Like every large esports event, the venue changed almost daily during setup. Production positions were adjusted, technical solutions evolved, and countless small improvements were made to create the best possible experience for players and viewers.

Working in Doha also brought its own challenges.

Temperatures regularly exceeded 45°C, making even short walks outside memorable. We also found ourselves taking on more responsibilities than originally planned while working alongside the local production company. Everyone shared the same objective, delivering a successful World Finals, but our team often stepped in to help solve additional technical and production challenges.

Fortunately, the Qatar Esports Federation proved to be an outstanding partner, helping us resolve one of the few logistical issues involving the PlayStation setup and making sure everything stayed on schedule.

Not every challenge involved production.

One evening, after assuming the stairs would be quicker than waiting for the elevator, one of our team members discovered that the emergency staircase doors only opened from the outside. Thankfully, one of the doors hadn't fully closed, turning what could have been a very long wait into a funny story of the trip.

Two Days That Made It All Worthwhile

On July 3 and 4, months of preparation finally came together inside Mall of Qatar.

The tournament produced several memorable storylines.

Algeria became one of the biggest surprises of the competition, making an impressive run to fourth place and showing just how much the level of international NBA 2K esports continues to improve.

The defending champions, USA, were unfortunately unable to travel, opening the door for the Dominican Republic to compete at the World Finals.

Türkiye continued to establish themselves as one of the strongest national teams by reaching their second consecutive World Finals.

The biggest story, however, belonged to the Philippines.

Supported by an incredible number of Filipino fans both online and inside the venue, the team produced outstanding performances throughout the tournament. Although the Grand Final finished with a convincing 3-0 victory over Türkiye, played as a best-of-five series with the Philippines beginning 1-0 ahead after advancing through the winners bracket, the road to the championship was anything but easy.

The double elimination playoffs produced some of the closest matches of the tournament, with dramatic lower bracket runs and tense elimination series that kept viewers engaged until Championship Day.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Philippines had secured their first eFIBA World Championship.

Why We Love Producing Esports

The best productions are measured by the experience they create.

Throughout the event, players repeatedly told us how much they enjoyed competing at eFIBA Season 4. Hearing positive feedback from national teams who had travelled across the world made every late night, every rehearsal, and every production meeting worthwhile.

For us, there was another reason to be proud.

A company from Latvia had once again helped deliver a global esports championship in the Middle East, working alongside FIBA and partners worldwide to produce one of the biggest basketball esports events of the year.

Moments like these remind us why we started Goexanimo more than a decade ago.

Looking Ahead

Every international esports tournament teaches us something new.

Season 4 pushed us to improve our technology, strengthen our broadcast workflows, and continue raising the standard of our esports event production.

Looking back, we don't just remember the hundreds of broadcast hours, the dozens of production staff, or the weeks of preparation.

We remember the players celebrating after hard-fought victories, the passionate Filipino fans filling the venue with energy, the friendships built behind the scenes, and the satisfaction of seeing months of work come together on the biggest stage.

We're grateful to FIBA for once again trusting us with eFIBA, to the Qatar Esports Federation for their support during the World Finals, to TREND Agency for their excellent work across social media, and to every player, federation, and member of the production team who helped make Season 4 possible.

Season 4 raised the bar once again.

Now it's time to start preparing for the next one.