Surprising Similarities Between Basketball & MOBA's
More in common between these different activities one might think
The title might sound strange to you, but I have been thinking about this for a while. Let me at least entertain the idea and have some fun with it. Before I do it, what is a MOBA exactly?
MOBA is an acronym for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, which was developed from RTS (real-time strategy) games.
Like RTS’s, the goal is to destroy one of neither player bases to win. MOBAs are the same, though the difference is that they destroy the base (destroy the towers first) in a five versus five match. Playing with only one character compared to the full control you would’ve had in an RTS.
Where does basketball come into this? Allow me to explain!
Roles
I find it interesting that basketball and MOBAs' roles are similar in how they are positioned on their perspective felids.
Putting it in an easy-to-understand format shown below:
MOBA’s Positions (League of Legends as an example)
Top Laner (Bai "369" Jia-Hao from JD Gaming): Lane pusher, duelist
Jungler (Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang from Top Esports): Roams the jungle/neutral area of the map, ambushes the opposing team, secures objectives, counteracts enemy jungler
Mid-Laner (Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok from SK Telecom T1): Wave clearer, Can attack, defend, and assist the team
Attack Damage: Carry or ADC (Park “Viper” Do-hyeon from EDward Gaming): Main damage dealer after building up resources
Support (Shi "Ming" Sen-Ming from Royal Never Give Up): Helps other teammates besides ADC, The playmaker
Basketball Positions
Point Guard (Stephen Curry from California Golden State Warriors): Runs the offense/playmaker, primary ball handler
Shooting Guard ( The GOAT Michael Jordan from the Illinois Chicago Bulls): Primary scorer to shoot, layups, and/or dunks. Can perform isolated plays to score
Small Forward (NBA legend Larry Bird from Massachusetts Boston Celtics: Roams around the court, Able to attack, defend, and assist the team
Power Forward (Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks: Rebounds the ball offensively/defensively, Drives to the basket, shoots mid-range shots.
Center (Nikola Jokic from the Colorado Denver Nuggets): Guards the rim, Rebound ball to put back, turnovers for the team, and kicks back to a teammate either to score/reset the offense
This is a very basic overview of the positions in basketball and MOBAs. Of course, it's more complicated than what’s shown above, but it gets the point across for those who don’t understand.
Here are the positions where players are after being given a role for their respective skill sets.
Did you notice anything that caught your eye between the two pictures?
Where am I going with this?
Upon analyzing the positions side by side and while one’s more physical than the other. The roles people played in similar playstyles despite how different they are. If I were put into context from MOBA’s to Basketball:
Top-Laner/Power Forward (Top-Laner push the lanes while the power forward drives/post-up to the basket to score either shooting or layup/dunk. Rebounds if needed)
Mid-Laner/Small Forward (Mid-Laner does everything to help the team besides wave clearing, while the small forward does a similar job in offense and defense. Along with assisting, such as passing the ball to other teammates)
ADC/Shooting Guard (Both are the primary scorers in their respective games. The difference here is that the ADC needs time to get going initially.)
Support/Point Guard (The playmakers and the extension of the coaches on the team)
Jungler/Center (The clean-up guy should their teammates be in trouble)
I would say that when making similarities when really thinking about it. I could be wrong with some roles here, so correct me whenever you feel otherwise.
These activities are games at the end of the day, regardless of what people might think. As someone who is in both spaces, we’re all nerds here. MOBAs and basketball are team activities; those from both sides can dismiss this if they like. I could be just doing this to have a conversion, but I did it anyway. Found it really fun to write and hope you at least had fun.
I will be doing a follow-up post going more into detail. There’s a lot to uncover that I can’t get into here. Expect to see more on this topic in the near future.
Stay Tune!
Sources
Best Champions for Learning New Roles – League of Legends
Basketball Positions: Responsibilities, Skills and Drills
