By Kenny McGann, Staff Writer, The Times
Jeremy “Seese” Seese
From a hardcore basketball city — one that produced many great players including Richard “Rip” Hamilton — a new breed of players are making their mark, not on the hardwood, but in a more virtual sense: eSports.
Coatesville’s Jeremy “Seese” Seese has been making a name for himself in the NBA2K League. Drafted in 2021 by Lakers Gaming, Seese has quickly asserted himself as one of the most dominant players in the league. After stops with the Lakers Gaming, Bucks Gaming and Cavs Legion GC, Seese solidified his standing as a star after a trade to Warriors Gaming Squad and his second league title.
“This just shows I’m the best power forward in the world,” said the 2019 Coatesville Area High School graduate and current Temple University student. While that might sound like a brag, the numbers — and the results — show that statement actually isn’t controversial.
Seese’s journey to gaming stardom started with winning Most Improved Player in 2022 while helping to lead Milwaukee Bucks Gaming — an affiliate of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks — to a championship, Seese ended up making the All 2K-League 2nd Team that year as well.
In his third season, Seese showed no signs of slowing down, in fact, he looked like the best power forward in all of NBA2K. Seese joined up with the Warriors Gaming Squad and just recently defeated the Australian team NBL Oz for Seese’s 2nd championship in a row. Seese became the first player in NBA2K League history to win two championships on two different teams.
For him, this championship had even higher stakes because his first championship with Bucks Gaming could be seen as an underdog run. This time, the Warriors Gaming Squad were the favorites, nothing less than a championship would have sufficed.
Part of what makes Seese so good is the intensity he brings to the stage. When playing on LAN (Local Area Network) — this is when players are in the same arena, facing each other in person, as opposed to playing on the Internet — he’s able to get into the head of his opponent. Because of that proximity, eSports competitors have a unique opportunity to implement psychology into their strategy and Seese does so expertly.
Whether through talking smack or just simply making eye contact with the team across from him after he dunks on someone, Seese explains “I like to get in people’s heads.”
Throughout his meteoric rise in the NBA2K community Seese has seen his fair share of detractors and it seems to have given him a level of maturity that makes getting into his head no small task.
As it turns out, that ability to rattle competitors can be a real asset. Many eSports competitors are younger can get rattled when they “smack talk” opponents, only to get it back in spades. Players can lose focus — and get distracted when they don’t get the response they expect — something that can happen in ball and stick sports. As a more mature player, Seese doesn’t have that problem.
When asked about opponents trying to distract him, Seese said “people can talk all they want.”
While he can be hard on opponents, with all of his accomplishments, Seese is thankful for the support he gets from the hometown community.
He makes clear that being from Coatesville, “growing up in that environment and being around so many different types of people” has prepared him to navigate the eSports world. Seese also says that the support from his friends and family around the city has been a part of his success. Seese started playing 2K with his older brother, his competitiveness to beat his brother is what initially got him hooked.
He knows what the game means to so many people, and he doesn’t ignore that now that he’s established himself as one of the best 2K players alive — one with more that $200,000 in career earnings.
Seese still finds time to play the game with his friends outside of his commitments to the Warriors Gaming Squad. He still mostly plays the competitive 5 versus 5 game modes that give him the best practice but he also doesn’t entirely shirk some of the more popular modes — such as three-on-three and other variations.
Besides grinding the game for a three-peat, Seese is beginning to invest in and create a brand for himself. He recently got a new PC and is beginning to stream his gameplay at twitch.tv/SuperSeese. Outside of that, he’s set to graduate from Temple University in the fall with a degree in journalism.
The future is bright for the best power forward in NBA2K — but it is clear he has not forgotten his roots in Coatesville.
