WNBA rivals turned visionary partners Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier have taken years of battling each other on basketball’s biggest stages. Their latest move however, in designing Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament with a $350,000 prize pool, has been met with equal amounts of admiration and disbelief. 

National reporter Myles Ehrlich captured the sentiment perfectly: “Crowdfunding the $350K prize pool and then giving themselves the tougher path to the money… yeah, Stewie and Phee are built differently than I am.”

Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 bracket, launching soon, seeds 30 players across four regions and features Stewart, Collier, Jewell Loyd and Arike Ogunbowale as the top seeds. In choosing to make elite players compete earlier in the format, the WNBA finalists are trying to achieve a meritocracy. 

Stewart and Collier’s mission to redefine earning opportunities for WNBA athletes resulted in the league’s crowdfunded prize pool, which is funded by investments from basketball icons such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dawn Staley.

Collier explained that overseas play often requires players to give up branding, and family time, for income. This dynamic gets killed by unrivaled flips with equity stakes and rates in line with overseas contracts.

Ehrlich’s take highlights the founders’ nontraditional approach. The one that has prioritized the collective growth over personal advantage. Stewart and Collier structure the tournament so that no one is favored, which supports Unrivaled’s philosophy of raising the profile of women’s basketball through competition and shared investment.

The league’s TNT partnership and high profile roster will amp up the potential for that to change offseason opportunities, as Collier added, “helps the entire league when you grow individual players”. Anyway, lets break down how this works for the Unrivaled’s 1 on 1 tournament. It does pack some cool twists!!

Key features of Unrivaled 1 on 1

The whole setup’s wild because Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier basically said, “Let’s make this as fair – and as hard – as possible.” No favors, just pure competition. Gotta respect the grind. 

The first is 30 ballers from the league going head-to-head in big-ballin’ single elimination madness. Lose once, and you’re out. The bracket is split into four pods (A, B, C, D), and by the way, the seedings were decided by fans in January. The top seeds like Stewie and Arike still have to fight their way through the pod’s lower seeds (1 vs. 8 seeds right off the bat, no easy rides here).

The games themselves are fast. First to 11 points or whoever’s leading after 10 minutes wins. The shot clock is at 7 seconds, there’s the classic 2s and 3s count, and if you score? You keep the ball – “make it, take it” rules.

Now, the $350K prize pool is where things get juicy. Win it all? That’s $200K in your pocket. Runner-up gets $50K, semifinalists $25K each, and even the champ’s teammates score $10K bonuses. Not bad for a week’s work!

The action kicks off February 10th with first round games, quarters on the 11th, and the final wrap on Valentine’s Day (February 14th). Just perfect timing for basketball lovers, flowers and crossover moves?