NBA Top Shot (official site) is bringing back Fast Break, its nightly lineup game, on opening night, Tuesday, October 20. Each NBA game night, you choose five players from your Moment collection, and how they actually perform that night decides whether you win. The collector who wins the most nights takes the run. Finish in the top 50 of any run and you get a spot in the Fast Break Finals, where the top 10 in the Classic Final each win a seat in an NBA Finals suite.
There are two main formats this season, Classic and Pro, along with a separate mode called Historic Fast Break. You can play all three on every game day.
Classic and Pro
Classic plays the same way returning players will remember it. Any Moment in your collection is eligible, which means a collector who started in 2020 and one who opened their first pack last week can both build a lineup right away.
Pro is linked to upcoming Top Shot releases. Every Pro run takes its theme from the next drops, and its nights are built around the sets in those drops, so Moments collected this season can be played immediately. Pro runs also have nights for the flagship Rare and Legendary sets, such as MGLE and Holo Icon (including Top Shot 50, Cosmic and Holo MMXX), along with nights for Top Shot Debut Moments and for Moments that carry reward badges from Challenges, Leaderboards and Crafting.
Each run covers 11 to 13 game nights, and whoever wins the most of them wins the run.
New this season: limited uses per Moment
Starting with Run 1, every Moment has a cap on how many times it can be played in a run. So you’re deciding when to use your best players, on top of whether to use them at all.
The number of uses a Moment gets is set by its average sale price or its tier, whichever is higher. A Rare selling for $9 still gets two uses, since its tier outweighs its price. A Rare selling for $75 gets three, since its price outweighs its tier.
The change rewards collectors with deep rosters over those relying on one star. Ultimates can be used every night. For everything else, timing counts: choosing when to play a Legendary and when to save it could be what decides a run.
Historic Fast Break: five legends under a cap
Historic Fast Break runs simulated games between NBA legends, based on each player’s career averages. These games play out live on a schedule, and box scores and lineup scores update in real time, just like a regular slate. On a single night, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Dirk Nowitzki could all share the floor.
You choose five legends from that day’s simulated games, and the best FastBreak Points total takes the night. Every legend carries a Roster Points rating drawn from career averages, and your five must stay under a 350 budget. The five greatest players ever won’t fit together, so the challenge is spotting a legend whose night will be worth more than his rating.
Historic costs nothing to play, and you can use a legend without owning his Moment. Owning one is still useful, since it cuts that legend’s Roster Points:
- 5% for a Common or Fandom Moment
- 10% for a Rare
- 15% for a Legendary
- 20% for an Ultimate
Take the example lineup of Hakeem, Robinson, Dirk, Dominique Wilkins and Tracy McGrady. Together they total 360 Roster Points, ten more than the budget allows. With a Hakeem Olajuwon Legendary in your collection, his rating falls from 94 to 80, and the five fit at 348.
The Fast Break Finals
Any top 50 finish in a Classic or Pro run earns entry to the Fast Break Finals, an invite-only tournament held from Tuesday, March 30 to Sunday, April 11. A top 10 finish in the Classic Final wins a seat in an NBA Finals suite.
Since every run offers another shot at qualifying, a weak start won’t end anyone’s season. Classic runs feed into the Classic Final, Pro runs feed into the Pro Final, and you can qualify for both. The Pro Final will award cash prizes, with details yet to be announced.
Anyone who doesn’t reach the Finals can keep playing in an open Classic run held at the same time. Fast Break kicks off on Tuesday, October 20, the opening night of the NBA season.