Wednesday 17 January 2018 11:14, UK
EA Sports and the MLS have joined forces to launch the eMLS Cup, an esports tournament in which 19 MLS clubs will each be represented by a FIFA player.
Each team will organise their own qualifier to select a player from its own region to represent them at the tournament.
The competition will take place at PAX East in April in Boston and will determine the US and Canada's qualifiers to the EA Sports FIFA 18 Global Series Play-offs which could eventually lead to a FIFA eWorld Cup spot.
Last year, the world's FIFA champion was England's Spencer "Gorilla" Ealing who took home $200,000 (£145,000) after being crowned the world's best FIFA player.
The eMLS is not the first virtual football league with the e-Ligue 1, a parallel to the French top tier already running. Additionally, there is the eDivisie, featuring teams from the Dutch league.
Interest from clubs in the United Kingdom has been more limited, but West Ham and Manchester City are the highest profile clubs to enter the space to date.
Clubs such as Wolves and Northampton have been involved in smaller leagues but there is yet to be a country-wide push to enter the esports fray.
Port Vale and QPR have both taken a different route as they opted to sign eleven FIFA players to play in the Virtual Gaming League. Each player will control one footballer in the game's Pro Clubs game mode. The game mode, however, is not included in the esports circuit and by comparison to FIFA Ultimate Team there is limited participants.
