FIFA eClub World Cup is live on Sky Sports Football this Sunday
Watch live on Sky Sports Football from 2.30pm on Sunday
Sunday 10 February 2019 07:30, UK
This weekend, the best players in the FIFA 19 Global Series will head to the Sky Sports Studios in London to battle for their share of the $100,000 prize money at the FIFA eClub World Cup.
The annual tournament, which kicked off in 2017, has so far seen only one team win in its two years on the circuit: Brondby IF, who return again this year looking to make it a hat-trick of championship wins.
Let us take you through everything you need to know about the FIFA eClub World Cup.
The teams
Brondby IF top Group A, represented by Daniel "Dingo" on the PlayStation side and Frederik "Fredberg" Fredberg on the Xbox. They are joined in their group by the Colombian-Japanese pair of Prime JAPAN, Brazilians Ebio 'Ebinhob' Bernardes Da Costa Filho and Flavio 'Fifilza7' de Almeida Brito on Wolverhampton Wanderers and English side Manchester City represented by Ryan Pessoa and Shaun Springette.
Group B has some more notable names, with Christian Fuchs' NoFuchsGiven eSports being represented by Sean "Dragonn" Allen and 2016 champion Mohamad Al-Bacha. Tricked eSport features the youngest team at the tournament, with 'Mikkelhjorthbach' and Jacob 'Esser' Jensen just 16 and 17 years old respectively. Esports giants FaZe Clan are also in Group B, with Tassal "Tass" Rushan and Lev Vinken donning the FaZe red. Finally, Imperial's "ChristianSpereti" and "Lyricz vs Luck" round out the group.
Group C sees more football teams enter the fray, with VFL Bochum 1848 and Dijon FCO taking part. Dijon edged out the popular Schalke 04 to qualify for the FIFA eClub World Cup and will be looking to prove this wasn't a fluke, with Nathan "M Herozia" Gil in the top 50 on Xbox, looking to be one of the dark horses of the tournament alongside teammate Aurelien Marc 'Moolzn' Cheron. Famous French esports organisation Team Vitality are represented in Group C with Corentin "Maestro" Thuillier and Fouad "Rafsou" Fares, whilst Turkish side Futbolist are the final team, with Bulgarian Sezer Sevdzhanov Sabriev and Turkey's Ismail Can Yerinde, two of the best players in their respective countries.
The fourth and final group, Group D, is perhaps one of the most interesting. With Joey and Dani representing AFC Ajax and surprise side ECV eSports qualifying, the Netherlands are in for a good showing in the FIFA eClub World Cup. Saudi side AlNassr FC look to follow in the footsteps of countryman Mosaad "MsDossary" Aldossary, who won last year's FIFA eWorld Cup. The final team completing the group is KiNG Esports, who have perhaps the best team they could have asked for. At the top of the rankings for each console sits KiNG's players, Donovan 'DhTekKz' Hunt and Nicolas "Nicolas99FC" Vallalba. All eyes will be on them to prove the rankings right when group D fixtures kick off.
The format
In the group stage, each team competes against each other three times: the PS4 players against the PS4 players, the Xbox players against the Xbox players and, finally, they team up to compete against their opponents on whichever platform the players choose. As in the beautiful game, a win is three points, a draw one and a loss zero.
The top two teams from each group qualify to the knockout stage, where only the console-specific matches are played out. In the result of a tie over two legs, the two team up again to take on their opponent and the team with the greater overall goal difference chooses the console. These rules pertain to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
The prizes
The total prize pool is $100,000, which is distributed to each team as such:
As well as the prize money, players also take Global Series Points which are used to qualify for the FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final, the World Championship tournament that etches the names of players into the history books.
Head over to GINX Esports TV to find all the latest news across the esports industry.
The FIFA eClub World Cup is live on Sky Sports Football this Sunday, coverage starts from 2.30pm.
