France win inaugural FIFA eNations Cup
LONDON: France showed they were champions in virtual soccer as well as the real game on Sunday when they beat Argentina to win the inaugural FIFA e-Nations Cup and a US$ 40,000 prize.
Twenty countries from six confederations were entered in the esports event, with World Cup winners France represented by Corentin ‘Maestro’ Thullier and Lucas ‘DaXe’ Cuillerier.
The players wore national team jerseys as they competed on Play-Station and X-Box with both one- on- one FIFA 19 matches and two v two.
Teams were divided into four groups of five before the knockout stage.
“DaXe and I had some really tough matches over the two days so to come away as champions and the title of the best e-Football nation in the world is really special,” said Thullier, the world number six on the PS4 platform.
Christian Volk, FIFA’s Director of e-Football and Gaming, said the e-Nations Cup was another step in the professionalisation of the virtual game.
“The FIFA e-Nations Cup has presented an important stepping stone to further grow the e-Football ecosystem, of fering member associations with the chance to run their own national selection process and qualifying events,” he added.
Last year’s FIFA e-World Cup winner Mosaad ‘ Ms-Dossary7’ Aldossary was competing for the Saudi Arabian team in the e-Nations Cup and was beaten by Thullier in the opening day’s round of games.
The winning French players also won 1,500 FIFA 19 Global Series points that go towards qualification for this year’s FIFA e-World Cup.
The top 60 competitors on the final EA SPORTS FIFA 19 Global Series points leaderboard qualify for the Global Series Playoffs in June. The best 32 then go on to the FIFA e-World Cup finals. — Reuters