Fast thumbs ... not feet ... required to win this World Cup trophy

– The 2018 World Cup is over and now for the Fifa eWorld Cup, a virtual tournament that kicked off in London on Thursday with goals galore and multiple Cristiano Ronaldos and Lionel Messis strutting their stuff on a digital stage.

The three-day finals see 32 elite players, distilled from a global pool of 20 million starters worldwide, flexing thumbs and fingers for the prize of a shiny trophy and $250 000 to the winner.

England’s 21-year-old Spencer Ealing, the reigning champion who plays under the nickname “Gorilla”, is back “to defend what’s mine”.

Germany boasts eight finalists and Argentina just one but 18-year-old Nicolas “nicolas99fc” Villalba – a man who eschews compatriot Messi for Ronaldo and Brazilians Neymar, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo Nazario in his team lineup – is a favourite.

Some have big clubs behind them, such as Manchester City’s Kai “Deto” Wollin or fellow-German and Bayer Leverkusen player Marvin “M4RV” Hintz, but others are unaffiliated.

The group stages, with 16 playing the Fifa 18 game on Xbox One and the other 16 on PlayStation4, started with the audience online only until the doors open today at the O2 Arena in London’s docklands.

The semifinals and final will be today after group stages and knockout rounds, with most of the teams featuring the same top players in virtual form.

The tournament echoes the real World Cup played in Russia this year in other ways as well, including anti-doping urine tests and the monitoring of betting markets for suspicious activity.

Malta’s Kurt “kurt0411” Fenech, a 23-year-old former odds compiler for a sports betting company who says he now earns far more from gaming, welcomed that.

“People might think ‘Oh, it doesn’t belong in e-sport’ but it 100 percent does,” he said.

“We have to play a game which requires full concentration and there’s stuff that can help you with that. So I’m really pleased there is anti-doping.” –