March 17 – The eSports football season is hotting up with UEFA’s eEuro 2021 qualifiers having started on Monday and the eMLS Cup finals in the US starting this weekend.
The eEuro 2020 tournament sees all 55 of UEFA’s member national associations taking part in the qualifiers, with the final to be held the day before the final of the Euro2020 final, on July10.
National teams are divided into ten groups, and play each other twice in a ‘home and away’ format. Matches consist of two 1v1 matches, with the aggregate score over the two games determining the outcome.
The qualifiers will be played through March and April, with the ten group winners going directly for the final tournament, which will feature 16 teams. The ten runners-up will enter a play-off tournament on 10 and 17 May for the remaining six slots.
National teams have between two and four gamers who will compete on Konami’s eFootball PES 2021 Season Update game version. Prize money totals €100,000 to be split between all the finalists, including €40,000 for the winners.
“The inaugural UEFA eEURO was an undoubted success, with over 15 million people having watched competition footage across UEFA’s platforms. We have seen a massive growth in the popularity of efootball over the past few years and eEURO 2021 will continue to give us the opportunity to connect with new and existing fans of national team football,” said UEFA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein.
All games are being broadcast in UEFA’s YouTube channel. Italy are the current reigning champions.
MLS title up for grabs
While UEFA plays on the Konami platform, the eMLS is played on Electronic Arts FIFA game and exclusively on Playstation 4.
All competitors are from the US and Canada with the final 12 eMLS players competing in a two-day, knock-out tournament March 20-21.Coca-cola is the naming rights sponsor.
In celebration of eMLS Cup, eMLS has debuted a limited-edition eMLS Cup jersey, developed with the MLS’s sponsor partner with.
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