The first season of the ePremier League will be contested March 28 and 29 in London. After several weeks of competition, the final representatives on PS4 and Xbox One for each of the 20 Premier League teams have been confirmed.
The tournament begins with a round-robin stage. The 20 teams are split into four groups of five for Saturday’s round-robin group stage. The top two from each group progress into Sunday’s playoffs.
The four groups for PS4 players are as follows.
- A – Crystal Palace (Damie), Manchester United (KyleLeese_), Wolves (TheTurin), Brighton (GingerNinja95x) and Burnley (Sheikh367)
- B – Chelsea (Jas1875), Watford (AdamRyanFifax), Bournemouth (Craig-JC), Leicester (Preet123) and Cardiff City (Lukas)
- C – Tottenham (Zimme), Manchester City (Deto), Huddersfield (CroftyBoy925), Everton (Fizzy_EFC) and Fulham (go_mk10)
- D – Arsenal (Paps), Southampton (Venny), West Ham (Rustemi), Newcastle (JEG2kk), Liverpool (Darioshkrowner)
The Xbox One draw is separate and is as follows:
- A – Liverpool (F2Tekkz), Manchester City (iBattleCat), Newcastle United (PlanetToast), Watford (xSourKiwis) and Cardiff (RGCFIFA)
- B – Tottenham Hotspur (Lyrics), West Ham (Jamboo), Bournemouth (Marley1303), Crystal Palace (ItzMeAuzio), Brighton (Caiser)
- C – Arsenal (Tass), Huddersfield Town (Painter), Southampton (Rusher7x), Wolves (JoeEvo), Burnley (BradColston)
- D – Chelsea (Hashtag Ryan), Leicester City (Hashtag Shawrey), Manchester United (Jonesy), Fulham (Diogo), Everton (Potts1878)
Sky Sports will be showing the finals live, as will the Premier League digital channels.
The playoffs will be a straight knockout between the eight qualified players on each console. We will then have a two-legged Championship Match between the two overall console winners to decide the winner.
Future developments?
While this first ePremier League tournament offers a chance for gamers to represent their team, it is perhaps a little disappointing we’re not experiencing the cementing of a new league just yet. After all, this more resembles an esports World Cup.
This is certainly an easier tourney structure to organize. However, the appeal of the Premier Leauge is clearly its status as a league. There are rivalries, rematch opportunities, and 38 games to make and break seasons.
It remains to be seen whether the ePremier League will adopt formats used by League of Legends and Overwatch. Like it or not, league structures require some buy-in; this is more of a novelty.
FIFA announce 20 eNations Cup teams
A couple of weeks after the tournament was first announced, we now know the 20 nations competing in the FIFA eNations Cup 2019. They are:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Brazil
- China
- Denmark
- England
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Russia
- United States of America
London will host the tournament on April 13 and 14. And FIFA’s digital channels will stream the action. A prize pool of $100,000 is up for grabs, with the players for each team to be selected by the member association for each of the 20 teams.
The players also have the chance to win up to 1,500 FIFA Global Series points. These could propel them in the Global Series Rankings and offer a chance to qualify for the Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup tournament later in the year. The eWorld Cup is, of course, the pinnacle of FIFA esports.
We should note the announcement of 20 squads was a slight surprise. That’s because only 16 were anticipated. But after “unprecedented interest”— according to Director of eFootball and Gaming at FIFA Christian Volk — the field grew to 20.
The tournament will, therefore, start with a group stage comprising four groups of five teams. However, in this event, the two players representing each nation (one on Xbox, one on PS4) will play individual and team (2v2) games during the group stage.
Though odds aren’t up now, you can count on ample betting options for both the ePremier League finals and eNations Cup 2019.
Imaged credit: NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images
