THE ePremier League tournament sees the best Fifa 19 players across the country donning their club’s strip and trying to bring the trophy home.
Each of the 20 clubs held online qualifiers and real-world playoffs to find two players — one on Xbox and one on PS4 — to fight for glory.
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The finals are being broadcast live on Sky Sports Mix and Sky Sports Premier League today and tomorrow, so checking out the action and cheering your club on couldn’t be easier.Ahead of the finals we caught up with Chelsea’s Ryan Pessoa, Southampton’s Owen Venn and Arsenal’s Tassal Rushan.
Tassal is one of the favourites for the title. He’s a full-time pro gamer who has won up to £100,000 playing Fifa over the seven years he’s been playing Fifa competitively.
He’s also got a massive social media following that helps rake in even more money thanks to the popularity of streams and videos.
Playing for Arsenal is a “dream come true”, he says, confessing to being a fan of the North London side since he was a young boy.
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His form is pretty dreamy too — coming into the tournament on a 53-match unbeaten run, he is one of the ones to beat.
He reckons that Liverpool’s F2Tekkz is one to watch too — and his main threat for the title.
Tekkz’ has only lost once in 43 competitive games, and has outscored Tass by a round 50 goals despite having played 10 fewer competitive matches.
Oh, and Donovan “F2Tekkz” Hunt just happened to win the season’s first major back in December with a thumping 7-1 victory in the final, and has dominated the field ever since, leading the pack on the road to the 2019 FIFA eWorld Cup.
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HOW TO PLAY LIKE THE PROS
We asked the three guys what their tips are for those wanting to follow in their footsteps.
The key to success, Tass says, is being honest with yourself after matches, and putting in the hours to fix flaws in your game.
Even if you’ve just won 3-0, it’s worth going back over the game to see what you did wrong, and spotting mistakes that you could have been punished for.
“People don’t usually think about that when they win because of the result,” he says.
But if you can combine talent with a good work ethic and be ready to deal with the inevitable lows you get in top-level competition, you could be on your way to greatness too.
“The main thing is to have fun and just enjoy the journey of improving,” according to Owen.
“If you’re stressing over improving your improvement might get staggered due to frustration, so just enjoy it,” he says.
If you concede a poor goal or miss a sitter, then don’t get angry — just review the footage later on and use it see exactly what you can do better next time.
And if you really want to take the next step, then “just go for it”, he says.
“If its your dream and you really want it to happen it will with the right effort and consideration.
“Outside of the time you aren’t working or learning put time in making your dream reality,” and it will, he says.
Ryan, meanwhile, has some more practical advice.
If you want to succeed in competitive Fifa, then you need to “focus on having different ways of attacking against opponents,” he says.
That way if your normal strategy doesn’t work against a particular opponent, you always have another tool you can try.
It’s also important to keep perspective, and having something you can throw yourself into outside the game, “like a sporting activity.”
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Owen Venn, representing Southampton, is a newcomer to the pro Fifa scene.
Winning a professional contract with Method in mid-2019, he’s bagged a little over £15,000 in prize money during his first year on the circuit.
Owen was a promising semi-professional footballer working his way up the ranks before a nasty leg break forced him to find another way to fulfill his dream.
Being able to pull on a Premier League club’s strips fulfils a lifelong ambition, according to Owen.
“Not being able to do that through football and being able to do it through playing FIFA is a crazy feeling,” he told Sun Online.
He’s toured their training ground, and made videos with the players… “and hopefully this is just the start,” he says.
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His 30-match unbeaten run suggests he might be right, but the Southampton man does point out Arsenal’s Papsity in his qualifying group as a potential banana skin.
“I see myself as one of the favourites and I hope to showcase my abilities in the finals, the level of competition is very high,” he says.
Finally, we caught up with Ryan Pessoa. He’s finishing a business studies degree, and played actual football for YouTube sensations Hashtag United as well as his university team.
On top of all that, he’s been playing competitive Fifa for almost two years — after a decade of playing casually.
He won the chance to represent Chelsea after making his mark online and winning the local qualifying event earlier this year.
He hopes he can “represent the tam well”, but joined Tass in pointing out the threat posed by Tekkz for Liverpool.
“He has been the best FIFA 19 player this year,” Ryan says, and the stats prove it.
According to Ryan, though, Chelsea “have been very supportive and proactive in ensuring that I have everything I need to perform well at the tournament” and keep him in with a shout of winning.
The “brutal” nature of the qualifiers, with online ranking matches followed by a 16-player knockout events, mean that “anybody is who has qualified this far” has a shot at the title.
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The opening group-stage matches of the tournament are live TODAY on Sky Sports, while the knockout stages and final are live tomorrow, March 28.
The knockout stages begin from noon on Friday, with the overall champion expected to be decided at about 9 p.m.
You can watch online, via the Premier League website or on Facebook, or get highlights on Twitter.
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