EA SPORTS has provided a little eSports transparency: the detailed distribution of World Cup and eChampions League places in FC 24 for the national leagues has been revealed. But not everyone is happy about it
“The VBL has always been one of the strongest leagues in recent years, if not the strongest league in the world in terms of sporting success,” said Jörg Höflich, Head of Virtual Bundesliga, shortly before the start of the season. The distribution of the World Cup and eChampions League places among the national eSports leagues now underlines this thesis. Two direct tickets for the FC Pro World Championship and four tickets for the virtual premier league will be played out in the VBL Grand Final.
No other league has more participants in both competitions. The ePremier League (England), LaLiga FC Pro (Spain), eLigue 1 (France), eSerie A (Italy), eDivisie (Netherlands), eMLS (USA and Canada) and eLibertadores (Latin America) are all tied for two World Cup places. With regard to the European eChampions League, American competitions are of course excluded
EA-SPORTS criticism from Saudi Arabia
Smaller leagues such as the eFirst League (Bulgaria) or the Esporto A-Lyga (Lithuania) will be given a place in the FC-24 premier league. The eSPL (Saudi Arabia) or the Ekstraklasa Games (Poland) in turn received a direct ticket to the individual World Cup. Supporters of eSports from the desert state were particularly unhappy with the distribution. The tenor: A country with already two FIFAe World Champions should not take a back seat to North America, Italy & Co.
In fact, with Mossad Aldossary (2018) and Abdulaziz Alshehri (2015), two title winners have already come from Saudi Arabia – no nation has ever produced three. However, such a fact is not indicative of the current quality of the eSPL.
Some Saudi Arabian critics have even gone so far as to accuse EA SPORTS of “racism” on social media. However, this will most likely not change the distribution.
In addition to direct qualification in the major leagues, numerous leagues are also allocated places for the World Cup play-ins. These include the Malta BOV ePremier League (Malta), the Orange eLeague (Luxembourg) and the ePrimera (Chile). A total of 20 eSports players will take part in the preliminary round, with the best eight of them ultimately qualifying for the FC Pro World Championship.
