The year 2021 is drawing to a close, the FIFA cosmos has offered a multitude of successes, excitements and farewells in the past few months.
January: ‘DullenMIKE’ announces German Xbox rule
The eSports season in FIFA 21 was paved with international successes of German professionals – mainly on the Xbox. With Dylan ‘DullenMIKE’ Neuhausen, a DFB national player secured the title at the second regional cup of the FIFA 21 Global Series at the beginning of the year . Eleftherios ‘lefti’ Ilias had also won the first edition before a German.
At the end of the season four out of five European qualifiers should have found a German winner on the Microsoft console, the international reign of the local FIFA scene was obvious. ‘DullenMIKE’ even took first place in the European Xbox rankings in FIFA 21 – a success for which, in the end, he could not buy much. He should lose his most important duel later in the year.
February: ‘Anders’ with WL record, ‘Umut’ is eFootballer of the year
For 17 weeks Anders ‘Anders’ Vejrgang from RB Leipzig could not be stopped in the Weekend League of FIFA 21, 536 wins in a row meant a new record – the old record had long been pulverized. It was only in mid-February that the Dutchman ‘damesheet’ taught the Danish child prodigy the first FUT Champions defeat. The scene collectively paid homage to a teenager who had just turned 15th birthday.
The scene collectively paid homage to a teenager who had just turned 15th birthday.
In terms of sport, things are going well for ‘Anders’ in FIFA 22, but he is facing massive headwinds in the community.Twitter / RBLZ_Vejrgang
‘Anders’ became a worldwide phenomenon, with the major media outside the eSports ecosystem celebrating the FIFA jewel of the “Red Bulls”. Vejrgang, who is always offensive because of his massive success, but also his nature, became the face of the scene before he was even old enough to take part in official FIFA tournaments. He will be 16 in 2022 – and will be able to put his skills to the test on the big stage.
From one person from Leipzig to another: Umut ‘Umut’ Gültekin was officially honored as eFootballer of the year 2020 presented by BenQ Mobiuz on February 16 , replacing the still reigning world champion Mohammed ‘MoAuba’ Harkous. ‘Umut’ got off to a flying start in FIFA 20 and, among other things, had established itself in the FIFA elite with a second place in the third FUT Champions Cup.
March: Heidenheim wins VBL CC, EA Gate shakes the scene
On March 28th, Denis ‘Denis’ Müller, one of the strongest German players of the FIFA 21 season, sealed 1. FC Heidenheim’s first club championship with a 2-0 win against Erol ‘Erol_96x’ Bernhardt from FC St. Pauli . In the newly created final round of the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) Club Championship by bevestor, the von der Brenz team not only left their opponents from Hamburg behind, but also top favorite RB Leipzig and triumphed.
1. FC Heidenheim emerges as the title holder from the 2020/21 season of the VBL Club Championship.DFL
The EA Gate scandal made even bigger waves internationally , in the course of which employees of the FIFA developer are said to have financially enriched themselves through insider trading in FUT icons. EA SPORTS itself reacted and carried out internal investigations, but the image of the video game giant was permanently damaged – not for the last time this year, the publisher was the focus of criticism.
April: kicker eSport reinvents itself, Kevin Assia stops
In the “darn seventh year” after kicker eSport was founded in 2014, the department website was given a new coat of paint including a fresh logo. In addition, the Twitch channel regularly broadcasts kicker eSport Talks on current topics with prominent and opinionated cast. Further formats and changes are still to come, eSport is expanding and developing into a solid pillar of kicker .
Well logo: kicker eSport is reinventing itself.kicker eSport
On the other hand, FIFA fans had to say goodbye to Kevin Assia, who ended his active eSport career at the beginning of April. According to his own statement, the cult player had “run out of nerves” . He looked back on a successful career: At the 2016 World Cup he entered the knockout phase, but achieved legendary status primarily through his victory in the Virtual Bundesliga season 2012 / 13 – at the premiere of the competition.
May: Worms e-cup fairy tale, ‘Dr. Erhano hangs up his smock on the nail
Eight years after Assia’s first VBL title, the DFB followed suit and hosted the first season in the DFB ePokal. The sensational winner was Celtic Worms FC on May 9th , with Philipp ‘Eisvogel’ Schermer, Kai ‘Hensoo’ Hense and Yüksel ‘Bomber_Yuksel’ Diker, three professionals from the second row pushed themselves into the spotlight – the first two were then (again) in the German eNational team added.
‘Hensoo’, ‘Eisvogel’ and ‘Bomber_Yüksel’ receive their trophy.DFB / Lukas Schulze
Something began, something else ended – in this case the career of Erhan ‘Dr. Erhano ‘Kayman . He was German champion three times, most recently in 2020 in a club with SV Werder Bremen. Curious: ‘Dr. Erhano ‘accomplished the feat of earning the national crown in both PES and FIFA. Kayman is now working as a columnist and expert at kicker eSport, he lets fans and readers share his expertise.
June: ‘Umut’ becomes German champion in the second attempt
‘Umut’ missed the club title with RB Leipzig in March despite being the favorite, but the individual championship at the beginning of June more than made up for him. In the VBL dream final, Gültekin prevailed against the Xbox winner ‘DullenMIKE’: In the big showdown of the two best FIFA players in Germany at the time, the RBLZ man asserted himself 3-1 on the two-way leg.
‘Umut’ secures the shell.imago images / motivio
‘Umut’ succeeded Yannic ‘Yannic0109’ Bederke from Augsburg and impressively underlined his claim to be the national leader in the industry. “It’s been a very tough road since November,” said Gültekin after the cross-console final. “It took seven months. I gave everything for this success. I am happy that I have finally won this thing.”
July: FIFAe World Cup is canceled, the next icon goes with ‘deto’
Shock at a late hour: On the evening of July 25, EA SPORTS and FIFA announced that the FIFAe World Cup could not take place in 2021 either – the World Cup fell victim to the corona pandemic for the second year in a row. What was spicy about the decision was the timing, because it was less than two weeks until the original date. Benedikt ‘BeneCR7x’ Bauer, Mustafa ‘xMusti19’ Cankal and ‘Denis’ looked into the tube as German qualifiers – the FIFAe Nations Cup was also canceled.
With Kai ‘deto’ Wollin, the German FIFA scene has lost one of its figureheads.Bayer 04 Leverkusen
And July brought some sad news – at least from the point of view of all Leverkusen fans: Kai ‘deto’ Wollin, who was most recently under contract with the Werkself, put the controller aside and resigned from professional FIFA eSports . The veteran made an impressive comeback in the 2019/20 VBL season after difficult years in sport and even became runner-up.
August: New FIFA competition, Schalke and ‘Tim Latka’ split up
Like mushrooms in the late summer, even competitors for EA SPORTS and the FIFA series declared: GOALS was first announced in mid-August , followed a week later by gamescom bang UFL . The first title relies, among other things, on the expertise of FIFA chief critic Kurt ‘Kurt’ Fenech, while UFL has attracted attention since then with some major partnerships.
‘Tim Latka’ had represented FC Schalke 04 in FIFA titles since 2016.FC Schalke 04
The correlations between football and eFootball have seldom been as evident as at FC Schalke 04 after relegation to the Bundesliga. FIFA figurehead and captain Tim ‘Tim Latka’ Schwartmann left the miners at the end of August – the ideas of the future had “diverged too far”. In the course of the Schalke savings measure, the LEC slot was also sold and, due to Konami’s competitively unplayable “eFootball”, the PES team was disbanded .
September: ‘Tom’ is a record transfer, PlayStation takes over
The move of the English top player Tom ‘Tom’ Leese from Hashtag United to EXCEL Esports generated a great response in September. For a rumored transfer fee of between 50,000 and 100,000 British pounds , the transfer went through the stage – unique in FIFA eSport. While the process was being questioned from outside the scene, the community almost unanimously viewed it as a major step in professionalization.
Tom ‘Tom’ Leese and his move could open the door for more mega transfers in FIFA eSports.EXCEL Esports
Did the organizers of the FIFA 22 Global Series succeed in doing this? Too many changes were not introduced with the new EA title – the main thing that was interesting was the crumbling of the console duality. The great FIFA days of the Xbox are over, the official tournaments are only held on the PlayStation . A hard blow for Microsoft and all the professionals who were at home on the Xbox.
October: FIFA 22 with worldwide release, renaming 2022?
On October 1st, FIFA 22 was released worldwide, the biggest innovation being the completely revised competitive system in FUT – the Weekend League was no longer the same . The international trade press gave mostly good reviews for the new offshoot, thanks to the debacle over the PES successor eFootball 2022 , EA SPORTS expanded its dominance over Konami.
However, FIFA 22 is not without problems either, the first big upset occurred in October: The return of the no-loss glitch resulted in a widespread falsification of the Weekend League results, the developer responded with a wave of bans that encompassed more than 30,000 users . In front of their own door, EA did not return, at least in public, for many fans the consequence was too short-sighted .
Many players cheated their way to first place in FUT. That now has consequences.kicker eSport
The possibly imminent culture shock of all FIFA fans is far from being dry: In October, EA SPORTS announced in a subordinate clause that it was attempting to examine whether it would be separated from FIFA . This would probably go hand in hand with a renaming of the popular video game series; the developer has allegedly already had the term “EA SPORTS Football Club” protected under trademark law.
November: eSport kick-off with a German qualifier damper
In the penultimate month of 2021, the eSport season for FIFA 22 began, nationally this meant the start of the VBL Open and the VBL Club Championship. Internationally, the first FUT season came to an end , with almost a third of the qualifiers for the Eastern European qualifiers of the FIFA 22 Global Series coming from Germany. The dominance from FIFA 21 initially seemed to continue.
The reigning Danish champion wins the first FGS qualifier in the Europe East zone.FIFA
In the qualifier itself , however, the setback took place : Koray ‘KKoray_’ Kücükgünar from VfL Bochum was already the most successful German with his quarter-finals, the local professionals ultimately had nothing to do with the awarding of the title. The DFB leaders around ‘Umut’ and ‘DullenMIKE’ are still strangers to FIFA 22, which should also be evident at the most spectacular FIFA major event in December.
December: No TOTY Cup, Eligella XMAS Cup shaved
While EA SPORTS had to cancel the newly designed TOTY Cup at the beginning of December due to corona , content creator Elias Nerlich showed how an offline event can also be held in winter 2021. The Eligella XMAS Cup sponsored by CosmosDirekt set an exclamation mark after two years without eSport on site, and the audience response was correspondingly gigantic. Kicker eSport was also on board as a sponsor and media partner.
585,000 people watched the Eligella XMAS Cup in total, the extremely exciting final alone recorded 150,000 recipients – numbers that EA SPORTS and FIFA can only dream of when broadcasting the Global Series. Lucio ‘HHezerS’ Vecchione, an outsider, grabbed the crown and prize money of 30,000 euros, and the semi-finals ended for the best German ‘MoAuba’.
Nerlich presents an offline cup with a wide range.kicker eSport
Nerlich’s triumphal procession and his Eligella XMAS Cup could have been a pointer for 2022, the community is thirsting for offline Global Series events. A few highlights are planned with the FIFAe World Cup, FIFAe Club World Cup, FIFAe Nations Cup and TOTS Cup – with the appropriate preparation and appropriate security measures, implementation in the coming summer seems realistic.
