The final of the VBL Club Championship is just around the corner. During a press conference on Wednesday, the clubs and the DFL had their say once again.
The 2021/22 season of the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) Club Championship by bevestor is entering the home stretch. The final of the German FIFA Club Championship will take place as an offline event in Cologne next weekend and will be accompanied by us on Instagram. The virtual press conference on Wednesday was supposed to get us in the mood for the showdown.
All eight final clubs had sent a representative, and VBL boss Jörg Höflich from the DFL was also on hand to answer questions. Höflich described the current season as a success: “We have offered a lot of excitement this season and also had a lot of surprises. I believe that this will continue in the coming days. “
“They would probably have declared him crazy “
One of the big surprises mentioned is Hansa Rostock – as VBL newcomers, the northern Germans have directly secured victory in the North-West Division. “If someone had told us before the season that we would be first, we would probably have declared them crazy,” classified Rick Feldmann, who is responsible for communications and marketing.
The aforementioned tension, on the other hand, includes the duel at the top of the South-East Division, which was ultimately narrowly won by RB Leipzig for the second time in a row. The Saxons are once again among the big favourites, and for Richard ‘RBLZ_GAUCHO’ Hormes it is therefore also “our goal and ambition to play for the title”.
St. Pauli want to “also become champions” in Cologne
In order to live up to this ambition, Leipzig have been in a preparatory boot camp since Tuesday. The aim is to avoid a repeat of the events of last season, when RB lost to FC St. Pauli in the semi-finals on a golden goal.
“That hurt, we needed a little bit afterwards,” admitted ‘RBLZ_GAUCHO’. FC St. Pauli will again be in the field of participants for the final next weekend, but gaming and eSports coordinator Christian Oberlies rejected the role of favourite. The field is “even tighter” this year, the competition “even stronger”.
“Nevertheless, we’re not going to Cologne to watch the Rhine. We want to be champions there, too,” Oberlies made clear. St. Pauli 2021 only failed to achieve this goal in the final of the final round against 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 – the reigning champions. The latter now wants to successfully complete the mission of defending the title.
‘Anders’-Effort for RB at least in prospect
When asked about a possible fearful opponent, Heidenheim’s Deniel ‘Denii10’ Mutic replied, “If there is one team we fear, it is definitely RB Leipzig. Because they are simply strong with Umut, Richard and Anders.”
Consequently, it is not only the two established Leipzig forces ‘RBLZ_UMUT’ and ‘RBLZ_GAUCHO’ that the opponents of the South-East winners must have on their minds – FIFA prodigy ‘Anders’ could also play a role in the final. Whether the 16-year-old Dane will actually be used is still unclear in the run-up.
“I think it’s logical that with a player of Anders’ calibre, you can imagine that he will be used,” ‘RBLZ_GAUCHO’ at least held out the prospect of his team-mate making an appearance. It would be Vejrgang’s first official FIFA matches at an offline event in his fledgling eSports career.
VBL wants to attract more clubs
Towards the end of the press conference, more and more questions were directed at VBL boss Höflich, but the DFL did not give any details on the exact distribution of the prize money pool of 65,000 euros – that was part of the “internal relationship”. Only the ideal prize of 18,000 euros from a combination of the division title and the Club Championship title was communicated again.
Finally, Höflich looked even further into the future – towards the coming 2022/23 season. When asked about possible new clubs for the VBL Club Championship, Höflich did not want to or could not announce anything yet; for the time being, the “status quo is to be maintained”.
In addition, there is the concept of “optional further development”, which, however, depends on the persuasiveness of the DFL and the VBL. Höflich’s goal is therefore to eventually “create an offer for the missing clubs that can no longer be rejected “