Lenard ‘xLennyy’ Peters and Sören ‘Kiwi0025’ Ibsch have made it into the play-offs of the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) via the first Community Cups.
Until the current season, only the VBL Open had paved the way to the play-offs for the field of participants in the Grand Final. In the meantime, the DFL has introduced another path: the Community Cups. The first two editions on Xbox have been played, two play-off qualifiers have been decided.
In the inaugural Community Cup, hosted by ex-FIFA singles champion Mirza Jahic, Lenard ‘xLennyy’ Peters of Nomen Est Omen (NEO) prevailed. In the final, the youngster, who had already advanced to the Xbox semi-finals against teammate Dylan ‘DullenMIKE’ Neuhausen in the 2021 Grand Final, faced Levy Finn ‘levyfinn’ Rieck.
‘xLennyy’ triumphs in dream final
Both had dominated their brackets before, consequently the NGU Community Cup resulted in the dream final. There, ‘xLennyyy’ deservedly won 4:2 in the first and second legs, while ‘levyfinn’s’ poor use of chances was his undoing – Peters, on the other hand, took advantage of his opponents’ mistakes.
The second Community Cup was hosted by Tim ‘Tim Latka’ Schwartmann, the former captain of FC Schalke 04. After Sören ‘Kiwi0025’ Ibsch was eliminated by ‘levyfinn’ in the semi-finals of the first edition, he punched his ticket for the play-offs in the second attempt with a smaller field of participants.
‘Kiwi0025’ takes no prisoners
Ibsch’s offensive performance was outstanding: From the round of 16 to the final, he took his opponents apart by every trick in the book – 33 goals in four rounds. Even the decisive last duel against ‘Apfelgame203′, which was dubbed the fruit salad final, ended anything but close with 8:2.
Apfelgame203’ had previously eliminated ‘levyfinn’ and Felix ‘FLEXXOO’ Günther from 1. FC Köln, among others – he had no chance against ‘Kiwi0025’. So the Xbox qualifiers for the play-offs are set in stone. Their PlayStation counterparts have not yet been played. The dates for the other Community Cups are to be announced soon.
