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FIFA

FIFA 21 Global Series details announced with big changes

EA Sports have revealed all details for the upcoming FIFA 21 competitive season set to begin in late November.

The official pitch notes were released on September 29 and it details the changes coming to competitive FIFA this year.

One of the main changes of course being a shift to online gameplay due to the global pandemic.

League Operations Manager, Rushan Shekar said: “While this year may look a little different, the focus is still to allow for top level competition between the best FIFA players from around the globe.”

Let’s take a closer look at what we can expect from this year’s Global Series:

Regional play from home

EA Sports stated: ” To support our online ecosystem, weโ€™ve sorted players into regions of play based on their country of residence.

“Players may only play in the region that corresponds to their country/territory of residence and cannot change regions once the season begins.”

There will be six regions of play with multiple countries in each. The list of regions and countries is as follows:

  • Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech, Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
  • North America: Canada (including Quebec), Mexico, United States of America
  • South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Netherlands Antilles, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela
  • Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
  • East Asia: China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
  • West Asia & South Africa: India, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates

South Africa will have its own qualifiers but will join West Asia for regional playoffs. Egypt, Israel and Turkey will join the Europe region.

Each region will have its own Xbox and PlayStation rankings. The regional leaderboards will decide which teams qualify for each Regional Playoffs.

As the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will not be released until the season has started, it will remain on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for the FIFA 21 season.

Oceania, East Asia, West Asia and South Africa will play exclusively on PlayStation 4. This is due to the PlayStation 4 historically having more FUT Champions Verified Players.

FIFA 21 Global Series tournament formats

All Qualifiers will be double elimination tournaments. Players will then be seeded based on their Global Series Points. For the first tournament of the season, cumulative Weekend League wins will be used to determine seeding.

Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup

The traditional Swiss format is being ditched this year despite its popularity. EA Sports said: ” Firstmost, this yearโ€™s Global Series is about earning Points based on your finishes across a number of tournaments.

“The Qualifiers are not singular events searching for the undisputed best players to move onto an important in-person event. Instead, this year the Global Series is in search of consistent performance across multiple events to qualify players to the Regional Playoffs.”

EA are focusing on this new format to help determine consistency throughout the season. It will also eradicate extensive waiting time between matches for players.

A total of $3 million will be awarded this season, a rise of one million from last year.

Full schedule

Here is a full list of the scheduled tournaments across the year:

Europe

  • November 28th to 29th, 2020
  • January 9th to 10th, 2021
  • February 6th to 7th, 2021
  • March 6th to 7th, 2021
  • April 10th to 11th, 2021

North America

  • December 12th to 13th, 2020
  • January 23rd to 24th, 2021
  • February 20th to 21st, 2021
  • March 27th to 28th, 2021
  • April 17th to 18th, 2021

South America

  • November 21st to 22nd, 2020
  • December 12th to 13th, 2020
  • January 23rd to 24th, 2021
  • February 20th to 21st, 2021
  • March 27th to 28th, 2021

East Asia

  • December 12th to 13th, 2020
  • February 20th to 21st, 2021
  • March 27th to 28th, 2021

West Asia & South Africa

  • November 21st to 22nd, 2020
  • January 23rd to 24th, 2021
  • March 27th to 28th, 2021

Oceania

  • December 12th to 13th, 2020
  • January 23rd to 24th, 2021
  • February 20th to 21st, 2021

For all the information on the FIFA 21 Global Series, view the full pitch notes.

Are you excited for the new season?

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FIFA

EA Sports release pitch notes on FIFA 21 FUT Launch Update

The FIFA Live content team have revealed more information on what to expect from FIFA 21 Ultimate Team this season.

It is only a matter of days before players can get their hands on FIFA 21. Early Access for EA Play members begins on October 1.

If you have pre-ordered the Champions or Ultimate Edition then you have access on October 6, three days before the worldwide release on October 9.

During these early access periods, players can earn special rewards.

Early Access special rewards

One of the rewards available to early access players is a set of Pre-Launch Objectives. This gives players the chance to earn a reward pack which contains an untradeable 80-84 OVR player pick and a 10 game loan TOTW player.

In addition to more time in Season 1, EA Play members can receive a Season XP boost to give them an upper hand.

Early access players will be able to experience Live FUT Friendlies first with the Three Nations themed Live FUT Friendly Challenge.

They will also have the first opportunity to experience Events with a head start in the Humans vs. Machine community event.

EA have decided to feature exclusive Ones To Watch content for the first time. This includes a OTW Player SBC and a OTW Player Pick Vote.

Ones To Watch players confirmed

Ones To Watch players are Live Player Items that upgrade based on real-world performances. EA have confirmed six players so far that will feature in OTW this season:

OTW Team 1 will be revealed and released on October 9 and OTW Team 2 will be revealed on October 14 and released on October 16.

Live FUT Friendlies

In the official pitch notes EA Sports stated: “With Live FUT Friendlies, weโ€™re combining Squad Rules with the different House Rules in Friendlies, to create fun and diverse new ways to play that will be active for a limited time.

“Live FUT Friendlies will present a new way to interact with campaigns and player programs throughout the year. Completing certain objectives in Live FUT Friendlies will earn you unique rewards.”

For more information on the FUT 21 launch visit ea.com for the full pitch notes.

Will you be gaining early access to FIFA 21?

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Featured Image: EA Sports

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FIFA

Hashtag Tom wins the ePremier League 2019/2020

Pro FIFA player, Hashtag Tom, brought home the title for Watford as he was crowned ePL champion on Thursday.

A total of 40 players from PlayStation and Xbox battled it out in a group stage and single elimination format.

The tournament was originally planned for earlier in the year but was moved online due to the current pandemic.

With ยฃ40,000 on the line, we break down Hashtag Tom’s path to victory.

Hashtag Tom wins for Watford

The tournament began with all 40 players split into four groups of five in their respective console. Hashtag Tom was placed in group A alongside Fredo, MHaywxrd, Kingrowll and LiamCuthyy.

Tom showed from the outset that he meant business and put on an impressive display. He ended the group stages in first place with a 7-2 score total.

He then found his way to the semi-final where he would face Callumitty.

It was a devastating 5-0 win for Hashtag Tom in the semi-final and he looked in peak form.

There was more of the same in the console final as Tom faced Chelsea’s Kyle Hammond. He won 5-1 and seemed almost unstoppable as the goals continued to flow.

Over in the Xbox final, tournament favourite Tekkz faced a huge upset as he lost 5-3 to Bournemouth’s MarcMarleyyy.

The grand final was then set between Watford’s Hashtag Tom and Bournemouth’s MarcMarleyyy.

The grand final match was extremely back-and-forth as both players had their eyes set on the prize.

Tom put himself in the lead after an early strike from Roberto Firmino and seemed to be in the driver’s seat. His lead was then extended to two after Paul Pogba netted in the 38th minute.

It was then too late for MarcMarleyyy as he got one back but the full-time whistle blew for Hashtag Tom.

This was Tom’s first major trophy and he was ecstatic to say the least. The England and Watford representative took to Twitter to express his joy:

Final placings

  • 1st – Hashtag Tom (ยฃ20,000)
  • 2nd – MarcMarleyyy (ยฃ10,000)
  • 3rd/4th – Hamm-nd & Tekkz (ยฃ5,000 each)
  • 5th-8th – Callumitty, Tass, Jamboo, Shawrey

Did you enjoy Hashtag Tom’s performance in the ePremier League?

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Featured Image: Premier League

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FIFA

FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series: Who reigned supreme in each region?

The top players from around the globe competed in the FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series to be crowned their respective regional champion.

From July 17th to August 26th, six online FIFA 20 tournaments were hosted for six different regions of the world. The regions included Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Oceania and Middle East/Africa.

As spectator tournaments were a no-go this year, these online tournaments provided us with top FIFA gameplay from the comfort of our homes.

Here is a look at how all six events played out and who emerged victorious in each region.

Ollelito conquers Europe

The European Summer Cup Series event kicked off on July 17th. Twenty-four of the best European players went head-to-head for a prize pool of $78,000.

Big names like Tekkz, Gorilla and Ollelito were among the impressive competition and the matches, unsurprisingly, did not disappoint.

Despite the standard of opposition, Swedish national, Ollelito, proved too dominant. He remained unbeaten throughout the event and beat Hashtag Tom 11-6 (agg) in the grand final. This then secured him a respectable $15,000.

A-Nezer_ proves his worth in Oceania

Only eight players competed in the Oceania region from July 21st-23rd. Despite the lack of major talent in this region, the matches were still exciting to watch.

FUTWIZ’s Marko made it to the grand final and faced off against Nezer. The match went the way of Nezer and he took the lion’s share of the $30,000 prize pool.

South America couldn’t stop Paulo Neto

The South American event took place between July 24-26th. Eight of the best South American FIFA pros put it all on the line for $30,000.

As expected, the competition was an extremely high standard in this region. The likes of Zezinho and Paulo Neto took to the pitch with high intensity games each day.

After remaining unbeaten all tournament and even netting eight goals against Yago in winner’s finals, Paulo Neto was too good for the opposition. He claimed the win along with $10,000 prize money.

Agu amazes in Asia

Taking place on July 28th, the Asian event also had a prize pool of $30,000.

After two days of exhilarating matches, the grand final was the most exciting of them all. Agu faced Web Nasri in the final match of the event.

The pair played four matches which all ended in a draw resulting in two penalty shootouts which Agu claimed alongside $10,000.

Fiddle takes the North American title

The FIFA Summer Series Cup North America also had a prize pool of $30,000 with eight players in total. The matches were played from July 31st to August 2nd.

Two Americans ended up in the final with Fiddle taking on MaXe vip. Fiddle won both legs with a 5-3 scoreline total and took home the $10,000 prize.

MsDossary asserts his dominance in Middle East

Many call MsDossary the best FIFA player in the world. His performance at this event showed everyone why he deserves such a title.

MsDossary was the clear favourite in the event which took place on August 24th. He dominated all who were put in front of him and took home the $10,000 with ease.

This win also made him the first ever FIFA player to win four consecutive major events over four seasons.

What did you think of the FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series?

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EA release official pitch notes for FIFA 21 Pro Clubs

EA SPORTS has revealed important details regarding the FIFA 21 Pro Clubs game mode.

This comes after the release of the FIFA 21 Ultimate Team pitch notes and official trailer earlier today.

With changes to things like AI customisation and goal celebrations, let’s take a closer look at what Pro Clubs will have in store for us next year.

AI customisation in FIFA 21 Pro Clubs

FIFA 21 Pro Clubs AI customisation menu

As can be seen above, Club Managers will be able to customise the appearance of all AI players in their club. All club members will have access to the tile but can only view the players being customised by the manager.

Club Managers will be able to customise the following:

– Name (including kit and commentary)

– Kit number

– Birth date, nationality, region

– Preferred foot

– Face, skin tone, eyes, mouth etc.

– Hair, facial hair

– Kit fit, accessories

– Animations

This makes a change from previous years where the same AI players would be on your team every time. The new feature adds a bit of creativity and personalisation to the game mode.

Managers can customise preset tactics

Another new tile under the “Manage” section is your club tactics. Club Managers can customise up to five preset tactics which can include all five game plans (ultra defensive, defensive, balanced, attacking, ultra attacking).

EA stated the following: “A Club Manager can select 1 of the 5 tactics from the tactics page to begin customization. Select and customize each game plan to fit your teamโ€™s custom or unique play style.

“The newly customized AI Players will also appear on the tactic menus. Club Managers can provide instructions to their AI Players to ensure they match your play style.”

Club Tactics feature in FIFA 21 Pro Clubs

After a Club Manager has customised their preset tactics, they can find their created presets in the Pro Clubs Match Lobby.

This allows players to vary their strategies against different clubs and cater towards different teammates.

The ability to just change your clubs formation is still there as normal, however, the tactics option could give you that little edge over your opponents.

Formation customisation in FIFA 21 Pro Clubs

FIFA 21 Pro Clubs celebrations

FIFA celebrations are always fun, creative and often mimic real life goal celebrations seen in professional football.

Here is a list of the first batch of celebrations that have been revealed which are set to be included in FIFA 21 Pro Clubs:

– One Eye

– Point to Sky

– Ice Skating

– Golf Swing

– Matador

– Dance 2

– Dance 3

– Chest Thump

– The Salute

– Elbow

– Show Respect

– Big Man

– Baby Girl

More information is set to follow regarding Pro Clubs. However, so far so good as these two big changes have already been set in stone.

What do you think about these changes?

Let us know! For all the latest competitive FIFA news and analysis follow Dart Frog onย Twitter,ย Instagram,ย andย Facebook.

Featured Image: EA SPORTS