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FIFA

Norwich City Crowned as 2021/22 ePremier League Champions

Norwich City have been crowned the 2021/22 ePremier League Champions, with Damien ‘Damie’ Augustyniak and Jack ‘GoalPoacher_’ Wignall winning the title for the Canaries! The EA SPORTS™ FIFA 22 finals were held in-person for the first time in three years, and was broadcasted live on Sky Sports and EA’s Twitch channel. The tournament was a thrilling journey that concluded in an even more exciting climax!

On Saturday, March 26th, GoalPoacher_ and Damie went unbeaten in four matches to top Group D, billed the ‘Group of Death’. Then in Sunday’s knockout fixtures, a fine performance from Damie was enough to see the pair beat Chelsea 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals. The Norwich duo had already proved to be a dream team, and hoped to carry that momentum into the semi-finals. Damie played out a tense 0-0 draw against last year’s runner-up Olle “Ollelito” Arbin, creating a bit of suspense ahead of GoalPoacher_’s matchup. A 2-1 victory for Goalpoacher_ over Mitchell Hayward saw the Canaries overcome Leeds United to progress to the Grand Final.

Damie and Goalpoacher_ would go on to defeat Brentford duo Sam ‘SamBrwster’ Brewster and Peace ‘czohino’ Chirwa in Sunday evening’s Grand Final, thanks to a 5-1 aggregate victory. After clinching the title, Damie reflected on his journey to the gold, saying:

“Words can’t describe how I’m feeling right now. The standard of player this year went up a level, so it feels a bit surreal to call myself an ePremier League Champion. I’m so proud to lift the trophy, for the first ever time, and I’m pleased that the hard work has paid off.”

Goalpoacher_ also shared his thoughts, saying:

“This is my first ePremier League title and lifting the trophy is a moment that I’ll never forget. It has been a tough tournament, but I feel that Damien and I worked well as a team and, together, managed to progress past any opponent who stood in our way. I was always confident that we’d have a chance, but to go and win the tournament is a dream come true.”

LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 27: Jack Wignall (L) and Damien Augustyniak of Norwich City celebrate their victory over Brentfordin the Final of the ePremier League Grand Finals at Here East on March 27, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images for ePremier League)

The winning pair also picked up a £30,000 first prize for their efforts, totaling £15,000 per player. Both Damie and Goalpoacher_ have also earned spots in the EA SPORTS™ FIFA 22 Global Series European Playoffs! Premier League Commercial Director Will Brass congratulates Norwich City and anticipates another season of competition, saying, “We look forward to the next season of the ePremier League, providing clubs with a unique opportunity to engage with their fans, and viewers…

For more information visit e.premierleague.com.

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FIFA

FIFA Streamer Castro1021 Has FUT Coin Distribution Ban Lifted By EA

Castro1021 Reacts to Being Banned from FUT Trade Market

Edwin Castro, better known as Castro_2021, is one of the FIFA community’s most popular content creators; with 3.3 million Twitch followers. He was streaming FIFA 22 live to thousands when an “Important Notice” screen popped up, informing him he had been permanently banned from the FUT transfer market for “FUT Coin distribution.” Castro was visibly and audibly as shocked, upset, and confused as his audience.

The aftermath included many players coming out about their own experiences, saying they too had been wrongfully banned for FUT Coin distribution. Castro’s theory is that him dropping a large amount of FIFA points on Black Friday, and purchasing FUT Red Player Picks cards possibly triggered an automated enforcement system. These kinds of card are earned through Weekend League matches, and players aren’t suppose to be able to trade them. However, there is no mechanism in place to keep them from being sold, nor did Castro abuse any meta-factors to do so. Castro’s FIFA play is broadcasted on a public platform, so any attempts to engage in FUT Coin distribution would be easily detected, and a manual review would have stopped this ban from ever happening.

This is clearly becoming a prevalent problem within the games community, with Castro’s high profile case drawing extra attention to it. One user on EA’s official answers forum, claimed to have a received a ban for FUT Coin distribution, despite never playing the FIFA Ultimate Team game mode. A community manager for EA responded, stating that the terms of service team had investigated the ban manually and upheld the decision. There’s still speculation that the initial ban system is automated, and cases of wrongful bans keep popping up everyday. Lucky for Castro, he’s a public figure and had his ban reviewed and overturned pretty swiftly; but the average FIFA player without that luxury is still waiting for a resolution to this problem.

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FIFA

EA Sports Considering a FIFA Rebrand: How Will This Affect Players?

FIFA EA Sports Logo
EA Sports FIFA

EA Sports released a statement on their website detailing the future of football and the FIFA series. The developer is considering renaming the series and rebranding the games going forward. On a business level this make sense, but what does this mean for players?

FIFA is essentially synonymous with football games at this point, and fans of the series may have grown attached to the name. However, EA Sports has plans to expand the games in a way that can get pigeonholed by continually bearing the name of one particular association. In their statement, EA explains a bit about this vision, saying:

“We continually invest in the partnerships and licenses that are most meaningful to players… The breadth of our partnerships and our ecosystem of licensed content will enable us to continue to bring unrivaled authenticity in our EA SPORTS football games”

FIFA may be EA’s most high-profile partnership, but they license over 700 teams and more than 30 leagues from around the world. There’s also interest in expanding the inclusion of women’s and grassroots football. EA feels as if the FIFA name does not accurately represent the broader vision for the future of the series.

What this means is that players can look forward to an even larger scale game with new content. That includes more leagues, a deeper dive into women’s football, as well as the different depictions and licenses that come along with that. There may be a nostalgia aspect to the FIFA name, but it’ll be traded for the ability to play in new locations and with new players as the game expands. Business wise, this change has been a long time coming; with many who feel the games have done more for the actual association than licensing the name ever did for EA. From a players perspective the name doesn’t matter as much, but the direction in which this means the series is going definitely does.

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FIFA

EA SPORTS announce improvement to FIFA 21 viewership rewards

An update has been provided by EA SPORTS on the FIFA 21 Global Series viewership rewards program that allows viewers to earn FGS Player Tokens.

Last month, EA SPORTS announced that viewers who watch the Global Series for at least 60 minutes of an eligible event will earn a guaranteed FGS Player Token. These can be redeemed for Untradeable Pack Rewards in FUT 21.

However, viewers have now been given more flexibility to watch events and earn their tokens. EA announced on December 1 that on five weekends during the FGS Swaps 1 season, viewers will be able to tune in to multiple eligible events in order to earn one FGS Player Token.

EA have made it clear that viewers will only be able to earn one token per weekend but they can now have the opportunity to earn the reward by watching any of the eligible events on the designated weekends.

The first event where viewers can earn their tokens will kick-off on December 5 for the West Asia Regional Qualifier 1 or the South America Regional Qualifier 1. These can be watched on the EA SPORTS Twitch channel.

FIFA 21 Global Series schedule

As well as the viewership rewards update, EA also revealed that all of their South America regional broadcasts will be available in Spanish on a Spanish EA Twitch channel and Brazilian Portuguese on a Brazilian EA Twitch channel. These broadcasts will also be eligible for the FGS Player Token reward for that weekend.

How to earn your FGS Player Tokens

Courtesy of the EA website:

Link your Twitch and EA accounts on ea.com/twitchlinking. Age restrictions apply. See https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/terms-of-service/ for details.

Watch 60 minutes of eligible FIFA 21 Global Series Event or Events when there are multiple on a single weekend on the official channels designated below.

Receive one FGS Player Token Item in-game 

Tune in to more eligible events on different weekends to earn more FGS Player Token items. You can earn only one FGS Player Token Item per weekend with eligible events.

Redeem your FGS Player Token items in-game for Untradeable Pack Rewards.

All FIFA 21 eligible events for FGS Player Tokens

Token #1 – FIFA 21 Challenge (October 29) *complete

Token #2 – South America Regional Qualifier 1 (December 5-6)

Token #3 – European Regional Qualifier 1 (December 12-13)

Token #4 – North America Regional Qualifier 1 | Oceania Regional Qualifier 1 (January 9-10)

Token #5 – European Regional Qualifier 2 (January 23-24)

Token #6 – North American Regional Qualifier 2 | West Asia Regional Qualifier 2 (February 6-7)

Token #7 – South America Regional Qualifier 3 | Oceania Regional Qualifier 2 (February 13-14)

Token #8 – North America Regional Qualifier 3 | East Asia Regional Qualifier 2 (March 6-7)

Token #9 – European Regional Qualifier 4 (March 20-21)

More to be announced.

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