The second round of qualifying for the FIFAe Club World Cup has concluded while clear favourites begin to emerge.
There are six qualifying zones which are divided into conferences. These conferences are then split into divisions 1-3.
The top two teams in each conference at the end of the qualifying rounds will qualify for the FIFAe Club World Cup on February 24-28. Additionally, the two best teams in the Consistency Rankings at that time will also qualify.
With a larger number of teams taking part, Zone 4 will be organising additional play-offs to decide FIFAe Club World Cup qualification.
Only two weeks of qualifying remain with Zone 1’s matches kicking off next Thursday.
FIFAe Club World Cup qualifying results after Week 2
Japanese squad, Blue United eFC secured first place in Zone 2 after losing just one game in the first qualifying week. They have a total of 300 consistency points.
Zone 3 saw Saudi Arabians, Tuwaiq eSports Club, lose to 25eSports in the final of week two but they took first place in the consistency rankings with 540 points.
With a total of 14 conferences, Zone 4 had a lot of action with some interesting storylines. Ellevens and VFL Bochum are joint top of the consistency rankings in Conference 1 with 500 points.
Fnatic are on top in Conference 2 with a dangerous roster of Tekkz and Harry whilst RBLZ Gaming come second in Conference 3 but top the consistency rankings.
Week 2️⃣ of @FifaE Club World Cup is in the books and we are happy about the second place and important points for the overall ranking!🙌
Team Vitality top the rankings in Conference 4 and Team Gullit sit on the maximum of 600 points in Conference 5.
Another team on maximum consistency points is NEO who have been dominant throughout. Only two other teams, HexoN eSports and Burnley FC have the maximum number of consistency points.
The complete set of qualifying results so far are available on the fifa.gg website.
With only two weeks of qualifying left, we will soon find out who qualifies for this year’s FIFAe Club World Cup.
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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.
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.
For all the latest competitive FIFA news and analysis follow Dart Frog on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
The EA SPORTS FIFA 21 tournament offers UK-based players the chance to represent their favourite Premier League club.
Registration for the ePremier League opens at 17:00 GMT on Thursday 3 December and can be completed by visiting e.premierleague.com. All participants must be aged 16 or over and play on either Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
Matches will then take place between all 20 clubs for four months. Online qualification will lead to club playoffs which will come to a climax at the ePL Finals in March/April 2021.
This season’s finals will again be broadcast live on Sky Sports, Premier League channels and the EA SPORTS FIFA Twitch channel.
The prize pot this year remains unchanged with a £40,000 overall prize being shared out between the top four.
Watford’s “Hashtag Tom” Leese won last year’s ePremier League title. He defeated Bournemouth’s Marc “MarcMarleyyy” Marley in the grand final and took home £20,000.
Last year’s champion said: “I would recommend the competition to FIFA players as ePL is a massive tournament with a lot of people watching.
“It also gives you the unique chance to try and represent your favourite Premier League team. And if you’re looking to break into professional FIFA then this is the perfect opportunity for UK gamers to showcase their talent.”
As well as taking home the trophy and a cash prize, the top ranking players will be offered seats at the EA SPORTS FIFA 21 Global Series European Playoffs.
If you want to find out more information regarding the Global Series rules visit the EA website.
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, we’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 year’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:
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, we’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.”
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 team’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 on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
