FIFA Infinity The Absolute FIFA Site
For over two decades, the FIFA video game series reigned as the world’s most prominent football gaming title. Despite a period in the 2000s when Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer was considered superior, FIFA regained dominance in the 2010s and became a cornerstone of international esports through events like the FIFAe World Cup and FIFAe Club World Cup.
However, 2023 marked a major shift in the franchise. EA and FIFA ended their long-standing partnership, and the series was rebranded as EA SPORTS FC, with its esports ecosystem now continuing under the EA SPORTS FC Pro banner. While the FIFAe competitions are no longer tied to EA’s football game, many of the iconic moments in FIFA esports history continue to shape and inspire today’s FC Pro tournaments.
Below are four standout moments from the FIFA esports era that helped define competitive football gaming.
RBLZ Gaming’s Comeback in FIFAe Club World Cup 2023
Many believe this is the most exciting comeback in FIFA competitive gaming. It happened at the 2023 FIFAe Club World Cup, which occurred at the Gamers8 Festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July of that year.
This top-tier virtual football competition featured twenty-four teams and was won by RBLZ Gaming, representing RB Leipzig. RBLZ claimed $300,000 of the one-million-dollar prize pool on the shoulders of Umut Gültekin, the 2022 individual World Cup champion, and then a seventeen-year-old, blonde-haired Dane, Anders Vejrgang, who rose to fame through a 535-0 streak in FUT Champions when he was only fifteen.
RB Leipzig’s RBLZ team won the competition by going over Team FUTWIZ Europe. But the most memorable head-to-head of the event was not the final. Still, the quarterfinals, where RBLZ faced off with Brøndby Esport, and after losing 0-2 in the first match, they came back to win 3-1 in the second and added two more in overtime for a final 5-1 score and a 5-3 aggregate total.
Because of the high stakes in play, the quality of the opposition, and how RBLZ played in the return leg, their comeback has earned the title of the best in FIFA eSports history.
MSDOSSARY’s Dominance & 4-0 Finals Win in the 2018 eWorld Cup
FIFA gaming fans are sure to know Mossad Aldossary, nicknamed Msdossary, who burst onto the eSports scene in a big way in 2017, winning the Ultimate Team Championship Series. He is the cornerstone of the Saudi Arabian eSports organization Team Falcons and has accumulated over $740,000 in career winnings.
HIGHLIGHTS // Relive @Msdossary7's finest hour, as he won the #FIFAeWorldCup Grand Final! pic.twitter.com/wImBV3bTaZ
— FIFAe (@FIFAe) August 4, 2018
In 2018, Msdossary showed the eSports world who is who when he streamrolled his way to an eWorld Cup title at the London O2 Arena, during a two-day event, where he only lost one game out of eleven, which was in the group stage, of course.
In the knockout one, he trashed everyone he faced, winning by four-goal difference twice, and twice by five. Per multiple famed journalists, his dominant showing helped elevate eSports in the Middle East and helped establish betting on FIFA tournaments globally.
Umut Gültekin Beats nicolas99fc in the 2022 FIFAe World Cup Final
We already discussed who Umut Gültekin is for those unfamiliar with FIFA competitive play, and his win over nicolas99fc is notable because the latter is an ex-champion who also participated in the 2018 eWorld Cup that Msdossary won, losing in its quarterfinals.
Yet, this Argentine gamer now competes for one of the most famous eSports organizations on the planet, Cloud9, and is a winner of multiple A-Tier and S-Tier events.
Image courtesy of fifa.gg
In the FIFAe World Cup hosted in Copenhagen’s Bella Arena, he was second in Group C with Umut. He won all his knockout stage matches 3-2 until he faced Umut in the final again, where after two dramatic 0-0 legs, he lost out on the World Cup title on penalties, four to five.
Brazil’s FIFAe Nations Cup 2022 Run
In July 2022, the Bella Arena in Copenhagen was home to the FIFAe Nations Cup organized by FIFA. For those unfamiliar with the Nations Series, better known under its acronym FeNS, this contest started in 2019 in London and ended in Riyadh in 2023. It only had three competitions, as the 2020 and 2021 planned ones did not occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the eyes of many, the 2022 one in Copenhagen was the most exciting. It featured a prize pool of $400,000, played in a two-on-two format and one-versus-one mode. The competition consisted of twenty-four teams vying for the champion title in FIFA 22, played on PlayStation 5.
British sports presenter Rachel Stringer acted as the show presenter, which ran from July 27 to the 30th that month, with Brandon Smith, Michael LaBelle, and Richard Buckley commentating on the live streams. The knockout stage here was a single-elimination eliminator that lasted two days. Brazil won the gold medal and a $120,000 cash prize, beating out second-place Poland 2-1 in the second leg after a 0-0 draw in the first.
The Brazilian team went all the way in the 2022 Nations Cup by narrowly beating all their opponents. They started the knockout stage by eliminating Spain 2-1, then France with the same result, and then besting Italy 5-4 in the aggregate, after triumphing over Poland in the final.
They lifted the trophy as unlikely champions, finishing third in Group A. Their squad for the 2022 Nations Cup consisted of Gabriel “Crepaldi” Crepaldi, currently playing for Alpha7, New York City FC’s Paulo “PHzin” Chaves, and LOUD’s Klinger “Klinger” Correa.
