Twenty million players, £250k prize, and drugs testing: the Fifa eWorld Cup just got serious

At the O2 Arena this week, some of the world’s best athletes will take part in the pinnacle of their sport. They will be required to show extraordinary dexterity, quick-thinking, resilience under pressure and the stamina to withstand a relentless schedule. 

So far, so familiar. Only, those inside the O2 will not be playing conventional sport. Instead, they will be in the Fifa eWorld Cup, in which the pitch is the screen, and games are fought using PlayStation or Xbox consoles.

In no other game in the world is qualification so cut-throat. Last November, 20 million people from over 60 countries entered the first stages of qualifying for the eWorld Cup. Only 32 - all men, although the tournament is open to all - have made it to London. The champion - the winner of a cross-console match between the winners of the PlayStation and Xbox halves of the draw - will receive $250,000. 

Last year Spencer Ealing, an Englishman now aged 21, won the eWorld Cup in Westminster. “It is a life-changing amount of money,” he reflects. “It’s the most prestigious event.” Ealing - more commonly known by his on-screen name Gorilla - begun preparing for his title defence by playing Fifa 18 for ten hours a day after its release last autumn.

One peculiarity of the eWorld Cup is that each country can have multiple representatives, depending on who qualifies. And the best nations in this new order looks a lot like traditional football’s old order. Germany have eight entrants - a quarter of the field - while France have three. Ealing is one of England’s two competitors. 

Each player selects their team from the Fifa Ultimate Team, which comprises past and present stars - meaning that matches between teams featuring some of the same players are common. Ealing’s team includes both Ronaldos, Sergio Ramos and Ruud Gullit, who presented him the title at central hall in Westminster last year.

The eWorld Cup has been running annually since 2004 but it was an idiosyncrasy until two years ago. Then, it started getting serious. Prize money for the winner has risen from $20,000 to $250,000 since 2016. Last year over six million viewers worldwide watched the live stream; this year’s event is also being broadcast on Sky Sports, and there is a capacity of 3,500 for the final in the O2. Bookmakers are even offering betting markets.  

Everything in eSports happens at an accelerated pace - even the scandals, which have already included players imprisoned for match-fixing and banned for doping. In pursuit of a competitive advantage, gamers have used banned substances like Adderall to improve their concentration. 

The Fifa game itself has avoided such disrepute - largely because, until recently, the stakes were too small. But this year there will be drugs testing and monitoring of betting markets for suspicious patterns during the eWorld Cup. “It adds more legitimacy to the tournaments,” says Ealing. “You don’t want anyone winning an event or taking someone’s spot at a tournament if they have to find an unfair advantage.”

For Fifa, supporting the eWorld Cup is a way of “expanding Fifa’s presence in the eSports marketplace” and “an important step forward in the continued professionalisation of competitive Fifa gaming,” explains Jean-Francois Pathy, Fifa’s director of marketing services. As the landscape develops, Fifa wants to position its event as the flagship of the sport. There are parallels with the World Cup itself, formed in 1930 because FIFA saw how popular football was in the Olympic Games and wanted to control it themselves. 

Perhaps, rather than conceive of the World Cup and eWorld Cup as wholly disparate entities, they are better viewed as part of a continuum - like, say, Twenty20 and Test cricket, which are separate games but run by the same boards. 

As the eWorld Cup grows, so the synergies with traditional football are growing too. After Gullit last year, this year’s official eWorld Cup ambassador - intriguingly, given his recent international retirement - is Mesut Ozil. As well as the cash and prestige, the winner will also be granted an invite to The BestTM Fifa Football Awards, the governing body’s annual gala. Last year, Ealing got selfies with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.

For Fifa, eSports are not just another way of making more money. In an age of dwindling attention spans, eSports may also be an essential tool to help promote football itself. Just as football fans have been motivated to play Fifa, so Fifa players can now be motivated to become football fans. 

“People who like football play Fifa eSports to actualise their fantasy. Likewise, the opposite is also possible. You can start playing video games and then become a soccer fan,” says Yuri Seo, an eSports expert from the University of Auckland. His research has found that young people who play Fifa are then more likely to become more devoted football fans. “People learn about Fifa and football by playing video games.” 

At most Premier League clubs, the proportion of spectators under 30 is dwindling. Investing in the eWorld Cup is a way in which Fifa and sponsors can engage younger fans, believes Paul Chaloner from the esports consultancy Code Red Esports. Following similar logic, West Ham and Manchester City have already signed up Fifa players. 

So perhaps this is the real significance of the eWorld Cup: it marks another step in the coming together of traditional and eSports, and an emblem of how the two can strengthen each other. Increasingly football and its eSports version are not separate worlds but symbiotic ones.