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Electronic Arts and FIFA just announced a larger and "evolved" EA Sports FIFA 20 esports series. This means new competitions and returning football (soccer for some of us) league tournaments. This also means online tournaments that will replace the EA Sports FIFA 20 Global Series including the FIFA eWorld Cup. These new additions and returning competitions are an extension of the popular EA Sports FIFA Stay and Play Cup.
The Stay and Play Cup actually saw year over year viewership growth of 260%. It was aired to millions of viewers in over 100 countries. That should give a pretty clear picture as to why these two companies probably wanted to expand this out further.
The EA Sports FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series will be made up of six online regional tournaments. It will include top players from Europe, Asia, South America, Oceania, North America, and Middle East-Africa. The total prize pool for the Summer Cup Series has hit $228,000 (USD). The tournaments themselves will run from July 17 through August 9.
“We’ve already seen amazing fan engagement with our competitive events over the past few months. Our partnership with the top football leagues have resulted in over 100 hours of TV broadcasts alone and now we’re looking forward to offering players and viewers even more great competitions to play and watch,†said EA SPORTS FIFA Competitive Gaming Commissioner Brent Koning. “Although replacing fan-favorite, in-person tournaments were unavoidable as we prioritize player safety, we are thrilled to have more events this summer than ever before in FIFA esports.â€
“We are looking forward to rolling out exciting alternative events to the previous FIFA 20 Global Series events over the coming weeks, all whilst ensuring safety and the highest possible tournament standards to the competitors which could not be guaranteed for the initially scheduled events due to the current situation and online-only format limitations for global activations being in place,†said Christian Volk, Director of Gaming and eFootball at FIFA. “In these challenging times, we’re committed to supporting our stakeholders, players, fans and the wider community to stay engaged with their audience via EA SPORTS FIFA. We’ll also continue working together with FIFA’s member associations to host eFriendlies all around the world and to bring virtual football to fans in each country.â€
“We are looking forward to rolling out exciting alternative events to the previous FIFA 20 Global Series events over the coming weeks, all whilst ensuring safety and the highest possible tournament standards to the competitors which could not be guaranteed for the initially scheduled events due to the current situation and online-only format limitations for global activations being in place,†said Christian Volk, Director of Gaming and eFootball at FIFA. “In these challenging times, we’re committed to supporting our stakeholders, players, fans and the wider community to stay engaged with their audience via EA SPORTS FIFA. We’ll also continue working together with FIFA’s member associations to host eFriendlies all around the world and to bring virtual football to fans in each country.â€
There will also be some more localized tournaments. These will be organized by FIFA's member associations. Information on these events can be found on their respective websites of each member association.
Tournaments that will not proceed in the wake of current events include the EA SPORTS FIFA 20FUT Champions Cup Stage VI, FIFA eNations Cupâ„¢ 2020, EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series Playoffs and the FIFA eWorld Cupâ„¢ 2020. These tournaments require global, in-person events and could not be executed online.
EA will still reward competitors $200,000 in prizes for those qualified to FUT Champions Cup Stage VI and another $700,000 based on EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series Rankings as of March 3, 2020.
EA will still reward competitors $200,000 in prizes for those qualified to FUT Champions Cup Stage VI and another $700,000 based on EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series Rankings as of March 3, 2020.
