ESPORTS: Double Delight In First Round

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Our teams top the table and gain promotion in the FIFA eClub WOrld Cup qualifiers

2020-12-22T14:22:30.503Z

ESPORTS: Double Delight In First Round

Our teams top the table and gain promotion in the FIFA eClub WOrld Cup qualifiers

2020-12-22T14:22:30.503Z

BFC eSports teams looking to make it through to the FIFA eClub World Cup play offs

Our eSports teams made a strong start to their FIFAe Club World Cup 2021 qualifying campaign, with the first team (Burnley Football Club) attaining a top place finish in Division 1 of Conference 11 and the second team (Burnley FC Academy) finishing in the runner-up spot in Division 2 of Conference 3.

The first of four rounds of qualification fixtures, the next of which will take place on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th January, saw both teams get off to an excellent start to the highly competitive FIFA 21 competition.

Salman "Salman_Ahmad19" Ahmad (on PlayStation4) and Brad "BUR Colston" Colston (on Xbox One) both enjoyed some standout results in the top tier of their Conference, which effectively serves as a qualification group.

Callum "CallumN17" Moore (on PlayStation4) and Jasper “Burnley Ashy” Ashworth did enough to secure second place in Division 2 and qualification into the top division in the next round.

With each conference structured as a double-elimination knockout tournament, the first team went into Round 1 of qualifiers seeded in Division 1 and opened their campaign with a clash against Bayer 04 Leverkusen, one of Germany’s largest professional eSports organisations.

ESPORTS: Double Delight In First Round - Image 1

First team tournament results

Round 1 winner’s bracket

Brad and Salman made light work of the prestigious opposition, however, seeing off Fabian “B04_Dubzje” De Cae 2-0 and former world champion Kai “Deto” Wollin 2-1 respectively to take full points in the tie and stay in round 2 of the winner’s bracket.

Round 2 winner’s bracket

Round 2 brought a tough tie against Italian side Empoli FC. This round wasn’t as straight forward as the first as Salman lost his match 2-1 to Nicholas “PinoPame63” Pamelia, meaning the tie had to go to a randomised decider after everything was square after Brad’s 5-0 win over Pasquale “SplashBroPaky” Cristiano. Salman had to show his character after the competition tool chose the PS4 side to go again to decide who would go through to the next round and Salman did just that, reversing the score from last time and chalking up a 2-1 win.

Round 3 winner’s bracket

Mundial Esports, again from Italy, were our first teams next opponents and this tie saw a switch in fortunes for both players. Brad suffered 5-4 in his first loss in the tournament against Antonino “TonyBomberTV” Chiarello whilst Salman got the rub of the green with a 3-2 win against Simone “Mces_Narcorulezz” Lucidi. Again the tie had to be settled with a random draw and this time it was the Xbox side and again Burnley came out on top with Brad completing the round at the second time of asking with a 2-1 win and securing a place in the Division 1 final.

The Final

For those not familiar with how a Double Elimination tournament work, if you lose a round you are given a second chance in a losers bracket, once in this bracket if you lose again then you are out. If you manage to work your way to the end of the losers bracket, you then find yourself in the final against the winners of the winners bracket, who you must beat twice to win the tournament, as the team in the winners bracket still has that extra life which you have already used.

Brad and Salman went into the final, against well-known Portuguese side Esports of Sporting Clube de Portugal with the advantage of being the winners and things were not as straight forward as they would have liked. Brad won his matchup 3-1 against Jose “Runrun_18” Soares but Salman struggled against his opponent Jose “SCP ZeDiogo19” Esfola losing 4-2 in his first match. This meant the final was again in the hands of the randomiser and Salman had to face, yet again, an opponent he had previously lost to. He couldn’t quite muster up the same type of comeback he has previously done and ended up losing 5-3.

The final was not over, SC Portugal still had to win again as the Burnley team still had their lifeline. They went again and it looked like it was going to be a repeat of the first round of the final. Brad comfortably won his tie 6-1 but Salman on his third time against his Portuguese counterpart lost 4-1. Hoping for some luck with the randomiser for the first time in this tournament they were expecting it to land on the Xbox side. It wasn’t to be. Salman had to find his confidence, character and energy to pit his wits for the fourth time of asking. He did just that, in a dramatic final Salman was 4-0 up and looking confident. SCP ZeDiogo, a great player, started his comeback but Salman had done enough to win the final 5-4 and secure the top spot of their Division and collect 300 consistency points to top conference 11’s leaderboard.

See their journey so far HERE

ESPORTS: Double Delight In First Round - Image 2

Academy team tournament results

Round 1 winner’s bracket

In the first round Burnley FC Academy saw off Polish side Polonia Bytom with Jasper securing a win over Piotr “PitereKq” Kochan 5-2 and Callum completing the tie against Michal “Michaś” Parika with a 3-2 win.

Round 2 winner’s bracket

Esports team Belfast Storm were the next opponents in round 2 and Callum tasted his first defeat (5-2) in the tournament against the Irish PS4 player Conran “Rannerz” Tobin which left Jasper needing to keep the tie alive on the Xbox side. Jasper secured a 2-1 win against Eric “XampL Xx” Finn to force the luck of a random decider. Again the randomiser went against us and Callum had to overturn the loss against the Irish side which he did with a solitary 1-0 win and it was enough to put the team into the next round.

Round 3 winner’s bracket

Winning this round would secure the team a place in the final of Division 2 and guarantee them promotion. Serious Esports, another British team were there next contenders and things didn’t go to plan as Callum again lost his first match of the round 2-1 against Kai “Conkai” Vaid and Jasper carried on his winning streak with a 4-1 win over Oscar “SAF 1mpactz” Keeley meaning it was down to another decider. In one of the only times the randomiser went in our favour we couldn’t seem to capitalise on this and Jasper felt his first defeat of the tournament with a 5-4 loss sending the academy team into the losers bracket.

Round 4 loser’s bracket

As the players found themselves in the losers bracket there were no room for mistakes if they were to proceed to the final and have another crack at Serious Esports. Standing in their way were French side AS Monaco. Knowing what was at stake Callum and Jasper both sailed through into the final recording wins against Fahiny “Famsinho” Soule, 3-0, and Sabri Nait “Chnewar18” Slimni, 3-1, respectively.

The Final

As we know from before it was going to be a tall order to, come from the losers bracket, beat the team twice, to finish the week as champions of Division 2 of their conference. It was a step too far. Callum lost his match 3-0 and Jasper lost his 4-2. But this was their first taste of the tournament and they have secured promotion to Division 1, finishing as runners up and been awarded 120 consistency points to take into the rest of the tournament

See their journey so far HERE

The above results mean that the first team have guaranteed their place in Division 1 (Conference 11) for the next round of games with 300 consistency Points, the academy team have been promoted to Division 1 (conference 3). Overall an excellent start to their qualification campaigns, with three more mini-tournaments to go.

After four weeks of these qualifiers, the top two teams in Division 1, plus the top two teams in the Conference in terms of Consistency Points, will qualify for 2021’s Club World Cup Playoffs, the last qualification stage before the main event next summer.

Relegated from the first teams’ Division were Austrian side SK Rapid Wien and Germany’s Bayer 04 Leverkuse; they are replaced by Division 2 finalists Sønderjyske Fodbold (Denmark) and OFF META (UK / Italy), who were both promoted

**Burnley FC have never qualified for the FIFAe Club World Cup, with only Manchester City (twice) and Wolverhampton Wanderers representing the Premier League in the competition's three-year history.

American team Complexity are the defending 2020 champions.

Burnley FC’s progress can be followed via the official Club World Cup website.

For more exciting FIFA 21 and gaming content, follow the Club’s official accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

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