“If you’re a football club and are worried about a new generation of potential fans being addicted to playing League of Legends, then you need to go and pick them up in alternative ways,” says EA Sports CEO Peter Moore. This quote best explains why European clubs are increasingly signing contracts with virtual football players, and individual leagues are organizing full-fledged esports championships.
There are now two major virtual soccer series in the world, but the popularity of FIFA and its Japanese rival PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) is incomparable. FIFA 17 sold 1.1 million copies in its first week in the UK alone, as many in Germany and other European countries. PES is selling out about 40 times worse, but even such sales volumes do not prevent Konami from signing contracts with Barcelona and UEFA. Simultaneously with Euro 2016, a PES tournament was organized, the matches of which were broadcast in the fan zone near the Eiffel Tower. Even if the outsider has enough resources for such events, then the market should be recognized as serious.
It is clear that clubs are mastering esports in the hope of making money: the industry is developing extremely intensively. According to a Newzoo report, total esports revenues were $ 492 million in 2016, and are expected to grow to $ 1.5 billion by 2020. The audience already now exceeds 300 million people a year: 162 million is a permanent audience, 161 million watch tournaments rarely, from time to time.
In the United States, the interest in esports is so great that individual players and teams are signed by specific athletes. Brooklyn Nets point guard Jeremy Lin created a Dota2 team with his own money and called it Team VGJ. Another basketball player, Rick Fox, acquired the existing team, but renamed it Echo Fox. Among football players, the Brazilian Ronaldo showed interest in e-sports, having invested in 50% of the shares of the local team CNB e-Sports Club. Gerard Piquet is also going to create an e-sports project from scratch - by the way, he already has a video game company Kerad Games.
What is this all for?
Despite the explosive growth of esports, virtual football is not yet so profitable. In the ranking of the most popular online games, FIFA 17 does not even crawl into the top ten. To make a difference and motivate players, the creators of the game (EA Sports) founded the FIFA Interactive World Cup, which is being spent more and more every year. In 2017, the prize pool will be $ 1.3 million, of which $ 200,000 will go to the winner. This is 10 times more than last year, but still very little in comparison with global esports - for example, the winner of the main Dota2 tournament (The international) was paid more than $ 8 million last year.
“FIFA 17 is played by millions of people every day. Many of them learn about the players and teams through the game, choose whom to root for in the future. If only for these reasons, we are interested in esports, ”explains Diego Gigliani, senior vice president of media and innovation at City Football Group (Manchester City and New York City). The English club was one of the first to sign a contract with a cyber football player - 19-year-old Kieran Brown. Not only does he represent City in various tournaments, he is also committed to the number of live streams on Twitch and uploaded videos to YouTube. On match days, Fifer meets with the club's fans and teaches them how to play FIFA 17. A similar model has already been adopted by Wolfsburg, West Ham, PSV, Ajax, Sporting Lisbon, PSG, Brøndby, Panathinaikos "," River Plate ".
Cyber football is most actively developed at the league level in France and Holland. Ligue 1 in October last year announced the holding of the first tournament in FIFA 17. Most likely, PSG will win it - the sheikhs decided to take the best in this situation, having signed the two-time world champion August Rosenmeier and one of the most promising Fifers, Luca Kjell. The Dutch announced the creation of a virtual Eredivisie only in mid-January, but it is already known that the matches will be broadcast not only by Twitch and YouTube, but also by the local television company Fox Sports. Each cyber football player will be considered a real representative of his club.
There are no stand-alone tournaments in England yet, but the Champions League broadcaster BT Sport has agreed with EA to broadcast key events in the Fifa Ultimate Team Championship Series. This is the first time e-football will enter such a large platform and will appear on serious television. First, BT Sport will show the North American qualifier for the FIFA 17 World Cup, then the Asia-Pacific region will join, then the European qualifiers will take place, and the final stage will take place in Berlin on May 20-21.
Now in Russia
The third European League, where the official FIFA 17 championship appeared, turned out to be Russia.
Before the resumption of the Premier League, a tournament was held in Ufa, in which representatives of all 16 clubs played. “In the future, the cyber football championship will most likely run parallel to the real one,” said Yuri Soshinsky, head of the Russian Cyber Football Federation. “So far, this Cup is a kind of independent tournament without continuation.”
Soshinsky admits that in fact, the Russian FIFA Championship has been held for three years without any participation from the RFPL. “This championship is part of a global tournament hosted by EA and FIFA. The winner of our tournament will have the opportunity to reach the final in London through the next few stages. At the same time, there will be a separate stage for those who directly represent football clubs ”.
After the recognition of esports at the state level, the federation did better. Virtual football has ceased to be an unrecognized hobby for teenagers after the November meeting of the RFU Executive Committee. Then the mayor of Kazan and the president of "Rubin" Ilsur Metshin invited Vitaly Mutko to develop a fashionable theme. The idea was publicly supported, but no actual steps were taken from the RFU. Then the RFPL played ahead of the curve by organizing the Russian Cup.
The league as a whole should be happy with the tournament: on the official YouTube channel of the Premier League, the broadcasts of the three days of the competition gathered a total of about 200 thousand views (on average, the video on the channel gains about 5 thousand, with the exception of match reviews). On VKontakte, the broadcasts of matches have collected more than 720 thousand views.
“Everything in our country, in fact, is being built from scratch - we have received some kind of support from the government only in the last year. Before that, there was nothing. We came to the Premier League three years ago, but then it was not very interesting for them: they did not understand why it was necessary. But now we are actively cooperating with them. We talked to the RFU several times, no more. They seem to be interested in the development of cyber football, but they are not doing anything, ”Soshinsky notes.
Russian clubs do not yet fully understand the prospects of the new direction. Until the last moment, some chose who would represent them at the Cup in Ufa, and it is possible that all cooperation will end with participation in the obligatory tournaments.
“Not a single Russian club can be called progressive in terms of the development of virtual football. There are several of them in the world, - said the head of the Cyber Football Federation. - The only thing that Spartak has better than others is that they took the only player in the country whose level of play and media coverage are comparable. But he is the only one, the rest will catch up with time. "
Spartak signed a contract with Sergey "Kefir" Nikiforov. Now it is the most recognizable Fifer in the country: 150 thousand subscribers on VKontakte, 700 thousand on YouTube. At the tournament in Ufa, Nikiforov dropped out at the quarter-finals stage, losing the derby to Andrey Guryev from CSKA. In the fall, Guryev won the Russian championship, and now he has got the Cyber Football Cup for the army team.
“My opinion is that all the clubs were simply forced to determine the footballer who would participate in the Cup and the championship on their behalf. It feels like after these tournaments the guys will be forgotten until the next major competition, '' said Kefir. - Clubs do not quite understand what it is. They will pay them a flight, give them a club jersey to perform - and that's it. "
Zenit also confirms that Russian clubs are only looking at cyber football. Commenting on cooperation with the best cyber football player of St. Petersburg Ruslan Yaminov, the club noted that the contract is short-term.
“The current agreement is preliminary in nature and is designed for three months, until May 2017, but we expect that our cooperation with Ruslan will not be limited to the Premier League tournament,” Zenit said. - We have serious plans for joint work. It is absolutely certain that Zenit fans have an interest in cyber football, and the news of the beginning of cooperation with Ruslan Yaminov caused a response no less than the message about the newcomers of the first football team. "
(RFU) and the Federation of Computer Sports (FKS) of Russia announced the country's first cyber football championship. Following England, France and other leading football powers in Europe, Russia will host the official national championship.
What is eSports football?
By analogy with its official name, it is called "Interactive Football" - in fact, it is the FIFA 2018 computer game tournament from Electronic Arts. Back in April of this year, the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation recognized cybersport as a direction developed at the national level, and already in June it designated cyber football as a separate discipline - albeit within the framework of football, not computer sports. That is why both the RFU and the FCC of Russia are jointly responsible for holding official competitions.
What is the format?
The main beauty of the tournament is that anyone can take part in the qualifying games, and representatives of the Russian Football Premier League clubs will be waiting for the winners in the final part - there the level of participants will already be very high. At the qualifying stage, 48 tickets will compete: 21 people will be selected following the results of a series of online tournaments, another 27 will be eligible to participate in the Russian Championship following the results of offline qualifiers (the organizers call them the Grand Prix), which are timed to coincide with the matches of the national team and key games of the RFPL , but are held directly at the stadiums. Another 16 people representing the Premier League clubs will join the winners, and already in the final round 64 participants will determine the champion of Russia.
What results did Russia have in cyber football before?
Like the national team. In none of the 14 world championships held under the auspices of FIFA, the Russians did not reach the final, although whoever won it - both the United States and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, our players have always been among the strongest and periodically produced high results. For example, in 2006 a man with a symbolic name for national football - Victor "alexx" Gusev - took third place at the World Cyber Games, which in those years was almost the main cybersport tournament in the world.
Where are cyber football also taken seriously besides Russia?
Practically in all European countries. The main wave began in 2016, when several leading organizations - the English Premier League, the French Ligue 1, and the Dutch Eredivisie - announced the start of the cyber football championships. The trend quickly swept across Europe, and individual teams signed not one, but several players at once to their teams, for example, the same “Roma”.
The championship and the RFPL Cup were held at the beginning of 2017, but formally the winner could not be called the champion of Russia. Accordingly, it is the winner of the current Russian cyber football championship that will receive this status.
Who to follow?
The main protagonist of Russian cyber football is Andrey "Timon" Guriev. Having started playing FIFA in 2009, today the Nizhny Novgorod player is not only the strongest player in Russia, but is also one of the best players in the world. In 2017, according to the results of the FIFA Cyber Football World Cup, Andrey took 11th place out of 32 participants, a year earlier he finished fourth at the Electronic Sports World Cup. On the home arena in 2017, he had no equal: Andrei won the championship and the RFPL Cup, playing for CSKA.
Andrei's main competitor should be Robert "ufenok77" Fakhretdinov. Back in 2014, at the same ESWC, he took second place, and last summer he made the transition to Lokomotiv from Ufa, for which he played in the RFPL tournaments - this is how the first official transfer in the history of Russian cyber football took place.
In general, cyber football players actively participate in the life of the clubs they play for. For example, everyone could play with Ufenk right in front of the stadium before the Lokomotiv - Krasnodar match that took place last Monday.
When do they play?
At the moment, the names of 18 participants in the final stage are known, and the next online qualifiers will be held on October 28 - everyone is registered for
The Cyber Football Cup of the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) will be held in Ufa on February 24-26. The tournament will be attended by 16 players, each of whom represents one of the clubs of the elite division of the national championship.
TASS talks about the peculiarities of e-sports competitions and the financial side of the professional game of football simulators.
Cyber football flagships and their patrons
The most popular and successful lines of football simulators for many years are the FIFA series (from the Canadian company EA Sports) and Pro Evolution Soccer (abbreviated as PES, developed by the Japanese company Konami). Most of the gaming market belongs to the FIFA series, although the Japanese simulator has its own audience.
Play cyber football with Gianni Infantino (FIFA President. - TASS approx.)? Why not. We have already played real football in the summer.
Vitaly Mutko
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, President of the RFU (December 2016)
The main difference between the two games is the realism of the game model (gameplay) and the tournament licenses (FIFA owns the rights to most of the leading European tournaments, only 35 leagues in the version of the game released in 2016. PES, in turn, owns the rights to the largest club European competitions: Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Super Cup; from 2011 to 2016, the main club competition in South America, the Copa Libertadores, was presented in the game).
The FIFA and PES series are supported by various international football organizations. The EA Sports series is backed by the International Football Federation (FIFA), and Konami's product is from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The prize money for the winner and finalist of the FIFA (2017 FIFA Interactive World Cup) and Pro Evolution Soccer (PES League) tournaments are the same. Champions will receive $ 200,000, while those who lose in the final matches will receive $ 100,000.
The selection of participants for cyber football competitions is carried out according to a system that includes several qualifying stages. For example, a tournament under the auspices of FIFA will have 32 players (16 on PlayStation 4 consoles, 16 on Xbox). Quotas between the participants are divided as follows: ten winners of the European qualification (five players for each of the two types of consoles), eight - American (four participants), four - the rest of the world (two on PlayStation and Xbox). Eight more seats are reserved for FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Online Championship winners (four players each). One more place for each of the consoles will be drawn among the e-sportsmen who have signed contracts with real clubs (German Wolfsburg, Spanish Valencia, English Manchester City and Portuguese Sporting).
In addition to tournaments under the auspices of FIFA and UEFA, other international cyber football competitions are held, such as the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC). His total prize fund in 2016 was $ 15 thousand, the winner received $ 8 thousand, the finalist - $ 4 thousand, and the third-place winner - $ 2 thousand. The fourth was CSKA cyber player Andrey Guriev, he earned $ 1 thousand.
The largest prize money in esports
The most profitable games for esports players are real-time strategy games and role-playing games Dota 2 (the prize pool of the tournament in 2016 was $ 20.7 million, the winner received $ 9.1 million) and League of Legends ($ 5 million and $ 2 million, respectively), and also a first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ($ 1.5 million and $ 800 thousand)
The leadership positions of these games are provided not only by a large audience, but also by the fact that the game has been functioning for many years. It is impossible for sports simulators, which are released annually, to fight "long-term" projects in this respect.
History of esports in Russia
Russia was the first country to recognize computer sports as an official sport. The corresponding decree was signed in July 2001 by the head of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Physical Culture and Sports Pavel Rozhkov. After the transformation of the structure into the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports, as well as the introduction of the All-Russian Register of Sports, the procedure was repeated in March 2004 by decision of the head of the department Vyacheslav Fetisov.
In July 2006, this sport was removed from the register, as it did not meet the criterion for including it in this list: it was not developed in more than half of the subjects of the Russian Federation. In addition, there was no specialized all-Russian physical culture and sports association registered in the country. In June 2016, the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation returned the status of an official sport to computer sports.
About the RFPL Cyber Football Cup
The draw ceremony will take place on 24 February. The first stage, in which 16 participants will be divided into two groups of eight players (meetings in the "each against each" format), and the quarterfinals (from this round of the series of matches until two wins of one of the players) will be held on 25 February. The semi-finals and the decisive match of the first official e-football tournament in Russian history will be held on February 26.
Any direction that fans are interested in is important for the club. They like it, which means it should interest us too.<...>The ratings and popularity of esports do not allow us to remain on the sidelines. Therefore, we signed contracts with two cybersportsmen at once.
Daria Spivak
Marketing Director of FC Lokomotiv
The gaming platform is the Sony PlayStation 4 console, the simulator for identifying the winner is FIFA 17 by EA Sports.
The main goals set for the organizers of the cup are: preparing participants for performance at international tournaments, as well as expanding the fan base of the Premier League teams at the expense of the audience of computer sports fans.
The winner of the competition will be awarded a cup and a commemorative medal. In addition, the organizing committee of the event reserves the right to establish cash prizes for participants.
Each of the 16 Premier League clubs is represented at the tournament by one esports player. At the competitions in Ufa, teams from the elite of Russian football will be represented by the following players:
CSKA, Spartak, Zenit and Ufa signed contracts with professional cyber football players, while Rostov, Krasnodar, Ural and Krylya Sovetov held regional qualifying competitions that determined the players who will represent their teams at the RFPL Cup.
Also, the Bashkir cybersportsman admitted that he does not think about whether his "native walls" will help him. “What will actually happen, we will find out only during the days of the tournament,” he summed up.
About the RFPL Open Cyber Football Championship
In late January (PlayStation 4) and early February (Xbox One), the qualifiers for the FIFA 17 National Open Championship were held. Two players from each qualifying stage made it to the finals. At the decisive stage, they will play with representatives of the Russian Premier League clubs. The final of the national cyber football championship will be held in Kazan in early March (date and place have not yet been determined). The winner of the championship, in addition to the title, will have the right to play in the European qualifiers for the interactive world championship under the auspices of the International Football Federation (FIFA).
The decisive matches of the World Cyber Football Championship will be held in London. Their winner will receive an invitation to the FIFA Awards Ceremony, including the 2017 Best Player of the Year.
Andrey Mikhailov