The final round of the Union of European Football Associations e-Euro 2021 will be held on July 9 and 10 in London, Europe’s football confederation announced on its website on Tuesday.
The tournament, in which all 55 UEFA members are participating, is being organized across three stages: Qualifying Round, Playoff Round and Finals.
In the qualifying round, the 55 teams were divided into 10 groups of five or six each. The winner of each group qualified directly to the final round, while the runners up went to the playoffs. Six out of the ten teams in the playoffs will qualify for the final round. All matches will be played on Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2021.
Speaking to uefa.com, Erman Gokdemir, who is representing Turkey in the e-tournament, said: “I think this tournament is the biggest and most important tournament in the history of PES. The e-Euro gives us the pride and happiness to represent our country.”
The 10 countries that have already booked a place into the final round are: Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Spain. The Playoff round of the tournament is still under way.
A total prize money of €1,00,000 will be divided among all the finalists. Moreover, Competitions like eEuro have gained popularity across the footballing world, with some of the biggest football clubs launching their own eSports teams.
Ashwin Iyer, an employee with Gaming Monk, an eSports gaming platform based in Delhi, said: “Fifa and PES, apart from PlayStation and Xbox, cater to low-end devices and hence are popular. Gaming companies have realized that they can capitalize on this popularity by incentivizing the game through competitions and tournaments. We have seen a rise in these tournaments recently.”
With the popularity of eSports growing by the day, football fans hope to see more tournaments like eEuro. Such tournaments have also struck a chord with football fans. “eSports have proven their ability to capture fan bases. Today, for football clubs struggling financially, due to the pandemic, eSports can be a welcome source of revenue,” said Parth Chawla, an avid football fan.
