As one of the top international clubs, what do you do when your beloved sports is on hold? FC Bayern Munich has found a solution to the Corona imposed break: they organized their very own esports tournament in eFootball PES 2020 - the FC Bayern Esports Cup. We have all the information and results.
Three football teams and a team composed of FC Bayern Munich’s basketball guys competed last weekend in the FC Bayern Esports Cup. In the grand final on Friday, the winners met the club’s own esports team, which has been active in Konami's sports game eFootball PES 2020 since December 2019.
FC Bayern Esports Cup: Virtual excitement
Among the participants in the FC Bayern Esports Cup were defensive ace David Alaba, midfielder Javi Martínez, youngster Joshua Zirkzee, German international Lina Magull and FC Bayern Basketball’s shooting guard Nihad Djedovic.
Konami’s eFootball PES 2020 was the object of competition and was played from the comfort of each players’ own homes in the game’s 2-on-2 online mode.
The Esports Cup participants
Men’s Team
- David Alaba
- Javi Martínez
Baksetball Team
- Diego Flaccadori
- Nihad Djedovic
Women‘s Team
- Jacintha Weimar
- Lina Magull
Campus Team
- Joshua Zirkzee
- Oliver Batista-Meier
In the semi-finals, the men's Team competed against the basketball players, while the FCB women took on the Campus Team. The winner of the first-stage final would then face the FC Bayern Esports team - led by Alex Alguacil, José Carlos Sánchez and Miguel Mestre - in the grand final.
Here are the results of the FC Bayern Esports Cup
In an exciting and hard-fought match, the Men's Team beat the basketball players 3-2 in the first semi-final. Nihad Djedovic quickly identified the reason for the defeat in his analysis:
"I think our goalie played for them. At least in the first half. That's the difference."
The Campus Team’s victory in the second semi-final wasn’t quite as close: They beat the FCB ladies with a score of 5:1. The ladies then also lost to the basketball squad.
Thus, the internal finals saw four Bundesliga players face off against each other. Four players that all know each other from the real pitch. But what’s that going to look like on the virtual pitch? At least both teams seemed certain ahead of the clash:
"We just had our first snack, now I'm looking forward to the main course. What's in store for us? I think we can only beat ourselves",
David Alaba revealed, but Oliver Batista-Meier knew how to counter:
“I know we’ll win. We won’t have any problems.”
In the warm-ups, Javi Martínez knew exactly why the young guns are so confident.
“They don’t have a life. All they do is play PES all day.”
Thus, the stage for the finals was set and, sure enough, the Campus Team backed up their confidence: After a score of 1-1 after regulation, they won the penalty shoot-out 4-1.
Watch now: FC Bayern Esports Cup Highlights.
The grand finals: Campus Team meets esports pros
The young guns left professionals, ladies and basketball players in the dust, but how will they fare against the real virtual pros? On Friday, the program included two games to determine the overall winner.
After a 4:1 victory for the esports pros in the first match, the Campus Team ran out of air. Would Zirkzee and Batista-Meier be able to fight back again? No, the FC Bayern esports team around Miguel Mestre Oltra and José Carlos Sánchez Guillén didn't give the football pros a chance and also won the second match clearly with a score of 4-0.
Despite the rather obvious final, the FC Bayern Esports Cup was great fun for everyone involved, as well as the spectators on Twitch, YouTube and other social media platforms. That leaves just one question: When will the second edition of the tournament take place?
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