From 6 to 8 May, 21 of the world’s best EA SPORTS™ FIFA 13 gamers will gather in Madrid for the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2013 Grand Final. Find out everything about the FICW13.
What is the FIFA Interactive World Cup
The FIFA Interactive World Cup is an official FIFA tournament that recognizes the virtual football talents of gamers playing the EA SPORTS™ FIFA series on the PlayStation®3. Every year, registered players compete online and at special events in the hopes of qualifying for the Grand Final where they will ultimately battle for the world crown, just like national teams in the FIFA World Cup™. Since the 2010 edition the annual tournament has been officially recognized as the largest gaming tournament in the world by the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition.
FIFA Interactive World Cup History
FIWC13 is the ninth edition of the FIFA Interactive World cup. The inaugural Grand Final took place at the home of FIFA in 2004. That year Thiago Carrico de Azevedo from Rio de Janeiro claimed the title for Brazil. Since Thiago’s victory the FIWC has been won by players from England, Netherlands, Spain, France, USA and Portugal.
In 2012 Alfonso Ramos made FIWC history by becoming the first ever FIWC player to win the title twice (2008, 2012). FIWC13 will give Ramos the chance to try and claim an unprecedented third world title.
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[accordion_item title =”List of FIWC champions”]
2012: Alfonso Ramos (Spain)
2011: Francisco Cruz (Portugal)
2010: Nenad Stojkovic (USA)
2009: Bruce Grannec (France)
2008: Alfonso Ramos (Spain)
2006: Andries Smit (Netherlands)
2005: Chris Bullard (United Kingdom)
2004: Thiago Carrico de Azevedo (Brazil)[/accordion_item][/accordion]
How FIFA Interactive World Cup 2013 works
Each Grand Finalist has proved their pedigree by qualifying for the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2013 through an online qualification season or via a special live event. Much like FIFA World Cups of old, the defending champion receives automatic qualification for the Grand Final. In FIFA Interactive World Cup 2013 an updated qualification format was introduced. The top two players on the FIWC overall leaderboard for each of the six online qualification seasons received seats at the Grand Final. Joining Ramos and the online qualifiers in Madrid are winners of the FIWC invitational events, known as Territory Showdowns. These showdowns were held in France, England, Spain and Germany and pitted some of the top national online players against defending national champions.
The winner of the FIWC Grand Final receives the FIFA Interactive World Cup trophy, a cheque for USD20,000 and a trip for two to the next FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala held in Zurich Switzerland. In Zurich the virtual world champion is presented an award at a special press conference before walking down the red carpet, shaking hands with his favourite footballers and watching the FIFA Ballon d‘Or Gala live.
The Territory Showdowns and Grand Final for the FIFA Interactive World Cup are streamed live on FIFA.com/FIWC. During the Live Stream you can enjoy expert commentary from celebrity guests and top class virtual football from some of the best players in the world, such as Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels and Sergio Canales of Valencia.
The matches dates and times will be:
[accordion_item title =”Grand Final draw”]May 4th, 18:00-19:00 CET[/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title =”Day 1″]May 6th, 18:00-20:00 pm CET[/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title =”Day 2″]May 7th, 18:00-20:00 pm CET[/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title =”Finals”]May 8th, 18:00-20:00 pm CET[/accordion_item][/accordion]
All the action of the Grand Final will be live-streamed and available to watch on YouTube.
2.5 million players take part in FIFA Interactive World Cup 2013
A staggering 2.5 million players signed-up for the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2013, making this year’s tournament the most contested in the FIWC’s ten year history. The world’s top 21 virtual footballers who emerged victorious during one of the six seasons will meet in Madrid between 6 and 8 May to go head to head at the Grand Final to determine the FIWC 2013 champion.
Current and two-time world champion Alfonso Ramos said: “Playing FIFA 13 and taking part in the FIWC has really fine tuned my tactical knowledge and my decision making has improved greatly. There are so many good FIFA 13 players in the tournament that your positional play has to be spot on otherwise you’ll get picked off, and I know that playing the game has really sharpened mine. I have a greater appreciation of the game of football and management of a team because of my experiences in the FIWC.”
This article is based on FIFA website.