Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. today announced the new esports tournament “Coppa eFootball Italia”. The tournament is a new Italy-based event consisting of eFootball™ partner clubs, their young players, professional esports players and, most importantly, fans.
What is ‘Coppa eFootball Italia’?
“Coppa eFootball Italia” is a new esports initiative for KONAMI and the football simulation gaming arena. Each of the clubs will be represented in the tournament by teams consisting of three players. These teams consist of a selected Youth esports team player, a professional e-sports player who is currently part of their current squad, and an amateur player who won the online qualifying tournament.
This unique approach, which brings together elite and grassroots esports players, is unlike anything seen in the current football simulation esports ecosystem.
7 eFootball™ partner clubs are participating in the tournament
KONAMI is delighted to announce that all seven Italy-based eFootball™ partner clubs will participate in the “Coppa eFootball Italia”. These clubs include AC Milan, AC Monza, AS Roma, Atalanta BC, FC Internazionale Milano, SS Lazio and SSC Napoli.
How the contest will proceed
All seven clubs will select three representatives to take part in their teams before competing in the ‘Coppa eFootball Italia’.
First, each club will hold an esports tournament among Youth team players to determine a representative. These tournaments will be accompanied by a seminar by the KONAMI eFootball Activations team, based on the ever-evolving esports and video games.
Later, the clubs will hold a tournament among their professional players who are already in esports teams.
Finally, eFootball™ will run an online in-game tournament called ‘KONAMICI’ for all players in Italy; this will be part of eFootball™2023 and will be an event exclusive to Italy. Players will be able to sign up to participate online in the tournament, which will last a total of two weeks.
Inexperienced players who have never played eFootball™ before can also participate in the tournament. Each club fan will be able to register online for the event and choose the club they want to represent. After that, he will play at least 30 matches against other fans and try to get the highest scores in the tournament.
Players who rank at the top of the online tournament will advance to a fan qualifying group specific to the club they want to represent, also played online.
The winning fan representative of each club will be eligible to be part of the three-man team alongside the Youth team and Esports players who will represent their club in the ‘Coppa eFootball Italia’.
KONAMICI’s top players will not only represent their club in an international esports tournament, but also have the opportunity to win a range of awards from both KONAMI and the club they represent.
KONAMICI will only be available on Playstation®4 and Playstation®5 platforms and will be free to play.
Tournament Calendar
“Coppa eFootball Italia” is a new form of esports tournament that will bring many different elements to life. The selection of club representative rosters and the tournament itself will be held in stages between December 2022 and April 2023.
The KONAMICI qualifying phase will begin in February, allowing all seven participating clubs to win the fan representative with final matches at the end of March 2023.
Once the clubs have all determined their three-man teams, there will be an offline Group Stage where they play each other to determine their position in their respective groups. This stage will be broadcast from the studio “Coppa eFootball Italia”. This leg of the tournament will affect the draw for the knockout stage on the Grand Final weekend in late April.
Finally, once the group standings are determined, the clubs will face off in a directly qualifying tournament with two Semi-Finals, a Third Place play-off (between the two clubs that lost their Semi-Finals) and a Grand Final after drawing lots for the Quarter-Finals.
The Grand Final weekend will take place at an offline, live event at COMICON in Naples from April 28 to May 1, 2023.
In addition to the Grand Prize, the winning club will have a dedicated eFootball™ multimedia and gaming centre to be installed in youth education centres.
During the tournament, a series called “eFootball TV” will be broadcast via the official eFootball Youtube channel, recorded in the studio “Coppa eFootball™™Italia”.
The series will feature analyses and highlights from ‘Coppa eFootball Italia’, interviews with players, opinions from partner club players and legendary footballers, as well as chapters on how eFootball™ works and how ‘Coppa eFootball Italia’ is being implemented.
Tournament official website: http://www.coppaefootball.it/
press release
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