The FA has today announced it is giving fans across the country the chance to represent England and become the official eLions representatives for this year’s FIFA eNations Cup,
The ‘Beat the eLions’ online tournament will run on Xbox and PlayStation, with the first qualifier taking place on March 2nd and 3rd and the second on March 4th and 5th.
English FIFA fans aged 16 and over can now register their interest to take part via TheFA.com.
Last year, The FA held a tournament to find the best two English FIFA eLions players – with Fnatic Tekkz and Hashtag Tom coming out on top. Both players went on to represent England at the 2019 FIFA eNations Cup, where they made it to the quarter finals.
The top player on each console from the two March qualifiers, along with the top ranked English players from the FIFA 20 Global Series rankings Hashtag Harry (PS4) and Futwiz Lyricz (Xbox), will be invited to the ‘Beat the eLions’ Grand Final on March 19th.
The tournament, taking place at Wembley Stadium connected by EE, will be hosted by British FIFA esports commentators Richard Buckley and Brandon Smith.
It will see the six players battle it out for the chance to get to the final, where they will have to take on the current eLions in the hope of taking their place.
Speaking at the launch of this year’s tournament to ‘Beat the eLions’, Fnatic Tekkz said: “To represent your country is the ultimate honour. And I really enjoyed the 2v2 format playing alongside Tom, so much so that we teamed up together at club level.”
“I’m determined to earn my place [with the eLions] again this year.”
Fnatic Tekkz
Hashtag Tom added: “I’m looking forward to getting the chance to defend my title, I hope I can make it through to be an eLion again. Me and Tekkz have just made the semi-final of the FIFA eClub World Cup and we want to go one step further and lift the trophy for England at the eNations.”
Kathryn Swarbrick, The FA’s commercial and marketing director, said: “This is the latest exciting chapter for the eLions following a successful launch in 2019. The FA is committed to growing the game, and engaging with the esports community allows us to reach out and inspire millions of football fans from all backgrounds. Representing your country is the greatest honour and that is no different for the eLions.”
The Beat the eLions Tournament will be streamed live on the official England YouTube channel on March 19th.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
