England will join a host of European nations this summer for FIFA eFootball Play x Unite 2020, a new eight-team esports competition.
They will be represented by the eLions – Donovan ‘Tekkz’ Hunt and Tom ‘Hashtag Tom’ Leese – who won the right to wear the Three Lions in March 2019. The pair have been placed in a group with counterparts from Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
FIFA eFootball Play x Unite 2020 gets underway on Monday July 6th with nations initially being split into sub-tournaments of four, which each include a group stage, knockout round and final, before the competition culminates in a grand final on Wednesday July 22nd.
The invitational tournament will see pro gamers do battle, with Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Sweden and Portugal also set to put forward a PS4 and Xbox representative.
Matches will be played via the FIFA Ultimate Team format using equally-matched national team players with scores aggregated across PS4 and Xbox.
Tom said: “To represent England is always an honour and I’m looking forward to linking up with Tekkz again as my international teammate for this tournament.”
Tekkz added: “It should be fun but at the same time we will be playing to win. There are a lot of good players involved from other nations but we are confident we can do well.”
Live coverage of the eLions’ matches will be powered by LG, one of The FA’s official partners, and hosted by presenter Rachel Stringer across England’s Twitter and YouTube channels. Match commentary will be provided by the English voices of FIFA esports: Brandon Smith and Richard Buckley.
England’s group-stage schedule is as follows:
- 5pm BST, Monday 6 July: England vs Poland
- 6pm BST, Monday 6 July: Germany vs England
- 7pm BST, Monday 6 July: Switzerland vs England
- 5pm BST, Tuesday 7 July: England vs Switzerland
- 6pm BST, Tuesday 7 July: England vs Germany
- 7pm BST, Tuesday 7 July: Poland vs England
The eLions will then take part in at least one knockout game from 5pm BST on Wednesday July 8th and, if successful, will then go into the group final on Friday July 10th.
Group two – containing Italy, Sweden, Belgium and Portugal – will play out their games in the week commencing Monday July 13th, with a grand final between the two group winners taking place at 7pm BST on Wednesday July 22nd.
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.
