UK-based esports organisation Guild Esports have won their sixth major trophy after Guild FIFA player Nicolas ‘Nicolas99fc’ Villalba won the eChampions League.
The Argentinian achieved first place in Europe’s EA Sports FIFA 22 eChampions League, which also saw UK player Tekkz taking part at the tournament in Stockholm.
Nicolas, who has been part of Guild’s FIFA esports roster since December 2021, took home the $75,000 top prize at the tournament after beating Team Heretics’ matisbonanno99 7-2 in the Grand Final.
Nicolas also overcame strong competition from the likes of Fnatic’s Tekkz and RBLZ Gaming’s Umut on his route to the showpiece event.
The win has also secured a place in the FIFA 22 Global Series Playoffs in July.
The news comes almost 23 years to the day from Guild co-owner David Beckham’s own Champions League victory in 1999 with Manchester United, who completed the treble.
Beckham himself celebrated the victory on his Instagram account with his 73.5m followers, announcing in a story post: “Champions of Europe! A proud moment for @guildesports as @nicolas99fc wins the eChampions League Trophy.”
Nicolas99fc said:
“This is a very special victory for me and I can’t wait to get home and celebrate. Since joining Guild the coaching and set-up has been perfect to allow me to improve and achieve these sorts of victories, and there is much more to come.”
Nicolas99fc
Kal Hourd, chief executive of Guild Esports, said: “We couldn’t be prouder of Nicolas’ incredible achievement, he perfectly embodies the winning mentality and professionalism that we pride ourselves on at Guild and was so key to the success of that iconic Manchester United squad over two decades ago. We believe this is the start of a long run of FIFA trophies for us.
“Winning trophies, building a global fanbase and generating media value is exactly what our brand sponsors expect, and the growing strength of the Guild brand helps to support our ongoing discussions with potential new sponsorship partners.”
Nicolas’ success in the eChampions League comes as part of a major year for Guild in which it is has launched a new jersey, ahead of the opening of Guild’s first global HQ in London.
Nicolas has previously ranked in the top three FIFA players worldwide since 2018 and is Argentina’s second highest earner within esports. His most notable international Major wins included the FIFA 19 PS4 Playoffs and the FIFA eClub World Cup 2019 in London with Tekkz.
Having previously played for FC Basel 1893 Esports based in Switzerland, Nicolas moved from Argentina to London in order to compete for Guild in Europe. He aims to use Guild’s academy and coaching to become the number one FIFA player in the world.
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.
