Professional FIFA player and coach, Akima ‘Fully’ Byron, has been appointed as the eLions’ first official coach.
The news comes following the eLions, England’s official FIFA esports team, qualification for the 2022 FIFAe Nations Cup finals last month, and one day after the 2022 FIFAe Nations Cup group draw was announced (with England facing Scotland in Group A).
UK-based and Jamaican-born Fully started working with the squad in May to help with the preparation for the playoffs. He coached Tom (of Excel Esports) and Tekkz (of Fnatic) to victory against the current holders, France, to secure their spot in Copenhagen at the end of this month.
Having competed at the highest level for over five years, Fully has worked with some of the biggest names in the FIFA community and was appointed following an internal recruitment process with the full support of the current eLions squad.
England joins 23 nations globally to reach the FIFAe Nations Cup finals and is among the 11 qualifying teams from Europe.
The three players selected for the eLions 2022 squad are Tekkz (Donovan Hunt, pictured centre-left), XL Tom (Tom Leese, far left) and MHaywxrd (Mitch Hayward, far right), with Akima ‘Fully’ Byron as coach (centre-right).
Moving forward, the FA will be using a performance-based recruitment model for the eLions squad, rather than a one-off tournament format that had been used in previous seasons, with coach Fully leading the initiative.
“I am humbled to have been selected as the first ever eLions coach. I’m looking forward to working with Tom, Tekkz and Mitch over the next few weeks and at the finals later this month.”
Akima ‘Fully’ Byron
“I am humbled to have been selected as the first ever eLions coach,” Fully said. “After almost making the squad myself in 2021, I have been following their progress and it’s obvious they are working hard as a squad behind-the-scenes.
“After a strong first day in the playoffs, we were all disappointed at how day two unfolded, but Tom and Tekkz dug deep to get us the win we needed across the two legs against France to earn our spot. I’m looking forward to working with Tom, Tekkz and Mitch over the next few weeks and at the finals later this month.”
Stalwart eLion, Tom Leese, said: “We are all happy to have booked our seat on the plane to Denmark, but we know there is a lot more hard work to do now. As a squad we have put everything into our performances, taking each round as it comes, and not taking anything for granted which we will continue to do.
“Following the cancelled events in 2020 and 2021, the FIFAe Nations Finals have been a long time coming. The standard of the final nations is really strong but we are confident we can beat anyone when we play at our best. It’s great to have Fully come in to help us focus and prepare.”
The FIFAe Nations Cup Finals will be held in Copenhagen from July 27th to 30th 2022. You can follow @England on Twitter for more eLions news from the tournament in Denmark.
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.
