The Premier League and EA have today announced a new event in the FIFA esports ePremier League (ePL) calendar: the ePL Invitational 2023.
The tournament brings together all the players who will be representing the 20 Premier League clubs in this year’s ePremier League Grand Finals in March 2023.
Celebrity social media personalities Chunkz and Elz the Witch take on the role of team captains, each guiding 10 clubs through a series of entertaining challenges.
Fans around the world will be able to watch the ePL Invitational on Tuesday February 7th 2023 on the Premier League and EA Sports digital channels.
Leading players taking part include former ePL champions Tom Leese, representing Tottenham Hotspur, and the 2021/22 ePremier League winner Jack ‘GoalPoacher’ Wignall, playing on behalf of West Ham United.
Each team will be set a series of EA Sports FIFA 23 challenges, with the captains nominating which clubs will go up against one another in head-to-head match-ups. Some of the ten challenges include a FIFA 23 Crossbar Challenge and a 2vs2 captain and player Pro-Am, with the team earning the most points emerging victorious (there’s more challenges listed at the bottom of this article).
‘The ePL Invitational gives fans the opportunity to get to know our finalists by seeing them go head-to-head in a fun new format, the ideal environment for them to demonstrate their incredible skills. With two of the country’s rising entertainment stars leading the teams, I am sure that fans across the UK and beyond will enjoy the show.’
Will Brass, Premier League
Coverage will be fronted by experienced sports and entertainment presenter Rachel Stringer, with FIFA esports experts Brandon Smith and Richard Buckley commentating on the action.
Back in 2020, a similar event, the first ePremier League Invitational tournament, took place with professional footballers and Sky Sports aired the live final on TV.
As mentioned, the ePL Invitational comes ahead of the ePremier League Grand Finals, which take place on March 25th and 26th at Here East in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Players will be competing for a prize pool of £100,000 with the four competitors from the top two clubs earning spots in the EA Sports FIFA 23 Global Series Playoffs and Play-Ins.
Premier League Chief Commercial Officer, Will Brass, said: “The ePremier League has gone from strength to strength since the tournament’s inception five years ago. We are always looking at new ways to grow the competition, so we are delighted to add this new event to the calendar.
“The ePL Invitational gives fans the opportunity to get to know our finalists by seeing them go head-to-head in a fun new format, the ideal environment for them to demonstrate their incredible skills. With two of the country’s rising entertainment stars leading the teams, I am sure that fans across the UK and beyond will enjoy the show. May the best captain win.”
ePL Invitational 2023 Challenges
The ePL Invitational 2023 will have the following ten challenges for participants:
| Challenge | Overview | Game Mode |
| Pro-Am | Club Pro plays alongside Team Captain in 2v2 game | FUT |
| Crossbar Challenge | Players try to hit each goal post and crossbar with the ball. The first to hit all three is the winner | FUT |
| 2 Controllers, 1 player | 2 v 2 game mode with only one player using both controllers | FUT |
| Volta Football | A four-person game mode that is free for all skill games and 2 v 2. Player with the most points wins | VOLTA |
| Opposite Day | Inverted teams! Goalkeeper upfront, attack in goal etc | FUT |
| Headers and Volleys | Goals only count if they are headers and volleys | FUT Friendlies |
| Draft your opponent | Each player drafts the opponent’s team | FUT |
| Wonder Kids | Each player builds a team using U21s only | FUT |
| Hot Potato | 1 v 1 game mode. Two players per team. Every time the ball goes out of play, the player passes the controller to his team-mate | FUT |
| Fun House | Regular FUT Friendlies game with players wearing goggles that distorts player’s vision | FUT Friendlies |
The ePL Invitational will be broadcast across the Premier League YouTube channel and streamed on the EA Sports FIFA Twitch channel from 4pm GMT on Tuesday February 7th 2023.
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.
