16-year-old Bulgarian FC esports player, Alihan ‘Alihan’ Hadzhi of RBLZ Gaming, has won a Wicked Wednesday FC 25 tournament held at the London headquarters of GiantX.
The Wicked Wednesday’s FC 25 Tournament, sponsored by hardware brand Trust, took place on November 6th 2024.
It saw the final eight players, including two world champions, battle it out for a $1,500 grand prize.
The tournament was hosted live by British EA Sports commentator Brandon Smith, a Trust partner and content creator who has commentated many football esports tournaments over the years, and has some 1.5m followers on TikTok.
The FC 25 tournament started with 32 of the best players across Europe, which were filtered down to the top eight finalists over three weekly online tournaments.
The eight finalists included EA FC Pro World Champion Anders Verjgang, current Esports World Cup champion Jafonso, and FC Pro players Alihan, Levi de Weerd, Ilian, Stingray, Redlac and Andoni, who are all the best in their fields.
The FC Pro players all used GXTrust gaming products throughout the tournament, from keyboards and headsets to gaming desks . These include the GXT 866 Torix Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (£57.99), Fayzo Gaming Wireless headset (£49.99), RGB Gaming Desk GXT 709 Luminus (£149.99) and Trust GXT 719 Ruya RGB (£270).
Alihan, the 16-year-old prodigy from Bulgaria who represents RBLZ Gaming ended up facing Levi de Weerd, the two times European champion from the Dutch Team Gullit in the final round.
After hours of competition, RBLZ Alihan took home the grand prize with an incredible comeback.
The finale was viewed by 12,000 people and content around the tournament generated 2.5m+ views, including content created from both Brandon Smith and the collective players with the GXTrust x Wicked Wednesday branding.
More FC news:
- 2024/25 ePremier League: Dates, prize pool and format revealed as FC tournament returns
- 4 in 5 young people say playing games has got them into real life sports, as Premier League says gamers ‘significantly more likely to consume our content and become lifelong fans of our clubs’
- Women’s Esports Finals winners announced as Guild and Sky Broadband award pro contracts and £50,000
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.
