Following weeks of online qualifiers, two South African FIFA players have qualified for the FIFAe Club world cup 2021 finals.
Julio Beast Bianchi and Kaylan Kaylan Moodley are the first South African gamers to secure a spot to the annual FIFA event.
“Being the first team in South Africa to qualify for a major FIFA event of this nature is a big honour,” says Beast. “It’s also an amazing opportunity for gamers in SA to have been able to compete in official FIFA qualifiers for a spot in the FIFAe Club world cup finals, and we hope South Africa will be provided with more official FIFA qualifiers like this in future. Kaylan and I will be working extremely hard over the next few weeks to ensure we are as prepared as possible for the finals — to make our family, friends and gaming community proud, and to fly that SA flag high.”
Kaylan says: “It’s very exciting to have qualified for a global FIFA event of this nature and I’m really looking forward to competing alongside my good friend, Julio. We’re confident in our ability individually and as a team, and intend on doing are absolute best in the finals. We hope to make South Africa proud and, hopefully, we can bring it home come February 26th and 27th.”
Julio and Kaylan have both competed in major FIFA events in the past. Julio, competed in the FIFA eWorld Cup Global Series playoffs in Amsterdam and finished off in the top 64 in the world on PS4 in the tournament — in FIFA20 ending third on PS4 in South Africa and 155th in the world on the official rankings. Julio is signed to one of South Africa’s top multi-gaming organisations, Goliath Gaming, and is the captain of their FIFA squad.
Kaylan is signed to MBC eSports and, competed in the FIFA FUT Champions Cup 2 in Romania and FIFA FUT Champions Cup 4 in Paris where he finished in the top 16 players on Xbox. He has also won the FIFA Global Series Africa Qualifiers and other FIFA tournaments in South Africa. In the official FIFA20 rankings, Kaylan finished 33rd in the world on Xbox and 1st in South Africa.
The South African duo, both playing under Goliath Gaming for the event, fall in the zone 3 region and will compete with the best FIFA players in the Middle East (25 E-Sports, ALNassr Club, and Tuwaiq Esports).
The FIFAe Club world cup finals will take place online between 24 and 28 February 2021. The finals will have 42 teams from six different zones competing, with a prize pool of $245,000 to be won.
The total prize pool for the Zone 3 finals is $32,000, with first-place worth $22,000 and second place scoring $10,000. The Zone 3 group stage begins on 26 February, and the Zone 3 finals will take place on 27 February.
Click here to keep up with Goliath Gaming, which will release the stream links for users to watch.