It’s here. The Berlin FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Championship is finally upon us.
Over six million players have competed in the FIFA FUT Champions Weekend League since the start of FIFA 17 to qualify for one of the 192 spots in the live qualifications for the Season One and Season Two Regional Finals. And after six regional events, only the top 32 competitors remain.
With a 400,000 prize pool, this weekend's Championship is anticipated to be the most watched event in the game's history. Let’s take a look at some of the favorites to become the best FIFA player in the world.
Five of the six regionals were won by the Xbox One Champion, so the division is set to be more contested one.
Hashtag United’s Tassal ‘Hashtag Tass’ Rushan dominated the first regional in Paris and went undefeated during the event, beating Schalke 04’s Cihan Yasarlar in the final. The London native is considered to be one of Europe’s top talents, and will look to continue his dominance in Berlin.
Brazilian superstar and PSG esports player Rafael ‘rafifa’ Fortes, who won the Miami Regional, is definitely one of the competition’s dark horses, as is Khalid ‘xX ThE RoYaL Xx’ Aloufi, the Season One Rest of World Champion.
Finally, Spencer ‘Unilad Gorilla’ Ealing, who is considered to be the best FIFA player in the world by many, will look win it all for the first time after getting grouped in Paris and coming up short in the Madrid final.
On the PS4 side, Daniele ‘Prinsipe’ Paolucci, the first competitor coming from the PlayStation 4 division to lift the Regional Champion title, is now a recognizable figure in the FIFA community after beating Unilad Gorilla over two legs in Madrid. He’s become one of the favorites to win the division.
On the other hand, Abdulaziz ‘MrD0ne’ Alshehri has one of the strongest resumé’s in the entire competition. The former FIFA World Champion, four-time Saudi Arabia Champion, three-time Middle East Champion, and one-time Asia Champion, just got beaten by Aloufi in the Sydney Regional Final but he should not, by any means, be counted out.
In the end, all of the 32 FIFA players competing in this event have a shot at being crowned the best in the world. They’ve come this far, racking up thousands of wins on FUT Champions in the process, and every single one will be putting their best foot forward on Friday.
Let’s see how the groups shape up for Friday:
Xbox One
PS4
The rules are as follows. All four players play everyone in their group with a win worth three points, a draw worth two, and a loss worth zero. The top two players in each group advance to the double-elimination Knockout Round.
After both knockout tournaments are down to the finalists from each console, the winner of the Xbox One field will take on the winner of the PlayStation 4 bracket in a two-leg final with one fixture on Xbox One and one on PS4.
After both matches, the player with the higher aggregate score from the two is crowned the champion. If the aggregate score is tied, the player with more goals scored on their “non-native” platform (e.g. “away goals”) is the winner. If the match remains tied on “away goals”, a golden-goal third match will be played on the same platform as the second game and the winner decided by the first to score.
Tune in to watch the Berlin Ultimate Team Championships, streaming on Twitch and YouTube at 6 a.m. ET Friday, and the Grand Final on ESPN2 at 5 a.m. ET on Saturday. You can also watch here on EA’s website.
Extended coverage including exclusive, behind-the-scenes content live from the venue can be found on FIFA’s social media channels:
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