‘Prinsipe’ surprises Huge Gorilla in FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Madrid Regional Final

For the first time in FUT Champions history, a PS4 champion beat out his Xbox rival in a cross-console Regional Grand Final. Italian PS4 champion ‘Prinsipe’ beat Unilad Gorilla, arguably the highest-ranked FIFA player in the world, by a 6-4 aggregate scoreline to be crowned the champion in Madrid.

In the first leg on Xbox, Prinsipe took a massive advantage in the first half after scoring two away goals to really pile the pressure on Gorilla. However, in the second half, Gorilla struck back to make it 2-2 in the end.

The second leg started off the exact same way, with Prinsipe taking another 2-0 advantage in the first half on native console. Gorilla pulled one back again to make it 2-1, but a third goal from Prisipe, through Roma’s Radja Nainggolan, effectively put the game to bed.

The Berlin Ultimate Team Championships also gained eight new competitors, the top four finishers from PS4 and Xbox One.

Group Stages

The biggest stories of the Group Stages are always the upsets, and just like last time — there were some major upsets in Madrid too. The biggest were Hashtag United’s BorasLegend and PSG’s August ‘Agge’ Rosenmeier getting grouped against Ajax’s Dani and Bastafa.

Hashtag United did not have a great day in general, with Harry Hesketh also being knocked out after all four players in Xbox’s Group 2 finished on four points with one win, one loss, and one draw. Let’s take a look at how the Group Standings finished up.

Unilad’s new signing Spencer ‘Huge Gorilla’ Ealing and Gambit esports ‘Megabit’ played perhaps the game of the tournament; a back-and-forth affair that ended with Gorilla narrowly escaping with a 3-2 win, off a goal in the last ten minutes.

Knockout Round

The Knockout Round featured even more drama, if you can imagine. Gorilla was upset on penalties in his first knockout round match and pushed down to the Xbox lower bracket. However, he climbed all the way back to win, joining NYCFC’s Christopher Holly as only the second player to do so. Here’s a look at the final brackets for Xbox and Playstation.

EA Sports

EA Sports

In the Xbox division, PSG’s DaXee and Dragon played a classic with DaXee just outlasting him 5-4. The loser's bracket on Xbox was an all-star affair. Gorilla edged Schalke's Tim Latka to setup a matchup with Dragon, which lived up to the hype as Gorilla barely edged Dragon 1-0, clinching the berth to Berlin and sending Dragon, the 2016 FIFA Interactive World Cup runner up, home empty handed.

Gorilla beat Feyenoord's QuintenX 3-2 in a match that didn't feel as close as the score indicated. Gorilla then a chance for redemption against Nraseck, who beat him on pens, and ran the show en route to the Xbox final.

He then needed two wins against DaXee, who edged Sean to make it to the grand final. Gorilla was in control the entire first match; he didn't play as well in the second half but still well enough to get the win. DaXe got an Antoine Griezmann-esque (against Bayern in the 2016 Champions League semifinals) breakaway counter in the 80th minute to force extra time. The game ended up going to penalties. Each saved a few of the others but then DaXe has a chance to get a commanding two-penalty lead but he decides to ‘panenka’ the penalty and Gorilla saves it easily.

Gorilla eventually comes back to force the do-or-die final game, after a 4-2 win on penalties. He completely bosses the second game, winning 1-0 but it could’ve and should’ve been three or four.

Contrary to the Xbox division, the PS4 side was relatively tame. Italian player ‘Prinsipe’ rolled the competition from the start, winning by a margin of at least two goals until the semi-finals. He beat Maniika by a 1-0 margin to advance to the PS4 Final.

In the final, he faced ‘TheStrxnger’ — the player he beat in the first knockout stage, 6-2. The divisional final was no different, with Prinsipe winning 3-1.

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With that, Season Two of FUT Champions comes to a close. All 32 competitors have been set for the Ultimate Team Championships that start on May 19th. We’ll have more coverage on that event as it draws closer. Stay tuned.