Following in the baby steps of sister club Manchester City, NYCFC has teamed up with Players’ Lounge to enter esports via FIFA.
The east coast MLS club’s entrance appears to be erring more on the side of caution that of the Citizens however; the English club announced a FIFA player in the form of Kieran ‘Kez’ Brown, whilst NYCFC has made no such commitment as yet but has instead announced a series of tournaments in association with Players’ Lounge. Players Lounge became popular in 2014 with FIFA competitions played for cash in New York bars.
The format of the tournaments was announced on the New York City FC site, with the primary online tournaments being played out over the weekend just gone and this week seeing the remaining games. These will culminate in an offline final which’ll take place prior to NYCFC’s game against Columbus Crew in the Yankee Stadium fan zone this Sunday 23 October. Full details can be read here.
This marks the first entrance of an American club into the competitive FIFA scene, and follows Philadelphia 76ers much discussed acquisition, and merger, of Team Dignitas and Apex.
City Football Group, the company behind both clubs, also owns Melbourne City and Yokohama Marinos so perhaps we’ll be hearing more about new traditional club esports entries sooner rather than later.
Esports Insider says: Great to see an MLS club embracing the competitive FIFA scene, and should this prove successful and engaging for young fans expect to see it replicated over in Melbourne sometime soon.
