Global football governing body FIFA has announced that the FIFAe World Cup will make its return, with national teams now competing in the vehicle football game Rocket League.
The new tournament will be the official FIFA esport tournament for the foreseeable future.
The significance of this tournament lies in the fact that the main governing body for worldwide football will no longer have an official tournament in a football game. Instead, it will have a tournament in a game that is loosely based on football.
Since 2023, FIFA no longer has an official game to its name, with Electronic Arts moving away with the EA FC series. The 2023 FIFAe World Cup was the last one to feature the FIFA game series.
The partnership with the creators of Rocket League was announced at the RLCS London Major. The decision to choose Rocket League instead of EA FC’s direct competitor eFootball was a relatively surprising reveal.
Not much is known about the upcoming event besides the fact that it will be open to any and all players through the official FIFA website. According to FIFA, the nations will be chosen based on the “number of representatives from each country in the previous Rocket League Majors.”
In the London Major, for example, there were nine players from the USA, seven players from France, and six from Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. FIFA also said in a release that member countries will have the opportunity to host their own qualification tournament to find the players that will represent each country.
This partnership is the first foray outside of the EA FC series of games for FIFA when it comes to esports.
Christian Volk, Director eFootball and Gaming at FIFA stated: “The FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League marks a new era for FIFAe, providing a groundbreaking platform for FIFA’s member associations to compete on one of the most relevant esports titles.
“This milestone partnership highlights our commitment to evolve our football esports ecosystem and continue to build the biggest stages for all communities to fame their game.”
