Electronic Arts announced Monday its esports plans for the soon-to-be-released football game, EA SPORTS FIFA 23, including new formats and new ways to play.
The first part of its competition for the game will be the new EA SPORTS Cup. Featuring players from “top esports organizations” and “professional football clubs,” this 2v2 competition will run for three months starting on Oct. 17, with weekly broadcasts on YouTube and Twitch. The EA SPORTS Cup finals will take places Jan. 16-21, 2023, crowning a champion and determining which two teams will advance to the FIFAe Club World Cup 2023. Teams mentioned in the announcement include City Esports, Paris Saint-Germain Esports, Fnatic, and Complexity—but there’s no doubt more will be revealed soon.
FGS 23 1v1 competition returns as well, starting with online competition in tandem with the worldwide release of the latest game in the series, EA SPORTS FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition on Sept. 27. Over the next 10 months, competitors can participate in a number of 1v1 tournaments—including FUT Division Rivals on Sept. 27—with top performers advancing to one of nine FGS Regional Online Qualifiers.
The FGS 23 Midseason Major will culminate with eligible players competing in an open bracket, in-person event in London on the weekend of April 7, 2023.
In addition, more than “30 football league partners and confederations” will hold tournaments, giving competitors the chance to represent a football club. Other tournaments that will be a part of FGS 23 include the ePremier League, Virtual Bundesliga, eLaLiga Santander, eLigue 1 Uber Eats, eMLS, eSerie A TIM, KPN eDivisie, CONMEBOL eLibertadores, and the eChampions League. More football league partners will be announced at a later date. The top 64 FGS 23 performers from FGS Regional Qualifiers or football league partner competitions will compete at the FGS Playoffs on June 23-25, 2023.
EA SPORTS FIFA 23 esports will also include the FIFAe World Cup 2023 in late summer 2023, with the top 24 FGS Playoffs performers competing at the FIFAe World Cup 2023 where a world champion will be crowned.
EA says that the FGS 23 online qualifiers and majors are presented by PlayStation and will be played exclusively on PlayStation 5 consoles. The total prize pool and other information were not disclosed at the time of writing.
More details can be found on EA’s official website.