June 3 – Championship club Aston Villa that lost in the £160 million play-off game for the Premier League against Fulham, has become first club in EFL to launch its own esports league – AVFC Gaming.
Starting this month the new club’s esports division will host a series of tournaments for FIFA 18 gamers via PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Will Radford, Head of Digital Media and Content at Aston Villa, said: “We know that being a Villa fan goes way beyond match day, our fans live and breathe the club in all aspects of their lives.”
“The launch of AVFC Gaming is all about embracing the fans doing what they love. We want to be able to reward the Villa faithful in their social lives and our partnership with the European Gaming League allows to do this in a way no other club has. Esports are becoming increasingly popular, with competitive leagues all around the world developing a huge amount of talent. AVFC Gaming will be another example of this, as well as being a great way for fans and the club to interact away from Villa Park.”
In partnership with European Gaming League (EGL), AVFC Gaming will encourage gamers to compete against each other to win Pro Points, for exclusive prizes. These points will be accumulated over a seven-week period, based on the number of matches won in each tournament.
The series comprises qualifiers, a last-chance qualifier, a special wildcard tournament and the final – which sees the three winners from the original qualifiers and the ‘last-chance qualifier’ battle it out.
The AVFC Gaming initiative is ‘Part of the Pride’ campaign, which was bought in at the start of the 2017/18 season, and focusses on fans engagement.
“The launch of our own esports series is testament to the club’s desire of becoming an innovative leader in the business of sport. This initial series will act as a springboard to launch further digital gaming experiences to entertain and engage all our fans over the coming months,” said Radford.
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