Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship by WOW Guide
03.12.2025 – The Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship by WOW (VBL) has already seen two mesmerising Showdowns, with more to come for the 2025/26 season, following hard-fought rounds in Leipzig and Frankfurt.
A new competition format and a new game mode has already provided more excitement, more rivalry and greater sporting relevance with Bayer 04 Leverkusen coming out on top in the season opener at Leipzig, while FC St Pauli took the honours in the Frankfurt leg.
RB Leipzig are the reigning champions, but will the title stay in Leipzig, or will one of the remaining 34 participating clubs claim the VBL Trophy when this season’s finale is held in Hamburg next March?
In addition to the championship trophy and the title of German Club Champion in eFootball, a prize money pool of 87,500 euros is at stake again this season.
New and improved format
The matchups for the 2025/26 season are being played exclusively in 1v1 mode – this ensures even more direct duels and individual class.
A matchup consists of two individual 1v1 matches; the goals scored in the two 90-minute matches are added to determine the overall result. Every goal counts!
Unlike in the past, clubs no longer meet in divisions during the league phase, all clubs now compete against each other in five qualifying tournaments with Showdowns taking place each month until February.
The road to Hamburg leads via the offline Showdown knockout phases.
We have already seen Showdown events take place in Leipzig and Frankfurt, with events also scheduled for Cologne (Friday, 19 December 2025), Berlin (Monday, 2 February 2026), and Stuttgart (Sunday, 22 February 2026).
Through the offline Showdowns, the clubs earn points for an overarching ranking that will determine which clubs qualify for the playoffs on February 25/26 and the final on March 7/8, 2026, in Hamburg.
The clubs in places 1-8 in the overall table qualify directly for the final in Hamburg, while the clubs in places 9-24 in the playoffs play the remaining eight teams for the final event. For the clubs in 25-35th place in the table, the season ends after the last Showdown.
How does the Showdown work
A Showdown usually lasts ten days and consists of an online preliminary round and an offline knockout phase. In the online preliminary round, played on Thursday and Tuesday, the top 16 teams will qualify for the offline knockout phase the following weekend. For each online preliminary round, each club plays six matchups with classic scoring.
The matches are drawn anew for each qualifying tournament, so there is no fixed schedule before the start of the season. In the offline knockout round, there is the opportunity to earn additional points for the overall ranking.
“The Virtual Bundesliga has seen continuous growth in recent years, driven by a stronger competitive structure, higher production standards and a steadily expanding community around EA SPORTS FC,” said Felix Rentschler, Head of Virtual Bundesliga.
“With the new format, we’ve taken a major step forward: the competition has become more accessible, more intense and significantly more engaging for fans.
“Every match now matters, the KO-Showdowns create real sporting drama, and the clubs have more opportunities to activate their players, creators and audiences.
“We’re still early in the transformation, but the first two Showdowns have shown very clearly that this direction increases relevance, visibility and competitive quality across the league.”
Media production
As usual, the VBL Club Championship by WOW matches is being broadcast live on the official VBL Twitch channel.
As in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, conferences are intended to provide variety and excitement. Viewers even have the opportunity to help decide which games will be shown in the conference.
At the most recent live event in Frankfurt, the Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship by WOW was simulcast on the main channel via Twitch, with streamers Tim Latka, MoAuba, and kicker eSport also streaming the action on their own channels.
This improved reach ensured significant growth from the first Showdown, with new viewers experiencing the VBL’s action.
“Ultimate Team” mode and special items will be retained
In addition to all the innovations, there are also a few constants. The WOW Virtual Bundesliga is played in the football simulation EA SPORTS FC 26. The matches are played in the usual “Ultimate Team” mode, where participants can assemble their teams from players across all Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs. The possibility that each club may nominate two players from its own current football squad as so-called “VBL Power Items” has proven its worth. In EA SPORTS FC 26, in the Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship by WOW, their digital images are assigned the highest possible total playing strength of 99, ensuring that each club’s unique player personalities are in the foreground on the virtual pitch.