RB Leipzig wins the German eFootball Club Championship 2023
26 March 2023 – The first title of the season in the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) has been claimed: RB Leipzig has won the VBL Club Championship 2023 in a repeat of last year’s success. The team featuring Umut “RBLZ_Umut” Gültekin and Anders “RBLZ_Vejrgang” Vejrgang, who were in action over the finals weekend, as well as Richard “RBLZ_Gaucho10” Hormes and Lena “RBLZ Lena” Güldenpfennig, prevailed over F.C. Hansa Rostock at the Strassenkicker Base in Cologne this evening. Victory was secured after three individual matches in EA SPORTS FIFA 23.
Highlights of the VBL Club Championship finals weekend (video in German):
The VBL Club Championship is a competition within the Virtual Bundesliga and is organised by DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga with support from the ESL FACEIT Group. In total, 29 clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 took part in it with their eFootball teams during the season just concluded. The eight best clubs after the division phase and the playoffs faced off in the finals tournament on Saturday and Sunday. For the first time, it was possible to buy tickets for the finals of the VBL Club Championship. Around 300 spectators were present in the sold-out soccer hall.
RB Leipzig had finished the division phase of the VBL Club Championship in first place in the South-East Division. At the finals tournament, Leipzig safely topped its group and went on to beat FC Schalke 04 in the semi-final.
The trophy was presented by Jörg Höflich, Head of Virtual Bundesliga at the DFL, who said, “Congratulations to RB Leipzig on winning the German Club Championship in eFootball back to back! They are the first team to win this trophy in front of a crowd. It was fantastic to experience the finals with fans in the hall for the first time. That was another milestone in the development of the Virtual Bundesliga. We would like to thank all the clubs that took part as well as our partners and are already looking forward to the VBL Grand Final in June.”
Next up: the Playoffs of the VBL Open and the VBL Grand Final
As in previous years, the VBL Club Championship has also provided a route enabling eFootballers to qualify for the subsequent competitions that decide which individual player will be the German Champion in eFootball: Two team members from each of the clubs in 5th to 11th place in both divisions will take part in the Playoffs of the VBL Open. These will be held on 6 and 7 May with places in the VBL Grand Final at stake. In addition, two team members from each of the first four clubs in both divisions qualify directly for the VBL Grand Final, which will be held on 10 and 11 June as an offline event at the Strassenkicker Base in Cologne.
The VBL, which was founded in 2012 as a partnership between the DFL and EA SPORTS, remains to this day the only competition of a professional football league to be directly integrated in the EA SPORTS FIFA game series. In order to enhance and professionalise the VBL, the DFL has also been cooperating with the ESL FACEIT Group since 2020.