VBL Club Championship by WOW: SC Paderborn 07 is the German Club Champion 2024

24 March 2024 – In the WOW Virtual Bundesliga (VBL), the first decision of the season is made: SC Paderborn 07 is the German Club Champion 2024. The team featuring the two players Jamie „Chaser“ Bartel and Jonas „Jonny“ Wirth as well as coach Daniel „Coach_Pommes“ Elit prevailed over the former German Club Champion RB Leipzig in Cologne this evening. The VBL is played within EA SPORTS FC™ 24.

SC Paderborn 07 had finished the division phase of the VBL Club Championship in first place in the North-West Division. At the finals tournament, Paderborn finished the group phase fourth and went on to beat F.C. Hansa Rostock in the quarter-final and SV Werder Bremen in the semi-final.

Our congratulations go to the entire team of SC Paderborn 07, the new German Club Champions of the WOW Virtual Bundesliga!

Jörg Höflich, DFL Head of Virtual Bundesliga

The VBL Club Championship trophy was pesented to the team by Jörg Höflich, DFL Head of Virtual Bundesliga. Höflich: “Our congratulations go to the entire team of SC Paderborn 07, the new German Club Champions of the WOW Virtual Bundesliga! At the end of the VBL Club Championship, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all participating clubs, their players and club representatives for their commitment. Together, we have successfully completed the season with the largest field of participants to date. In co-operation with EA SPORTS, we were able to successfully introduce numerous innovations and raise the competition to a higher level.”

Jonas „Jonny“ Wirth (left) and Jamie „Chaser“ Bartel prevailed over the former Champion RB Leipzig.
Photo: DFL/Getty Images/Lukas Schulze

The VBL Club Championship is a competition within the Virtual Bundesliga and is organised by DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga. In total, 35 clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 took part during the season just concluded. The ten best clubs after the division phase and the playoffs faced off in the finals tournament on Saturday and Sunday. A prize money pool totalling 87,500 euros will be distributed to the clubs in the competition.

Next up: the Playoffs of the VBL Open by WOW and the VBL Grand Final by WOW

As in previous years, the VBL Club Championship has also provided a route enabling players to qualify for the subsequent competitions that decide which individual player will be the German Champion. The Playoffs of the VBL Open will be held on 6 and 7 April with places in the VBL Grand Final at stake. The VBL Grand Final will take place from 19 till 21 April as an offline event in Cologne.

About the Virtual Bundesliga

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.