Kick-off for the first VBL Club Championship

16.01.2019 – The VBL Club Championship newly founded by DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and EA SPORTS kicks off this Wednesday as part of the TAG Heuer Virtual Bundesliga (VBL). Twenty-two clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 will compete to be the first ever German club champions in eFootball (VBL Club Champion). On Thursday, the first matchday will conclude with the first featured match of the season, the fixture between SV Werder Bremen and RB Leipzig, which will be shown live on the German TV channel ProSieben MAXX from 8:15 p.m.

The nine featured matches in the 2018/19 season will be played every Thursday evening until the last matchday on 14 March. The other matches of the VBL Club Championship, which will be streamed live on the channels of the participating clubs and players, will be linked on the new VBL website at www.virtual.bundesliga.com. Apart from the main coverage on ProSieben MAXX and ran.de, further highlights will also be shown by Sport1.

Over the course of twenty-one match days up until the end of the season in March 2019, the teams – thirteen from the Bundesliga and nine from Bundesliga 2 – will each play eleven fixtures (no return fixtures). Each fixture will be played in the “Davis Cup” format. Two games will be played in one-on-one mode: one on the PlayStation 4 and one on the Xbox One; the third game will be played in two-on-two mode on the console of the home club’s choice. Three points will be awarded for each win and one point per team in the event of a draw. The final result of each fixture is the sum of the results of all three games.

Of the first six clubs in the final VBL Club Championship table, two players each qualify directly for the VBL Grand Final in May 2019, which will bestow the title of “VBL Champion” on the victorious German player. Also two players of the clubs placed 7 to 16 will take part in the VBL play-offs, another route to potentially qualify for the VBL Grand Final. In 2012, DFL became the first professional football league to have its own eFootball competition when it launched the VBL in partnership with EA SPORTS. This was also the first competition of a professional league to be directly integrated into the EA SPORTS FIFA game series. The VBL has enjoyed steadily growing popularity since its launch and now has more than 150,000 participants. More information about the VBL can be found at virtual.bundesliga.com and on the new VBL YouTube and Twitter channels.