ATLANTA, GEORGIA—As part of its Master’s program, EA SportsAtlanta United was picked as one of the Top 20 FIFAe teams in the world, the company behind the FIFA video game series revealed on Monday morning that Atlanta United had been chosen as one of the Top 20 FIFA teams in the globe.
The Five Stripes will be the only MLS team participating in the newly established EA Sports Cup, a three-month-long competition that will pit the world’s top gamers against one another in person every week in London. The 20 teams will begin vying for a piece of the $250,000 prize fund on October 17th. Following the release of the FIFA 23 video game on Friday, Sept. 20, the competition will also serve as the season opener for the 2023 FIFA Global Series (FGS).
Four groups of five teams each will have teams competing against one another in a Double Round Robin style, with the top two teams from each group moving on to the knockout round. A single elimination bracket will be used for the knockout stage, and the winners of each bracket will advance directly to the FIFAe Club World Cup.
Only five international football clubs—Atlanta United, Ajax, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, and RB Leipzig’s esports team—were chosen for this Top 20 list. The remaining teams are wholly devoted eSports groups. EA Sports will reveal the groupings for the EA Sports Cup later.
Atlanta United is a Masters team for the second consecutive year. The FIFAe World Cup, one of three World Cup events by EA Sports and FIFA—the others being the FIFAe Club World Cup and the FIFAe Nations World Cup—saw Atlanta United player Paulo Neto go to the quarterfinals this year.
