FIFA 20 Global Series

Welcome to the EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series, The Road to FIFA eWorld Cup! Just over a month ago, MoAuba became the first German player to lift the FIFA eWorld Cup. Today, we’re excited to kick off the new season. We found last year’s program to be successful in emphasizing consistent performance throughout the year as a key part of making it to the eWorld Cup and are looking to build upon that momentum as we head into the next competitive cycle. As a result, much of this will be familiar to those who participated in last year’s circuit, but we’ve also tweaked the program to respond to some key feedback.

The FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final

As a competitive player, there’s really only one goal for the season: qualifying for and then winning the FIFA eWorld Cup. To get there, players will compete in a number of different competitive events. Each event will provide players an opportunity to earn crucial Global Series Points which will be tracked on fifa.gg.

At the end of the season, the top eligible 16 players on the PlayStation Rankings and top eligible 16 players on the Xbox Rankings will earn their seat at the FIFA eWorld Cup hosted by our partners at FIFA.

Getting Started - FUT Champions Verified

To earn Global Series Ranking Points, a player must become FUT Champions Verified. This is their first step on the Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup. FUT Champions Verification has two parts:

• Register* for the EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series in one of the following registration windows:
  • October 1st to October 31st, 2019
  • January 16th to January 31st, 2020
• Earn 27 or more wins in a single weekend in FUT Champions Weekend League before February 3rd, 2020

Once you’ve achieved both criteria, you’ll be eligible to appear on the Global Series Rankings and may receive invitations to play in online qualifier tournaments. Global Series Points will be applied to the rankings of the console they were earned on and will not be transferable for any events.

* Players must be 16 at the time they register. Only players who meet the eligibility requirements will be able to become FUT Champions Verified (see Rules Section 2).

Global Series Regular Season

As in years past, the Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup will be filled with a variety of events hosted by EA SPORTS, FIFA, domestic leagues, and our other partners.

FUT Champions Cups

We will once again host six FUT Champions Cups in the EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series (FGS 20) season with three EA FUT Champions Cups hosted in Bucharest in partnership with PGL and three 3rd Party FUT Champions Cups hosted by a familiar partner, which will be announced soon. Each of the six events will feature 32 players per platform and a prize pool of $200,000 each. As our largest regular season event, they’ll award the lion’s share of Global Series Points. 

To qualify for a FUT Champions Cup, players will play in an online qualifier tournament for the region they are located in approximately one month before the corresponding live event. All FUT Champions Verified players in good standing are eligible to compete in the FUT Champions Cup qualifier for their region:

• Asia Pacific - 2 seats available per platform
• Europe - 16 seats available per platform
• Middle East & Africa - 2 seats available per platform
• North America - 4 seats available per platform
• South America - 4 seats available per platform

Global Series Masters

The final four seats per platform will be awarded as part of a new part of the program this year, the Global Series Masters. The top four players of every FUT Champions Cup (except Stage VI) will be honoured with the title of FUT Champions Cup Master and will receive a berth to the next FUT Champions Cup. Our goal with this is to provide more opportunity to highlight players between each event and reward top performances. The four seats for the first FUT Champions Cup of the season will be taken by the top four players per platform at the 2019 FIFA eWorld Cup.

PlayStation

1. MoAuba
2. nicolas99fc
3. Maestro
4. Ustun

Xbox

1. Msdossary
2. Rafsou
3. NRaseck
4. GoalMachine

All players who qualify for a FUT Champions Cup will have their flights, accommodations, and transportation between the airport, hotel, and venue as well as catering during the tournament covered.

ONLINE QUALIFIER SQUAD RESTRICTIONS

All FUT Champions Cup online qualifiers will again run on Battlefy. Players will play a number of matches in the Swiss format with the top players moving on to a Single Elimination knockout bracket that will progress until the players who will earn a seat at the live event are determined. FUT Champions Verified players will receive instructions on how to compete in the online qualifiers via email.

FUT Champions Cup Qualifiers, as well as select other online qualifiers throughout the year, will use squad building requirements which must be met to compete. In the qualifiers taking place this October, the following squad building requirements will be in place:

• Your squad's overall rating must be 84 or lower as calculated and shown in-game
• Your squad can include up to a maximum of 2 ICONs total, including your bench
• All players on your squad, including your bench, must have an overall rating of at least 75 each
• You cannot have a player with an overall rating above 84 on your bench

FRIENDLY COMPETITION GAME MODE

In addition to the squad building requirements, the FIFA 20 Global Series will use a game mode called “Friendly Competition” in the online qualifiers for FUT Champions Cups and other select events. In this mode, players connect like they do in FUT Rivals or Weekend League, with the added benefit of getting to select the connection site. Each region will have a number of connection sites available.

The Friendly Competition game mode will offer the ability to choose which leg of a match is being played and show the aggregate score. In addition, the aiming reticle will be disabled for penalties which will provide an opportunity to practice the game the same way it will be played at live events. Free kicks will have the same interface options as FUT Champions.

In each two leg-match, competitors will play one leg as the home team. When playing as the home team, the competitor is able to choose the connection site they would like to use. Players will gain access to the Friendly Competition mode once they become FUT Champions Verified.

FUT Champions Cup Schedule*

FUT Champions Cup Stage I - November 8th to 10th, 2019 in Bucharest, Romania

• Qualifiers: October 12th & 13th
• Achieve FUT Champions Verified by October 8th

FUT Champions Cup Stage II - November 22nd to 24th, 2019 in Bucharest, Romania

• Qualifiers: October 26th & 27th
• Achieve FUT Champions Verified by October 22nd

FUT Champions Cup Stage III - January 17th to 19th, 2020

• Qualifiers: December 14th & 15th
• Achieve FUT Champions Verified by December 3rd
  

FUT Champions Cup Stage IV - February 21st to 23rd, 2020

• Qualifiers: January 25th & 26th
• Achieve FUT Champions Verified by January 21st
  

FUT Champions Cup Stage V - April 3rd to 5th, 2020

• Qualifiers: February 29th & March 1st
• Achieve FUT Champions Verified by February 4th

FUT Champions Cup Stage VI - May 15th to 17th, 2020

• Qualifiers: April 18th & 19th
• Achieve FUT Champions Verified by February 4th

* Dates and locations subject to change

FIFA Majors

FIFA will bring the eClub World Cup and eNations Cup back this year. Both events will offer the same number of points as FUT Champions Cups.

Players who participate in the FIFA eClub World Cup will be expected to represent the same club during the EA SPORTS FIFA Global Series. FIFA will have more details coming soon.

Licensed Qualifying Events (LQEs)

LQEs were a part of our efforts to drastically increase the opportunities for players to compete. However, what we learned was that LQEs felt too plentiful and as a result didn’t carry the value we had intended and heavily contributed to player burnout. In response to this feedback, as of now, there are only plans for one LQE to run in the FGS 20 season which will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive opportunity in the spring.

PlayStation will release more information about this event at a later date.

Official League Qualifying Tournaments

EA SPORTS FIFA is a unique esport in a number of ways, not the least of which is the incredible connection we have with a traditional sport that is played globally and all the organizations that are involved. This year we’re expanding our league program even further to reach more players, in more countries.

Leagues will announce their own schedules, formats, and more as they start up for the season. The same restriction will be in place this year that allows players to compete in only one league during the season.

The points structure for League Qualifying Tournaments will be as follows:

eChampions League

The eChampions League will return for the FGS 20 season and offer another unforgettable experience for the players who make the final 8. This will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive tournament split into three parts: an online qualifier open to all FUT Champions Verified players, an in-person group stage, and an in-person final 8 similar to last year.

• eChampions League Qualifier - Weekend of March 13th*
• eChampions League Group Stages - Weekend of April 24th*
• eChampions League Final 8 - May 29th*

All players who qualify for the group stages and final 8 will have their flights, accommodations, and transportation between the airport, hotel, and venue as well as catering during the tournament covered.

* Dates subject to change

eMA Trophy Tournaments

Every FIFA Member Association in an eligible country will have the option of running an eMA Trophy Tournament for players in their country. More information about these tournaments will be announced by the respective Member Association as the event approaches.

PlayStation Country Tournaments

PlayStation will run a number of online tournaments with Global Series Points on the line. These tournaments will reach every eligible country. More details about these tournaments will be announced by PlayStation as the events approach.

FUT Champions Weekend League

Once you become FUT Champions Verified, you’ll have the opportunity to earn Global Series Points without even leaving FUT Champions. Depending on the number of wins you achieve in Weekend League, you’ll receive an appropriate number of points. Only your best Weekend League performance each month will count towards points which means you can earn up to 30 Global Series Points per month from just one weekend of play. This will allow for more flexibility on which weekends you choose to play Weekend League.

Global Series Playoffs

The Global Series Playoffs are the final stop on the Road to the 2020 FIFA eWorld Cup! The top 64 players on the Global Series Rankings for each platform will be invited to their respective Playoff event for one last chance to earn enough points to secure their seat at the eWorld Cup.

Eligible Countries

Every year we add more regions to our list of eligible countries of residence for FUT Champions Verified players to bring FIFA esports to as many players as we can. This year we’ve been able to expand the list to include:

• Ecuador
• Egypt
• Uruguay
• Vietnam

This is the full list of new countries we have been able to add to the EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series. We will continue to investigate countries for inclusion in the future.

Let’s Go!

Last year we had our best year of competitive FIFA yet. This year, we’re taking our learnings from last year and building on that. We’re excited to see what our top players will be able to achieve with FIFA 20. Don’t forget to follow @EAFIFAesports on Twitter, easportsfifa on Twitch, and EA FIFA esports on YouTube to make sure you don’t miss any of the action this year.

To view the full EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series Rules click here. For questions not answered in this pitch notes article or through reading the full rule set reach out to us at eafifaleagueops@ea.com


Rushan Shekar and the EA SPORTS FIFA competitive gaming team

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For more deep dives on FIFA from members of the game team, check out the Pitch Notes Page.

FIFA 20 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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