Sean ‘seanldw’ Landwehr is one of three Germans at the FC Pro Open, but while Lukas and Umut have made their names on the global eSports circuit in recent years, the Bayer Leverkusen man is still very much the new kid on the block.

Moving to Bayer in July, Landwehr’s qualification for the FC Pro Open just a few months later was one of the bigger upsets in November’s Global Qualifier.

Prior to that, he hadn’t competed in any S-Tier competitions, having finished 300th in the FIFA 23 Global Series Rankings. Up until that point, he'd been yet to compete in Germany's domestic eSports tournament, the Virtual Bundesliga.

Nevertheless, Bayer clearly spotted his talent early, and the German is set to make his debut in the VBL in November – where he will surely be amongst the leading contenders.

Seanldw’s journey to the FC Pro Open has been a long and gruelling one, which first began back in October. Over the course of a day, he earned three victories over Roee Feldman, fellow German Funino and jerkos to qualify from the FC Pro Open Regional Qualifiers East Europe.

Almost as impressive as the victories was the fact that he scored a remarkable 26 goals from those three matches – earmarking himself as one to watch in the tournament from the very outset.

After arriving at the Global Qualifiers a few weeks later, Landwehr got off to the perfect start, beating Deshe 8-4 in his first outing, before defeating Morocco’s XCharifX 4-3 in a tight contest. He then showed his mental resolve, bouncing back from two defeats to win his fifth and final match 5-4 against AgitPower – and secure passage to the knockout round in the process.

There, the Bayer man had it all to do against the highly-rated Ollelito, FacuCowen and Leks. However, Sean managed to win two of his three matches to advance to the FC Pro Open in style. He certainly didn't do it the easy way.

In the FC Pro Open, seanldw will face off against AnontiniGabriel, Vejrgang, AbuMakkah and 2023 FIFAe World Cup champion ManuBachoore in Group C.