FIFAe, the company's Esports arm, has partnered up with Rocket League to bring a new competition in the next World Cup, thus bringing a new category.
The so-called "groundbreaking partnership" will feature Rocket League in the upcoming FIFAe World Cup. It was also noted that this signifies a major step in FIFA's commitment to embrace the entire ecosystem and drive the global growth of football esports globally.
FIFAe Partners With Rocket League
(Photo : Psyonix, Epic Games / Screenshot taken from official website)
The competition invites the 16 participating nations to select three players and one subtitle and the nations themselves will be selected "based on the number of representatives from each country in previous Rocket League Majors."
So far, it remains unclear what cash prize participants will be fighting for in the upcoming competition but more details will be shared at a "later stage" regarding the "final event." The director of eFootball and gaming at FIFA, Christian Volk, also spoke about the development.
He said that the FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League marks a new era for FIFAe and provides a groundbreaking platform for the company's associations. This is where they will compete on one of the most relevant esports titles, according to Eurogamer.
Volk added that this particular milestone partnership highlights their commitment to evolving their football esports ecosystem while also continuing to build the biggest stages for all communities to fame their game.
The situation with Rocket League comes as 2K is rumored to have already secured the official FIFA license that allows it to develop the next FIFA game. This was based on unverified claims from a retailer that allege the partnership has already been confirmed.
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Despite being rumors for now, it does support previous claims made earlier this year that 2K and FIFA were discussing the former to succeed in the development of the FIFA franchise. This came after Electronic Arts announced that it would be taking its football franchise forward without the FIFA branding.
The partnership between FIFAe and Rocket League is also noteworthy because not only is the latter not a real soccer competition, it is a video game. In it, players each have a radio-controlled car that is playing soccer in place of humans, said ReadWrite.
Growing FIFA's Video Game Reach
This also comes as last year, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that the soccer body remained committed to the video game space. The main significance of the development is the fact that the main governing body for worldwide football will no longer have an official tournament in a football game.
The partnership between FIFAe and Rocket League was revealed at the RLCS London Major and came as much of a surprise for the public. This was particularly due to Psyonix being chosen instead of Electronic Arts' direct competition eFootball.
When it comes to who will be joining the upcoming competition, nothing is set in stone as of now. However, in the London Major, there were nine players from the U.S., seven from France, and six from Australia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.
In a press release, FIFA also said that nations will have to conduct their own qualification tournament in order to find players they want to represent in the upcoming competition, according to EsportsInsider.
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