The road to the e-World Cup finals started with a qualifying competition that included a staggering 20 million hopefuls bidding for e-sport glory. But only 32 made it to the Grand Final in August, and only one could lift the new FIFA eWorld Cup Trophy.
That honour fell to Mosaad ‘Msdossary’ Aldossary, who claimed the world title after a comprehensive 4-0 aggregate victory over Stefano ‘StefanoPinna’ Pinna at the O2 in London. The final was watched by an arena full of e-sports fans as well as a global audience. The event has grown so popular that the organisers laid on international live streams in four different languages.
Aldossary qualified for the e-World Cup thanks to his victory in April’s FUT Champions Cup, staged in Manchester, and going into the tournament, he was rated as third favourite for victory according to the implied probabilities shown on the bigbetbookmakers.com site.
After two days of action, he was one of four contenders still standing but he faced a tough Xbox semi-final against Kurt ‘kurt0411’ Fenech. Fenech had been impressive in overcoming Michael ‘Megabit’ Bittner in the quarter-finals, but Aldossary produced an equally eye-catching performance in knocking out the reigning champion, Spencer ‘FaZe Gorilla’ Ealing. Ealing had won the title in 2017 with a 7-3 win over Kai ‘Deto’ Wollin, but he proved to be no match for Aldossary in the last eight this year, and the Saudi star carried that strong form into his semi-final, scoring an 8-3 aggregate win over Fenech.
In the PlayStation semi-final, Danish hopeful Marcus ‘Marcuzo’ Jorgensen was in confident mood after recording a huge shock in the last eight, beating tournament top seed Nicolas ‘nicolas99fc’ Villalba. And he made a strong start to the semi-final, taking a 2-1 first leg lead over Pinna. But the Belgian dug deep and showed plenty of character to win 4-3 after taking the second leg to extra time.
Pinna and Aldossary received a rapturous welcome as they took to the stage for the final, and a chance to claim the $250,000 winner’s prize. But the final itself turned out to be a one-sided affair. Aldossary was in control from the off, winning 2-0 in the PlayStation leg, which gave him a massive advantage heading into the second leg on his preferred Xbox, and the result was never in doubt as he saw off Pinna’s challenge to register another 2-0 win and claim the coveted title.
Speaking after the final, Aldossary said that he was proud to have the chance to represent his country on such a huge stage. He became the second Saudi Arabian player to win the tournament, after Abdulaziz Alshehri triumphed in 2015, when it was known as the FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC). And as well as the $250,000 prize, Aldossary also earned an invitation to the FIFA Football Awards in September, attended by some of the most famous football figures in the world, underlining the growing significance of the FIFA e-World Cup and e-sports in general.
