GL Legends are 2022 Rep a Country champs
On October 29, 12 of Ghana’s best esports teams began their journey to become this year’s Rep a Country E-soccer World Cup champion at the Madagastar Esports Arena inside the West Hills Mall.
The competition, organised by Ghanaian esports organisation GiiKs Game City (GGC), is hosted before each FIFA World Cup, with the first edition held prior to the 2018 FIFA World Cup to provide football fans and gamers with a pre-World Cup experience.
This year’s Rep a Country competition is no exception, serving as a pre-FIFA World Cup experience ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which begins tomorrow, November 20, in Qatar; however, what distinguishes this edition’s experience is that matches are played in a 2v2 format rather than the 1v1 format used in 2018.
After two weeks of intense competition, four teams—Eze Gaming Hub, Canvic Records, Team Alpha, and Dark Mode—were ousted from the competition, failing to advance to the knockout stage. A-Team and Xplosion Esports, on the other hand, performed admirably, going undefeated in their respective groups to advance to the competition’s knockout stage.
The Rep a Country E-soccer World Cup Quater-Finals to Finals took place on November 19, with A-Team, PlayProvince, GL Legends, Xplosion Esports, Black Squad, Team Falcon GH, Tema Esports, and Prime Lords set to compete for the trophy and the competition’s GH₵3,000 first-place prize.
The first match of the Quarter-Finals pitted PlayProvince against Tema Esports in a thrilling encounter that saw the Tema-based esports team go down a man but remain firm, taking the contest to a penalty shootout where they would eventually lose.
As a result, PlayProvince advanced to the competition’s Semi-Finals, where they were joined by A-Team, GL Legends, and Prime Lords, who defeated Xplosion Esports, Team Falcon GH, and Black Squad, respectively, to move one step closer to the gold.
In the Semis, GL Legends faced A-Team in the most contentious match of the day, with A-Team’s Guy Khobby and Wondhakid falling to GL Legends. What made the result controversial was that in the closing embers of the game, A-Team had a great opportunity to equalise, but the game was abruptly paused, squandering A-Team’s golden opportunity, GL Legends received a yellow card for this.
After the game, GL Legends denied pausing the game, but they described the pause as their “Hand of God” moment. The other Semi-Final match saw PlayProvince get past Prime Lords to set up a Final clash with GL Legends.
GL Legends, who were using the Ghana national team, faced off against the Dutch national team controlled by PlayProvince in a close encounter that saw both sides unable to break the deadlock until the final 10 minutes of the game, with PlayProvince striking first blood in the 80th minute, but a loss of concentration in the dying minutes saw GL Legends comeback to win not only the game but also the trophy and the first-place prize of GH₵3,000.
