Sidizens Gaming makes history at 2023 FIFAe Club Series Africa – Online Qualifiers

Sidizens Gaming is the first Nigerian Esports Team to compete in the FIFAe Club Series 2023 – Africa – Online Qualifiers.

The FIFA Clubs Series is an esports competition organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the international governing body for football (soccer), and EA Sports, the developer of the FIFA video game series.

The tournament features teams representing football clubs from around the world competing against each other in a virtual version of the sport. The competition takes place annually and is played on the latest version of the FIFA video game.

The FIFA Club World Series is divided into regional divisions, and the teams that perform well in their respective regions advance to the global finals. The tournament features both individual and team events, with players competing in 1v1 matches and 2v2 matches.

The FIFA Clubs Series provides a platform for players to showcase their skills and for football clubs to engage with their fans in a new and exciting way. It is part of FIFA’s wider efforts to promote Esports and establish them as a legitimate and respected form of competition.

Esports in Nigeria

Esports in Nigeria is a rapidly growing industry, with an increasing number of gamers and gaming enthusiasts. The country has seen the emergence of various esports teams, organizations, and events. However, infrastructure issues affect the quality of gameplay for most Nigerian teams. One of the top esports teams in Nigeria is Sidizens Gaming.

Sidizens Gaming is a professional Esports organization based in Lagos, Nigeria. The team was founded in 2018 and has since established itself as one of the best esports teams in Nigeria, specializing in games like FIFA, PES, PUBG Mobile, Bawl Stars, League of Legends, and Mortal Kombat. They have participated in various national and international competitions.

Overview of the Qualifying Process

In order to reflect the individual zones around the world and their individual feedback, dedicated formats have been selected for each region. However, the basic principles will always be the same:

Pre-Qualification

This will be played across two weeks, in which most clubs will have two chances to qualify for the main rounds.
In essence, if your club does not qualify within the first week, you will automatically be seeded in the second week to have a second chance.
The basis of this stage will be a double-elimination bracket.

In some zones, the clubs will be split into multiple brackets to allow for more teams to participate.
Such allocation is based on seeding.

The teams that qualify for the Main Rounds in week 1 will be replaced by teams from the waiting list.
In case a club does not participate in week 1 without previously sharing a valid reason with FIFA, it might also be replaced with another club from the waiting list.

Main Rounds

The main rounds will once again be played in the already known ‘Division’ system with double-elimination brackets of 8 clubs each.
The last standing clubs of 1. Division of each qualifying week will directly qualify for the Playoffs.

Winning two consecutive weeks will mean that the next best-finishing club will qualify instead.
All remaining clubs for the playoffs will be determined via the consistency ranking, the same as in 2022.

Playoffs

The playoffs will once again determine the best clubs to qualify for the FIFAe Club World Cup 2023.

Imaji and Arogs played in the pre-qualifier matches, beating the Cougar Esports team and Repro Esports from Ghana. The team lost in the qualification finals but was obliged to participate after a qualifying team pulled out of the tournament.

Speaking to Imaji and Arogs, they were super excited about the opportunity to play for a spot in the eClub Africa playoffs. Their major concern was the challenge they would face playing on South African servers. The average latency when playing from Nigeria on EU servers is 120 ms; however, playing from Nigeria on SA servers is 300 ms. To put it in context, teams playing on the same servers get an average latency of 25 ms.

This is a big leap for Nigerian Esports and Imaji and Arogs of Sidizens Gaming are definitely at the forefront of Esports. The online qualifiers will take place on March 30 and 31, 2023.

We wish them all the best.

Source: Kon10dr