ePremier League: Cardiff City finds its champions!
On Thursday, February 21st, Cardiff City Stadium held its ePremier League Playoffs. Get up to date with the latest developments in our ePremier League season here…
EPREMIER LEAGUE CLUB PLAYOFFS
Following a highly competitive Playoff at CCS on Thursday 21st February, two players have risen to become official club representatives for Cardiff City FC in the ePremier League!
Rhys Griffiths and Luke Mcilwee-Davies both rose to the top to win the coveted positions as club representatives and will be heading to the ePremier League Final in London, which will be held in March.
? Congratulations to City's #ePremierLeague representatives: @RGC_FIFA & Luke Mcilwee-Davies!
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) 22 February 2019
Thanks to all who took part in our qualifiers at CCS. ?@premierleague #CityAsOne pic.twitter.com/hgPq2lZsrf
WHAT IS THE EPREMIER LEAGUE?
The ePremier League is a brand-new, competitive esports tournament run by the Premier League. The tournament takes place entirely in EA Sports’ FIFA 19, with players from around the UK being encouraged to take part in the tournament in its inaugural season. The tournament is being contested on two gaming platforms, which are the Playstion 4 and Xbox One.
Players were encouraged to select the Premier League club that they supported, so that if successful they could represent their club with pride on the biggest stage possible in a pioneering esport tournament! As both platforms are treated equally and separately, one champion was selected from both platforms, respectively.
HOW DOES THE TOURNAMENT WORK?
From January 5th, gamers who wanted to represent their club took their first steps in the competition. Following registration, competitors played against each other on their platforms online in a cup format to determine the top 16 club Playoff Finalists for PlayStation 4 and top 16 for Xbox One. This stage was a great opportunity for the best players to step up and take their chance to show what they could do, and the top 16 from each platform did not disappoint! From there, the top 16 from each tournament were decided, and then invited to join up in person at Cardiff City Stadium for Club Playoffs!
The event took place on Thursday 21st February, and went on way into the night. All of the rounds were knockouts, and split into two legs before a winner could go through to the next round. Eventually, by the quarter-finals, the best of the Playoff finalists were up against each other, with matches being incredibly tense for both players and audiences alike. We would like a extend a big thank you to all players who came to Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday and competed in our Club Playoff. Congratulations on making it this far, and hopefully we will see you again next year!
OUR EPREMIER LEAGUE REPRESENTATIVES
The winners of Thursday’s Playoffs were both near the top of the online qualifiers. Playstation Playoff winner Lucas Mcilwee excelled ahead of his opponents both online and in person. He turned up to the tournament a sure favourite, placing first in the online qualifiers with some incredible statistics: Of the 50 matches he had played, he’d won 44, scored 199 goals, and conceded only 55! Xbox One Playoff winner Rhys Griffiths arrived at Cardiff City Stadium without the confidence boost of knowing that he had placed so highly. Finishing fourth overall in the online qualifiers, his stats were nonetheless also very impressive, having won 21 of his 23 matches played, and scoring 88 goals whilst conceding only 32.
#ePL | Our ePremier League qualifiers are currently taking part in the #CardiffCity play-offs at CCS!
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) 21 February 2019
Good luck to you all!#CityAsOne pic.twitter.com/7FEEBtjHoF
JOURNEYS TO THE FINAL: PLAYOFFS AT CARDIFF CITY STADIUM
Online qualifiers arrived at Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday, 21st February for the club Playoffs. They were prepared and ready to get going, and the tournament began: Xbox Playoff winner Rhys Griffiths’ journey to the final has been one full of obstacles that he has overcome. Pitted against Ryan Ace in the opening round of the tournament, he found taking the lead to be a challenge. In a two matches against each other, only a single goal was scored, as both sides defended incredibly for the duration. Griffiths winner sent him through to the Quarter-Finals, where he faced off against Bailey Hull.
Here, Griffiths really dug deep and managed to make up for lost time, winning 5-1 over the course of two legs. Hull’s sole goal against the eventual Playoff winner reduced the deficit, but for him the tournament was over, having won 42 in the previous round. His next opponent, Joseph Keegans, had defeated Xbox online qualifications winner Zac Moore 3-4 in a thrilling match that saw the player who was favourite to win the playoff knocked out of the tournament. Griffiths impressed even further against Keegans and kept a clean sheet against the giant-killer, winning the Semi-Final 2-0.
Rhys had made it to the Final of the Playoff, with victory in his grasp. His opponent, Tyler Phillips, had scored a whopping 14 goals before reaching the Final, with an astounding 8-4 win under his belt from two rounds previous. Griffiths’ once again impressed to win the title of Playoff winner, as he didn’t concede a single goal to Phillips and won 2-0.
Playstation Playoff winner Lucas Mcilwee-Davies also had a tough run of games ahead of him before he could hope to be named the club’s representative. Despite coming into the Playoff as top seed, he did well not to crack under the pressure, and finished the opening round without having conceded a goal in a 3-0 victory over Callum Summerfield. The Quarter-Final posed more of a challenge to Lucas, as he went up against Paul Jones, who had himself scored five goals in the opening round of the tournament. Jones could only score two to Mcilwee-Davies’ four in this round, however, and the latter sailed on through to the Semi-Final. Beating Connor Flook 5-2 in the Semi-Final lead to the most highly anticipated series of matches that the whole tournament had to offer.
Playing against Mcilwee-Davies was the second highest-rated player in the Playstation bracket, Lee Smith. Smith’s record during the online qualifiers was rightfully second only to Mcilwee-Davies, as he had won 22 of his 25 matches, and dominated opponents on his way to the Final at Cardiff City Stadium, winning every game leading up to that point by three goals or more. The contest was heated and filled with goals as both players went all-out, neither wanting to sit back and hold onto a small lead. Lucas eventually took his lead and held it tight, and he was crowned victor after beating Lee 5-3 over two legs.
EPREMIER LEAGUE FINAL
The challenge for our two Playoff winners is far from over as they head into the ePremier League Final. The event will be held in London between March 28th-29th, where the Playoff winners from all 20 Premier League teams will face off against each other to determine a champion. Matches will be held over two legs in a group-stage format on both Playstation and Xbox. The ePremier League Final will be getting coverage from Cardiff City FC’s social media accounts, including the Twitter account, @CardiffCityFC.
Additionally, you can find coverage for the Final between 28-29 March on the Premier League’s official social media channels, as well as being broadcast on Sky Sports!