Virtual Bundesliga: VBL Club Championship enters its third season with record number of participants
25 August 2020 – The VBL Club Championship is entering its third season with 26 participants. The eFootball competition organised by DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga in partnership with EA SPORTS has thus registered a record number of entrants for the 2020-21 season. Both of the previous seasons saw 22 clubs take part. The winner takes the title of ‘German eFootball Club Champion’. The matches will be played in the football simulation FIFA 21.
The participants in the 2020-21 VBL Club Championship:
FC Augsburg, Hertha Berlin, VfL Bochum 1848, Eintracht Braunschweig, SV Werder Bremen, SV Darmstadt 98, Eintracht Frankfurt, SpVgg Greuther Fürth, Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, 1. FC Heidenheim 1846, TSG Hoffenheim, Holstein Kiel, 1. FC Köln, RB Leipzig, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, 1. FSV Mainz 05, Borussia Mönchengladbach, 1. FC Nürnberg, SC Paderborn 07, FC St. Pauli, SSV Jahn Regensburg, SV Sandhausen, FC Schalke 04, VfL Wolfsburg, FC Würzburger Kickers.
The competition will begin in November. The DFL will publish the calender for the new season in late September. All matches will be played in ‘leveled-off mode’, meaning that all of the players and teams will have the same aggregated player rating. As in previous years, the eSport competitors representing the clubs can qualify for the VBL Playoffs and the VBL Grand Final through the final table of the VBL Club Championship. There, the individual players play off to determine the ‘VBL Champion’, i.e. the German eFootball Champion.
About the Virtual Bundesliga:
In 2012, the DFL became the first professional football league to have its own eFootball competition when it launched the VBL in partnership with EA SPORTS. The VBL is still the only eSport competition of a professional football league to be directly integrated into the EA SPORTS FIFA game series. The VBL has enjoyed steadily growing popularity since its launch, with around 130,000 participants taking part last season. The increasing popularity of the VBL, the growing relevance of eSport in general and the DFL’s focus on football simulation games led to the creation of the VBL Club Championship in the 2018-19 season. All clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 can take part in this competition.
The global VBL International Series has also taken place since the 2018-19 season. With this competition, online and offline tournaments are held in numerous countries in order to find the best players from Asia and the Americas.