FIFA Interactive World Cup

The FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC) is an annual video gaming competition officially organized by FIFA and its presenting partner EA Sports. The virtual football World Cup enables millions of football fans from around the world to fight for the title of being named the best FIFA player. The FIWC is recognized as the largest online gaming tournament by Guinness World Records.[1]

Spencer Ealing from England is the reigning champion after winning the FIWC 2017 Grand Final in London.[2] Ealing won a prize of $200,000 in prize money.

History
The inaugural FIWC took place in 2004 in Switzerland, over the years the tournament has grown significantly. In 2010, the FIWC first appeared in the Guinness World Records [3] - but it was not until 2013 that the competition saw the current record of more than 2.5 million players signing up.

Past season
On October 1, 2015, the FIWC 16 kicked off, marking the 12th edition of the tournament. For the first time in the history of the competition Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players competed against each other. With the integration of the new consoles the number of participants increased significantly, compared to previous years when the FIWC was only available on PlayStation 3. 2.3 million players attempted to qualify for the Grand Final in New York City. On March 22, 2016, Mohamad Al-Bacha from Denmark won the FIWC title in the Apollo Theater, beating Sean Allen from England in the final match.

Format
Online Qualification
The FIWC online qualification takes place on PlayStation and Xbox Networks, and can be accessed through the latest version of EA Sports FIFA on Xbox One and PS4. The qualification runs for 3 seasons using FUT (FIFA Ultimate Team) . Each season the players with the most points in each region (Europe, Americas and Rest of the World) move onto their respective regional qualifier where they then compete to make it to the next round of the tournament. Points are automatically reset before a new season begins so players can decide to play in any amount of seasons they may wish.

Grand Final
32 players compete at the Grand Final of the FIWC. The participants are divided into eight groups with the top 16 players moving on to the knockout stage. While Group Stage, Round of 16, Quarter Finals and Semi Finals are played on one console (Xbox One or PS4), the Final is a two-leg match with one game on each console. The Grand Final is a multi-day event with draw and competition being broken up into three days. The winner is crowned in a live show at the end of the event.

World Ranking
In 2016, the FIFA Interactive World Cup World Ranking was introduced to help seed the players in the tournament according to their previous results. The ranking takes into account both the qualification phase for the current edition and previous FIWC Grand Finals. FIFA Interactive World Ranking explained

Prize
Winner
The FIWC 2017 champion will receive $200,000 in prize money and a ticket to the Best FIFA Awards where he/she has the chance to meet the greatest of the real football world. FIWC 2015 Champion Abdulaziz Alshehri from Saudi Arabia was able to meet Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi among many others, while 2016 champion Mohammad Al-Bacha talked it up with Marcelo Vieira and Manuel Neuer.

Runner-up
The runner-up of the 2017 FIWC Grand Final receives $40,000 in prize money.

Broadcast
The FIWC Grand Final is streamed live on YouTube and Twitch. For the first time, the Final Showdown of the FIWC16 was also broadcast on TV. The broadcast was shown in more than 100 countries around the world. Fox Sports 1 showed the Final live in the United States. The show was moderated by host Kay Murray. Former US footballer Alexi Lalas and Spencer Carmichael-Brown (Spencer FC) analyzed the matches, Leigh Smith and John Strong commentated the games. The trophy was handed over by former Spanish International David Villa.

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