ePremier League Finals: Fifa eSports tournament takes place this weekend

Gamers competing in a previous ePremier League tournament

If you've ever wondered who the best Fifa player in the UK is, well you could be about to find out the answer!

40 gamers are playing Fifa '23 this weekend in a competition with a prize pool of £100,000!

The players are representing 20 real life Premier League football teams in the ePremier League Finals.

The eSport competition will be shown on TV and also streamed online.

What are the ePremier League finals?

Last year's final saw Norwich win... Something VERY unlikely to happen in the real game

Each of the 20 real Premier League clubs is represented in the finals by a player on both Xbox and Playstation. Meaning 40 gamers are taking part.

The tournament is structured a little like a World Cup, where the 20 teams are formed into groups where they compete to try and make it through to the knockout stages and then through to the final.

Although the gaming is done individually, players representing the same team for each console have their scores combined to try and get through the stages.

Eventually it comes down to a final where a winning pair is crowned champion.

What are eSports?

eSports have been hugely popular online for a while - but now they fill out real life stadiums too

The word means 'electronic sports' and involves competitions where people play games online.

There are lots of games which have huge events based around them like Fortnite, League of Legends, Fifa and many more.

In these tournaments people play the game competitively, not just for fun, and can win lots of money.

With millions of people playing the games across the world, it's very difficult to become good enough to win the big prizes in these competitions.

How much do eSports players get paid?

Last years winners of the ePremier League duke it out in the final

The winning team of the ePremier League will get a prize of £15,000 each, and players who come second will get £7,500 each.

Every player who even makes it to the final wins at least £1250! When you add all the prizes up it comes to £100,000 in prize money.

But the ePremier League isn't the only eSport that pays out big prizes for the best players.

In 2022, nearly £186 million was given out to winners of gaming tournaments across the world, according to eSports Earnings.

Around 28,000 people shared those winnings, and some people earned more than others because you get more for winning than coming second or third (and so on).

The Fortnite World Cup is a huge event which takes place in sports stadiums

The game with the most money awarded to winners was DOTA 2 (Defence of the Ancients 2) which saw prize money of over £28 million given out last year.

Fortnite is another popular eSports game and in 2022, over a thousand players shared £14,097,001 between them in prizes for winning events.

It's clear some people are able to make it as professional eSports players, but it is very difficult.

250 million people play Fortnite every month, but just 0.0005% have won any money off it.

Who is the best eSport player in the UK?

It's hard to say who is the best eSports player in the UK, but Jaden Ashman (who's known as Wolfiez online) has earned the most prize money in eSports.

In 2019 he won nearly £1m playing in the Fortnite World Cup, and in total has won over a million pounds.

Other players have also earned hundreds of thousands of pounds, including Henrik Mclean, Kyle Jackson, Benjamin Bance and Thomas Trewren.

The biggest eSports winner for Fifa is Donovan 'Tekkz' Hunt who will once again be lining up for Liverpool FC in the ePremier League Final this weekend.

And last year's winner Jack Wignall said: "It was a dream come true to win the 2021/2022 ePremier League title, undoubtedly the biggest victory of my career to date. I'm excited to try and win a second title!"

So, the finals this weekend will show who is the best Fifa gamer in the UK.

Are you interested in eSports? Will you be watching the tournament? Let us know in the comments.