NZ Football’s Newest Team goes Digital
Last month we covered the 2021 VALORANT Oceania Tour, an intense three-stage esports tournament for the latest esports title VALORANT that gives players in Australia and New Zealand the opportunity to compete in competitive video games on the world stage.
This month we’re chatting all things Kiwi, with our friends at LetsPlay.Live partnering with New Zealand Football to find the latest team to represent New Zealand on the world stage – this time, through the video game FIFA 21! Over the past two months, the best gamers in the country fought through the NZF eTrophy 2021 tournament to be selected for Aotearoa’s eFootball eNational Team. This team will compete in the upcoming FIFAe Nations Series, an international tournament showcasing the best of the best FIFA players in each participating country.
In March, LPL put the call out inviting New Zealand’s best FIFA players on both Xbox and PlayStation to show their skills across a weekend, battling it out to become the top two FIFA gamers on each platform. From a pool of over 75 players came four champions: Harry “Honeybadger” Blackmore and Sean “OhHeyHey” Baines on Xbox, and Campbell “Airbrn” Knowles and Joshua “JMKKING” King on PlayStation.
Each finalist player was notable from past New Zealand Football FIFA competitions. JMKKING, Airbrn and HoneyBadger all qualified for the FIFA 19 New Zealand Football National Championship, with Airbrn and HoneyBadger ultimately flying to England to compete for New Zealand. JMKKING has since climbed the FIFA ranks, signing with ANZ-based esports organisation Dire Wolves. “OhHeyHey” won last year’s New Zealand Football FIFA 20 Online Competition held during lockdown.
The top four have already qualified for a spot on the eFootball eNational team, thus getting to showcase their skills once again on the national stage. Travelling to LPL Studios at SkyCity in Auckland on the 9th April for a LAN Grand Final, the players and the rest of New Zealand’s FIFA community discovered who will seed first and second in each console for the eFootball eNational team.
Veteran FIFA player Airbrn, competing on PS4, went up against JMKKing and despite a valiant effort from seasoned competitor Airbrn, JMKKing managed to secure the win 2-0 in the best of three match.
In a complete upset that stunned both broadcasters, viewers and players alike, HoneyBadger – who competed alongside Airbrn in the 2019 championship – fell 0-2 to the unranked and first-time LAN competitor OhHeyHey in the Xbox finals. The “people’s champ” as described by the show hosts went up against JMKKing in the final, with the latter ultimately walking away with the trophy and title of NZF eTrophy 2021 champion!
Re-live all the action of the NZF eTrophy Championship by heading to twitch.tv/letsplaylive/videos.
For more information on upcoming tournaments and broadcasts, make sure to stay up-to-date at letsplay.live and on their social media channels: @LetsPlayLiveHQ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.