More Than 600 Players From 16 USYS State Associations Play
What happens when you can’t feel the green grass under your feet and kick the soccer ball? Enter the virtual world of FIFA 20 and experience some of the excitement, at least virtually.
Throughout the country, cancellations of tournaments and cups prompted state youth soccer associations to think outside the pitch and into the virtual world with FIFA 20 tournaments.
For the past several months, numerous states have been hosting and running FIFA 20 tournaments that have offered prizes and bragging rights for players within their state. However, that all changed in June when 16 state youth soccer associations partnered up to offer even larger bragging rights with the launch of the FIFA-FEST: eSeries Championship.
The concept behind the FIFA-FEST: eSeries Championship was to allow states to run their tournaments in June and July for registered players between the ages of 13U-17U.
All players were instructed to select one MLS team to represent through the duration of the tournament and following the conclusion of each state-run tournament the top XBOX and PS4 players were invited to the four-day FIFA-FEST: eSeries Championship.
In total, more than 600 players participated and the tournament came to a thrilling conclusion with Fifack17 from Washington Youth Soccer playing with the Seattle Sounders taking home the XBOX title and Kermitthecrip from Nevada Youth Soccer playing with Atlanta United taking home the PS4 title.
“There is a lot of collaboration between state associations right now. We have monthly marketing calls where we share best practices and with so many of us hosting FIFA tournaments I thought it would be a great idea for all of us to work together on a unified project,” said Garrett Cleverly, Arizona Soccer Association Director of Communications. “The participation for this tournament and incredible and I’d like to thanks adidas who were thrilled to be able to provide prizes for the top players.”
Participating state associations were:
- Arkansas Soccer Association
- Arizona Soccer Association
- Cal South
- Colorado Soccer Association
- Illinois Youth Soccer
- Indiana Soccer
- Massachusetts Youth Soccer
- Minnesota Youth Soccer Association
- Nevada Youth Soccer
- New Mexico Youth Soccer
- New York State West Youth Soccer Association
- Ohio North Youth Soccer Association
- PA West Soccer
- South Texas Youth Soccer Association
- Washington Youth Soccer
- Wyoming Youth Soccer
“FIFA-FEST was a great example of how cooperation between state youth soccer associations can create an exciting, well-coordinated event for our players when they need it the most. It also didn’t hurt that a Washington player won it all on Xbox One,” said Spenser Davis, Washington Youth Soccer Director of Marketing & Digital Media.
The top four players in the tournament all received adidas swag with the champion players receiving adidas soccer cleats.
“Although our spring season came to a halt, it was important to us as state associations to provide our players with a new way to compete,” said Brenna Doran, South Texas Youth Soccer Member Services Coordinator , “FIFA-Fest was the first esports event within our community to this magnitude and it showed how strong we are if we work together. Garrett did an incredible job organizing the states and putting everything together. I look forward to seeing what new opportunities we can create for our memberships.”
