The last tournament with the FIFA 23 video game gave the champion 300 thousand dollars.
The Virtual Soccer World Cup FIFA eWorld Cup which marked the closure of the competitive stage of the video game FIFA 23 ended with controversy. In a close final that should have been defined by penalties, a player’s joystick commands were displayed on a large screen within the event, which gave his opponent a clear advantage to keep the 300 thousand dollars prize.
The final between Australian Mark Zakhary “Mark11” (19 years old), and the Dutchman Manuel Bachoore “ManuBachoore” (18), who beat Argentine Nicolas Villalba in the previous phase, had to be defined from the penalty shootout.
However, the controversy broke out at the time the definition began, when the player Mark11 realized that everything you did with your joystick was displayed on the big screen from the arena before the watchful eye of the in-person public and his rival. This meant a distinct advantage that Manubachoore or his trainer could see in real time which direction Mark11 was heading.
As could be seen during the official transmission through YouTube, Mark11 alerted event staff to the issue as soon as the penalty shootout began. That didn’t stop the game from continuing, as in FIFA you can’t hit the pause button during penalties.
After the match, the officials at the Riyadh event tried to establish what happened and whether the images on the screen could have affected the final result, but it was ultimately determined that they were not going to change the result.
Once the event is over, Mark11 showed his disagreement for second place through his Twitter profile. In fact, his bio now sports the caption “World Cup Top 2” with a closed-mouth emoji, apparently suggesting that he can’t talk about the incident at the grand final and the $150,000 he won.
How was the FIFAe World Cup final
The series of roundtrip matches that defined the last champion of FIFA 23, while waiting for news on the competitive calendar of EA FC 24, had as protagonists Mark11 initially dominating the match with a two goal lead against ManuBachoore.
However, the Dutchman fought back, equalizing before the first leg was over and eventually clinching the go-ahead goal, resulting in a dramatic 3-3 draw after extra time, before clinching the title on penalties.
ManuBachoore, who also represented Team Gullit at the 2023 FIFAe Club World Cup and the Netherlands at the 2023 FIFAe Nations Cup, ultimately came away with the coveted title of FIFAe World Champion. In addition, he became the second Dutch champion since 2006, after Andries Smit’s victory.
