The Essentials: FIFA Cup 2013

 

 

The Singapore FIFA Cup kicks off tomorrow, and this time round it’s even better than it was last year.

 

For starters, the tournament’s new official venue partner will be the state of the art Alienware Arena. This impressive cyber café has already hosted both seasons of the Flash Dota 2 League. Now it will be the new home of the next 3 installments of the FIFA Cup. Participants can look forward to playing on top-notch PCs, while spectators can watch their favorite players on a snazzy stage.

 

Perhaps more importantly, the competition’s prize pool has more than doubled. The top 3 players of each cup will bag $300, $150 and $50 respectively. That’s not all - Gunnar Optiks, the gaming industry’s leading manufacturer of computer eyewear, has also pledged to throw in 3 pairs of Gunnar glasses, one for each of the top 3. These glasses don’t come cheap; they cost about $120-$150 a pair.

 

With such mouthwatering prizes, it’s no wonder that the sign up rate has skyrocketed. A total of 52 players registered in just under a week, and since the maximum allowed number per cup caps at 32, many top players won’t be seen in action at the Arena tomorrow afternoon. Players like Pistolero and superfatfatty will have to wait until cup 2 before they can start scoring points to start climbing up the points leaderboard.

 

Scoring points will be important this year. There are plans in the pipeline to seed the top 8 players into a “Singapore FIFA Champions’ League”. Prizes will obviously be even better for players who qualify for that category, and everyone will be looking to kick start the campaign on a good note tomorrow.

 

                                                                                                 

Both players on the Flash e-Sports roster avoid each other until the final, by virtue of being the top 2 seeds (from WCG 2012 and FIFA Cup 2012 results). Based on how the tournament draw has gone, Singapore’s FIFA legend Mohamed ‘Xtr3me3’ Phirkhan could also face off against El Rey the youngster in a tantalizing quarterfinal matchup.

 

Tune in to the official stream channel at http://www.twitch.tv/flashesports from 12.30pm tomorrow to catch the first FIFA LAN event of 2013. 

 

Are you excited about the FIFA Cup? Or thinking about heading down to the Alienware Arena tomorrow? Let us know in the comments section below!