Bateson87 wins Twitch Rivals FIFA 21 Preseason Invitational

FIFA 21 is the latest iteration of the ever-popular football series. The title is due to release soon. Before that, we’re got a series of pre-season events to show off both the game and what’s ahead for FIFA Esports. The biggest of these events is the FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals event. In the past, we’ve seen Twitch Rivals events for loads of games, including big titles like Apex Legends and more off-beat events like Fall Guys. The FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals event is an early look at the game, but also how it is going to play competitively.

© EA Games / FIFA 21

Competitive FIFA has had a big year. As normal leagues and games were suspended due to the Coronavirus, FIFA as an important saw a lot more attention. In the absence of in the flesh football, FIFA kind of took over. While the official events were suspended due to the virus, there was a lot of lower-level FIFA going on.

All this has made the next season of FIFA Esports highly-anticipated. The FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals was is a first look at how things will be shaping up for the next season.

FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals Preseason Invitational

The FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals event started on October 3^rd, but the YouTube Content Creator Cup was held tonight and it was an absolute joy.  The Twitch Rivals event saw FIFA Pros take on professional footballers at the game. These types of rosters are always fun to watch, showing pros competing against fairly ordinary players.

The FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals event though was just a hint of what’s to come. We’ve seen more of both FIFA 21, and gotten more details on FIFA’s returning professional scene. The FIFA 21 Global Series is due to launch after these pre-season events have concluded.  It has an updated tournament structure and includes more countries than ever. The FIFA Global Challenge is going to be divided into different regions competing in their own tournaments, to find the best teams in the world. There is open registration beginning on October 9^th. The series itself begins in November.

Bateson87 vs Castro_1021 Final

The Twitch Rivals final ended up with an amazing matchup between Jamie Bateson (Bateson87) and Edwin Castro (Castro_1021). They were joined by professional football players David Meyler and Miguel Layún respectively. 

Bateson had an absolute advantage throughout the entire second day with his partner David Meyler being an absolute FIFA savant himself. Overall, the competition was not even close as Meyler did a lot of the heavy lifting for Bateson’s team. In the end, both squads met in two individual duels. One between the streamers and one between the professional footballers.

The result went as expected with Meyler absolutely dominating Layún who is a mediocre player at best, and Castro beating Bateson 3-2. Bateson’s team was the aggregate winner with a 7-3 scoreline although many argue the victory was wholly undeserved. Regardless, the winner walks home with 20,000$ in prize money divided between Bateson and his fellow non-pro colleague.

FIFA 21

The final aspect of the Twitch Rivals event was of course the chance to have a good look at the soon to launch FIFA 21. The game itself is due to launch on October 9^th. The title features more incremental upgrades to the football system in FIFA. As usual, some tinkering with things like AI and free-kicks can be expected, but the core gameplay is the same perfected form that has been developing over the last twenty years.

The game will feature the Ultimate Team Mode, Career Mode, all types of multiplayer, all it is almost fully licensed to use real-world teams, names, and locations. Although a weird omission for licenses is Juventus.

A fresh FIFA title doesn’t always come with a lot of new content; the formula has been basically perfected at this point. What it does promise are graphical improvements and a better overall experience. FIFA 21 clearly has that. The game is due to be released as an enhanced version on next-gen consoles. This should be quite the jump for the quality of the series.

The FIFA 21 Twitch Rivals event was a great look at how we can expect action to play out in the regular season. If you’re interested in FIFA Esports or FIFA betting, then the expanded roster of events this time around is going to be pretty exciting.

Read next: The F1 Esports qualifiers for 2021 are now open!