Johannesburg – After an intense past few weeks of online qualifiers, two South African FIFA players have qualified for the FIFAe Club World Cup 2021 finals. Julio “Beast” Bianchi and Kaylan “Kaylan” Moodley are the first South African gamers to secure a spot to the prestigious annual FIFA event.
42 teams from six different Zones will be competing in the FIFAe Club World Cup 2021 finals taking place online between 24-28 February 2021, with a total prize pool of $245,000 up for grabs.
The South African duo, playing under Goliath Gaming for the event, fall under the Zone 3 region and will go head to head against some of the best FIFA players in the Middle East (25 E-Sports, ALNassr Club, and Tuwaiq Esports).
The total prize pool for the Zone 3 finals is $32,000 (over R450 000 at the time of writing) with first place bagging $22,000 and second place scoring $10,000. The Zone 3 group stage kicks off on 26 February, and the Zone 3 finals happening on 27 February.
“Being the first team in South Africa to qualify for a major FIFA event of this nature is a big honour. It’s also an amazing opportunity for gamers in SA to have been able to compete in official FIFA qualifiers for a spot in the FIFAe Club World Cup finals, and we hope South Africa will be provided with more official FIFA qualifiers like this in future. Kaylan and I will be working extremely hard over the next few weeks to ensure we are as prepared as possible for the finals – to make our family, friends and gaming community proud, and to fly that SA flag high,” says Julio “Beast” Bianchi.
Kaylan echoes Julio’s sentiments and is looking forward to giving it their all in the tournament. “It’s very exciting to have qualified for a global FIFA event of this nature and I’m really looking forward to competing alongside my good friend, Julio. We’re confident in our ability individually and as a team, and intend on doing are absolute best in the finals. We hope to make South Africa proud and hopefully we can bring it home come February 26th and 27th,” Kaylan “Kaylan” Moodley adds.
In case you missed it, the Goliath Gaming pairing of @TheBeastBianchi and @Kaylan_fut (@MBCeSports) have qualified for the FIFA eClub World Cup 2021 finals!🇿🇦🙌They're the first South Africans to achieve this feat 🤩
https://t.co/8s33mzBiYu @TimesLIVE #GoliathGamingArmy #GGFIFA— Goliath Gaming (@GoliathGamingZA) January 29, 2021
Both Julio and Kaylan are no strangers to competing in major FIFA events. Julio, who used to be a semi-pro footballer, competed in the FIFA eWorld Cup Global Series Playoffs in Amsterdam in 2018 where he impressively beat 2X world champion, August Agge Rosenmeier, and finished off in the top 64 in the world on PS4 in the tournament.
On South African soil, he has won many top local tournaments and ended the FIFA20 season as #3 on PS4 in South Africa and #155 in the world on PS4 in the official FIFA20 rankings.
Julio is signed to one of South Africa’s top Multi Gaming Organisation’s, Goliath Gaming, and is the captain of their FIFA squad. Outside of competitive gaming, he is studying accounting at CPUT in Cape Town.
My idolo❤ pic.twitter.com/lBHxR17P50
— Kaylan (@Kaylan_fut) January 29, 2021
Kaylan, who is signed to MBC eSports, has competed in the FIFA FUT Champions Cup 2 in Romania and FIFA FUT Champions Cup 4 in Paris where he finished in the top 16 players on Xbox. He has also won the FIFA Global Series Africa Qualifiers and numerous other FIFA tournaments in South Africa. In the official FIFA20 rankings, Kaylan finished 33rd in the world on Xbox and 1st in South Africa.
The 🔝 goal scorer in the #FIFAeClubWorldCup online qualifiers: @UstunFFC from @Astralisgg ⚽ ⭐ pic.twitter.com/HkIt2qlMqU
— FIFAe (@FIFAe) January 31, 2021
30-0!☑️
Played all my games in bed,wasn’t fun but the grind continues!🤒 pic.twitter.com/aB6lGK7KjO
— Kaylan (@Kaylan_fut) January 31, 2021
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