FIFA 22 esports increases 2v2 tournaments, drops Xbox support

Football is the greatest team sport in the world and it looks like EA Sports, the publishers of the FIFA football games, has finally realised it. This follows after they announced an expanded esports program for FIFA 22 that includes a great number of team-based (2v2) competitions.

Previously, the FIFAe Club World Cup and FIFAe Nations Cup were the only events that were team-based, whilst all the other tournaments, including the FIFAe World Cup, played in a 1v1 format.

FIFA 22 esports increases 2v2 tournaments

There will now be effectively two tracks in FIFA esports: the FIFA 22 Global Series that leads to the FIFAe World Cup and the newly-introduced FIFAe Club Series, which will lead up to the FIFAe Club World Cup.

The FIFAe Nations Series will continue as a separate competition.

Players will earn their place in the FIFA eClub World Cup, first through open online qualifiers and then through the FUT Team of the Year and Team of the Season Cups.

“Football would not exist without the power of teamwork,” said Sam Turkbas, FIFA Competitive Gaming Commissioner. “Our objective is to harness that power and use esports entertainment to connect football fans around the world to the game they love. Team-based FIFA competitive gaming will be a growth catalyst for future football fandom,” Turkbas added.

EA to drop Xbox console support in FIFA esports

Alongside the announcement of the expanded esports calendar, EA also announced that they would be dropping support for Xbox consoles when it comes to esports.

"A full year after the release of a new generation of consoles, FIFA esports is ready to make the move. All online and offline competitions run by EA will be offered exclusively on PlayStation 5," read a blog post on the FIFA 22 website.

The statement continued, reading: "With the scale of the events that we aspire to put on, one single unified platform for play with support from the platform owner is integral to success. PlayStation was chosen as our partner for this based on their historic support of FIFA esports and to retain familiarity for our global FUT Champions Verified player base, the vast majority of whom are on PlayStation consoles."

All official FIFA esports competitions have previously been played on both Xbox and PlayStation. With the consoles split until the grand final stage, the only exception was the FIFA eChampions League, which was a PlayStation exclusive event.

Some of the game's top players have been Xbox players, including previous FIFAe World Cup winners, Spencer "Gorilla" Ealing and Mossad "Msdossary" Aldossary.

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We'll be continuing with more FIFA 22 content and advanced play guides as the season unfold. Make sure to stay tuned to our official page for all the latest breaking news and information.

Featured image courtesy of EA Sports.