The eChampions League is getting towards the business end of its fourth season, heading towards a knockout stage that begins on 23 April. It will take place in Stockholm, marking the first time that it has been played with competitors in the same room since Madrid in 2019. The players have been whittled down to 32 from 256 at the start of the competition; the Grand Final, featuring the best eight players, will again be in Stockholm and play out on 27 May – the day before the Champions League final proper. Rachel Stringer will be front and centre, presenting coverage of the tournament via EA SPORTS’ Twitch channel. That means she’s particularly well placed to furnish us with some more details – and her tips for the big prize.
“I’m hugely excited for the live event. The stream at home during Covid was fine, but it wasn’t the same. Now we can really get into what we’re seeing, feel how excited everyone is and actually talk to the competitors. I really feel like that’s something we’ve all missed. You can get that extra information for the audience, because I want to build these players up, build their profiles. We can have that connection.
“There’ll be an absolute buzz around it, because most of the players have not seen each other since the beginning of 2020. And some of these players have kind of come out of the woodwork during Covid, so it’s going to be much more nerve-wracking for them. They won’t know what to do when you’re in a studio under lights, camera, action, with the Champions League music blaring. The pressure is going to be there. They want to get to the final, to be the champion.
The eChampions League is getting towards the business end of its fourth season, heading towards a knockout stage that begins on 23 April. It will take place in Stockholm, marking the first time that it has been played with competitors in the same room since Madrid in 2019. The players have been whittled down to 32 from 256 at the start of the competition; the Grand Final, featuring the best eight players, will again be in Stockholm and play out on 27 May – the day before the Champions League final proper. Rachel Stringer will be front and centre, presenting coverage of the tournament via EA SPORTS’ Twitch channel. That means she’s particularly well placed to furnish us with some more details – and her tips for the big prize.
“I’m hugely excited for the live event. The stream at home during Covid was fine, but it wasn’t the same. Now we can really get into what we’re seeing, feel how excited everyone is and actually talk to the competitors. I really feel like that’s something we’ve all missed. You can get that extra information for the audience, because I want to build these players up, build their profiles. We can have that connection.
“There’ll be an absolute buzz around it, because most of the players have not seen each other since the beginning of 2020. And some of these players have kind of come out of the woodwork during Covid, so it’s going to be much more nerve-wracking for them. They won’t know what to do when you’re in a studio under lights, camera, action, with the Champions League music blaring. The pressure is going to be there. They want to get to the final, to be the champion.
“The community online among these guys is incredible. Everybody talks to everybody; they’re all super open and they want to learn from each other. They want to see how other players do certain skill moves and they want everyone to get better. I've been talking to DrNightWatch; he’s a player who’s been around for years, he came second in the eChampions League. He did a skill move and I asked, “Oh, can you teach me that?” And he said, “Yeah, I’ll do a whole course for you on how to be a pro.” These people are so open and willing to help.
“In terms of tips to win, my guarantee to go through to the round of 16 was Matías Bonanno. He was the guy who moved from Sergio Agüero’s eSports team over in Argentina to Heretics in Spain. Last year he basically won everything in South America, so he recently moved to Spain so that he could compete in things like the eChampions League. Anyway, he’s through and looking good. Then there’s Umut: he’s the reigning German champion and knows how to win a tournament. And Feldman could be a bit of an underdog; he’s Israeli, and the Israeli community is super supportive.
“But then I’d say Tekkz, because though he nearly went out, he’s won it before. So Tekkz is your British player who will always be slightly on the back foot but will probably be dogged enough to pull through. He'll always come through strong in the end, so you can never discount him. He’ll usually score a last-minute winner with Mo Salah, him being a Liverpool fan. That’s his thing.
“At home, I try and play whatever mode of FIFA we’re on at the time. I play Ultimate Team because it's important to know what items are on trend at the moment, especially at the beginning of the year when the Team of the Year items come out. You want to have a little look at those in game and see what they can do, so you can talk about what you’re seeing on the show, and what rating X,Y or Z is. Though it does mean that my boyfriend says that all I do in the day is sit there and play FIFA…”
The eChampions League is getting towards the business end of its fourth season, heading towards a knockout stage that begins on 23 April. It will take place in Stockholm, marking the first time that it has been played with competitors in the same room since Madrid in 2019. The players have been whittled down to 32 from 256 at the start of the competition; the Grand Final, featuring the best eight players, will again be in Stockholm and play out on 27 May – the day before the Champions League final proper. Rachel Stringer will be front and centre, presenting coverage of the tournament via EA SPORTS’ Twitch channel. That means she’s particularly well placed to furnish us with some more details – and her tips for the big prize.
“I’m hugely excited for the live event. The stream at home during Covid was fine, but it wasn’t the same. Now we can really get into what we’re seeing, feel how excited everyone is and actually talk to the competitors. I really feel like that’s something we’ve all missed. You can get that extra information for the audience, because I want to build these players up, build their profiles. We can have that connection.
“There’ll be an absolute buzz around it, because most of the players have not seen each other since the beginning of 2020. And some of these players have kind of come out of the woodwork during Covid, so it’s going to be much more nerve-wracking for them. They won’t know what to do when you’re in a studio under lights, camera, action, with the Champions League music blaring. The pressure is going to be there. They want to get to the final, to be the champion.
The eChampions League is getting towards the business end of its fourth season, heading towards a knockout stage that begins on 23 April. It will take place in Stockholm, marking the first time that it has been played with competitors in the same room since Madrid in 2019. The players have been whittled down to 32 from 256 at the start of the competition; the Grand Final, featuring the best eight players, will again be in Stockholm and play out on 27 May – the day before the Champions League final proper. Rachel Stringer will be front and centre, presenting coverage of the tournament via EA SPORTS’ Twitch channel. That means she’s particularly well placed to furnish us with some more details – and her tips for the big prize.
“I’m hugely excited for the live event. The stream at home during Covid was fine, but it wasn’t the same. Now we can really get into what we’re seeing, feel how excited everyone is and actually talk to the competitors. I really feel like that’s something we’ve all missed. You can get that extra information for the audience, because I want to build these players up, build their profiles. We can have that connection.
“There’ll be an absolute buzz around it, because most of the players have not seen each other since the beginning of 2020. And some of these players have kind of come out of the woodwork during Covid, so it’s going to be much more nerve-wracking for them. They won’t know what to do when you’re in a studio under lights, camera, action, with the Champions League music blaring. The pressure is going to be there. They want to get to the final, to be the champion.
The eChampions League is getting towards the business end of its fourth season, heading towards a knockout stage that begins on 23 April. It will take place in Stockholm, marking the first time that it has been played with competitors in the same room since Madrid in 2019. The players have been whittled down to 32 from 256 at the start of the competition; the Grand Final, featuring the best eight players, will again be in Stockholm and play out on 27 May – the day before the Champions League final proper. Rachel Stringer will be front and centre, presenting coverage of the tournament via EA SPORTS’ Twitch channel. That means she’s particularly well placed to furnish us with some more details – and her tips for the big prize.
“I’m hugely excited for the live event. The stream at home during Covid was fine, but it wasn’t the same. Now we can really get into what we’re seeing, feel how excited everyone is and actually talk to the competitors. I really feel like that’s something we’ve all missed. You can get that extra information for the audience, because I want to build these players up, build their profiles. We can have that connection.
“There’ll be an absolute buzz around it, because most of the players have not seen each other since the beginning of 2020. And some of these players have kind of come out of the woodwork during Covid, so it’s going to be much more nerve-wracking for them. They won’t know what to do when you’re in a studio under lights, camera, action, with the Champions League music blaring. The pressure is going to be there. They want to get to the final, to be the champion.
“The community online among these guys is incredible. Everybody talks to everybody; they’re all super open and they want to learn from each other. They want to see how other players do certain skill moves and they want everyone to get better. I've been talking to DrNightWatch; he’s a player who’s been around for years, he came second in the eChampions League. He did a skill move and I asked, “Oh, can you teach me that?” And he said, “Yeah, I’ll do a whole course for you on how to be a pro.” These people are so open and willing to help.
“In terms of tips to win, my guarantee to go through to the round of 16 was Matías Bonanno. He was the guy who moved from Sergio Agüero’s eSports team over in Argentina to Heretics in Spain. Last year he basically won everything in South America, so he recently moved to Spain so that he could compete in things like the eChampions League. Anyway, he’s through and looking good. Then there’s Umut: he’s the reigning German champion and knows how to win a tournament. And Feldman could be a bit of an underdog; he’s Israeli, and the Israeli community is super supportive.
“But then I’d say Tekkz, because though he nearly went out, he’s won it before. So Tekkz is your British player who will always be slightly on the back foot but will probably be dogged enough to pull through. He'll always come through strong in the end, so you can never discount him. He’ll usually score a last-minute winner with Mo Salah, him being a Liverpool fan. That’s his thing.
“At home, I try and play whatever mode of FIFA we’re on at the time. I play Ultimate Team because it's important to know what items are on trend at the moment, especially at the beginning of the year when the Team of the Year items come out. You want to have a little look at those in game and see what they can do, so you can talk about what you’re seeing on the show, and what rating X,Y or Z is. Though it does mean that my boyfriend says that all I do in the day is sit there and play FIFA…”
The eChampions League is getting towards the business end of its fourth season, heading towards a knockout stage that begins on 23 April. It will take place in Stockholm, marking the first time that it has been played with competitors in the same room since Madrid in 2019. The players have been whittled down to 32 from 256 at the start of the competition; the Grand Final, featuring the best eight players, will again be in Stockholm and play out on 27 May – the day before the Champions League final proper. Rachel Stringer will be front and centre, presenting coverage of the tournament via EA SPORTS’ Twitch channel. That means she’s particularly well placed to furnish us with some more details – and her tips for the big prize.
“I’m hugely excited for the live event. The stream at home during Covid was fine, but it wasn’t the same. Now we can really get into what we’re seeing, feel how excited everyone is and actually talk to the competitors. I really feel like that’s something we’ve all missed. You can get that extra information for the audience, because I want to build these players up, build their profiles. We can have that connection.
“There’ll be an absolute buzz around it, because most of the players have not seen each other since the beginning of 2020. And some of these players have kind of come out of the woodwork during Covid, so it’s going to be much more nerve-wracking for them. They won’t know what to do when you’re in a studio under lights, camera, action, with the Champions League music blaring. The pressure is going to be there. They want to get to the final, to be the champion.
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