Poland’s biggest virtual turf competition is back after its winter break! After the autumn excitement of the OPEN tournaments, it’s time for eighteen club representatives to compete in the PRO phase of the PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa Games. The first of eight tournaments is this coming Tuesday, and on Wednesday there will be a broadcast featuring the best players on the Polish EA SPORTS FC stage.
The PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa Games, the official Polish Championship in the world’s most popular football game, is part of the international EA SPORTS FC PRO ecosystem. The sixth edition of the country’s biggest competition has already featured an OPEN phase for amateurs wishing to start their adventure with professional e-sport. On Tuesday, 6 February, however, the PRO phase will start, intended for professional players competing in the colours of all PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa clubs. Eight players emerged from the DRAFT qualification tournaments. The remaining places, on the other hand, were taken by the top ten from the previous competition season. After the qualification, the clubs chose their representatives.
The PRO competition will feature eight online tournaments, where players will collect points. The PRO competition is scheduled to kick off on 6 February and will take place weekly (Tuesday, Wednesday). Fans will be able to follow the rivalry between the best players in the country for eight weeks during weekly online broadcasts. The first of these is this Wednesday at 6pm on the Ekstraklasa channels – on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook.
Three groups of six players will be formed in each tournament. During the first tournament, the groups will be drawn at random, from the second tournament onwards there will be a division into 3-man baskets created on the basis of the overall standings. The top six in the final table after eight tournaments will advance to the Grand Finals, and players from places 7-12 will take part in the Barracks. The change in format will result in an even fiercer competition and a fight until the last tournament for the highest possible places. Also new is that for taking the first two places in each of the eight PRO tournaments there will be cash prizes of PLN 500 for the winner and PLN 125 for the runner-up.
Both in the April Barażes and in the Grand Finals where we will know the new Polish Champion, 12 participants will play. The stakes of both these tournaments will be completed by the best from the PKO BP Ekstraklasa Games OPEN formula and the INEA 1 Liga Games.
The prize pool of the entire tournament is PLN 45,000. The best player of the season will play in the FC PRO World Championship, and in addition to that, together with the vice-champion of Poland, they will play in the group phase of the eChampions League.
The Titular Partner of the tournament for the third year in a row is PKO Bank Polski. The tournament is organised under a licence granted by the game’s publisher, EA SPORTS.
