In October, Electronic Arts and FIFA announced their plan to create the World Cup’s virtual soccer equivalent. The FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC) is rebranded as FIFA eWorld Cup, and its first installment will be held in August 2018, with 32 players competing. The qualifying tournaments have already started and EA Sports is looking to sell the tournament’s broadcasting rights.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Last year’s FIWC was streamed on Twitch, generating 137,200 hours of total viewership.[/perfectpullquote]

The six tournaments of the FIFA 18 Global Series Qualifiers will decide the 128 players (64 on PlayStation 4 and 64 on Xbox One) who will qualify for the Global Series Playoffs, held in June. From there, 32 players will win their tickets for the final tournament, held in August. It is the second year in a row that FIFA and EA Sports try to completely revamp their main competition. The last tournament had traditional soccer teams with esports departments, such as Manchester City and Schalke 04, invited to compete, a project abandoned for this year’s installment.

Last year’s FIWC, held in London on Aug. 16 to18, 2017, distributed $268,000, with the final winner Spencer “HugeGorilla” Ealing, earning $200,000. The tournament was streamed on Twitch, generating 137,200 hours of total viewership. The result cannot be compared with those of major esports titles. Around the same period, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s EU closed qualifier for ESL One New York 2017 amassed 775,000 hours and the EU League of Legends Championship Series had 930,000 hours of viewership.

Twitch, being a traditional gaming streaming platform, has not embraced competitive FIFA and EA Sports has to look elsewhere to sell the eWorld Cup’s broadcasting rights.