The Gfinity Elite Series trophy and £25,000 were on the line in London last night as the Gfinity Arena hosted the first ever Elite Series FIFA 18 grand finals.

Roma FNATIC came out on top thanks to esports players Conran 'Rannerz' Tobin and Simon 'Zimme' Nystedt, who came through a nail biting semifinal against Team Envy, and bested UNILAD in the grand final last night.

Many had pegged UNILAD as the eventual winners last night due to the caliber of their players, Shaun 'Shellzz' Springette and world champion Spencer 'Gorilla' Ealing.

Rannerz lifts the trophy alongside his Roma FNATIC teammate Zimme after an intense final

However, in a move labelled as questionable by many, Gorilla stepped aside to allow substitute player Tassal 'Tass' Rushan a chance at glory.

The winner of the Elite Series also gets a spot in the Global Series Playoffs which feed into the FIFA eWorld Cup later this year. Reigning world champion Gorilla had already qualified, so allowed Tass the chance of qualifying as well.

Tass is a good player too though, and you can't take anything away from the FNATIC players, who ended up winning fairly comfortably 7-4 on aggregate across Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

The final was a good one, but was arguably eclipsed in excitement by FNATIC's semifinal against Team Envy. What started as a fairly cagey affair turned into all action excitement.

It was Rannerz against Marvyn 'Aero' Robert in the first leg, which ended 1-0 to Envy after a late first half goal, meaning Zimme had it all to do in the second leg.

With his job done and the result out of his hands, Rannerz was at the back of the arena behind the audience, pacing around, barely able to look at the action, throwing his arms up when Zimme got a chance, and covering his face when EisVogel had the ball.

Zimme got a goal back early on in the second leg, making it 1-1 on aggregate. However a late goal in the second half from Envy's Philipp 'EisVogel' Schermer looked to put FNATIC to bed.

Unbelievably though, Zimme kicked off and managed to keep the ball, slowly pushing forward deep into injury time. The referee let play on, and after a bit of penalty area pinball, the ball ended up in the back of the net to force extra time.

After more goals in extra time, the game went to some tense penalties, where Zimme was able to best his opponent after EisVogel missed three out of four.

In the final against UNILAD, Rannerz took an early lead against Tass, and there was another flurry of late goals as the first game ended 3-2.

There were plenty of goals in the match between Zimme and Shellzz too, with FNATIC going 3-0 up with 20 minutes to go. Shellzz did manage to start a comeback, but it was too late, with the game ending 4-2.

'I'm so hyped that the team we won tonight!' said FNATIC manager Colin Johnson. 'The lads have been putting in so much work together and the fact that it's paid off like this is incredible. The Gfinity Elite Series has been a tough competition and the team format and scoring system tested us in new ways.

'To know you've beaten some of the best players in the world, you can't replicate that feeling. We now look forward to competing in the FIFA 18 eWorld Cup this summer'.

The FNATIC players will be happy with their win, although there may be some mixed emotions from Zimme, who said he would get his haircut in the style of Ronaldo from the 2002 World Cup.