The bevestor Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) is celebrating its anniversary: On November 1, the competition will start its tenth season and once again invite all interested players to take part with the VBL Open by bevestor. To this day, the VBL, founded in 2012 in cooperation between DFL and EA SPORTS, is the only competition in a professional football league that is directly integrated into the EA SPORTS FIFA game.
Since then the VBL a steadily increasing popularity with around 130,000 participants in Germany. Since 2020, the DFL has also been cooperating with the world’s largest eSports company ESL Gaming. With its expertise in the development and expansion of ecosystems in connection with digital sport, the DFL would like to further develop and professionalize the VBL.
The tournament structure – VBL
26 clubs in the VBL Club Championship
The fourth season is this year VBL Club Championship by bevestor. This part of the competition, which was launched in the 2018/19 season and is carried out in close cooperation with ESL Gaming, takes place with a consistently high number of participants: a total of 26 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs are competing with their FIFA teams, the first Double game days of the season take place on November 9th and 10th.
The only changes in the composition this year are related to the league membership: FC Würzburger Kickers and Eintracht Braunschweig are no longer DFL members after the relegation of their soccer teams from the 2nd Bundesliga, FC Hansa Rostock and FC Ingolstadt 04 are these after their promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga and have decided to take part in the VBL Club Championship. Participation in the VBL Club Championship is open to all 36 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs.
The participating clubs:
FC Augsburg, Hertha BSC, VfL Bochum 1848, SV Werder Bremen, SV Darmstadt 98, Eintracht Frankfurt, SpVgg Greuther Fürth, Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, 1. FC Heidenheim 1846, TSG Hoffenheim, FC Ingolstadt 04, Holstein Kiel, 1. FC Cologne, RB Leipzig, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, 1. FSV Mainz 05, Borussia Mönchengladbach, 1. FC Nürnberg, SC Paderborn 07, FC St. Pauli, SSV Jahn Regensburg, FC Hansa Rostock, SV Sandhausen, FC Schalke 04, VfL Wolfsburg
The field of participating clubs will initially be divided into two divisions (north-west and south-east) according to geographical parameters. The final of the German Club Championship in eFootball will take place on March 26 and 27, 2022. The current German club champion is 1. FC Heidenheim 1846.
the VBL Open and the VBL Club Championship both start in November 2021 and will be brought together in the VBL Grand Final by bevestor. The VBL Grand Final will take place at the beginning of June 2022, where the German champion among the individual players will be chosen. In the first nine years of the competition there were nine different titleholders whose names were engraved on the championship trophy. Last year’s title holder and thus reigning German champion is Umut “RBLZ_Umut” Gültekin from RB Leipzig.
All matches in the Virtual Bundesliga are played with the soccer simulation EA SPORTS FIFA 22. The latest generations of both consoles will be used for the 2021/22 season, i.e. the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series S / X.
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