TSG eSPORTS secure fifth place in the VBL

They ultimately fell a single goal short of securing the best placement in the history of TSG eSPORTS, but the team can still look back on a very successful season in the VBL Club Championship. The play-off berth had already been wrapped up before the final matchday of the main round, and despite losing to 1. FC Nürnberg on Wednesday, the team ultimately finished fifth in the South-East Division. TSG eSPORTS thus also secured two starting places for the VBL Grand – the German eFootball championship for individuals, in which Serhat 'Serhatinho' Öztürk and Fabrice 'whiteezz05' Weiß will be competing.

"We've achieved our goal for the season with a play-off place," was the interim conclusion from TSG eSPORTS Team Manager Gordon Lesser. "On top of that, we're delighted that we're also represented in the individual competition. Of course, it's a bit of a shame that we missed out on our best season result of all time by such a small margin. But perhaps it's also a wake-up call for the play-offs. We will now prepare as best we can and then do everything we can to beat Schalke."

Offline event in Cologne: TSG eSPORTS to face Schalke 04

The team will now move on to the play-offs, where they will face FC Schalke 04. It will be a special duel for 'Serhatinho': he played for S04 for two years and celebrated numerous successes during that time, before joining TSG eSPORTS ahead of the current campaign. The VBL CC playoffs will be held as an offline event in Cologne this year. The best teams will ultimately advance to the Club Championship Final, where the 2023/24 German Club Champion in eFootball will be crowned.

TSG were lacking the rub of the green in their final game of the second half-season against Nürnberg. 'Serhatinho' and 'whiteezz05' fell behind to a deflected shot in the doubles (28), while their own attempts did not find the net. After conceding another goal (65) and missing a penalty (76), they ultimately lost 2-0 to Niklas 'NiklasRank' Rank und Yannick 'klastocky' Grum. 'Serhatinho' also subsequently fell quickly behind to Daniel 'Bubu' Butenko in the singles (21), but then turned on the style and ultimately won 3-2. The second singles match also went to Nürnberg. 'whiteezz05' played out an eventful encounter with 'NiklasRank' which saw five goals scored in 20 minutes. But it was 'NiklasRank' who came out on top by a 4-3 scoreline, which ultimately condemned TSG to defeat.