TSG eSPORTS among the top six teams in Germany

TSG eSPORTs were one point short of advancing to the knockout phase of the VBL Club Championship by WOW last year, but they managed to go one better this time around. At the grand final event at the Base in Cologne on Sunday, our team finished in third position in the group stage and thus secured their place among the top six teams in Germany. In the intermediate round that followed, our team were knocked out by reigning German champions SC Paderborn 07. But TSG eSPORTS nonetheless vastly exceeded their objective for the season. The team had previously qualified for the play-offs by finishing in eighth place in the South-East Division, where a victory against Borussia Dortmund sealed progression to the final round. The new German eFootball champions are RB Leipzig, who narrowly beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the final.

"Making it into the top six teams is a brilliant success for us. I'm very proud of our team and would like to expressly thank all the people involved, our staff members and our partners who played a role in this success," said TSG eSPORTS team manager Gordon Lesser. "Thanks to our comeback at the turn of the year, we proved what we're made of and exceeded our goal for the season. Everyone in the team has invested a lot of time and worked hard for our joint success. A big thank-you to the team for that, and also a huge thank-you to the fans, who did an outstanding job of pushing us throughout the season during the livestream chat broadcasts. It's impressive how our community has developed over the last two years, and a big thank-you is also due to the many voluntary supporters, such as the chat admins."

Strong nerves in the showdown with Bremen

TSG finished off the group stage of the final event in third place with four points on the board. Although the team lost to FC Bayern Munich (1-7, 3-6) and Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1-1, 3-3, 2-5), they drew against VfL Bochum (3-4, 6-6, 4-2) – meaning that it would come down to the final group match to determine which team would secure a place in the intermediate round. Our team withstood the pressure in their showdown with SV Werder Bremen. In their clash with the second-placed team in the North-West Division, Aymane 'AYMANE' Mokallik and Fabrice 'whiteezz05' Weiß beat Henning 'Henning' Wilmbusse and Berkay 'BerkayLion' Demirci 5-4 in the doubles. 'whiteezz05' then also came out on top in the singles, beating 'BerkayLion' 7-6. This was the second year in a row that they had beaten the previous year's semi-finalists in the group stage.

SC Paderborn 07 were the opponents in the intermediate round. 'AYMANE' and 'whiteezz05' forced extra time in the doubles with a goal in the 89th minute but then fell short to the defending champions, whose team of Jamie 'Chaser' Bartel and Max 'Diviners' Gröne scored two goals (92, 104). 'whiteezz05' had no chance against 'Chaser' in the singles, losing 8-1.

German Singles Championship coming up

The season is far from over for TSG eSPORTS. In Aymane 'AYMANE' Mokallik, Fabrice 'whiteezz05', Luan 'lubappe6' and eAcademy player Mohamed 'momojt07' Jaatit, there are four players who can still qualify for a potential singles final event via the VBL Open Playoffs by WOW on 5/6 April. The prize pool at the VBL Grand Final, which determines the best singles player in Germany, is €100,000.