Portugal’s Joao “jafonsogv” Vasconcelos, Australia’s Mark “Mark11” Zakhary and Argentina’s Nicolas “nicolas99fc” Villalba all won three consecutive matches on Friday and advanced to the EA Sports FC quarterfinals at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.
jafonsogv, Mark11 and nicolas99fc all improved to 5-1 in group play entering the last match on Saturday. jafonsogv and Mark11 are tied atop Group A, while nicolas99fc sits alone in first place in Group B.
Gabriel “Young” Freitas lost two of three matches on Friday, but with a 4-2 record, he also sealed a quarterfinal berth.
The $1 million event features 16 players divided into two groups for round-robin play. The top three in each group go directly to the playoff quarterfinals, while the fourth- through sixth-place finishers in each group will compete in the resurrection round. Two of the six players in the resurrection round will advance to the quarterfinals.
The playoffs will use a single-elimination bracket. The winner of the final on Sunday will earn $300,000 and 1,000 Esports World Cup club points. The runner-up will receiver $150,000 and 600 points.
On Friday, jafonsogv defeated the Netherlands’ Levi “Levi de Weerd” Weerd 5-2, Germany’s Jonas “Jonny” Wirth 3-2 and Saudi Arabia’s Ahmad “AbuMakkah” Mujahid 6-4.
Mark11 topped the Netherlands’ Emre “EmreYilmaz” Yilmaz 3-1, AbuMakkah 4-3 and Japan’s Taichi “Web Nasri” Aoki 5-1.
nicolas99fc got past Argentina’s Matias “Bonanno” Bonanno 5-2, Saudi Arabia’s Mossad “Msdossary” Aldossary 5-4 and Brazil’s Paulo “PHzin” Chaves 5-0.
Young fell 3-2 to Web Nasri, beat EmreYilmaz 8-3 and lost 3-1 to Jonny.
In the day’s other Group A results, Jonny edged AbuMakkah 5-4, Levi de Weerd got past Web Nasri 4-2 and EmreYilmaz defeated Levi de Weerd 5-1.
Group B, Bonanno, PHzin and Denmark’s Anders “Vejrgang” Vejrgang are all tied for second with 4-2 records.
The schedule for the last round group-play matches on Saturday:
Group A
–AbuMakkah vs. EmreYilmaz
–Levi de Weerd vs. Young
–jafonsogv vs. Mark11
–Web Nasri vs. Jonny
Group B
–Brazil’s Nathan “Nathansr22” Ribeiro vs. PHzin
–nicolas99fc vs. Great Britain’s Jack “GoalPoacher” Wignall
–Msdossary vs. Vejrgang
–The Netherlands’ Manuel “ManuBachoore” Bachoore vs. Bonanno
EA Sports FC group standings at the Esports World Cup
Group A
T1. jafonsogv, 5-1
T1. Mark11, 5-1
3. Young, 4-2
T4. AbuMakkah, 2-4
T4. EmreYilmaz, 2-4
T4. Levi de Weerd, 2-4
T4. Jonny, 2-4
T4. Web Nasri, 2-4
Group B
1. nicolas99fc, 5-1
T2. Vejrgang, 4-2
T2. PHzin, 4-2
T2. Bonanno, 4-2
5. Nathansr22, 3-3
6. ManuBachoore, 2-4
T7. Msdossary, 1-5
T7. GoalPoacher, 1-5
–Field Level Media
