Konami launches fan-focused esports tournament 'Coppa eFootball Italia'

Konami has announced the launch of their new fan-focused esports tournament 'Coppa eFootball Italia'.

The hotly anticipated event will give fans the chance to team up with one of their beloved club's academy footballers as well as an esports professional.

Find out everything you need to know about the Coppa eFootball Italia below.

Coppa eFootball Italia

Featuring seven of Italy’s best clubs, the Coppa eFootball Italia tournament will see the integration of three different players forming teams of three to represent each of the competing clubs. These are:

• A selected youth team player.
• A professional esports player that is currently part of their existing squad.
• A club fan who wins an online qualification tournament.

The combination of these three player types sees a melding of club representatives unlike any we have seen in esports football simulation before.

Clubs

All seven of Konami's eFootball partner clubs based in Italy will be taking part in the Coppa eFootball Italia.

These are:

• AC Milan
• AC Monza
• AS Roma
• Atalanta BC
• FC Internazionale Milano
• SS Lazio
• SSC Napoli

Team selection process

Prior to the seven clubs competing for the Coppa eFootball Italia title, there will be a selection process for their three representatives.

Firstly, each club will hold an internal esports tournament between their academy players to determine their youth team representative.

Secondly, there will also be an internal tournament at each club between their respective esports players to determine who will be their resident pro.

Fan selection process

Thirdly, Konami will run an online tournament for all gamers within Italy called the ‘KONAMICI’.

The KONAMICI is an Italian-only event within eFootball 2023 that will take place on PS4 and PS5 devices only and will be free-to-play.

Players of all abilities and experience can register to compete online with the tournament lasting two weeks in total.

Each club fan can register online and select the club which they hope to represent.

From here, they will play a minimum of 30 online matches against fellow club fans, collecting points as they progress before the online ranking determines the top representatives.

The top-ranked fans from each club will then progress to a club-specific fan knockout bracket which will also be played online.

The winning fan representative for each club will thus complete the three-part team alongside the academy and pro esports players.

Tournament Schedule

The qualification and selection for club representative squads will occur in stages between December 2022 and April 2023.

The KONAMICI tournament will commence in February 2023 and end in March 2023.

Once each of the clubs has confirmed its three-person team, there will be an offline Group Stage phase where the clubs will play each other to determine their positions in their respective groups.

Finally, with group positions secured, clubs will be drawn against each other for the quarter-finals.

From here, it will be a straight knock-out tournament with two semi-finals, a third-place play-off and a grand final.

The Grand Finals weekend will be an offline, live event hosted at Napoli COMICON on the weekend of Friday, 28 April 2023.

The victorious club will take home a Grand Prize including a specialised eFootball multi-media and gaming centre to be installed at their youth training complex.