Man City Partners With Esports Platform Battlefy To Launch FIFA 17 Tournament

Man City "teamed up" with esports platform Battlefy for the launch of a new digital tournament, according to Richard Bell of BDAILY. The inaugural Man City FIFA 17 Cup will be the first football esports tournament hosted by a European club in the U.S. The competition will coincide with Man City's preseason U.S. tour, which is supported by Visit Abu Dhabi. The tournament, hosted on PS4 and Xbox One, "will see players completing a minimum of 15 games and ranked by winning percentage." After the preliminary stage, "the top 128 players per platform will qualify for best-of-three playoffs" taking place on Saturday and Sunday. The two overall winners per console will then face off in Houston on July 19, where the Man City FIFA 17 Cup champion will be crowned before Man City faces ManU the next day. City Football Marketing Senior VP of Media & Innovation Diego Gigliani said, "This is a natural evolution for Manchester City. We've been very involved with our partner, EA Sports, and the game FIFA for some time" (BDAILY, 6/27).