Multiplay i33 Preview

Competing for a total prize purse of £2,000, this Saturday the Multiplay i33 FIFA 2008 competition on the XBOX360 will be going live around 18:30 local time with some of Europe's finest players going head to head in what is expected to be a thrilling competition.

The tournament will be starting off with a series of groupstages, followed by a single elimination bracketstyle playoff to determine who will be walking away with the £1000 in cash for first place.

Amongst the local players participating we find the two UK CGS franchise players  Chris "ChrisB" Bullard and  Michael "Bazza" Barrett, representing respectively London Mint and Birmingham Salvo. After placing second in the CGS Grand Finals Individual Playoffs the end of last year (results here), Chris recently took part in the Samsung Euro Championship, in which he was able to finish 9-12th after losing to dignitas Walkman and SK hero in the playoff stages. His recent victory at the FIWC UK pre-qualifier at the Emirates Stadium of Arsenal should however give him a big confidence boost going into the tournament.

The other CGS franchise player Bazza on the other hand has not been in the spotlight all too much over the past months, after placing 3-4th at the CGS Grand Finals Franchise playoffs with Birmingham Salvo. Bazza recently took part at the second FIWC pre-qualifier at the Wembley Stadium last weekend, but is yet to qualify for the FIWC Grand Finals after losing to another i33 participant, TEK9 Vijay, in the semi-finals.

Next to all the local British players we find Latvia's number one FIFA player  Andrew "AndRuXa" Titov, who will be looking for revenge after failing to leave an impression at the recent Samsung Euro Championship, losing to mTw Adonis 1-2 and ChrisB 0 to 2. The Latvian player did however manage to finish top8 at the 2007 World Cyber Games, defeating mouz.deto and wNv[EF]ReBBa and will be a dangerous outsider for the title at the i33.

AndRuXa is joined by Dignitas teammates  Miguel "dr jivagos" Dinis and  Ogun "SoMB" Akgunduz, who will both be making the trip to Newbury, the United Kingdom to compete in the £2,000 tournament. The Turkish WCG 2005 representative SoMB recently took part in the Polish FIWC 2008 Qualifier, but failed to make it into the top3 (actual results are yet to be released). Another candidate for the title will be one of Portugal's most experienced FIFA players, dr jivagos, who has been a top performer in the past CB EuroCup season. dr jivagos recently took part in the XLParty WGT tournament in Loures, Portugal, but failed to reach the final stages after losing to defs.xdie and E5.hdiem.

One of the more unexpected names on the i33 playerlist is Sweden's number one FIFA player  Jan-Erik "JES" Spångberg, who recently received an invite for the upcoming Clanbase EuroCup season. JES took part in the European CGS Combine last summer and will be one of the dark horses of the tournament, who could potentially upset one of the main favorites.

Next to the CGS franchise and Team Dignitas players, TEK9's very own FIFA trio  Ludwin "Quest" de Bruijn,  Andries "Dries" Smit and  Vijay "Vijay" Mitrasing, who will be making their appearance at the Newbury racecourse after participating in the Dutch FIWC Finals the end of last year.

FIWC 2006 champion Andries will be looking to continue his dominant streak, having won the FIWC The Netherlands with a close 3-2 victory over Nick Laurora, after almost dropping out of the tournament in the quarter finals (penalty serie against RvK).

Quest on the other hand has recently shown to be in good shape, taking first place at The Reality last weekend, after having a hard time against DCC player LwDvl, losing the Upperbracket Final 1 to 2.

Last but not least, Vijay already made the trip to London last weekend to compete in one of the FIWC UK pre-qualifiers. After failing to make it to the final at the Emirates Stadium of Arsenal, losing to London Mint player ChrisB, Vijay was able to come out on top at the Wembley qualifier with victories over Bazza (Birmingham Salvo) and the top Dutch player Jeanplu.


 Multiplay i33 FIFA 2008 1v1
1. £1000 
2. £500 
3. £250 
4. £250

dignitas SoMB  Ogun Akgunduz           www.team-dignitas.org #dignitas (Quakenet)	Mint ChrisBullard  Chris Bullard           London Mint Website #londonmint (Quakenet)
TEK9 Dries  Andries Smit           www.tek-9.net #TEK9 (Quakenet)	dignitas AndRuXa  Andrew Titov           www.team-dignitas.org #dignitas (Quakenet)
TEK9 Quest  Ludwin de Bruijn           www.tek-9.net #TEK9 (Quakenet)	JES  Jan-Erik Spångberg
dignitas dr_jivagos        Miguel Dinis           www.team-dignitas.org #dignitas (Quakenet)	TEK9 Vijay  Vijay Mitrasing           www.tek-9.net #TEK9 (Quakenet)
Salvo Bazza  Michael Barrett           Birmingham Salvo Website #birminghamsalvo (Quakenet)