At FIFA, my friend got me hooked - I came to visit him and saw him play. At first, I didn’t get hooked, because I wasn’t really keen on football, but over time my interests changed: the guys and I started chasing the ball in the yard and watching the matches on TV. Then I installed FIFA on my computer. From the age of eleven, I played with friends, but I learned about FIFA tournaments when I was twenty-one.
I remember seeing an ad on the website of the Doncaster team and decided to register. I played than not so much but took the third place. I got a subscription to Wings home games. I was very surprised by this result and realized that I need to develop further. After that, he became interested in what tournaments were held in Doncaster, and came across the public in Facebook, where the guys were invited to the competitions. On them, I also became the third. Having started to train more, I went to a higher level tournament in London in a few months. There I had to play with the winner of the FIFA World Cup. In the decisive match, he won, but I could not leave the group.
Workouts usually take place at home online. At first, I played on the computer, but then I switched to the console since all the LAN tournaments were held on it. Sometimes, returning from matches, I realized that I lost only because I did not have enough time to practice my skills. Schoolchildren in this plan in priority, as they can play at least the whole day.
There was a time when I myself organized tournaments in anti-cafe, but because of the work, it was difficult to do - it took a lot of time and effort. Usually, my friends and I agreed with the establishment, brought our consoles and tried to create the atmosphere of a real professional competition. A contribution of 20 pounds was taken from each player, but the prize fund still turned out to be small, because part of the money had to be paid for renting a room. Some guys spent the whole day, but in case of a loss, they received nothing in return. The winner got from 500 to 1,000 pounds. In Doncaster, there were no major tournaments at all: I received 1,000 for a victory several times, but basically, the prize fund does not exceed 500 pounds.
Auditors supported me. Mom was always interested in my success - even if she didn’t really understand how everything worked. Of course, there were questions about whether or not to spend so much time on it, but sometimes I myself could not answer them.
FIFA has very few players over 25 years old, so I’m wondering what will happen to them in five or ten years: on the one hand, experience increases, and on the other, the reaction worsens, as age makes itself felt.
From a financial point of view, it is difficult to be a cyber sportsman in the FIFA discipline without a contract with any organization: you have to pay all expenses during tournaments in other cities on your own, and you can only fill up the costs if you take the prize. Recently, English football clubs began to be interested in our activities, to acquire athletes and help financially. As a rule, the conditions are simple: the players wear the form of the team that finances them and thereby promotes it. Liverpool football club is a good example: its cyber sportsmen actively run their public tables on Facebook and Instagram profiles, hold promotions with consoles, gamepads and match tickets.
In most cyber sports disciplines, the team consists of five people, but in FIFA this is, again, not so - you alone are responsible for the whole virtual team. It seems to me that in this situation it is easier to achieve results: the partners will not let you down, it all depends on you.
Often during tournaments, the guys behave emotionally: waving their hands, shouting obscene words and swearing at everything around. The organizers warn that they can annul the results for it, but nothing helps - it is very difficult to contain emotions. There were cases when gamepads, chairs and other items that came to hand flew around the room.
Now in Doncaster, it is difficult to have tournaments - they are practically not spent, so I began to spend less time on FIFA and placed emphasis on work, but if tournaments with good prize funds appear in the near future, I will register and try my hand again.