It was Gfinity's turn to host yet another FIFA 19 tournament with the Gfinity FIFA Series as some of the world's best players flocked to London in hopes of kickstarting 2019 in the best way possible.
For the second Gfinity event in a row, Basel's Nicolas 'Nicolas99' Villalba won the PlayStation final but this time he was able to win the grand final too to take home $8,750 and 850 Global Series Points. He will have been grateful that reigning eWorld Cup champion Mossad 'MSdossary' Aldossary wasn't there to stop him this time.
It was an eventful tournament with a lot to take away before the FUT Champions Cup in Bucharest next week. Here are the five things Goal learned from the Gfinity FIFA Series:
PlayStation players can compete
For the longest time in competitive FIFA, Xbox players have dominated tournaments. So much so in fact that the last time a PlayStation player won a cross-console final was all the way back in 2017 during the first-ever FIFA eClub World Cup.
However, that streak has finally come to an end thanks to Nicolas, who finally has the first tournament win of his career. The Argentine was considered by many as one of, if not the best, players in the world during FIFA 18, but when he came to the knockout stages he would fall short.
Nicolas has now given the PlayStation division hope by defeating Mesut Ozil's M10 Pedro 'Resende' Resende 5-2 to lift the trophy - giving hope to the likes of Stefano Pinna and Joksan Redona.
Gorilla is in a slump
Spencer 'Gorilla' Ealing is considered one of the greatest FIFA players of all time but FIFA 19 just hasn't been his game so far. The Englishman hasn't attended any of the FUT Champions Cups this season and is also still without an organisation having walked away from FaZe.
Gorilla did compete at the PGL Cup but not he was able to stop Donovan 'Tekkz' Hunt's hot streak of form. He did put up a fight again at Gfinity but an 8-6 defeat to Resende and a 5-4 defeat to Melbourne City's Marcus Gomes sealed his exit from the group stages.
The former FIFA Interactive World Cup champion took to Twitter to vent his frustrations: "So upset man, played so bad this whole tournament just nothing clicked for me. Got to focus on the big one next week in Bucharest but that performance was f**king dreadful to say the least. I know I’m more than capable of winning events this year. Consistency isn’t there for me at the moment, this is the worst feeling but only I can change it."
Mesut Ozil is having a better time in FIFA than football
Mesut Ozil has been one of Arsenal's star players since he joined the club back in 2013 but new manager Unai Emery has kept him bound to the bench in recent weeks. The German hasn't appeared since December 26th when he was subbed at half-time against Brighton.
While his future on the pitch may be in doubt, Ozil will be glad to at least see some success away from it. He started his own FIFA team, M10 esports, last year and has already seen some success as Resende took home the Xbox championship at the Gfinity Series. The Brazilian won his console final with an impressive 6-3 win over Rogue's Nawid 'Goal Machine' Noorzai, who had also been in excellent form.
Tekkz doesn't have much luck at Gfinity events
F2's Tekkz had a fantastic start to the season, repeatedly topping FUT Champions online leaderboards and winning two consecutive events - the FUT Champions Cup and PGL Cup. However, he couldn't quite win the triple as MSdossary defeated him in the December FUT Champions Cup hosted by Gfinity.
Tekkz returned to the Gfinity Arena this weekend but got off to a bad start, losing his first game and receiving two verbal warnings - one for going to the toilet after the first leg and another for going on his phone after the first leg.
Still, the young Englishman picked up form and made it all the way to the Xbox semi-finals until he threw away his lead and was eliminated 6-3 by Goal Machine, making it two Gfinity events in a row he has been eliminated by a Rogue player. You knew things weren't going Tekkz's way when he couldn't score from this:
MSdossary isn't Rogue's only threat
As previously mentioned, Goal Machine was very impressive at the Gfinity FIFA Series, falling just short of taking home the Xbox championship.
The Canadian burst onto the scene last year and qualified for the eWorld Cup in the Summer despite the fact he only started competing in FIFA in December 2017. Shortly after that tournament he joined the champion MSdossary at esports organisation Rogue, who are making quite the name for themselves in the industry.
Rogue are backed by Imagine Dragons and Steve Aoki and will be even more entertaining with Goal Machine in their line-up. Goal Machine and MSdossary may just be the strongest FIFA roster in the world.