fifa south africa

Image credit: EA Sports

These three South African FIFA players rank among the top 100 in the world

In order to make the list, players have to become FUT Champions Verified. This involves winning 27 games in the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) game mode’s weekend league.

fifa south africa

Image credit: EA Sports

The world has changed in so many ways since the start of the pandemic. In amongst the forced isolation and unending sense of mortal dread eSports has been given a big boost with many other sporting codes being shutdown.

Three South Africans ranked among top players

Three South Africans have managed to get their names recognised amongst the best eSport competitors in the world. The three South African FIFA players managed to make it into Electronica Arts list of the 100 best players in the world.

As reported by Tech Girl, aka Sam Wright, Thabo “YvngSavage” Moloi, Mohamed “KingCJ0” Alioune Diop, and Kaylan “MBCKaylan” Moodley all made it into the list of the top 100 FIFA players on the planet.

The list was compiled from various online tournaments and weekly results. This has been necessitated by the pandemic shutting down the usual official physical events that take place around the world.

FUT Champions Verified

In order to make the list, players have to become FUT Champions Verified. This involves winning 27 games in the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) game mode’s weekend league.

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of sharing a home with someone busy with a weekend league, (hi! I’m a FIFA widow), you’ll appreciate what an achievement this is.

FUT is a hyper-competitive game mode that involves building the perfect team. For Weekend League players need to play 30 competitive games against players of similar skill from Friday until Sunday.

Only 42 South African players out of the thousands of local hopefuls are FUT Champions verified. Of these 42, only 26 players qualified on PS4 and 16 on Xbox. Considering the locals’ challenges with matchmaking and latency, it really is an amazing achievement.

Meet the top 3 FIFA players in SA

Mohamed “KingCJ0” Diop came in at number 99 on the prestigious list followed by Thabo “YvngSavage0402”. Thabo ranked 73rd and was also the highest-ranked South African PS4 player.

Kaylan “MBCKaylan” Moodley, who plays on Xbox, topped the list of South Africa’s best FIFA players, placing 33rd in the world. Moodley is plying his trade in the States at the moment but is still proudly South African at heart.

“It’s a great accomplishment to see YvngSavage, KingCJ0 and MBCKaylan continue to push the bar both locally and internationally – no doubt this grit and hard work will reap the rewards when physical events begin again and our players are able to travel to compete.”

Sam Wright (Tech Girl)

Esports tournaments draw huge audiences worldwide and paying out millions of dollars in prize money. South Africa’s eSports community is still in it’ early days as sponsors begin to realise the value of associating themselves, professional teams.

South African’s being recognised internationally is excellent news for the burgeoning eSports scene in the country; hopefully will help to open up new opportunities for South African players once the standard competitive tournaments are up and running again.