Mumbai, Apr 6 (IANS): The first-ever FIFA Pro League India (PLI) for leading professional esports athletes in the country will be organised by ConnectIN Esports from Wednesday and culminate with the Final Gameweek beginning May 31.
The top FIFA esports athletes from the country will be participating in Season 1 of the PLI, which will be conducted in a double-round-robin format.
The 10 athletes who will vie for being crowned the India champion are Charanjot 'chelseaCJ12' Singh, Hritik 'Hritik28' Shikare, Karan 'Diabolical' Singh, Lokmanyu 'lokmanyu06' Chaturvedi, Sagnik 'uncle_sagnik02' Banerjee, Saksham 'Sakky' Rattan, Saransh 'saranshjain7' Jain, Siddh 'M10Jenasid' Chandarana, Sufi 'ThunderBeard' Patel and Vanshaj 'V-SHARMA10' Sharma.
FIFA PLI will be conducted every quarter and each season will determine the rankings of the players till the conclusion of the next season. There will be a total of 90 league matches with each athlete playing 18 matches.
All the games will be broadcast live of YouTube on the ConnectIN Esports channel, and highlights of each match will be available the next day for fans. In addition to the matches, exclusive content, which will include interviews, behind-the-scene episodes with the athletes, will also be broadcast on YouTube and Esportznow.com, the official media partner for the FIFA20 PLI.
All revenues generated from Pro League India Season 1 through any source, including broadcast, streaming, content, social media engagements, sponsorships will be donated to the PM-CARES Fund associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking on this unique initiative, Dhruv Khanna, Co-Founder, ConnectIN Esports, said: "We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of the FIFA Pro League India for the top athletes in the country. Apart from earning bragging rights for being the best FIFA20 player in the country, each of these athletes will also win attractive prizes. We are also glad that we have an opportunity to contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting all of us."
The athletes will collectively win a total of Rs 1.85 lakh in prize money with the winner earning Rs 50,000 and the India Champion trophy.
Esportznow will be the Official Media Partner for FIFA Pro League India, while SportzPower and The Fan Garage will be online partners.