Adelaide United is pleased to announce Jamie O’Doherty and Zac May-Burgess as the Club’s e-League representatives for the upcoming season.
The e-League is a newly-established competition for EA SPORTS™ FIFA 18 gamers which gets underway on February 1 and runs until the end of the Hyundai A-League 2017/18 season.
O’Doherty, who will enter under his online alias ‘FUTWIZ_Jamie’, was thrilled to have signed for the Reds and will compete using the Xbox console.
“It’s a really good feeling to represent Adelaide United,” he said. “I’ve played FIFA my whole life, just like any other kid, against my brothers and friends.
“I started playing professionally about a year ago when I was qualifying for events online.
“I signed my first professional contract with FUTWIZ and I thought that I would have a good chance to get a gig in the e-League once it was announced.”
O’Doherty, younger brother of the Club’s Hyundai A-League player Jordan O’Doherty, discussed some of his accomplishments in the tournaments he has participated in over the past year.
“In Sydney last year I made the top 16 on Xbox in the Rest of World category, which consists of players from the Oceania, Asia and Middle East regions.
“That was a good achievement for me, especially qualifying in my first event.
“Then, in Canada, I came fifth out of 16 for the FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Champions: Rest of World Regional Finals, making it out of the group stage undefeated.
“And in November of last year I also won the first FIFA 18 tournament in Melbourne and that was against Melbourne City’s Marcus Gomes too.”
Meanwhile, May-Burgess, known as ‘vDreaMz–Shooter’ online and ranked 14 in the Rest of World region, was the Club’s first-choice draft pick for Thursday evening’s live draft.
Speaking on being drafted by the Reds, May-Burgess said: “It’s always been a dream to take my gaming to a professional level and I can’t thank Adelaide United enough for drafting me and giving me this opportunity.
“I’ve been playing FIFA since I can last remember, maybe FIFA 06 or earlier, and I’ve only been recently taking it on more seriously over the last two years.
“Obviously I want to be as successful for the Club as possible, but I’ll take it round-by-round at first.
“I’ve competed against a lot of the best in Australia online already and I think if I take it slowly, but surely, I can push the very best all the way.”
View all the E-League fixtures here.
Live stream Adelaide United’s first ever E-League fixture from 7:30pm (ACDT) Thursday 15 February on Fox Sports Digital and Twitch.
