Bayern Munich takes baby steps into Esports

Bayern Munich club CEO  Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recently announced the clubs entry into the Esports scene. Though the announcement came later than expected it still is a big moment for the club and for the Esports scene as well.

The new team will first be seen in action at Konami’s first eFootball Pro League second edition starting 14th December. Speculation about entry into the esports scene began to increase after Bayern signed a new contract with Konami for the game PES. 

The delay in the announcement was partly due to the presence of now former president Uli Hoeness. In his view esports was something which did not match the club’s sporting brand. It was hence a rational decision that the club made the decision after Hoeness stepped down from his post.  

Rummenigge stated in the clubs press release, “KONAMI, our partner for football simulation games, today launches the KONAMI eFootball.Pro League. FC Bayern, in cooperation with our partners Telekom, Allianz and Siemens, will compete in this league with our own team. We’re looking forward to the battles against other top European teams such as Barcelona, Manchester United and Juventus. We made a conscious decision to focus on football simulation games in the Esports world.”

Bayern have picked three Spanish international as a part of their team.

Miguel Mestre Oltra, Alejandro Alguacil Segura, and Jose Carlos Sánchez Guillén. The coach Matthias Luttenberger, a Austrian is a veteran of the scene since 2014 and has a speciality in Pro Evolution Soccer. (PES)

Other footballing giants like Barcelona, Manchester United, Schalke, Juventus and Arsenal will also participate in the competition. The tournament is scheduled to take place between December 2019 to April 2020. Barcelona will be host city and the competition will follow a best of two format. The finals will be played just before the start of Euro 2020.