Four and a half months after the Grand Final, where ‘DETO’ was named best PlayStation player of the year, started the 2020/21 VBL season on Monday night. For the opening fixture, Bayer 04, as yet without the new duo Anna Klink and Marc Landwehr, faced Holstein Kiel in the North-West section.
‘DETO’ was keen to get on the attack against Kiel’s Cihat ‘CIHAT6161’ Korkmaz in a one-on-one on PlayStation 4 and he was awarded a penalty on five virtual minutes. The two-time world champion missed the spot kick but shortly after that he took an early lead through Moussa Diaby (12’). After an equaliser from Korkmaz (32’), ‘DETO’ restored the lead through youngster Samed Onur (48’). The second youth player in Wollin’s two-man attack, Yannick Schlößer, sealed the result in the closing stages (85’). Karim Bellarabi rounded off the scoring with a penalty on 90 minutes to pick up their first three points.
“We’ve trained very hard and intensively for weeks, so it’s great to start with a win on matchday one,” said Wollin after the opening victory, “I’m happy but, of course, there’s room for improvement. It was important to pick up the points first time out.”
And Fabian ‘B04_DUBZJE’ De Cae carried on in his individual match on Xbox, where ‘DETO’ had left off: Against Holstein-eSports player Benedict ‘B3NN1FIFA’ Ratzlaff, the Leverkusen player netted three times with the virtual Schlößer and goal number four was scored by Onur. Two 4-1 scorelines in the individual games for Bayer 04 for starters. “We’ve never started a season as well before,” said De Cae.
The narrow 4-3 defeat in the doubles game did slightly detract from the positive mood in the end but the Werkself eSports players were able to celebrate one or two triumphs on the console later on.
Late in the evening, there were clashes with VfL Wolfsburg. ‘DETO’ again started with an individual match where the Leverkusen player drew 1-1 with Timo ‘TIMOX’ Siep. ‘B04_DUBZJE’ came out on top with a 4-3 win in a one-on-one game against Benedikt ‘BENECR7X’ – and the double fixture also ended with a 2-0 win for #B04eSports.
After the first matchday in the newly created North-West section, the Black and Reds are in top spot – the VBL has been split into two divisions for the first time due to the high number of participating teams (26).
From 16.30 CET on next Tuesday, 17 November, there are three games against the current VBL bottom-placed team SC Paderborn. From 20.00 CET the opponents for Bayer 04 are FC St. Pauli.
For the third time in a row, the Leverkusen eSports players have made it through to the final round of the VBL Club Championship. From 7 to 8 March, they will compete for the German Club Championship at XPERION in Hamburg. At the start of the final round, they face Hamburger SV in the Round of 16. The match starts at 19:30 CET on Saturday, 7 March and will be broadcast live on the VBL Twitch channel. The eSports preview.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-0 win in rearranged match at Hamburger SV on Matchday 17 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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The second attempt was a successful one: the Werkself won 1-0 at Hamburger SV in the rearranged Bundesliga Matchday 17 encounter. Head coach Kasper Hjulmand's side dominated play from the start and eventually scored the winning goal through Christian Kofane in the 73rd minute.
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