Amiri plays the Bundesliga Home Challenge

Leverkusen’s eSports pro ‘deto’ has recently been taking part in tournaments at regular intervals. This week there was an international online event that included games against eSports players from Djurgardens IF (Norway) and VfL Wolfsburg. The three-time world champion meets VfB eSports player Niklas ‘Nik_Lugi’ Luginsland on Saturday in the ‘Bundesliga Home Challenge’.

Amiri backs his virtual self

Wollin’s partner Nadiem Amiri is looking forward to the clash with Stuttgart’s second division player Atakan Karazor. He has picked up the controller a lot over the past couple of weeks. “I think I’m pretty good,” said the 23-year-old who is backing his virtual self in holding midfield in his favoured formation of 4-4-2 and he is more of a quiet type of player in front of the computer screen – with one exception as he revealed with a wink: “Except when I’m playing against my friends. It can get a bit louder.”

The Bundesliga Home Challenge:
As a result of the suspension of fixtures in German professional football and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the DFL has set up the Bundesliga Home Challenge. 29 of the 36 Bundesliga clubs are represented on matchday two. The teams are made up of one first-team player per club plus "one person from the relevant club or associated with it." In addition, Deniz Aytekin and Daniel Schlager make up the Bundesliga referees team.

The challenge is played in the so-called 85 mode on PlayStation 4 without an official ranking. The virtual players therefore have the same overall strength. On matchday one, 'deto' and Adrian Stanilewicz played Darmstadt 98, ‘deto’ and Wendell took on a Dynamo Dresden team on matchday two.