Ahead of the event in Germany, thrilling tournaments were held in the USA, Brazil, Vietnam, Thailand, India as well as the MENA region (Middle East/North Africa). The winners of these regional competitions took part in the VBL International Series in Germany where they formed teams with the Bundesliga clubs. Bayer 04 were joined by Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart, Werder Bremen and FC Augsburg. Each team consisted of an eSports player from the club, a winner of the regional tournaments and a content creator from that region.
Sean Landwehr represented Bayer 04 in the team Bayer 04 x MENA together with Muhannad Almesmari from the UAE (winner of the tournament in the MENA region) and contact creator Ahmed Saabiri from Morocco.
Before the start of the group stage, the visitors from the MENA region had the opportunity to get the know Bayer 04 better through a range of activities. Almesmari and Saabiri were also involved in producing content and had the pleasure of a shirt with their own name on.
The group stage – there were two groups of three teams – took place in Basestack, a gaming venue in Dortmund. The team Bayer 04 x Mena played Dortmund and Stuttgart and ended the group stage in second place behind VfB. Augsburg came out on top in Group B ahead of Leipzig and Bremen. The first two teams in each group went through to the semi-finals.
The round of the last four teams saw Landwehr and Co. face Augsburg's Yannic Bederke and the Indian eSports player Charanjot Singh plus influencer "hemant_sharma10". Landwehr and Almesmari beat Singh and Bederke 2-1 in the 2 vs 2 game and Almesmari sealed a place in the final with a 3-1 win against Singh in the 1 vs 1 clash.
The final was against Leipzig's Lena Güldenpfennig and the American duo ‘adidafifa’ (pro) and Joebaena (content creator). A 2-2 draw in the doubles match was followed by a 4-2 win in the 1 vs 1 game to seal the first trophy in the history of Leverkusen eSports. The trophy was presented by Roman Weidenfeller.
There won’t just be plenty of excitement on the pitch as Bayer 04 host Borussia Dortmund at the BayArena at 18:30 CET on Saturday. Outside the stadium there will be collection points for food donations to the Leverkusen Foodbank, which will also benefit from the profits of a jersey raffle in the Fanwelt afterwards. There will also be a minute’s silence before kick-off following the passing of long-time Werkself player Dieter Herzog, before two fan clubs are honoured for their decades-long support at half-time and fans receive a talk about Orange Day, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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Borussia Dortmund are doing very well in terms of points and results in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. BVB have only suffered two defeats to date this term. Now coach Niko Kovac's team are away to the Werkself on Saturday night, 29 November (kick-off: 18:30 CET) in the top match on Bundesliga matchday 12. The two teams meet again three days later in the DFB Pokal Round of 16 tie in Dortmund. Two very competitive encounters are on the cards. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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