Indian team eTigers couldn’t make it to the FIFAe Nations Cup 2021. They finished in third place at online qualifiers, however, it was an impressive debut on the world stage of FIFA esports. This is the first time when eTigers participated in the online qualifiers of FIFAe Nations Cup, a global FIFA Esports tournament.
The first two days saw the eTigers — 18-year-old Charanjot Singh from Chandigarh and 20-year-old Siddh Chandarana from Mumbai — make their way to the ‘Winner Final’ on Sunday, where they went up against Qatar, with the winner of the tie moving to the final and getting the coveted FIFAe Nations Cup berth.
Chandarana(Jenasidfc) lost out 3-2 to Aleidx33 in the first game on Xbox but Singh (Charanjot12) fought back with a 2-1 win over Qatar’s AaMeghessib. However, in the last game of the Best-of-three match-up, Chandarana went down 4-1 to Aleidx33.
However, with the knockouts being played in a double-elimination format, the eTigers had another opportunity to make it through to the final as they faced Saudi Arabia in the ‘Loser Final’, which was again played in a best-of-three format. But unfortunately, they again got defeated by their opponents and failed to qualify for the FIFAe Nations Cup. They have shown amazing performance throughout the tournament where they made a notable memory by defeating Saudi Arabia with 8-2.
Singh shared his experience of the FIFA tournament as per Insidesport, “It felt amazing to represent the country while putting jersey on. It was a proud moment for me and Sidhh Chandarana both. We started the online qualifiers with good results and we were at the top position on the leaderboard after Day 1 matches. On the second day, we got qualified for the knockout matches and won the first round of the match but unfortunately, we lost which hurt us. We know it was our first tournament when we are representing the country in global stage. So I don’t think we should be sad and demotivated. We are just sad that we were so close to the final and we lost.”