Player Arrivals

Players began to arrive on the 18th March, with the remaining few players arriving on the 20th March. All players were welcomed by event staff in the Grand Final hotel, The Row NYC. On the official first day of the tournament, the 20th March, all finalists received a one hour media briefing before being taken to Times Square, where they got to meet New York City FC midfielder and former England player, Frank Lampard for a photo shoot.

Tournament Draw

The Tournament Draw took place in the finalists' hotel and was hosted and commentated by regular FIWC presenter, Kay Murray. The actual Draw was conducted by none other than Frank Lampard. The event attracted a huge amount of media attention and was attended by over 200 guests.

A Draw was conducted for each of the two tournament consoles. This meant that all 16 players for each console – all of which had been previously seeded according to their World Ranking - were placed into one of the eight groups. Here are the Draw results:

Player Filming

All arrived players had to participate in photo shoots, greenscreen filming and interviews in order to produce content not only for the media but for different parts of the live shows.

Sightseeing in New York City

Before diving into the competition, the finalists were taken on an exclusive tour around New York City. The tour began on a bus before embarking on a water taxi, which took the finalists up close to the Statue of Liberty.

Group Stage on Top of the World

Following their sightseeing tour around New York, the finalists went to The Skylark for the Group Stage. The Group Stage took place on the 30th floor and in close proximity of the Empire State Building. In what can only be described as an intense competition, spectators from around the world were able to experience and enjoy a number of surprise twist and turns.

Knock-out Stage to the Final Four

After the group stages were played out, the top 16 players went console-to-console in a knockout stage, starting with the Round of 16. The winners of these matches were granted seat in one of the four quarter-finals, which would ultimately lead to the four grand finalists being determined for the next day.

Media Time

Prior to the Final Showdown taking place in the Apollo Theater, the four finalists as well as representatives from FIFA were joined by media representatives for 1.5 hours media time. This gave the media attendees a chance to produce exclusive content with the players, as well as ask them any questions before the big showdown.

The Show

At 6pm local time the two hour TV show kicked off and was broadcasted in over 100 countries as well as streamed online. The games were commentated by FOX Commentator, John Strong, and Leigh Smith as well as analyzed by the FIWC experts Spencer FC and FOX analyst, Alexi Lallas. New York FC's captain, David Villa also dropped by for an interview with the experts.

The Final

For the first time in the history of the FIWC, the competition was available on two consoles. With 16 Xbox One and 16 PlayStation 4 players having successfully qualifyed for the Grand Final, the Final saw the best Xbox player taking on the best PlayStation player. Therefore, the Final was played out in a two-legged game, one being played on each console.