United, Atlanta United FC and the brand-new LAFC - Ruth said, “It’s not for a lack of wanting to. Asked about the four teams that are sitting it out so far - Real Salt Lake, D.C. Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports Building MLS esportsĪt the outset, 19 of the 23 MLS clubs are participating in eMLS. John “XbleU” Garcia (left), winner of the FIFA 18 MLS Challenge, holds the tournament’s trophy with then-LA Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes. There’s a ton of people - especially in North America - who engage with FIFA, but they’re not necessarily engaging with MLS.” “We want to use competitive gaming and eMLS to get the MLS experience to more people. “We’re starting to shift how we think about fandom holistically to say, ‘Hey, gaming’s a major component of that.’ Not only in where they spend their time, but how they express themselves as fans,” said Ruth. And it’s a big part of the reason the league decided to establish an esports organization. Ruth said that MLS now considers playing video games - for instance, playing with the San Jose Earthquakes in a FIFA game - to be a statement of fandom, just like buying a jersey. Most notably, among adults aged 18-34, soccer was tied with basketball for their favorite sport, at 11 percent.
Ice hockey didn’t even rate the only other sports covered in the poll were football and basketball. A Gallup poll based on a December survey of more than 1,000 American adults found that soccer was almost as popular as baseball: 7 percent of the respondents said soccer was their favorite sport, versus 9 percent for the so-called national pastime. “We’re starting to shift how we think about fandom holistically”Īt the same time, soccer has never been more popular here than it is now. “Whether you’re playing in Indonesia or Korea or Denmark, you’ve got some reverence for our clubs now,” said Ruth, referring to the worldwide fan base of the FIFA games and the popularity of The Journey. And Ruth told Polygon that a major reason The Journey: Hunter Returns - the career mode in FIFA 18 - took protagonist Alex Hunter to the LA Galaxy was that the league worked with EA to make it happen. When MLS replaced its original logo in 2014, the league teamed up with EA Sports and actually debuted the new crest inside FIFA 15. MLS has had a strong relationship with the FIFA games for years.
And in a survey that the league conducted in 2014, it found that about two-thirds of avid MLS fans pointed to EA’s FIFA series as the first thing that got them interested in soccer - a higher proportion than the percentage of respondents who said that playing the sport got them into it. MLS fans are twice as likely to be gamers as the average sports fan in North America, according to 2017 data from Simmons Research. The nature of the MLS audience also proves out the connection between the league and gaming. “It’s really based on the connection with the fan base,” said James Ruth, senior director of properties and events at MLS, in an interview with Polygon last week. Orlando midfielder Kaká, LA midfielder Jonathan dos Santos and Montreal star Ignacio Piatti were each given an 80 rating.Ĭolorado goalkeeper Tim Howard, Toronto midfielder Michael Bradley and Seattle attacker Clint Dempsey are the top rated Americans in MLS with ratings of 78.MLS launching esports league for FIFA 18 World Cup 29.Ĭhicago Fire midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is one point behind his Toronto FC and New York City FC counterparts with a rating of 81.
The last two MLS MVP award winners both clocked in with a rating of 82 in the latest edition of the popular video game franchise, which is set to be released on Sept. Surprise, surprise: Sebastian Giovinco and David Villa are the top rated MLS players in EA Sports FIFA 18.