Seven facts on the eFootball season so far

• There can only be one: The German Club Champion in eFootball will be crowned this weekend in the final of the VBL Club Championship by WOW. There are currently 16 teams still in the running, who will now battle it out after the divisional phase. This excludes the teams that have already qualified for the final: SV Werder Bremen, FSV Mainz 05, RB Leipzig and SC Paderborn 07. RB Leipzig are the defending champions. The Saxons are once again among the hottest contenders for this year's title. Last year's triumph was RB's second title since 2022, with 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 (2021) and Werder Bremen (2019, 2020) having previously lifted the trophy.
• After a disappointing eighth-place finish last season, TSG are back among the play-off contenders this season. The key to this was a strong second half of the season, in which our team finished as the third-best team of the half-season. Fabrice 'whiteezz05' Weiß, Mokallik 'Aymane' Aymane and Serhat 'Serhatinho' Öztürk collected 33 points in the second half of the season - compared to just 21 in the first half - to secure fifth place in the South-East Division.
• Four teams have already qualified for the final round, which begins on Saturday, thanks to their performance in the divisional phase: FSV Mainz 05 and RB Leipzig from the south-east, SC Paderborn and Werder Bremen from the north-west. The teams in third to eighth place in each group will compete in the play-offs on Friday. This includes TSG, who will face FC Schalke 04 (17:00 CET). The six winners of the play-off matches will advance to the final on Saturday, which will begin with a group stage. The best teams will then compete in the knockout round, which starts on Sunday with the quarter-finals. The German Club Champion in eFootball will be crowned in the grand final on Sunday from 18:30 CET.
• By finishing fifth in the South-East Division, TSG eSPORTS have not only made it through to the play-offs, but have also secured two places in the VBL Grand Final. There, 'Serhatinho' and 'whiteezz05' will compete for the German individual eFootball championship. The defending champion is Antonio 'AntonioRadelja' Radelja, who now plays for VfB Stuttgart.
• TSG eSPORTS celebrated a total of 16 victories during the division phase, plus six draws - totalling 54 points. There were only three opponents against whom our team failed to secure a win in either the first or second leg: the finalists Mainz (defeat, draw) and Leipzig (two defeats) as well as Stuttgart (defeat, draw). VfB are also in the play-offs, so there is a chance that TSG could face all three opponents again in the final tournament.
• Memories of recent encounters with Schalke 04 are not happy ones. Last year, Hoffenheim met the Gelsenkirchen side in the DFB ePokal and missed out on a place in the last 16 in a penalty shoot-out. Incidentally, our player 'Serhatinho' was still wearing Schalke colours at the time and celebrated a victory against Lukas 'Lukas_1004' Seiler - hopefully he will have reason to celebrate again on Friday.

If you want to be there at the weekend and experience the excitement in person, you should secure your ticket as soon as possible. They are available from €12 in the VBL online ticket shop. The matches will be played at the Strassenkicker Base in Cologne. Of course, anyone who wants to watch from home can also do so. All games of the playoffs and the final tournament will be broadcast on the VBL Twitch channel