The VBL Club Championship by WOW kicks off the 2024-25 season on 22 and 23 October 2024. The number of participating esports teams from football clubs remains the same at 35. The teams will again be divided into two divisions: North-West and South-East.

The VBL Club Championship by WOW kicks off the 2024-25 season on 22 and 23 October 2024 with 35 clubs taking part. The three teams promoted to the 2. Bundesliga are new: Preußen Münster and SSV Ulm will be taking part in the VBL Club Championship for the first time, while Jahn Regensburg will be making a comeback. VfL Osnabrück, F.C. Hansa Rostock and SV Wehen Wiesbaden have been relegated from the 2. Bundesliga.

"The general schedule provides for the teams to compete against each other in the division phase this season in a simple series, and no longer in a two-legged match. At the same time, there will only be one match per day per team in the future, the previous multiple match days will be eliminated," the DFL said. "The number of game weeks in which live matches are played will increase from 14 to 17, in a normal competition week then played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday."

The division phase will end in March 2025. The play-offs will take place on 18 and 19 March 2025 and the final of the VBL Club Championship on 22 and 23 March 2025. In addition to the championship trophy and the title of German Club Champion in eFootball, a total of 87,500 Euros in prize money is up for grabs. The titleholder and reigning German Champion is Jonas "Jonny" Wirth, who won the VBL Grand Final last season as a player for SC Paderborn. The Virtual Bundesliga matches will be played in EA Sports FC 25 in Ultimate Team mode.

The official VBL channels (Twitch, TikTok, virtual.bundesliga.com) will broadcast the Club Championship matches live on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, which will be an additional match day, a VBL show will be a review of the previous match day and a conference with two matches from each division. Spontent will continue to be responsible for the media production.

"The Virtual Bundesliga thrives on the fact that we continue to develop it year after year and listen very carefully to the feedback of the fans. This time, too, there are decisive innovations. The start of the season will take place earlier than ever before and thus much closer to the release of the new EA Sports FC game. By adding more match weeks, we are reducing the VBL-free period. There are more individual match days, which allows for a better focus on the individual games and with watch parties, we bring the community closer together. All of these are measures taken by the clubs and the DFL to make the VBL Club Championship even more attractive for fans," said Jörg Höflich, Head of Virtual Bundesliga at the DFL.

On 1 November 2024, the VBL Open by WOW will also begin. This part of the competition is open to all interested players and allows them to qualify for the play-offs over a period of four months. The VBL Open and the VBL Club Championship will be combined there - the best individual players of the VBL Open will meet the qualifiers of the VBL Club Championship.


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