For the first time, the finals of the VBL Club Championship will take place in Hamburg on 7 and 8 March. The matches will be held at Xperion, where the players will compete in front of a live audience. Admission is free.
The competition, organised by the DFL (German Football League), is open to eFootball teams from Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The VBL Club Championship by WOW is played in the "Ultimate Team" mode of EA Sports FC 26. A total of 16 teams have qualified for the final through five showdowns and subsequent playoffs, and they will compete for a prize pool of €87,500. Unlike in previous years, there will be no group stage at the beginning. The first day of the competition will begin directly with the round of 16 matches.
Felix Rentschler, Head of Virtual Bundesliga at the DFL, says: "The new competition format for the regular season has exceeded even our high expectations - there were five different winners in the five showdowns. Ultimately, form on the day will decide whether RB Leipzig can defend their title as German club champions against strong competition!"
The round of 16 matches will kick off on Saturday, 7 March at 17:00 (doors open at 16:00, broadcast begins at 16:30). The quarter-finals will begin on Sunday, 8 March at 14:00 (doors open at 13:00, broadcast begins at 13:30). The final match for the German championship will begin at around 19:00.
There will also be expert discussions and a supporting programme on site. Tim 'TimLatka' Schwartmann, Mohammed 'MoAuba' Harkous, Richard 'Gaucho' Hormes and sports commentators Keanu Reimer and Martin Stüper will host the broadcast.
On Saturday, the last three wildcards for the VBL Open Playoffs on 28 and 29 March 2026 will be awarded during an offline wildcard tournament at Xperion.
All finals tournament matches will be broadcast on the Virtual Bundesliga Twitch channel. They will also be available on the Bundesliga YouTube channel, as well as on the Twitch and YouTube channels of publisher EA Sports, with additional English commentary.
