Now that the Liga MX Clausura 2017 season is heading into its final stages, clubs left out of the Liguilla playoffs are making moves outside of soccer. Club América might have finished 9th in this past season, but they’re going to be first in an innovative way: the Mexico City-based club announced on Wednesday that it will field the first Liga MX side to dip their toes into the lucrative eSports waters this fall. They will be participating in the Virtual Football Organization (VFO) FIFA 18 Pro Clubs league, starting in October 2017.
Pro Clubs is a game mode in the FIFA franchise that matches up to 11 players on each team in a showdown where every human player controls one virtual counterpart.
In advance of their debut in the VFO league this fall, Club América is hosting open tryouts for experienced FIFA players wishing to make the jump into professional eSports. If that’s you, you can email the club at eSports@clubamerica.com.mx with your qualifications, although the club says that the captains for the team will be decided separately.
The VFO started play earlier this year with members like Sevilla and Villareal, and the league already has over 10,000 players in Spain. Club América’s presence will be the first from an international side in the competition’s brief history.
The Liga MX giants also noted that this is just the first step into the eSports world, which means they are not ruling out joining one of the so-called Big Three games: League of Legends, Dota 2, and CounterStrike: Global Offensive. However, like most soccer clubs that have joined the eSports realm recently, Club América decided that FIFA would be the best entry point for a new franchise.