Spencer Ealing, AKA Gorilla, won $200,000 and received a trophy from Ruud Gullit followed by a shower of confetti. Gorilla won the FIFA Interactive World Cup on Friday in London with a dominating performance throughout the week, but not a victory without controversy.
In the two-legged, cross-console final showdown between the Xbox One winner (Gorilla) and the PlayStation 4 champion (Deto), Gorilla was allowed to use an Xbox controller for the PS4 first leg, essentially destroying Deto’s home-console advantage.
The PS4 leg was a 3-3 draw and Gorilla won the title with a 4-0 victory on Xbox for a 7-3 aggregate win. Gorilla was far and away the best attacking player in the tournament, banging in goal after goal (more than 40 in three days) and winning the Xbox division final 7-2 after scoring at least six goals in the other knockout rounds.
But Gorilla’s use of an Xbox controller during the PS4 leg of the final marred his victory slightly. Twitter agreed.
#fiwc17 dropped the ball. Letting only gorilla use a custom controller puts him at an advantage on ps4 and Deto at a disadvantage on xbox.
— obi nani (@ObiNani) August 18, 2017
I think he would've won anyway, but a bit of a shit move by FIWC to allow the Xbox Style PS4 controller to be used.
— Tyler Gillespie (@gazzalinga) August 18, 2017
Finde es etwas unfair, dass Gorilla auf der Ps4 einen Xbox Controller verwenden durfte. Da war ja der Heimvorteil komplett weg.
— NinjaPirat (@NinjaPiratYT) August 18, 2017
Controversial point: if #Deto is forced to use an xbox controller, @Gorilla_Unilad should have to use a ps4 controller (1)
— EcHo Dale (@PureGalusDalus) August 18, 2017
Nonetheless, Gorilla, a 20-year-old from England, earned the largest payout ever for a soccer video game tournament and 10 times more than Mohamad Al-Bacha of Denmark won for winning last year.
In the first leg, Gorilla capitalized on a defensive miscue to score an early goal before Deto pounded in three in quick succession. Gorilla was able to get one back before halftime and another in the 59th minute to equalize heading into the second leg. Gorilla dominated the second leg, scoring two goals in each half, including one with Gullit, the legendary Dutch powerhouse who was a playable character in the Xbox version of the game.
C H A M P I O N#FIWC17 pic.twitter.com/f7EAI8GQ5j
— #FIWC17 (@FIWC) August 18, 2017
Earlier in the day, Gorilla and Deto completed their divisional titles with the second legs played prior to the final showdown. Gorilla led 6-0 after Thursday’s first leg and coasted to a 7-2 victory over CodyDerFinisher.
FT | @CodyDerFinisher wins the match, but @Gorilla_Unilad wins the #FIWC17 XBox Divisional Final! pic.twitter.com/uGDVIXatRT
— #FIWC17 (@FIWC) August 18, 2017
Deto, 28 and one of the elder statesmen at the tournament, had a bit more trouble with 19-year-old TimoX despite taking a 1-0 lead into the second leg. TimoX drew a penalty and red card on Sergio Ramos (“I wasn’t the one who did the slide and it annoyed me so much,” Deto said) and scored on the penalty to tie the series. The match went to a third golden goal match, where TimoX thought he had won it only for the goal to be called back for offside before Florian Thauvin won it for Deto moments later.
DETO is the #FIWC17 PlayStation Divisional Champion!
What an opening match to Day 3! pic.twitter.com/3N3iVPZaec— #FIWC17 (@FIWC) August 18, 2017
Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata was on hand to do the coin toss ahead of the final. Unlike Gullit, no one used him on their teams.
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