Former Philippine international Jorrel Aristorenas was crowned the first-ever PFF eTrophy champion after stamping his class during the two-day competition which was held from 15-16 April 2021.

Aristorenas, together with former youth international and tournament runner-up Renard Yu, will represent the Philippines in the upcoming FIFAe Nations online qualifiers which will be held from 29 April to 1 May 2021.

“The PFF eTrophy showed the potential of eFootball here in the country,” said PFF president Mariano Araneta, Jr. “We congratulate Jorrel and Renard for their performance in the competition, and we bid them well for the FIFAe Nations online qualifiers 2021.”

“We saw how football stakeholders and fans were enthusiastic over the past two days of the PFF eTrophy,” said PFF general secretary Atty. Edwin Gastanes. “We thank all participants and our newly minted eNational team players Jorrel and Yu for taking part in the first-ever eFootball competition.”

A total of eight participants, invited by PFF, competed in the PFF eTrophy. The participants were grouped into two groups of four players each. Matches were played online using the FIFA 21 video game on the Sony PlayStation 4 as the PFF continued to follow health and safety protocols set by the government.

It was Yu who clinched the top seed in Group A with two wins and one draw followed by Aristorenas as the second seed with two wins and one loss. Rounding up group A was Miguelito Aquino (one win and two losses) and Carl Sambrano (one draw and two losses).

Ciccio San Gabriel and Robby Sison grabbed the top two spots in Group B. San Gabriel had a perfect record in Group B, winning all of his first three games with a +17 goal differential, while Sison had to leave it late to claim the second seed to finish with one win, one draw, and one loss. Rone Camarines (two draws and one loss) and Christian Sulapas (one draw and two losses) completed the standings in Group B.

During the first semi-final match-up, Yu outlasted Sison 7-1 and 2-0 to claim the first ticket to the final with a 9-1 aggregate score.

In the highly contested second semi-final tie between San Gabriel and Aristorenas, it was the former national team player that emerged as the second finalist with identical 3-2 wins to claim the 6-4 aggregate finish.

The final served as a rematch between the group A participants, but the match-up proved to be a different affair. Aristorenas edged Yu, 2-1 in the first leg and 4-1 in the second leg, to claim a 6-2 aggregate win and become the first-ever PFF eTrophy champion.

“Over the past two days, the PFF eTrophy served as a great way to promote football during these trying times by shifting the competition from the actual pitch to the virtual stadium,” said PFF eTrophy competition manager Mikhail de Guzman. “Congratulations to all the players for making it a memorable first eFootball competition.” – pff.org.ph

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