The Bundesliga Home Challenge is a unique tournament hosted by the Virtual Bundesliga, and has pitted professional footballers such as Borussia Dortmund defender Achraf Hakimi and Werder Bremen striker Davie Selke against pro gamers and even referees in the FIFA video game, all from the comfort of their own homes.
The Bundesliga's Alex Chaffer discusses the eGaming phenomenon and his own experiences of commentating on the matches saying, "Football eSports is huge in Germany. The introduction of the Virtual Bundesliga a couple of years ago shows how much it has grown and also the connection that the Bundesliga has made with it along the way. It's constantly growing and is going to be a huge part of the sporting experience in the years to come. I very much see it as just another sport."
Chaffer goes on to say that these online games are growing in popularity as a spectator sport saying, "Christian Seifert (Bundesliga CEO) announced last week Wednesday that over two million views across our English and German productions were collected." Chaffer actually commentated for the virtual tournament from his own home as games were played. "It has genuinely been the most remarkable experience of my professional career so far. Never would I ever have imagined commentating on a live eSports event for 12 hours across two days from the comfort of my living room. It's something you could never have imagined needing to happen just a couple of weeks ago. I loved every second of it and I'm very much looking forward to doing it again this coming weekend. I love playing FIFA myself, so watching it and commentating was never going to be a problem. I just wanted to make sure that people could enjoy watching the FIFA gameplay."
