Meet the FIFA players representing Wolves this weekend for part of a £100,000 prize pot

This weekend two people will represent Wolves in the ePremier League Grand Finals - they will compete against 19 other teams in the tournament by playing virtual football in the FIFA video game series.

Each of the 20 Premier League teams have two players, one for each console (PlayStation and Xbox), and representing Wolves at the tournament will be Kai Harris, 21, playing on PlayStation, and Joey Sharpe, 27, who will be competing on Xbox.

Meet Kai, a student in his final year of university, and Joey, a father of one, who will both be competing for a chance at becoming the ePremier League champions for Wolves.

Both players have been through a rigorous process of qualifying for the grand finals, playing in online qualification tournaments between November 2021 and January 2022, and then the club playoffs in February-March, where they both won on their respective consoles to become the representatives for Wolves.

I spoke with both Kai and Joey and asked how it felt to be representing Wolves in such a huge global event, how they got into FIFA and became pro players, and what advice they would give aspiring pro FIFA players.

Kai said: "It’s an honour to represent such a well renowned club in the UK, I tried to compete for Wolves last year too but didn’t end up continuing, so it felt like unfinished business to come back this year and give it a go in which I succeeded!"

Joey added: "To represent Wolves is a huge honour, they are a massive club and hopefully me and Kai can do well for them and get as far as possible."

Last year's ePremier League title was won by Manchester City's Shaun 'Shellz' Springette, but Kai and Joey will be hoping to bring the title to Wolves this season and are feeling confident.

Kai said: "I know I can compete at the highest level, but anything can happen, which is the beauty of the ePL (ePremier League) and FIFA as a whole, so I will take whatever happens on the weekend of the tournament knowing that I am doing my best. Of course we would love to win it, who wouldn’t?"

The group stage draws have taken place with five teams in each group.

Wolves find themselves in Group C, where the players will be coming up against representatives of Southampton, Leeds United, Crystal Palace and Manchester United. Joey feels it is a tough group, and one of the harder groups: "I expect it to be tough. The group we have is one of the harder ones in my opinion, could have been more fortunate there but to be the best you have to beat the best so we shall see. Anything can happen in FIFA."

The event will be taking place this weekend, March 26 and 27, at Here East in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

For the first time since the 2018/19 season, the grand finals will be taking place in person. Due to Covid, the events in recent years have taken place online, but it will be a local area network (LAN) event, meaning that they will be competing against each other in person - something that the players are looking forward to, especially Joey: "To play at a LAN event is a really good feeling, I think it’s one of the biggest buzzes I’ve ever had personally - I really enjoy it."

Alongside the prize money pool of £100,000, the players will also be hoping to win the tournament and qualify for the EA Sports FIFA 22 Global Series Playoffs later in the season which sees players from across the globe come together to determine who is the best player in the world.

With three places up for grabs, Joey is hoping an ePremier League win will lead to him making his first appearance at the global event.

He said: "I’ve never made FIFA Global Series playoffs, that would be the best thing - for a chance at the FIFA eWorld Cup would be unreal."

Outside of playing FIFA, Kai finds himself entering the final months of his university course, where he is studying Sport and exercise science, but he somehow manages to balance the two. "It’s been really hard with the balancing of the course, real life and of course FIFA, but I’ve been able to manage it pretty well with deadlines, good organisation!"

Joey, from Leicester, has been a professional FIFA player since 2017, but has been competing in tournaments since 2011. He says outside of playing games, he enjoys spending time with his family. He said: "Outside of FIFA I’m a father so I like to chill, spend as much time with my wife and daughter as possible to create memories."

Whilst millions of people play FIFA across the world, only a small percentage manage to get good enough to play in professional tournaments and make a living out of eSports.

I asked both players what got them into playing FIFA, and what advice they would give those who are aspiring to become pro FIFA players themselves.

Kai, from Cwmbran, Wales got into FIFA from his love of football, but plays down that he is a pro player. He said: "I got into FIFA really early on for my love of football. I started playing it when I was seven/eight years old on the first ever Xbox. With FIFA eSports, it just felt like a natural progression as I realised I was pretty good at the game.

"I wouldn’t class myself as a pro player if I’m honest, but as a competitive player. I think that a professional player is someone who physically gets a living for the profession they’re in, which I don’t (yet!)."

Joey has been a fan of FIFA from a very young age thanks to his dad. He said: "I first got into FIFA when I was literally a baby. My dad used to love it and used to play a lot with me when young - not so much now, he doesn’t like losing!"

For advice to those aspiring to get into eSports, he added: "Practise and review your gameplay would be my advice. Don’t blame anything else other then yourself when things go wrong.

"When you can accept you're making mistakes you can put them right and get better.

"If you want a career, grow a good social media following which is good for sponsors and teams so you can get some financial support, meaning you can spend more time practising and pushing yourself."

eSports has seen a meteoric rise in recent years, with global companies and broadcasters getting involved via sponsorships, broadcast deals or creating teams of their own.

Whilst the 'sport' is still relatively unknown amongst the general public, there are a large number of eSports enthusiasts, with hundreds of millions of viewers tuning into events each year.

The £100,000 prize pool will be split amongst the top 16 players out of the 40 players at the grand finals.

• 1st place - £30,000

• 2nd place - £15,000

• 3rd/4th place - £7,500 each

• 5th-8th place - £5,000 each

• 9th-16th place - £2,500 each

The ePremier League finals will be televised live in the UK all weekend on Sky Sports Premier League, with the tournament also shown across the Premier League's channels (YouTube, web, app, Twitter and Facebook) and on EA's Twitch channel.

It will also be shown on the Sky Sports YouTube channel, and made available to viewers around the world by the league's international broadcasters.