In Spain, a new competitive mode of football is all the rage, it is the King’s League, a format imagined by the former footballer, Gérard Piqué.
Head south, Spain today, since a football competition was born this year with a new format. And she is very successful. it’s about the King’s Leaguea format imagined by a certain Gérard Piqué, the former defender of Barça and La Roja. The details of our esports consultant, Laure Valée.
franceinfo: How does this competition, which is obviously all the rage, work?
Laura Valee: Absolutely, it’s a football competition that is played with 12 teams, seven against seven, a reduced field, and the possibility of inviting a player each week. This new way of playing football is very popular with the audience of Twitch, TikTok and Youtube who can watch it for free every week.
During launch week, the first broadcast had 8 million views, and the Twitch channel already has more than a million subscribers. There are many football legends and internet stars like Ronaldinho or even Ibai Llanos, streamer on Twitch, and Piqué’s partner on the Koi esports team for a year.
Rules that differ from classic football and are inspired by esports?
Absolutely, the goal being to keep the basis of football by simply making the game more dynamic or different. Before each game, captains can draw one of the following five cards: instant penalty, steal the opponent’s card, remove an opposing player for two minutes, goal counts double for 4 minutes, and finally the “golden card”. which is the craziest element of this competition, and which can completely overturn a game: it consists of a joker, which can be used at any time in the match, to impose a penalty either on the opponent or well give yourself a bonus.
What is the future, the future of this kind of entertainment?
Gérard Piqué says himself that the King’s League scares traditional football. It is very dynamic, full of surprises while keeping the essence of football. The former player is already thinking of a Queen’s Leaguefemale version therefore, and also to bring the public to the stadium to enjoy the matches.