To fill in the void during the football shutdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Leyton Orient came up with an idea to host a virtual football tournament played out on FIFA 20.
The interest that was raised in the competition far exceeded the expectations from the O’s and the tournament started as a 128-team tournament in a straight knockout format.
Ultimate Quaran-Team Outright Winner Odds*
Middlesbrough 5/1
Angers 6/1
Man City 6/1
Newcastle 10/1
Lokomotiv Moscow 10/1
Utrecht 14/1
Standard Liege 14/1
Lille 16/1
Istanbul Basaksehir 16/1
FC Sion 20/1
PSV 20/1
Fort Sittard 20/1
Sheffield United 20/1
Wolves 20/1
Mansfield 20/1
Groningen 25/1
FC Midtjylland 25/1
Vitesse 25/1
Salzburg 25/1
33/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 at 21:46 GMT on Thursday 26th March)
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How Ultimate Quaran-Team Works
The tournament is played on FIFA 20 on PS4 and each represented teams who are taking part, have one player doing their fixtures for them.
Some of the clubs have one of their players playing for them like Andros Townsend representing Crystal Palace.
Other teams like Manchester City have sent their professional eSports player into action. The Citizens have put up Shellzz for the contest, who competed for them at the FIFA eClubWorld Cup 2020.
Giving Back
The FIFA Quaran-Team event is a charity event. The idea behind it from Leyton Orient was to raise money for charity and for clubs in the lower tiers of football who are getting hit hard financially by the shutdown.
While the tournament ultimately brings some light relief and entertainment to those involved and to fans, it is important to remember the real cause behind this.
A way to donate is through the www.justgiving.com link.
Or directly to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fundraiser by WHO.
Light Relief
There is no clear picture of when football in the EFL will return. Plus, if and when it does, whether it will be behind closed doors or not.
So this competition by Leyton Orient has brought people together during such a difficult time.
Such has been the response that teams from all over the globe have stepped up. That includes Premier League teams along with representatives from the other top three tiers of English football.
Also joining in #UltimateQuaranTeam are teams from Europe, Africa, Australia and America.
It is worth checking out Leyton Orient’s official page on their website for full details.
They are doing to be a great thing and the money raised will help support football and beyond.
Ultimate Quaran-Team betting
Yes, of course, there is Ultimate Quran-Team betting available. Bet365 have launched markets for the outright winner of the tournament as well as for individual matches.
Bet365 are streaming some of the individual games from the FIFA Esoccer Ultimate Quaran-Team Cup (check the bet365 site for full streaming details).
Betting on Esports has taken a huge jump since the sporting world’s current shutdown, really raising the profile of the betting discipline.
So the Ultimate Quaran-Team tournament gives punters the opportunity to get some betting action done as well in such a lean time for options.
Boro cut to favouritism
It is Middlesbrough who are the outright favourites to win the tournament. It was going to be Lukas Nmecha playing for Boro, fan but FIFA player Danny Taylor is now in the hot seat.
Boro were out as 33/1 to win the inaugural FIFA Ultimate Quran-Team competition, they can now be backed at 5/1* (betting odds taken from bet365 at 21:46 GMT on Thursday 26th March).
Roma had started the tournament as outright favourites. But the Italian club was eliminated in the very first round by Walsall. The Saddlers, in turn, were then knocked out in the second round by tournament favourites Middlesbrough.
Fixtures and Streaming
Leyton Orient as hosts are not actually streaming the matches but as mentioned above, bookmaker bet365 are providing some streams.
Each of the clubs involved will be responsible for streaming their own matches on platforms such as Youtube and Twitch.
A full list of the streaming available can be found on this gaming wiki
The full bracket is available there as well. Note that there is no set time for the games to happen, it is all down to when the players involved can sort out a time to get together to play their match.
Plenty of action today in #UltimateQuaranTeam!
You can keep up to date with it all in this very handy document made by @Tordeern.
Check it out!
? https://t.co/5BEB6GS1Te pic.twitter.com/z1ceO9M7ae
— Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) March 25, 2020
It is also worth heading to Twitter to follow the action through the official Elite Quran-Team account and through the Leyton Orient account as well.
There are plenty of updates on there about the matches. The clubs involved are having plenty of fun with involvement on Twitter as well with #UltimateQuaranTeam
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