An enthralling and riveting inaugural 2020 FISU eSports Challenge has come to an end, as the overall victors in both the men’s and women’s tournaments were crowned on Thursday, July 16.

Eight days of intense online action saw 32 participants in the men’s competition and 12 participants in the women’s division from over 30 universities across all five Continental University Sport Federations battle it out for global FIFA eSport honours, culminating in Thursday’s highly anticipated finals.

Vying for the coveted gold medal in the men’s final was Masih Mohafezatkar from the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in Iran, who faced off against Oman’s Amran Al Dhuhli from the Modern College of Business and Science.

The two-legged final was an evenly-matched affair, and with the scoreline reading 2-2 on aggregate after both the home and away fixtures, a Golden Goal decider was needed to determine the overall winner.

Underdog Al Dhuhli started the nerve-wrecking decider on the front foot and after just 25 minutes, netted the golden goal through legendary forward Eusebio to give him the victory, crowning the 20-year-old Business student as the inaugural champion in the men’s competition.



In the women’s grand finale, Saudi Arabia’s Najd Fahad from Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University battled it out against Brazil’s Alexssandra Batista from UniAteneu.

Almost 1000 spectators tuned in online to watch the finalists in action, where Fahad showed her class and skill by overpowering her opponent 5-0 in the first leg and 3-0 in the reverse fixture, her 8-0 aggregate drubbing crowning her as champion in the women’s event, making it an Asian double across both the men’s and women’s tournaments.



A total of eight participants from EUSA member countries were involved in the tournament, with Hungary duo Adam Borkai from the Szechenyi Istvan University and Henrik Attila Vari from Edutus College the best-placed after reaching the Round of 16 in the highly-competitive tournament.

In a week which saw all FISU World University Championships cancelled for the remainder of the year, the inaugural eSports Challenge played in the safety of each participant’s home while uniting student-athletes from across the globe was seen as a major success and positive outcome amid the current global pandemic.

For the full set of tournament results, please visit www.cbdu.org.br/side/fisu-esports/ while more information about the tournament can also be found on fisu.net.