Sacramento Republic trio to participate in USL eCup FIFA20

USL announced they are putting together a FIFA20 international tournament, involving current real-life USL teams, and Sacramento Republic FC will take part in the competition.

Goalkeeper Rafael Diaz, defender Juan Barahona and defender Ash Apollon will be joined by Justin Sterk, who won a recent Sac Republic FIFA20 tournament to qualify for the team.

Every team playing was drawn an international squad to compete in for the USL eCUP FIFA20, with Sacramento getting Mexico. That’s a pretty good squad to be working with.

SRFC will face Memphis 901 FC, playing as Austria, Monday at 5:30 pm PT.

From there it gets pretty complicated, so I’ll let USL explain how the format of the tournament will work:

They will then initially square off in Week 1, beginning on May 4, to earn the right to be placed in Division A, Division B or Division C, with an elimination bracket giving every team a chance to secure their place in the top division.

Through this initial bracket, 12 teams will be placed in Division A and Division B with the remaining eight being placed in Division C. Seeding for the divisional brackets that will make up the remainder of the competition will be determined by the previous week of action.

At the end of Week 2, the four teams that advance to the Semifinals in both Division B and Division C will earn promotion to Division A and Division B respectively, while the four teams that are eliminated in the Play-In Round of the bracket in Division A and Division B will be relegated to the division below.

Additionally, points will be earned each week by the clubs that claim victory in their respective brackets. The top eight teams in the opening week’s bracket will earn between 1,000 and 200 points based on their respective finishes. Following that, 1,000 points will to the weekly champion in Division A, 500 points to the winner of Division B and 250 points to the winner of Division C. Each of the top four teams in each Division will receive points toward their overall total, while teams that are relegated will be deducted points in the overall standings.

The club that finishes with the most cumulative points at the end of the six weeks of competition will be crowned the overall winner of the USL eCup: FIFA20 Edition.

Like I said, pretty complicated! But after talking to Nicholas Murray, who works for the league, the format basically boils down to: First week is a knockout bracket to determine placement in three divisions. Every week, there will be promotion and relegation movement in the divisions based on performance, and at the end of 6 weeks, the team with the most points overall wins the tournament.

You can watch the tournament, including Monday’s match between Sac Republic and Memphis 901, on Twitch, with Republic FC’s matches on Sac Republic’s channel. Best of luck to SRFC in the tourney.

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