Vancouver, BC- For the first time ever, Canadian university talent will be represented in ESports competition. FISU, the international governing body for university sport, is hosting the “FIFA ESports Football Challenge,” the first competition of it’s kind. 

The tournament is based on Electronic Arts’ FIFA 20 video game and will be played on the Playstation 4. The tournament’s participants were named on July 2, and a pair of student-athletes from the University of Windsor are set to don the virtual maple leaf.

Happy Ananum, a mechanical engineering student will represent Canada in the men’s competition, while Sudiksha Khanduja, a master’s in computer science graduate will take her shot in the women’s competition. 

The two are coming from Windsor’s “Lancer Gaming” club, which is set to launch its a groundbreaking program in the fall. In a press release, Paul Meister, coordinator of Lancer Gaming, said, “I’m extremely proud that two of our students were selected to represent Canada on the international stage.”

The tournaments feature a 32-person field for men and 12-person women’s competition. The search for the title begins with the group stage from July 6-8, and from there, top competitors move on to a knockout “bracket-style” competition. Ananum will compete in Group B with competitors from Mexico, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, while Khanduja is in Group A and will face opponents from in Argentina, China, India, Malaysia and South Africa.

With competitors coming from around the globe, the tournament will feature student-athletes from 26 different countries and 41 different FISU member institutions. The penultimate knockout stages of the tournament will begin on July 9, before culminating in the tournament final on July 16. 

To support, fans can watch select matches on FISU.TV, as well as FISU’s other streaming platforms on YouTube and Twitch TV.

 Although the FISU competition is the first of its kind in university sport, other international FIFA video game competitions have captured the eyes of fans before, most notably the annual FIFA E-World Cup, organized by FIFA. Canada has never made the final of an international EA SPORTS FIFA tournament, but Ananum and Khanduja are aiming to change that.