So far, the FIFA 19 esports scene has been a two-horse race with Epsilon's 'Joksan' Redona dominating the PlayStation division while Donovan 'F2Tekkz' Hunt had won the Xbox division and grand final of every tournament he entered.
Yet both of their streaks came to an end last weekend at the Gfinity Arena during the FUT Champions Cup as Rogue's Mossad 'MSdossary' Aldossary lifted his first FIFA 19 trophy.
Reigning eWorld Cup champion MSdossary is now the first player ever to have won trophies in FIFA 17, 18 and 19, establishing himself as one of the greatest FIFA players ever. Many had considered young Tekkz as the best FIFA 19 player in the world after he won back-to-back tournaments and repeatedly dominated the Ultimate Team Weekend League.
Tekkz initially struggled in the December tournament but began to find his groove and thrashed Paris Saint-Germain's Lucas 'DaXe' Cuillerier to make it to the Xbox final - setting up a juggernaut match-up with MSdossary that everyone had been dreaming of. Tekkz has been on top of the world recently but admitted that he felt he needed to defeat MSdossary in an important match to really stake his claim as the best.
The Xbox final lived up to the hype and is one of the tensest matches you will ever see. The arena was left stunned as MSdossary stormed the beginning of the match and claiming an early 2-0 lead despite the fact that the game before, Tekkz had barely allowed his opponent to shoot. The F2 player was in deep trouble but managed to score with a miraculous first-time finesse shot in the dying moments of the first leg. That shifted the momentum and Tekkz began to hit his stride, leaving MSdossary sweating with his variety of dribbling and skill combos.
The youngster completed his comeback with little time left on the clock and when MSdossary slammed the woodwork in the dying moments, the match seemed over. However, MSdossary was able to muster one last attack and equalised in stoppage time - Tekkz desperately flew forward from kick off and managed to find a finesse shot with Pele which deflected, sending the keeper the wrong way, but drifted agonisingly wide.
The match went into extra time and neither player could break through until MSdossary found space one of his wingers, forcing Tekkz to commit to a slide tackle. It seemed like a good challenge at first but MSdossary was awarded a free-kick which he converted for the win. While gutted he didn't win, Tekkz stood on stage applauding MSdossary's performance, acknowledging that it isn't quite his time to claim the throne as the world's best.
Meanwhile on the PlayStation side of things, FC Basel's Nicolas 'Nicolas99fc' Villalba was able to match the unrelenting attacking play of Mohammed 'Moauba' Harkous in the PlayStation final, coming back from a 3-1 first leg defeat and scoring the with the last kick of the game to win 5-2 (6-5 on aggregate) in a sensational game. A PlayStation player hasn't won a grand final in the last 18 months. Nicholas 99fc is the only PlayStation player to have won a cross-console match but that was the eWorld Cup playoffs final where there wasn't a trophy on the line.
MSdossary and Nicolas99fc are considered by many as the best two players in FIFA 18 and fans were delighted to see these two behemoths clash for the trophy. However, it was nowhere near as close as anyone expected as MSdossary showed why he is the king of FIFA. The Saudi Arabian won the coin toss and chose to start on Nicholas99fc's more comfortable console of PlayStation before thrashing him 4-1. Nicholas was clearly less at ease on Xbox, making a few mistakes while moving the goalkeeper and MSdossary made him pay. The final finished 8-3 on aggregate to MSdossary who is undeniably, one of the all-time greats.