The live finals of the FIWC in Dubai start in just a few hours and run through to Wednesday the 23rd, featuring 24 contestants that have earned their place by playing in various live and online qualifiers held since October, all battling it out for $20,000 and a trip to the next Ballon d’Or Gala.

Today (21st May) the draw starts at 14:30 GMT followed by the first round. All streamed on Twitch.tv

Tomorrow (22nd May) will see the second round of group matches beginning at 10:00 GMT, again streamed live.

Wednesday (23rd May) is 100% knockout, starting with the quarter finals at 14:00 GMT running right through to the FIWC12 final.

Sweetpatch are all over the event, so to keep up to speed you’ll want to be following them on Twitter and keep checking their Facebook Page for updates.

If you’re interested in watching the events unfold you can check the FIWC page on Twitch.tv.

In a recent interview with FIFA.com Arsene talked about his appreciation for the virtual game and of course imparted some of his tactic knowledge on the worlds FIFA gamers.

“It is an honour for me to be able to act as the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2012 coach. I know that young players enjoy virtual football and I see this development as very positive. The love of football is what brings professional players, trainers, amateurs and fans together.”

You can check out Arsene’s first FIWC12 training camp where he analyses the 4-4-2 formation below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not long to go until the Dubai Finals now and we can’t wait.

Having been a guest at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel previously I can assure you that this will be the most luxurious FIWC grand final yet. Former World Cup winner Christian Karembeu will be this year’s official FIWC ambassador. With 9 places still up for grabs, now might be the time to get involved.

For more information visit the official FIFA website

This eclipses the previous world records set for FIWC 10 (775,000 players) and FIWC 11 (869,543 players) and there are still two months to go before the tournament ends…

FIWC 12 Season 4 ends tomorrow (25th March) but there are still two chances left to qualify for the grand finals in the form of Season 5, 1st to 25th April 2012 and Season 6, 1st to 18th May 2012. Each online season kicks off at 09:00 (GMT) and finishes at 23:59 (GMT). The objective is to finish in the top two on the season’s leaderboard. The top two from each online season will secure tickets for the Grand Final.

Oh and there’s the small matter of winning $20,000  and getting to brush shoulders with footballs greats at the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala.

Ty topped his qualification group and blitzed the opposition in the knock out stages to eventually beat Adam Johnson 2-1 in the final which will see him represent the UK in the FIWC World Finals later this year.

For a full down of the results head over to SweetpatchTV.

Congratulations to Ty Walton and Team Dignitas, fingers crossed for a Vegas final…

The prize on offer once again is a cool 20,000 USD and the much coveted VIP trip to the Ballon d’Or Gala where you’ll be able to rub shoulders with the greatest footballers on the planet.

There will be 6 online FIWC 2012 qualifiers in total and here are the details:

Online Season 1: 1-31 December, 2011

Online Season 2: 5 January-25 January, 2012

Online Season 3: 1 February-25 February, 2012

Online Season 4: 1 March-25 March, 2012

Online Season 5: 1 April-25 April, 2012

Online Season 6: 1 May-18 May, 2012

As well as six oppotunities in the online arena there will also be eleven live qualifiers over the next few months and we’ll bring you details of these as and when we get them. For more information, head over to the FIWC 2012 website.

So FSB fans, are any of you going to try and win the top prize on the pro FIFA gaming scene?

The first live qualifiers will be held at Playstation Access events in Glasgow and Manchester. Details of both events below, if you haven’t registered and are planning to just turn up, you’ll need the password, which is “442″. More details can be found on the Playstation access Facebook Page. Let us know if you’re planning to pop along in the comments. If you go tonight, you might just bump into our very own Adam Bhatti, who took one of the lovely photos below. Looks cosey.

Access Manchester
Hope Mill, 113 Pollard Street, Ancoats, Manchester

It’s broken its own World Record by some margin too. FIWC 2010 waltzed in to the record books with an eye watering 775,000 participants, which has now been easily topped by FIWC 2011′s astonishing 869,543 entrants, wow. With this years pre-registering for the FIWC 2011 at an all time high it was “rumoured” very early on that the tournament would go on to break its own World Record, but still a fantastic achievement none the less.

“The Guinness World Records – Gamer’s Edition is packed with extraordinary feats from the field of computer gaming, and we’re proud to count the FIWC among them.”

This does however leave us with two very big questions. Can the FIWC break the one million barrier next year? And when will an equivalent competition come to the Xbox360?

Francisco Cruz of Portugal and Javier Munoz of Colombia faced off recently in LA for a prize of $20,000 and an invitation to the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looking forward to the comments on this one. To get you started, I’ve pulled a quote from the Official FIWC site.

“…in what several spectators claimed was the best EA SPORTS™ FIFA 11 match ever witnessed.”

Chew that over whilst you watch the video.