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.

FIFA gamers from around the world who either qualified online or who purchased a seat at the live finals will do battle for a $167,000 first prize and a paltry $40,000 runner-up prize.  The tournament, hosted by Virgin Gaming is also running events for Madden 12 and NHL 12 with similar prize pots.

Now we know a few of the guys from the UK community jetted out to NYC earlier this week and from the whole FSB Team, good luck and bring home that grand prize. For more information, get yourself over to the Official Website.

This professional FIFA scene is getting pretty big eh?

The most recent video comes from Man City as Nigel De Jong and Micah Richards take on FIFA 12 champion Joleon Lescott and Joe Hart. Warning, they go pretty mental.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And if you missed it here’s the Arsenal tournament featuring Frimpong, Coquelin, Wilshere and The Ox. Warning, this does contain tramp goals.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

The tournament included the winners from previous Pro Player Challenges and a few other guests, namely Olly Murs. This is a quite brilliant video I’m sure you’ll agree which is rounded off nicely with an epic penalty shootout in the final.

And the winner is…

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The EA SPORTS FIFA 12 Challenge is a global online tournament that lets you prove your skills on the virtual pitch to win a share of $400,000 in cash.  On now, the tournament will open with two online qualifying stages using the exclusive Series Tournament model on VirginGaming.com. Win 6 consecutive matches without a loss and you’ll earn a seat to play in the live finals, a 3-day gaming event taking place in New York City in April, 2012″

That’s quite a prize I’m sure you’ll agree. For more details of the PS3 FIFA 12 Challenge Series including terms and conditions, how it works, the tournament schedule and FAQ’s get yourself over to VirginGaming.com who have all the details.

With this competition and the FIWC 2012 which launched recently, surely Xbox 360 owners out there are feeling a bit unloved right now?

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?

And the winner is…

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’re expecting more of these Pro Player Tournaments over the coming weeks and we’ll of course keep you updated.

It was massive, much bigger than I expected. Spread over various rooms were Gears 3, Black Ops, Street Fighter and FIFA events, as well as some old school Halo LAN play, complete with 14″ SD tvs. Beautiful Stuff.

The event is standard eSports fare, complete with banter. Everything is extremely professional and well looked after, with each game having dedicated admins to resolve any disputes. For the FIFA tournament, the format was 6 minutes, World Class, No custom sliders or formations, best of three.

The most interesting to me was one of the tactics being employed. Although no customisation was allowed, quite a few of the players, were switching to a deep 4-5-1 immediately after taking the lead. Not cheating I guess, but I was pretty amazed to see people doing that in a live tournament. I’d expect it online, but not face to face. From talking to a couple of the players, it was a sticking point.

You can see how the results panned out here, with Ty Walton from Team Dignitas pushing past the other 31 players to be crowned champion, and view the photos from the event taken by Dave Witts on Facebook.

The next event will be i44 which runs from Friday the 18th to Monday the 21st of November at The Telford International Centre, full details of which can be found over at Sweetpatch.tv.

Big thanks to Dave for looking after me, always a pleasure to see you fella.

Checkout a full gallery of the FIFA 12 tournament on the Official Aston Villa website.

Interestingly on the EA SPORTS Football article it states “Stay tuned to easportsfootball.com for more exciting news on future club player tournaments!”

Interesting……