FIFA

DiDa from Gamescom: Volta in FIFA20 is a disappointment

• Hey DiDa! Why did you go to Gamescom and who did you go with?

Hello everybody! Gamescom is an event I love to visit. I think that everyone, who loves eSports, should visit it at least once in a lifetime. This was my third year at Gamescom and I will definitely go again next year. As every year, I visited the event with a group people who stand behind Topgaming.eu portal. The main focus for us is on yet unreleased hardware/software, take as many pictures as we can and then showcase it to fans of our portal as well as here on Sampi website.

• This Gamescom wasn´t the first one for you. How would you compare it with the previous ones?

As I said, this was my third Gamescom and I feel like this was the poorest edition I´ve seen if I consider the amount and quality of stages and unreleased games too. All presented games at Gamescom were announced way before this event and players only are only waiting for the official release. Almost nothing exclusive. I must say that I am a little bit disappointed by this event but the main reason I went there was obviously the new FIFA20.

• You had a chance to play FIFA20. What are your thoughts about it?

It´s still way too early for me to make an objective review. I´ve only played 6 matches where I tried the classic kick-off. I was positively surprised by the game speed which really is way slower than in FIFA19. I was also surprised by passes from first which don´t really work whatsoever and it will be better to hold the ball for some time and then pass it to another player. Next big change is defending style and attacking players (shadowing) which is a technique where a player runs into his opponent (who had the ball) and took it away from him. In FIFA20, it doesn´t work like as in the previous game. It won´t be the classic backing up and waiting for EA defending system to get the ball for you anymore. This will be a big problem for those players who were heavily relying on EA defending.

Last but not least, I have a few words about the new Volta mode. I have to admit that I didn´t enjoy playing it whatsoever. I remember FIFA Street and I thought that Volta is going to be way better. After a few matches, it simply felt like FIFA20 on a smaller football field, without proper tricks. But let´s keep in mind that what I´ve played was only a demo and the final product might end up drastically better. For now, it´s a disappointment from my perspective.

• What else caught your attention besides FIFA?

I was really looking forward to the first test of Call of Duty Modern Warfare, however PlayStation set the game up only on very limited amount of consoles so I wasn´t amongst the lucky ones who got to play it. Some people told me that the players had to wait almost half a day to play this game. What I was looking for the most, however, was Need for Speed: Heat. I absolutely LOVE the NFS series and I am a big fan. Unfortunately I didn´t get to play this title either because of the insanely long lines. CyberPunk2077 demo also caught my attention and I played it for a bit.

• Professional gaming is not your only role in eSports. Could you shortly tell us what else you do? 

Yes, of course. As you said, professional playing is not my only activity. As many people may know, I stand behind the Topgaming project which was mainly created for FIFA community. However, by the time went, we added other games too and the project became one of the most visited gaming portals in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. So I don´t only play FIFA, I also manage tournaments in the game such as JRC FUT Nation (national championship in FIFA). We are also preparing ourselves for the For Games gaming festival – the biggest gaming fair in the Czech Republic. You can meet me there from 17.-20.10. in PVA Letnany in Prague. I would definitely recommend to visit us there, it will be huge with international players in attendance.

• Are there any international tournaments that you want to attend?

We are all waiting for the official launch of FIFA20 which will bring a lot of tournaments with it. My last tournament in FIFA19 will be JRC FUT Nation in the beginning of September and RIIJK will play it too. Then, there will be a conclusion of the year-long event in the middle of September in Re-Load Prague. That´s where TOP4O CZ/SK players will battle it out for the CZ/SK champion title and a prizepool of 1.000 EUR.

• You and CZC.cz iSport League?

The beginning of the league wasn´t really good for me and I honestly consider my performance to be a disappointment. I had a serious injury of my forearm before the first qualification and the problems kept on getting worse as the league progressed. Currently, I sit on 25th place, however it´s really close in points between the TOP16 and my 25th. My plan is to prepare myself the best I can for the next edition and I am confident that I will make it to the final event and then attack TOP3 in the Superfinal in December.

• Let´s make a throwback to July. You and RIIJK took an amazing 2nd place at ISPO Digitize 2v2 in Munich, Germany. Tell us something about it from your perspective.

It was such a powerful experience for me. So straight after we entered the hall, we saw a lot of professional players from Germany and we weren´t quite sure what to expect. Everybody knows that German players are on the absolute TOP level in FIFA, especially in 2v2. Me and RIIJK agreed that we will just go for it and see what happens. The most difficult match was the quarter-final. At the end of first half, we were down 1-4. Then, we pushed ourselves to the limits and we made the score equal and the match went to penalties, where we were confident enough and eventually won. The grand-final match wasn´t the best one we´ve played at the event and we got 2 goals simply because of our own silly mistakes. Nontheless, we also scored 2 goals – the last one in 90th minute of the match. Overtime was without a goal so it went to penalties again. I had a total meltdown and failed 2 penalties. That´s why we lost the match and ended up 2nd overall. I consider this result to be a great success regardless, 2nd place in a German competition like this is a super result.

• Thank you for the interview. Do you have anything left to say?

Thank you also for the interview. I would definitely like to say thank you to all my fans who support me on Facebook and Instagram. I belive I won´t disappoint you in the next year and get back to the TOP at CZ/SK FIFA scene which will attack the very best European regions!