Atlanta United's eSports team started 2023 on track to having another successful year.
Our Brazilian duo consisting of Paulo Neto and Young competed over the first full weekend of January in the FIFA 23 Global Series (FGS) - Latin America South Qualifier #1, with Young taking home the title. The tournament kicks off the road to the FIFAe World Cup, where Neto finished in the Top 8 last year, from where Atlanta United produced an in-house documentary (watch at the end of the article). Young also played in the World Cup last year, while representing his former club SPQR, and was eliminated by the eventual World Champion Umut.
A total of 130 gamers registered for the competition, which was played between Saturday, January 7 and Sunday, Jan. 8, with both Paulo and Young making the Top 16 which was dominated by Brazilian gamers, with 15 finalists.
Young's run to the title over the weekend started by beating Marangoni with a score of 10-3 to later beat Barreto from Brazilian club MGCF eSports, by 3-2, to make the Semifinals. At the same time, Paulo Neto advanced to semifinals after beating Crepaldi from MGCF and GuiBarros.
In the Semifinals, Young had a pretty contested match-up against danielzin from R10 Team, the eSports team founded by Brazilian legend Ronaldinho. Young won by a score of 5-2 to make his second consecutive FGS Latin America South final. It could have been an all-Atlanta United final, but Neto lost in his semifinal against PHzin from Dutch club Ajax eSports.
It was a very tense final as both gamers were the top scorers in the competition. Since the Round of 16, Young had scored a total of 18 goals, while PHzin was the top scorer with 22 goals.
Young was victorious by a final score of 3-1 to take home back-to-back FGS Latin America - South Qualifier #1 titles, including 400 Global Series points and a prize of $7500. Paulo Neto finished in the top 3 with 200 Global Series points. In 2022, Young also won the same competition while representing eSports club SPQR Brasil.
Even though they represent Atlanta United, both gamers compete in the Latin America - South region since they are based out of Brazil.
The next competition for ATL UTD gamers is the eMLS League Series 1 - presented by Coca-Cola, where Paulo Neto will compete in New York City (January 28). Together, Young and Paulo will play in the FIFAe Club World Cup Qualifiers (February 2-3).
