NEW YORK CITY - In his sixth season with Atlanta United, Paulo Neto has become the first gamer in league history to win two Cup titles. This adds a fifth eMLS competition to his tally, becoming the winningest player in eMLS history.
The Brazilian entered the competition as the highest seed, 17th in the EA FC Pro World Rankings, and was one of the favorites to the title, among the 14 teams that participated in eMLS Cup this yeat. Wednesday, March 12 and Thursday, March 13 saw everyone gathered together at OS Studios in Manhattan for the eMLS Cup Qualifiers, a round-robin competition where each gamer had to play 13 games against every other player participating.
Neto finished third in the standings with a record of 8 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws, and outsocring everyone else with 101 goals scored through the 13 games played. The top four players after the Qualifiers automatically advanced to the eMLS Cup Final Bracket, while the next best eight competed in a play-in to determine the other four finalists.
Showing up
The eMLS Cup Final Bracket was played on Friday, March 14 at the iconic Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, where visitors to the museum could gather to see the best EA FC Pro gamers in North America compete.
Paulo Neto beat BeastUpChris comfortably by a score of 5-3 in the Quarterfinals, following an early red card from the Charlotte FC gamer. In the semifinals, the Brazilian faced RedLac from Toronto FC, a player who he had lost against on Wednesday 6-5 after going up 5-1 early in that game.
As expected, it was a very tough match up where both gamers ceded the lead to one another and after a 3-3 draw the game had to be decided in extra time. RedLac went up first in the first half of extra time, but Neto managed to recover and tie the game soon after the second half of extra time started. When everyone, even the commentators, thought they were going to penalty kicks, Neto scored a fifth goal in the 116th minute of gameplay to advance to the final, by a score of 5-4.
Never backing down
In the final, Neto faced his toughest competition yet. GuiBarros from the New York Red Bulls won every single game up until this point; all 15 games he played during the week he won, no draws, no losses.
And GuiBaroos quickly proved why he had come from German powerhouse RB Leipzig to represent the Red Bulls in the eMLS Cup, scoring early in the game. After Paulo went up 2-1, GuiBarros scored the only poweshot goal of the entire competition from outside the box and managed to level the score 2-2 before the half.
GuiBarros once again took the lead twice in the second half and when the score was 4-3 to the Red Bulls, Paulo tied the game once again in the 76th minute of gameplay. Evading extra times, Paulo scored the fifth and final goal of the night to seal the victory with a 5-4 to Atlanta United.
A proven winner
This was Paulo Neto's sixth appearance in eMLS Cup, and his second title since the first time he won in 2022. The Caruarú, Brazil native was re-signed to a multi-year contract extension last year ahead of the 2024 season. Last year, Neto became the first professional gamer to win four eMLS titles in League history, after earning a victory in the eMLS League Series 1. This is his fifth championship in the eMLS series.
By making the final Paulo Neto also secured his participation in the EA FC Pro World Championship which will host the best 32 gamers in the world, and where Atlanta United will have representation. Paulo Neto has participated in every single World Championship/World Cup competition since he became an Atlanta United gamer, except for the 2024 edition of the tournament.
Since joining Atlanta United in 2020, Paulo Neto has won eight titles overall, four in eMLS, three more in the FIFA Global Series ecosystem representing Atlanta United, and in 2023 he became World Nations Champion with Brazil in the FIFAe Nations Cup. He's also competed in five additional finals (3 in eMLS), and the most decorated eMLS gamer of all-time.
