When Philipp Heineck from SV Stahl Brotterode-Trusetal dismantled the 1st Suhler SV in the last two group games with 4: 7 and 1:10, everything was already decided. Because Steffen Kolk had to take two more zero numbers against SV Blau-Weiß Bufleben (football district West Thuringia). A jump to second place in group ten, which would ensure advancement, became impossible after just four games.
Maybe it’s age, thinks Steffen Kolk, 37 himself. He talks about Anders Vejrgang, who is not even half his age. The 14-year-old Dane plays for the RB Leipzig eSports team, which leads the field unbeaten in the south-east relay of the Virtual Bundesliga. Steffen Kolk also watches the adolescent’s games every now and then and tries to learn something. But already at the beginning of 30 you no longer have the necessary responsiveness, Kolk quotes a well-known eSporter.
The veteran from Suhler SV doesn’t lack experience on the gamepad either. With the current edition of the Fifa series alone, which was published on October 9, the Suhler has already played 800 games. It was no different in the previous decades. The Fifa series was already running on Kolk’s computer in the 90s. But since the beginning of soccer simulation, when a few buttons were enough to control the players, the video game has become more and more complex.
“It all happened too quickly,” even commentator Frank Buschmann has to scoff at when Gladbach meets Paris for the second time and Kylian Mbappé has scored the sixth PSG goal. Steffen Kolk had already become noticeably quiet at the microphone. The suspicion that something was wrong with the whole thing was also forgotten. The so-called 90s mode cannot be manipulated, explains Kolk later. The mode should ensure that all teams are equally strong on average, regardless of whether they are Paris or Mainz.
“I’m not the best in the game,” Kolk admits in between. “But I just really like to play it.” And in the end, the root cause research is quickly over. Kolk jokes that playing virtual football is ultimately like swimming: “If you can’t do it, you shouldn’t put it on your swimming trunks!”
Football Thuringia kicks virtually: 128 players in 32 groups
A total of 128 teams took part in the preliminary round of the 2nd Thuringian Fifa championship on the online soccer platform “FuPa”. Four teams each played in a group. The 32 groups were drawn from three regional pots, which correspond to the limits of the three real national class relays. A round trip was played. In groups 1 to 12, players from the soccer circles Rhön-Rennsteig, South Thuringia and West Thuringia competed against each other.
Here are the final tables of the groups with the participation of teams from Suhl and the surrounding area. The two best in the group have qualified for the next round of the eSports tournament:
Group 2:
1. SG Suhltal/Manchester City (Benjamin Frank)
2. VfL Meiningen / Juventus Turin (Paul Fabig)
3. TSV Benshausen/Manchester City (Eric Ostermann)
4. SV Rennsteig Ernstthal / Borussia Dortmund (Robby Schüchner)
Group 4:
1. SV Rennsteig Ernstthal II / Bayern Munich (Arthur Luthardt)
2. SV Dietzhausen/FC Liverpool (Norman Henkel)
3. Lauscha / Neuhaus I / Bayern Munich (Steve Büchner)
4. 1. FC Sonneberg II / Paris Saint-Germain (Stephan Funke)
Group 10:
1. SV Stahl Brotterode-Trusetal / Paris Saint-Germain (Philipp Heineck)
2. FC Zella-Mehlis I / Bayern Munich (Adrian Hellmann)
3. Blau-Weiß Bufleben / Bayern Munich (Sebastian Nagel)
4. 1. Suhler SV / Borussia Mönchengladbach (Steffen Kolk)
Group 11:
1. FSV Leimbach II / Paris Saint-Germain (Maximilian Ziert)
2. FC Zella-Mehlis II / Bayern Munich (Lukas Schmidt)
3. Eintracht Wechmar I / Paris Saint-Germain (Florian Möhring)
4. Bischofroda / AC Milan (Benjamin Al)
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