One by one, the lights come on. A new chapter begins. Meet @famaesports squad for EAFC 27 ⚪️🔵

𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 Now that EAFC26 is over, it’s time to look back and assess our year. Honestly, it was a very difficult year - perhaps the hardest we’ve faced since we started competing. 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 In the first season, we kept the same squad from last year and fought until the very end to win Esports Premier, only letting it slip away in the final week. Back then, there was no Madrid server, meaning we had to play the entire season connected to the Paris server with higher ping. I truly believe we could have won that season if the playing conditions had been different (i.e., equal for everyone). After that, we lost a significant part of the core squad that had helped us win so much the previous year. Players chose to follow different and financially better paths for themselves. Even though we were able to offer (in my view) great conditions, like having travel and accommodation fully paid for live events, we simply cannot compete with some of the other clubs in terms of wages if the focus is strictly financial. Giving up was never an option for us, so we had to find solutions for Season 2 while the season was already underway. We shifted our philosophy from an all-Portuguese roster to a mixed squad of Portuguese and UK players. We started off great, winning tournaments and racking up victories, but in the end, cultural differences, different playing styles, and communication issues caused things to fall apart. 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 Realizing we had to take a different path, we basically used the last season of Esports Premier to rebuild and prepare a squad for the upcoming live events: the Portuguese Final Four and the UK Sheffield event. For this new roster, we chose to mix players from Spain and Portugal. We achieved one of our main goals, which was to win the live event in Portugal. This was extremely positive because we have now won it for the fourth time in a row, and being the National Champion is always a great feeling. This also means that over the past few years, we have won basically every single competition we've played in Portugal, making us the most dominant team ever. 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 As for the UK event, there isn't much I can add that isn't already public. We were ready for it. Our plan was to use the group stage to build chemistry and find our rhythm as a team, analyzing what was working and what was not, before making any necessary adjustments for the knockout stage. Unfortunately, we couldn't play a single game on the first day. I understand the logistical difficulties the organizers faced having to change the venue at the last minute. However, when you incur the kinds of expenses we did to be there, you expect a certain standard to be met. Not being able to play a single game on Saturday, especially after some of us traveled for over 16 hours to be there, was a massive blow to the players. We were also mentally devastated after spending so many hours at the venue, traveling back and forth with consoles trying to install the games (thank you to the @GTZEsports players for trying to help). Maybe that didn't even matter in the end, as we still managed to get wins in the knockout stage, but both my players and I are left with mixed feelings. We truly believe that playing those two or three group games the day before would have given us the competitive boost we needed to improve for the following day and would have loosened up any nerves or anxiety we might have felt. In the end, we failed to meet our objective. The ultimate goal was obviously to win the competition, and the bare minimum was to reach the final. We didn't make it. 𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 To all the players I managed throughout this year: thank you. To the ones who stayed with me from the very beginning to the absolute end: you will always have my deepest gratitude and a special place in my heart. Furthermore, I would like to say thanks to @famaesports for the great conditions they provided us, which allowed us to experience the live events once again. Lastly, to the people who supported us throughout this journey - from our home country and from many others - we stand together. johny