Draw Procedure Announced for Lower League eCup

by Joe Meyer

    The draw for the 2020 Lower League eCup will take place in three phases. A group stage draw will be held on Friday, May 27th at 12:00pm (eastern). A second draw will take place on Friday, March 27th at 2:30pm (eastern) to match our participating clubs and supporters groups with an international club in FIFA20 to play with throughout the cup. A third draw will take place after the conclusion of the group stage, time and date to be determined, to determine the bracket for the knockout round.

    All draws will be live tweeted, group by group on the tournament’s twitter page (@lowerleagueEcup). The full draw procedure for the first two draws can be found below, the draw procedure for the knockout stage draw will be announced at a later date. The original intention was to live stream the draw, however, logistical issues prevent this.

    The schedule is tentatively scheduled to be released at 11:00pm (eastern) on Friday night. A kickoff celebrity tournament is scheduled for 8:00pm (eastern) Saturday night, more information can be found under the "news" section of the website. The main tournaments will start as early as Tuesday night.

Group Stage Draw Procedure

  1. Teams will be grouped by time zone. The teams in the eastern time zone will be allocated into Groups A-F and represent Pot A. The teams in the western and mountain time zones will be allocated into Groups G-L, and represent Pot B. Teams in the central time zone will be distributed randomly into both pots prior to the draw.

  2. Teams will be selected one at a time, until a group is filled. After a group is filled, the draw moves onto the next group.

  3. The order which teams are drawn in their group also determines their team number for the order of fixtures. The first team drawn in each group is assigned group number #1, the second is assigned number #2, etc.

Club Draw Procedure

  1. For the draw, we will be using the 104 teams in the major five European second divisions (England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain).

  2. For each round of the draw, a club participating in the eCup will be drawn, followed by a club from FIFA.  The two clubs will be paired together. Ex. Blue Team eCup FC is drawn with Nottingham Forrest, therefore across all consoles, Blue Team eCup FC will be represented by Nottingham Forrest.

  3. The draw will continue until all American clubs have been partnered with an international club.

  4. Once all 104 teams from the major five European second divisions have been drawn, the remaining clubs will be assigned to a team from the Australian A-League.

Dates and Times

  • Group Stage Draw - Friday, March 27th (12:00pm eastern)

  • Club Draw - Friday, March 27th (2:30pm eastern)

  • *Tentative* Schedule Release - Friday, March 27th (11:00pm eastern)

Connect with the eCup…

  • Twitter (@lowerleagueEcup)

  • Instagram (@lowerleagueEcup)