England Gaming name squad for FIFA eWorld Cup Rocket League qualifiers

The England Gaming squad for the upcoming FIFAe World Cup Featuring Rocket League qualifiers has been named.

The qualifiers are a four-day event, kicking-off on Thursday 23 October and ending on Sunday 26 October, which consists of a two-day group stage which ladders into a knockout-based playoff stage where the top four from each group (A to D) will qualify for the playoffs.

Essentially, if you win two games in a row that would secure qualification for the finals event, which takes place in Riyadh this December.

If you fail to win those two games then there's another opportunity to qualify via the second and third chance qualifier brackets to make it through, or get knocked out of the competition.

England Gaming have selected a squad of some familiar faces and some new ones compared to the group that took on last year's FIFAe Rocket League World Cup Finals.

Archie Pickthall rejoins the squad after becoming an eLion in 2024. The 2024-25 season saw Archie place third through fouth at the RLCS World Championship with Geekay Esports. This season, Archie joined French esports giants Gentle Mates and was able to compound this move with another call up for England Gaming.

Geekay Esports is also home to Joe ‘Joyo’ Young, who is rejoining the England Gaming squad. Joyo and Archie were teammates for all of the 2024-25 season, which saw Joyo enjoy the same successes at majors and at worlds. Joyo’s creative and skilful approach to the game has made him one of the very best and he hopes to make year two with England Gaming his best yet.

A new joiner to the squad is Jack ‘ApparentlyJack’ Benton. Jack has recently joined Joyo at Geekay Esports after a year competing with Dignitas. Jack brings a wealth of experience to England and was able to lift a major trophy last season, which adds to his extensive list of achievements.

Jack and Joyo's newly-formed team relationship at Geekay, coupled together with Archie and Joyo’s long-standing playing relationship will serve to help build a team chemistry at a better rate comparatively to other player mixes within the qualifiers.

Supporting the squad as our substitute is Ben ‘Toxiic’ Salmon. A former player for English organisation Team Endpoint, Ben has most recently being playing his Rocket League in the EMEA region for AlQadsiah Esports. Ben rejoins England Gaming after supporting the squad at last year’s FIFAe World Cup Featuring Rocket League Finals.

The squad is being coached by English coach Dylan ‘Eekso’ Pickering, who helped Geekay Esports to a third-fourth place finish at RLCS Worlds. Dylan joins England Gaming for the first time, but coaches Joyo and Jack at club level. This. once again. helps squad chemistry and playing continuity going into the international qualifiers window.

To keep up to date with the FIFAe World Cup Featuring Rocket League qualifiers, you can watch along at Twitch.tv/England for a more social experience. To watch along with your favourite RLCS casters Cole, Stumpy and Shogun, tune into the England Gaming x SubparbutinHD Watch along live on Twitch.tv/subparbutinhd

The action starts at around 6pm BST, or GMT on Sunday.