From 20 to 22 March, 32 of the world’s elite EA SPORTS FIFA 16 gamers will gather in New York for the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2016 Grand Final – the annual event that will decide the next world champion of virtual football.

With only a single name still to be decided on 20 February when the USA Host Country Live Qualification event takes place in Seattle, FIFA.com is proud to reveal the list of Grand Finalists for the 12th edition of the world’s largest gaming tournament.

Over 7.2 million online matches were played during the three-month-long online qualification season. In total, over 2.3 million players competed in qualification for the 2016 Grand Final, making the New York edition the second-largest FIWC tournament of all time (the largest to date is FIWC 2013 which comprised over 2.5 million gamers).

17 nations will be represented at the Grand Final in New York, ensuring that our next champion represents the best player of EA SPORTS™ FIFA 16 anywhere in the world! Congratulations to our qualified players. New York is waiting!

Online Season 1 Qualified PlayersKhalid Aloufi (Saudi Arabia), Javier Alvarez (Costa Rica), Demetri Anastasiou (England), Rodrigo Araujo (Brazil), Michael Bittner (Germany), Allan Castello (Brazil), Dean Coombes (England), Arthur Dabilgou (Burkina Faso), Giuseppe Guastella (USA), Niklas Raseck (Germany)

Online Season 2 Qualified Players Rachid Azzahim (Morocco), Mohamad Al-Bacha (Denmark), Oliver Chesses (England), Edson Mata (Brazil), Michael Ribeiro (USA), Yesid Rodriguez (Colombia), Johann Simon (France), Irving Velazquez (Mexico), Ty Walton (England), Stefan Zolker (Australia)

Online Season 3 Qualified Players Kevin Assia (Germany),Dylan Bance (France), Victor Guedes (Brazil), Jasso Herrera (Mexico), Ivan Lapanje (Sweden), Robnel Lovera (Venezuela), Luke Mitchell (Australia), August Rosenmeier (Denmark), Emiliano Ruiz (Mexico), Abdulaziz Shiddo (Sudan)

FIWC 2015 champion (automatically qualified) Abdulaziz Alshehri (Saudi Arabia)

Host Country Qualifier Winner To be decided on 20 February 2016 in Seattle