Paulo Neto Wins The 2023 eMLS League 1 Series
by Gary Catig
A new season of eMLS began last week with the eMLS League Series 1. Twenty-six competitors, each representing a team from Major League Soccer, went head-to-head in FIFA 23 in order to crown a winner. It was a grueling competition that involved a remote qualifying campaign, group stage, and finally a single elimination tournament.
When it was all said and done, the final two left standing were Paulo Neto of Atlanta United and Lamps (Ehsan Zakeri) of Minnesota United. It was no surprise to have the pair in the finals considering they are the past two event winners. In addition, preseason power rankings had them at numbers one and two, respectively, so it would be a battle of some eSports heavyweights.
Unfortunately, the showdown didn’t live up to the hype with a very one-sided performance. Neto made his mark early scoring the first goal within the first five minutes of regulation. The 2022 eMLS Cup winner kept the pressure up scoring another two goals in the first leg. We all know of Neto’s offensive prowess, but it was his defense that was most impressive on Sunday. After the first match, he managed to keep a clean sheet and won 3 – 0.
With such a big deficit, Lamps started the second leg more aggressively with a greater sense of urgency. Unfortunately, that only opened up the game for his opponent, who began to pick Lamps apart with more open space to maneuver. Neto never took his foot off the gas, scoring an additional six goals with the final aggregate victory of 9 – 1. Lamps was able to manage one goal at least, but it was in garbage time when the match’s results were already secured. He seemed defeated long before the final whistle, allowing time to run out rather than push to score more.
With the victory, Neto managed to not only keep his momentum going — winning back-to-back eMLS events — but he also got off to a hot start for the 2023 season. The dominating performance earned him the $10,000 top prize. He won’t have too much time to savor his victory since the eMLS League Series 2 will begin on February 7.
Watch the 2023 eMLS season on the official MLS Twitch channel.
