The Newcastle Jets have been crowned the 2021 Nivea Australia E-League Champions after a dominating display by Mark Zakhary and Ryan Naylor
The competition was played across the two major console’s over two days with 11 ties’, facing each A-League team once, with Zakhary representing the Jets on the PlayStation and with Naylor representing the Jets on the Xbox respectively with the winner of the tie’s being determined by the aggregate score over the two consoles’.
The title charge was setup with an emphatic day 1 from our players who went through the day undefeated finishing with 5 wins and 0 losses, destroying their opponents in the process with the highlight of the night coming in the last match-up of the Matchday where the boys held off steep opposition from competition heavyweights Melbourne City and came home with a 7-4 win on aggregate and with a clear gap at the top of the table. Naylor would then be named the competition’s Player of the Day with a perfect record and scoring 24 goals to just 8 in the process capping a perfect Day 1 for the Jets Duo.
Mark Zakhary would start off Day 2 from exactly where he left off with a big 3-0 win in his PlayStation tie with the Roar which proved to be the deciding factor in the opening round of the Matchday as Naylor’s tie finished in a 2-2 draw leaving us with a 5-2 win on aggregate and a great start to Day 2 action. The tie that would prove to be decisive in determining the title happened in Match 3 (Rnd 8) of Day 2 where our Jets would face 2nd place Western Sydney Wanderer’s. In the Playstation leg Zakhary would lose his only personal match in the tournament going down 2-1 and set-up a must win tie for Naylor in the 2nd leg and boy did he deliver. After struggling throughout other various points in the day, Naylor saved his best performance for when it mattered most where he beat Western Sydney’s OhNoAGoat, 4-1 and gave us a 5-3 victory on aggregate and a large gap between the Wanderer’s who would go onto finish 2nd.
Our only loss of the tournament came on the penultimate tie of the tournament against Adelaide United. In the PlayStation leg Zakhary would finish as a 3-1 winner over his opponent and it looked like the title would be delivered a round early as all Naylor had to do was avoid a 2-goal defeat and the title would be ours. However, Naylor ran into a reinvented Jaz_FIFA on Day 2 who stormed to a 5-0 victory over Naylor and we would have to wait till the final round to confirm our title victory.
The wait was not long though as we faced the Mariners in a classic F3 Derby to confirm our title. Zakhary would defeat his opponent 2-0, and set up Naylor to bring home the title, which, he did in style defeating his opponent 5-1 and giving us a 7-1 victory on aggregate and the title of the 2021 Nivea Australia E-League Champions. We would finish the competition 28 pts 2 pts clear of the Wanderers and with a record of 9 wins 1 draw and 1 loss in the competition.
A personal congratulations also goes to Zakhary who was awarded the Golden PlayStation Controller for having the best record amongst all PlayStation competitors. Not only does he get the title but as Console Champion Zakhary now moves onto the EA SPORTS FIFA 21 Oceiana Cup Regional Final, an amazing achievement by the 16-year-old in his first appearance in the competition.
