Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. is thrilled to announce that its eFootball™ soccer game has been selected as the competition title for Inter-Prefectural Esports Championship 2025 SHIGA, part of the cultural program of Wata-SHIGA Kagayaku Kokuspo/Shospo (National Sports/Para-Sports Where I Shine), aka the 79th National Sports Festival/24th National Sports Festival for People with a Disability, to be held from November 22 (Sat) to 23 (Sun) this year.
The Inter-Prefectural Esports Championship is a national tournament where representative players from each prefecture who have won their respective regional qualifying rounds compete against each other. Since 2019, the tournament has been held every year at the National Sports Festival, and we are proud that eFootball™ has been selected as its competition title for seven consecutive years. Furthermore, in previous championship, the top three players were selected as to representatives of Japan and in the Esports Championships East Asia (ECEA), competing for glory on the global stage. In addition, last year's Inter-Prefectural Esports Championship 2024 SAGA expanded the scale of the event, featuring team competition on mobile and PlayStation® for the first time ever.
The finals of Inter-Prefectural Esports Championship 2024 SAGA
Mobile division finals
Saitama representative players celebrate after scoring a goal
(Left: Neopon, Right: Kisepesu)
This year's finals will be held over two days from November 22 (Sat) to 23 (Sun) at the Proseed Arena HIKONE in Hikone, Shiga Prefecture. As in the previous year, the eFootball™ division will feature mobile and PlayStation®, and the prefectural representative players who have won the in-game qualifiers will form teams of one mobile player and one PlayStation® player to compete to be the best player in Japan.
The tournament schedule and entry procedures for the eFootball™ division will be announced on the eFootball™ division's official website in late August. Stay tuned for more information!
Konami Digital Entertainment will continue to bring the fun and excitement of esports to fans everywhere through its esports initiatives.
| Name: | National Prefectural Esports Championship 2025 SHIGA |
|---|---|
| Date: | November 22 (Sat) and 23 (Sun), 2025 |
| Venue: | Proseed Arena HIKONE (Hikone City Sports and Cultural Exchange Center) |
| Organizer: | National Prefectural Competitive Esports Championship 2025 SHIGA Executive Committee |
[About KONAMI’s esports initiatives]
The eFootball™ series of soccer games has been loved and supported by fans around the world since its launch in 1995 as the console Winning Eleven series. The eFootball™ series continues to attract attention as competition titles both in Japan and overseas, being featured in exhibition matches at the 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang, the Inter-Prefectural Esports Championship held as part of the National Sports Festival Culture Program (for seven consecutive years starting in Ibaraki in 2019). In 2024, we signed a contract with FIFA to collaborate in esports and co-hosted the FIFAe World Cup 2024™, which used eFootball™ as the competition title and had more than 14 million players participating worldwide. We are also expanding our efforts to combine esports and real sports by holding the eFootball™ Championship 2024 Club Event with our European club partners and co-hosting eJ.League eFootball™ with the Japan Professional Football League (J.League), which featured all 40 J1 and J2 clubs.
[About eFootball™]
Since its debut in 1995 as Winning Eleven, eFootball™ has been loved by soccer fans around the world, boasting over 900 million units sold and downloaded. This year, 2025, marks the 30th anniversary of the acclaimed eFootball™ series. Users can enjoy a variety of content in eFootball™; In Dream Team Mode, they can build their own original team, choosing from players lighting up the scoreboards in real matches, superstars active in major leagues or legends who have made their mark in soccer history; in Co-op Mode, they can experience the thrill of competing online with their friends in 3-on-3 matches. In addition, eFootball™ has been used as a competition title in various esports tournaments both in Japan and abroad, spreading the joy of soccer digitally around the world.
eFootball™ official website: https://www.konami.com/efootball/ja/
Official X account: @we_konami