Conran ‘Rannerz’ Tobin has enjoyed a remarkable debut year as a professional FIFA player. The 21-year-old University of Limerick student recently competed in Amsterdam for a place at the FIFA eWorld Cup 2018. In the past six months, he has also competed in Barcelona and London, collecting €1,000 and €12,500 in prize money respectively.
Now Tobin is making a steady income from the eSport and perfecting his game, so much so that he is banned from FIFA tournaments amongst his friends. That is where it started, like so many of the nation's enthusiasts, an enjoyable hobby:
I was winning a lot of games at first. You seem to be better than your friends but then you're like 'they might just be bad' so you play online tournaments. Nothing too crazy, only a €100 for winning or so. Then you finish first and second in them. I said 'okay, I might be decent and I could give it a shot this year.' I was on work placement and I am going to UL. Instead of a part-time job, I said 'wouldn’t it be cool to make money off FIFA.' It was only a 100 quid here or there but then four tournaments a week is potentially four hundred a week.
FIFA 18 Tips
Tobin was drafted as a result of his Gfinity Challenger Series and joined Italian soccer giants AS Roma’s eSports team. Ahead of his fourth year in college, he is set for an academic gap year in order to move abroad and train with them. The main thing he emphasises as a FIFA 18 tip is perfecting the appliances available; your set-piece, your formation, shot-selection: "Something as simple as a goal kick. A lot of guys just boot it down anywhere, whereas you want to pick out a player and work from there."
I use the 4-2-3-1 myself. You got to find what works for you. People use that or 4-1-2-1-2. You have to try all of them to find the best, most won’t put in that time to find it. They just pick one. Then free-kicks routines and corner kick routines. People just ignore stuff like that but they are just as vital. With a free-kick routine I can now score 9/10 times others might just shoot and waste it.
If you are within 50 yards they are specific plays to run and if your opponent hasn’t seen it before, they don’t react in time and it is an easy goal. Get your second and third man over the ball, dummy run, lay it off two or three passes and suddenly you are one on one and have scored. People don’t know what is happening.
Wasn’t meant to be for me in Amsterdam, but achieved a lot in my debut year including winning @Gfinity, and more importantly found my team @RomaFnatic, time to switch focus to supporting @Zimmeghj and for myself turn to FIFA 19! #FIFAeWorldCup pic.twitter.com/4aloe1g9L5
— 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐳🇮🇪 (@Rannerz) May 30, 2018
The explosion of eSports has seen a hugely competitive platform quickly develop but that does not faze 'Rannerz' who has the world's top 10 firmly in his sights. With an average playing time of 25 hours a week, Conran has developed a remarkable understanding of the in-game logistics. This is another Fifa 18 tip that he stresses: "I want to get to specific spots on the pitch to shoot. Just knowing the game mechanics, I can score with a specific shot. I try to work the ball to the left or right corner, just outside the box. You can finesse it to the top corner pretty easily from there. You can drive-shot from either of those angles inside the box as well. Other people will just try to shoot from close but it won’t work."
With a season under his belt and a move abroad on the horizon, Tobin is looking forward to seeing how far he can go as a pro. The next few months will be focused on improving, and most importantly, taking his shots.
Roma have a gaming house in London. so I’ll move over to London and be with the rest of the team there. Just practicing, playing, going to tournaments and that. I'll give it a shot anyway!
This week Fifa 18 launched their free 2018 FIFA World Cup update. You can follow the FIFA eWorld Cup here.
