Soccer powerhouse Real Madrid may not be forming an esports team, despite reports from multiple outlets. According to rumors, the club was looking to form a team to compete in FIFA Online 4, a Tencent-published game that targets the Asian market.
The rumor mill seems to have begun early this month with the first tweet from @RMadrid_esports, an unauthorized account:
¡Iniciamos un nuevo proyecto en el mundo de los deportes electrónicos!
¿Quieres formar parte del competitivo de Clash Royale? ¡Adelante!
Estamos abiertos para leer vuestros mensajes.
— Real Madrid eSports (@RMadrid_eSports) May 2, 2018
Here’s a rough translation: “We are starting a new project in the world of esports! Do you want to be part of Clash Royale? We’re ready to read your replies.”
The account even tried to rope in Chuck Norris:
¡Buenos días madridistas!
Estamos buscando ligas/copas para estrenar nuestro talento.
Por ahora no encontramos ninguna pero… paciencia, llegará.
pic.twitter.com/6qxxfFImAz
— Real Madrid eSports (@RMadrid_eSports) May 4, 2018
This despite the fact that the first rule of Chuck Norris is: you do not talk about Chuck Norris (without express written consent).
Dextero was the first to report that the rumors were untrue. Thus it appears that reports of Real Madrid entering esports were, sadly, unReal. SportTechie may have discovered the reason why: the pipe-dream Twitter account fell one retweet short of the seven it needed.
Necesitamos 7 RTs para entrar en @CopaActivaCR ¿Nos ayudas?
— Real Madrid eSports (@RMadrid_eSports) May 7, 2018
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Still the club has made plenty of innovative moves recently, even if it might be a step or two behind some of its rivals over in the Premier League in the esports push. In the past two months, Real Madrid has partnered with Samsung to produce Twitter-based short videos and launched a 360-degree virtual reality channel.