Twitch star EliasN97 throws a football festival in Munich – even the RTL boss is enthusiastic

Created: 09/15/2022, 04:59 am

By: David Frey

Elias Nerlich fills the Audi Dome in Munich with the Real Life Eligella Cup 2 and sets the next big exclamation mark for the streaming scene.

IPPEN.MEDIA was there live.

A field report.

Munich – An hour before the official start, the view wandered over the stands in the home of FC Bayern Munich Basketball and saw almost no free space.

But on Sunday (September 11th) it was not the tall Isaac Bonga and Paul Zipser that should inspire the crowd, but the streaming giant Elias Nerlich, who is also known to many as "EliasN97" or "Eligella".

The 24-year-old, who is currently by far Germany's most watched streamer on the Twitch platform and is one of the top 10 worldwide, had invited to the second edition of his "Real Life Eligella Cup".

Eight teams, each with seven players, competed against each other in a football tournament on a small field, with the field of participants representing the "Who's who" of the German Twitch and YouTube scene.

Nerlich only had to accept a few prominent rejections, such as that of Jens “Knossi” Knossalla.

Real Life Eligella Cup in Munich: Elias Nerlich makes a big splash with Adidas and RTL+

While last year's first cup took place in a manageably small soccer hall in Cologne, this time everything was much larger and highly professional.

The Audi Dome was completely sold out with 7,000 spectators just a few hours after the ticket was released and the entire production was taken over by RTL+.

There was also the main sponsor Adidas, for whom Elias Nerlich signed a brand ambassador contract a few weeks ago as the first non-professional athlete.

Everything seemed set up for a great show - and the spectators were not disappointed.

As soon as the teams entered, the applause was thunderous, which was deafening for the crowd favorites Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris, Sidney Friede and, of course, Elias Nerlich himself.

Youtuber and moderator Marc Eggers heated up the hall together with the field reporter - Waldhof Mannheim's right-back, streamer and Eligella friend Niklas "Willy" Wilson-Sommer.

Twitch star EliasN97 throws a football festival in Munich – even the RTL boss is enthusiastic.

© Intsagram: Eligella / Focus Clan AG (Montage)

MontanaBlack thrilled the fans at the Eligella Cup as Marcel Neuer

Things really got down to business on the field;

It was clear from all teams that they did not want to take the sporting aspect of the event lightly.

With the composition of the team, an attempt was made to create the greatest possible balance between sometimes outstanding and not so good kickers.

The audience was fully involved at every game, the fans loudly cheered on their idols on the pitch, with top people such as the German futsal international Ian Prescott-Claus or Alieu Sawaneh, who plays for Nerlich's new district league football team Delay Sports in Berlin, regularly provided highlights.

MontanaBlack also succeeded in doing this, who tried his hand at the Eligella Cup with "unearthly parades" as Marcel Neuer, which sometimes worked more and sometimes less well, but offered the people in the stands the best entertainment.

Although the Twitch streamer, who has 4.7 million followers on the platform, has been in the spotlight, the situation hasn't unsettled him.

"You ignore it completely.

I looked ahead and I don't really notice what's happening left and right, whether someone is screaming or not," said "Monte" in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.

Overall, the influencer from Buxtehude was impressed by the cup: "It's a cool event.

You get together, get to know people and meet people you haven't seen in a long time."

Elias Nerlich as coveted as Cristiano Ronaldo, celebrities at the Eligella Cup also in the stands

The celebrities were not only represented on the field, but also with the invited guests in the stands.

For example, Noah Okafor, football professional at FC Red Bull Salzburg and Swiss national player, or presenter Kai Pflaume gave the honor.

The FIFA content creators Fabio "Fifabio97" Sabbagh and Niklas "NikLugi" Luginsland were enthusiastic in interviews with IPPEN.MEDIA.

"What Eli is doing here is really crass and I would have loved to play, but unfortunately my injury prevented me," said Sabbagh, who plays for SV Heimstetten in the regional league.

"It's like a big class reunion and we've never had this incredible field of participants from the streaming scene," added Luginsland.

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In general, there was a very positive atmosphere in the hall and the fans obviously enjoyed being so close to their idols.

The rush for Elias Nerlich was so great that one could have thought Cristiano Ronaldo would be in the hall himself.

It is now no longer possible for the 24-year-old to go to events without bodyguards.

Sidney Friede was also in high demand, but took as much time as possible for the viewers and told our editorial network: "The people who fill the arena here are the reason why we are so big and can do our jobs.

Without them, the whole thing would be nothing more than wishful thinking.

Accordingly, they deserve our attention.”

A view of the Eligella Cup.

© ingame.de

Elias Nerlich sets new records for range with the Eligella Cup in Munich

All in all, Elias Nerlich can look back on the entire event as a great success.

Apart from a few small things, the process and the transmission went smoothly, we stayed right on schedule and the feedback on social media is almost exclusively positive.

An hour after the end of the event, Nerlich, who had been under maximum stress throughout the day, took the time for an exclusive conversation with IPPEN.MEDIA and described his emotional state.

"I'm incredibly relieved.

The most important thing was that all the fans are happy, the spectators at home had a nice evening and we managed that.”

The first figures that were communicated to him speak volumes.

"At the peak we probably had over 300,000 together with Twitch, although we hadn't streamed it and the RTL boss was also enthusiastic about me.

There were probably several million views across all channels.

That's awesome."

The second Real Life Eligella Cup not only sets new standards in terms of reach, but also defines the standard for other events, as they obviously work.

Even in the broad coverage of the classic media, the streamers are no longer a niche.

The event in Munich's Audi Dome is likely to reverberate for some time to come, and since the third edition has already been confirmed for next year, it can be eagerly awaited to see which new dimensions will be opened up by then.