The event, being at Sky Sports Studios in Isleworth, brings together the 16 best eFootball clubs and organisations from across the globe. 

Joining two-time champions Brondby IF in Group A are Prime NINJA of Japan and England’s Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Manchester City eSports.

Group B is made up of England’s NoFuchsGiven eSports and Imperial, Denmark’s Tricked Esport and the United States' FaZe Clan, while Group C comprises Turkey’s Futbolist, Germany’s VFL Bochum 1848 and France’s Dijon FCO and Team Vitality.

The Netherlands' AFC Ajax and ECV Esports feature in Group D along with Saudi Arabia’s AlNassr FC and Germany’s KiNG eSports. 

Each team will compete with two players - one on Xbox and one on PlayStation.

Group-stage action is scheduled for tomorrow before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals take centre stage on Sunday (February 10).

All of the teams play each other in a team match-up in the group stage.

The first match is contested by the PlayStation players from each team, while the second match is contested by the Xbox players from each team.

PlayStation and Xbox players will then team up to compete against the opposing side in the third match.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the knock-out stage, in which each team match-up will be the best of three.

If the first and second matches result in a draw, the PlayStation and Xbox players will team up to contest a third match against the opposing side.

The overall winning team will receive prize money of $40,000 (£31,000/€35,300).

Esports featured as a demonstration sport on the programme at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat.

It was also included as a demonstration event at last year's Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, with the potential for it to become a full medal event at the 2022 edition in Hangzhou in China.

A declaration from the Olympic Summit in December, however, poured cold water on the prospects of esports being included on the Olympic programme in the near future.

Among the problems with esports identified by the Olympic Summit was that some games are violent and, therefore, "are not compatible with the Olympic values and therefore cooperation with them is excluded".

They also pointed to the fact that the industry is evolving rapidly, with the changing popularity of specific games and the rapid development towards augmented reality and virtual reality, the fragmented nature of the industry and the fact that it is commercially driven.

A distinction was drawn, however, between esports/egames and esports simulation games, such as FIFA.

The Summit called for "accelerated cooperation" with these kinds of esports, urging International Federations to explore the "potential benefits and applications of the electronic and virtual versions of their sports".