A season ticket-holder at the Amex Stadium, Ryan Caister never imagined he would be wearing the Brighton & Hove Albion shirt and representing his club in this week's ePremier League Final.
Caister has supported the club for more than 14 years but only started playing EA SPORTS FIFA consistently this year.
Despite such relative inexperience, he navigated his way through the qualifiers and the Brighton Club playoff to find himself in the running for the inaugural trophy in the Xbox category.
However, he had to get past a particularly tricky opponent, George Bacon, in the Brighton Xbox final to make it to the London showpiece that starts on Thursday.
"I played George three times in the qualifiers and lost three times," he said. "I thought I probably wouldn’t get to the final but thankfully it went my way.
"It's going to take some time to process."
Ryan puts his success down to two things: enjoyment and strategy.
"I almost have to come up with a plan to score goals," he says. "That's something I enjoy doing.
"[My game is] quite slow, possession-based and annoying to opposition players, which hopefully forces them into making mistakes."
Caister is hoping for similar success starting on Thursday.
Also in this series
Part 1: From FIFA in his room, to playing for Everton
Part 3: Meet the ePremier League Xbox finalists
Part 4: Meet the ePremier League PlayStation finalists
Part 5: How to watch the ePremier League Final
Part 6: 'It doesn't get better than representing Newcastle'
Part 7: Liverpool ePL stars' different paths to final
