With a fantastic game, Varga “BendeJuice” Bendegúz won the first place in June at the grand final of the eFootball 2022 national selection competition at the PlayIT Show in Budapest, so he can represent our country at the upcoming September European Championship in Montenegro. Speaking of which, we talked to the 20-year-old excellence of the TrollFoci-Hálószaggátó Esport team, who is an active participant in football not only in the virtual space, but also in real life: after his professional career, he is currently studying to become a football coach.

First of all, we congratulate you on your victory, thanks to which you became a member of the Hungarian E-sport Team. What expectations did you have going into the competition?

Thank you very much! To be honest, I did not expect this result. Of course, I start every tournament wanting to win, but this time I tried to stay grounded in reality. Before, I mostly competed in the FIFA game, and I played less than my rivals with the 2022 edition of the football simulator, so I did not aim to win. But I’m so glad it worked out!

Please, for the sake of those who are less familiar with the world of e-soccer, tell me what the difference is between the two games.

eFootball is an individual game, so all the characters on the field are controlled by one player, while in the game marked by the name of the International Football Association, we play mainly in teams, 11 against 11, just like in regular football, i.e. in traditional positions, where everyone has their own character. Of course, we can fight in the latter as well in a one-on-one formation – I also start matches in this game mode, and because of my results, I was signed this year as a 1v1 player by TrollFoci-Hálószaggátó Esport. Actually, I transferred the knowledge I had acquired there to eFootball, so it was not unknown to me to “lead” an entire team. In the Grand Final in June, I played with Manchester United, as it is my favorite and my favorite soccer player, Cristiano Ronaldo, is also playing there at the moment.

You reached the finals of the eFootball national selection tournament as the eighth seed, you could say you managed to win from the “last” place. Which clash presented you with the biggest challenge?

All matches were very close, as I had to prove myself against excellent players. For starters, he will face last year’s member of the national team, Cujo (Keresztes Hunor), who is ranked first, who is also a competitor of TrollFoci-Hálószaggátó Esport. He already set the bar very high in the first match, as he equalized in the 92nd minute and scored the winning goal in the 121st minute, but I managed to win our next two meetings. The second round, where I played with Chris Majorosi, MTK’s e-athlete, was also very challenging, but the upper house finals were the most difficult. We fought a very big prestige battle with Tibikun: in our first match, for example, we converted from a deficit, and in the third, I was able to equalize only in the 120th minute, and finally I managed to get the better of them in a penalty shootout. Fortunately, I was able to concentrate well throughout, including in the final, against GodorDonat, who also started in the colors of MTK. I won our first match with Ronaldo’s goal in the 90th minute, while our final match was also on penalties.

You have more than six years of e-sports experience, but you are not only a fan, but also an active participant in football. Last year you said goodbye to your professional career, during which, for example, you were able to stand on the podium twice with the youth team of BVSC-Zugló in the second division, then you also made your debut for Ikarus BSE in the first division of BLSZ, and then you decided on the university, where you are studying to become a football coach. Why did you choose this profession?

I want to be a football coach because my father is too. I was actually born on the soccer field, and when I was four years old, I fell in love with it so much that since then soccer has been my life, and that’s partly why I started playing it in the virtual space as well. I think sports and games are in perfect harmony with each other, I think it’s a very good thing, for example, that you can try to do tricks learned virtually in real life, and the reverse is also true. By the way, in the FIFA game, I realize what I didn’t know during my professional career: I played there as an inside defender, because I was always taller than my peers, so I was considered a “slower”, “big” kid, but here I live in the right wing position except that I am short and very agile. As an e-athlete, the past year turned out to be a very positive and experience-filled period for me, as I took 4th place in FIFA22 individually at the autumn K&H E-cup, and after I became a member of the Hungarian E-sport National Team, we won the The thirteenth season of the K&H Hungarian National E-Sports Championship.

The upcoming European Championship will also be a qualification qualifier for the 14th IESF World Championship in December. How do you prepare for the competition?

I practice the game for about 5-6 hours a day. I have the opportunity to do all this because I get all the support from the Hungarian E-sport Association, from HUNESZ and from my team, so that I can perform as well as possible may my preparation be successful, which is the most important thing in my life right now. I am very grateful to them for this, as well as to Cujo, who also helps me a lot in this.

Source: Esport press material