It's rare that you see a Seattle native sporting the colors of the Portland Timbers.
But that's precisely what happened on March 2 when Nick Mars, 22, represented the Portland Timbers in the MLS March to Soccer Challenge in New York City.
The event, a FIFA 17 tournament that was broadcast live on EA's Twitch channel, pitted eight FIFA gamers against one another in a highly competitive single-elimination competition that saw Mars dispatch each of his opponents in quick succession.
When Mars won, he held up his winner's plaque, a Timbers scarf hanging prominently around his neck.
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That victory will now send Mars to Vancouver, BC where on April 8 he will play against 15 more of the best FIFA players from North and South America in a regional final that will determine participation in the FIFA Ultimate Team Championship in Berlin on May 20.
It's a dream come true for Mars who up until the MLS-sponsored tournament in New York City had never before taken part in a public competition.
But while Mars may have been new to the in-person tournament scene, he already had thousands of hours of experience playing against some of the best FIFA gamers on the planet.
Mars had been playing FIFA since 2003 and first realized that he had a special talent for the game when his friends told him it wasn't fun playing against him any more. The only option left for him was to take his talents online where he could compete against some of the best FIFA players from around the world every day.
That experience showed in New York as Mars defeated his three opponents 3-2, 4-2, and 3-1 utilizing a high-pressing and possession-based style of play that he says he learned from watching his favorite team in world soccer, FC Barcelona.
“I love watching Barcelona because you know it's always going to be an exciting game just because of the way they keep the ball, the way that they attack with the ball,” Mars said. “I think it's the proper way to play and after watching that, I was like, 'I want to do this for FIFA.' And sure enough, it seemed to work.”
To get a sense of the amount of practice required for Mars to reach the level that he has, consider that most competitive FIFA gamers have been playing 40 games every weekend (which averages out to around four-and-a-half hours of playing per day) since FIFA 17 debuted in September as part of the FIFA FUT Championship.
And that number hardly accounts for the time spent playing during the rest of the week.
By comparison then, a few matches in an evening or over the course of an entire day seems like a relief. Yet even that experience comes with its own set of unique challenges.
“It's a lot of pressure because each and every single game you want to win but at the same time you have to remember that you don't know what your opponent can bring,” explained Mars. “So you have to take it one game at a time and just focus on that one game and after that focus on the [next one].”
More remarkable even than Mars' achievement in New York, however, is how his experience representing the Timbers in that tournament has changed his entire perspective on the famous Cascadia rivalry.
“[The Timbers organization and fans] showed me nothing but love and support,” Mars says. “I'm so blessed to have been given the opportunity.
“I just have massive respect for the club and am thankful that they...were a part of it with me.”
Mars, who is currently coaching youth soccer and working on his coaching license, is simply grateful for everything that soccer has brought him in his life.
“I just got into the game and started watching soccer every day,” he said. “The game just got to me. I love the game. I love playing it. I love teaching it. It's fun. I'm so thankful that my dad put me into soccer and really pushed me to play because I don't know where I would be without soccer.”
