Adam “DreamR” Barton has had an extraordinary first competitive year. The Welshman reflects on his season, talks about joining Hashtag United and looks ahead at closing his rookie campaign with a bang in London.

• How do you feel your competitive season went? Considering this has been my first competitive season, I couldn’t have asked for a better start. I’ve been able to qualify for all of the major tournaments throughout the year and met a lot of my goals so far and exceeding them in some cases, such as signing for Hashtag United during the Gfinity Challenger Series draft. I just hope this can continue but overall I am very happy with my debut year.
• What are your goals going into the FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final? My goals going into the FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final are first and foremost to play to the best of my ability and the way I know I can. From there anything is possible. The way I look at it is why enter a competition if your goal is not to win? My first objective will be to qualify from the group and then take every game as it comes.
• Who is the rival you are most looking forward to playing against in London? I’m looking forward to playing Kurt as I’ve never played him at [an event] before whereas I’ve already matched up against a lot of the household names previously. I think it will make for a good game.
• Who is the best player you have ever played against? The best player I’ve played against is my most recent opponent at an event, MSDossary. His ability to adapt to [any] playstyle makes him very difficult to play against.
• You joined Hashtag United before the Gfinity Series. What did you do to take full advantage of this opportunity? Since joining Hashtag United I’ve tried to get involved in the industry as much as I could to try to gain insight of what it takes to make the extra step in the FIFA esports industry. I attended the Gfinity Elite Series every week other than the first even when not required to try learn how to adapt to the situations I will find myself in and see how others deal with it. I’ve gained knowledge from my teammates who have been a massive help. Overall it’s been a massive change from watching these tournaments to participating in them and being apart of this team has helped the transition enormously. It’s given me opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise and the people have been really welcoming.
• With Hashtag United you have had the opportunity to meet and be teammates with some of the best and most seasoned FIFA competitive players in the world. How has that helped your own development and career? Meeting, speaking to, and becoming friends/teammates with seasoned professionals has really opened my eyes to what it really takes to become the best at what we do. The amount of work that goes unseen is incredible from each and every competitor. This has given me motivation to be better and work harder to achieve my goals but it has also helped me to pick myself up after an unsuccessful event in Manchester and put things right in Amsterdam. It’s helped me to learn how to deal with pressure and I think it has massively accelerated my development as a player.
• You will be the only competitor at the Grand Final from Wales. How much would it mean to the Welsh FIFA community to have a world champion of their own? I’ve had a surprising amount of support from the Welsh FIFA community so it would be great to be able to pay that back with a big performance at the grand finals. Maybe it would inspire more people to get involved in competitive FIFA in the future which would be amazing.

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