ePremier League

Leeds United are ePremier League champions for the first time as Olle “Ollelito” Arbin and Tom Stokes secured the 2022/23 title with victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Grand Final.

For 2021 finalist Ollelito, it was third time lucky representing Leeds, having also reached the semi-finals last season.

The winners will take home a share of the £30,000 champions’ prize fund at the end of a dramatic weekend in east London.

With three former finalists among the eight teams to advance to the quarter-finals after a frenetic Day 1 at the Here East Studios, the drama only intensified on Day 2, when both players’ results on Xbox and PlayStation went towards an aggregate score to determine the winners of each tie.

See: ePL Day 1 review

Spurs survived a rollercoaster in their last-eight encounter with Aston Villa as 2020 champion Tom Leese recovered from 2-0 down in the second half of his PlayStation leg against Conkai to win 3-2, after a 1-1 draw in the first leg.

An extra-time winner for West Ham set up a semi-final London derby meeting of ePL legends. Spurs’ Leese beat defending champion GoalPoacher 5-2 in the match-up of former champions, before Gorilla eased past Dan Wright 2-0.

All eyes then turned to the bottom half of the bracket, with Liverpool and Leeds, two of the tournament favourites, drawn against one another after both impressing in the group stage.

With a semi-final place in the balance the action came down to the final minutes of the tie, Leeds’ Stokes heading home from a corner in stoppage time to beat Diogo 4-2 after Tekkz, another former ePL champion, had posted a 1-0 win over Ollelito in the first leg.

Crystal Palace also overturned a first-leg deficit to beat ePL debutants Nottingham Forest, EthxnH downing RSD 3-1 after RedLac had put Forest in front with a 3-2 win.

But in the semi-finals it was Ollelito’s turn to hit back in the second leg, firing Leeds into the final with a 4-0 victory that overturned EthxnH’s 3-1 victory against Stokes in the first leg.

Both Spurs and Leeds were chasing their first ePL title in the final, but with plenty of experience in the ranks. 

Leese was crowned champion representing Watford in 2020, while Ollelito had lost out to Shellzz of Man City in the 2021 final. Both Gorilla and Stokes were also playing at their fourth successive ePL finals this weekend.

Ollelito picked up where he left off in the semis against Gorilla, romping to a 3-0 victory, to leave Stokes in charge heading into the final match of the weekend against Leese. 

This time it proved one comeback too many for the Spurs man, who was briefly 1-0 up before Stokes equalised to secure a 1-1 draw and a 4-1 aggregate victory that made Leeds ePL champions.

ePL Finals Day 2 results

See: ePL Finals Day 1 results and standings

Read: Club profiles & ePL competition explained