Recently, the kind folk at Lidl Ireland invited us over to Frankfurt to check out their innovative Facebook app, called the Lidl Fan Cup, in action. It really has to be seen to be believed…
When we were first told about
Lidl’s Fan Cup Facebook app we thought, ‘Automated foosball? This is too good to be true’, which is something that a lot of people were thinking at the time.
Basically, the idea of the game is to play a foosball penalty shootout against someone else in the world on a foosball table located in Frankfurt, Germany. The unique selling point here is that you ACTUALLY control the players on the foosball table in Frankfurt, no matter where in the world you’re currently located.
The aim of the game is to win a ‘best of three’ shoot-out against another Facebook user and if you win, points will be awarded to your country. That’s one of the great things about the app, because while the Boys in Green won’t be lifting any golden trophies in Brazil this summer, Ireland could very well win the Lidl Fan Cup.
Northern Ireland is currently in the lead, as you’ll see in the league table below, so check out the
free app and try bag as many points as you can for Ireland. We're currently in 12th place, so there's still plenty of time to climb the table!
The Lidl Fan Cup Arena in Frankfurt didn’t look like much from the outside as it was located inside an old warehouse slap-bang in the middle of industrial estate just 20mins away from Frankfurt Airport. But as they say, ‘looks can be deceiving’.
The warehouse was kitted out with 50 specially designed automated foosball tables that you can control via the Lidl Fan Cup app on Facebook and each table is split into two making 100 pitches in total. There are 23 countries in the Lidl Fan Cup and a flag hanging at the back of the arena represents each one. Look, there's the Irish tricolour!
If you don’t believe that the tables are controlled automatically in real time, then you can always check out the two live feed cameras that look over the Lidl Fan Cup Arena 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You’ll find the cameras by clicking left or right after you hit 'play' on the
Lidl Fan Cup app.
All in all, it was a real eye-opening experience to see months of hard work by the app’s lead designer, Philipp Schlosser, and his team all wrapped up in a finished product that worked perfectly.
It’s a seriously addictive game to play and if you find yourself spending hours clicking away at the screen trying to win just one more match then remind yourself, it’s all for the good of your country. COME ON YOU BOYS IN GREEN!!!
Check out the
Lidl Fan Cup app for yourself over here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdOsj6psKW8
