26 November 2008

By Romily Broad

The UK's leading FIFA player, Chris Bullard (CHRISSYB), attended a couple of MEET YOUR MATCH events last week, and encountered a stern challenge from the same wannabe FIFA superstar in both Redditch and Birmingham.

Chris, who starred at EA's Be The One event in Trafalgar Square, London, last month (listen to our interview with him HERE), first joined the action on 22 November at Gamestation in Redditch. He stomped his authority all over the first round of competition, pounding Theredsultan 9-0, which was followed by a comprehensive 4-0 victory over DamonMcTighe in the semi-finals. That put ChriSSyB through to the final, where he met the previously unknown Hawkesy92.

Hawkesy92 had shown his intent in his earlier rounds, too, with a 7-0 battering of RoryRound in the first and a 4-0 win over AdamKelly in the semi. The final was a close-fought affair - by all accounts much closer than anything else on the day - but ChriSSyB's experience paid off in the end, seeing him take the tournament with a 2-1 win.

Which teed both competitors up nicely for the following day, when they were both to compete in a Meet Your Match event at the Global Gaming Arena in Birmingham.

A bigger event, this one. Five individual contests took place, with ChriSSyB and Hawkesy92 involved in all of them.

The first tourney saw ChriSSyB knocked out in a 3-1 defeat to Ben Andrews, but the champ returned in the second event to romp home 4-1 in the final against Mob_Jamie.

Hawkesy92 then announced his attendance by taking the third crown of the day with victories over Breeze, Mr Lee7 and JimmyWillis4. He then fought through in the fourth event to set up a mouth-watering repeat showdown with ChriSSyB.

Well, we say mouth-watering. We weren't actually there. But we're sure a mouth must have watered at some point. Ours would have. Maybe it was dinnertime. Anyway, the finalists faced off in another closely fought game. Hawkesy92 gained the honours this time with a 4-3 win, making amends for his defeat the previous day.

Both, however, would be defeated in the final event. The victor of the day's first contest, Ben Andrews, had clearly been watching very closely. He knocked out Hawkesy92 3-0 in the semi-final before taking down ChriSSyB 4-0 in the final.

It would seem no-one is safe in the world of competitive FIFA. Not even the best.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks be to the MYM Admins, who as well as running the shows also sent us these reports and photos.

Did you attend either of these events? Let us know in the comments bit down there. And keep an eye on MEET YOUR MATCH for new events organised near you.