In front of a lively crowd in London’s Soho, Ryan Hayward booked his place in the 2009 FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC) Final in Barcelona.
The crowd packed into Floridita in London's trendy Soho on March 2, 2009 were treated to a football fairytale as rank outsider Ryan Hayward won the FIWC UK Live Qualifier and booked his place in the Grand Final.
"I'm just excited about representing my country in Barcelona and getting to play more FIFA 09," he gasped as he was handed an oversized boarding pass in front of his friends and such football stars as Emmanuel Adebayor, Jack Collison, Jamie O'Hara and Armand Traore.
He then revealed that he had initially been on a reserve list, having lost to Chris Bullard in a preliminary qualifying event, and only knew he would be competing four days before the event. After winning his group he faced Bullard once again, this time beating the 2005 FIWC champion 2-1.
In the group stages, Chris Bullard seemed unstoppable. Playing as France, the professional gamer demolished his three opponents and revealed that he practices for up to 50 hours every week. "The best way to improve at this game is to play against good opposition," he said. "Even if you get beaten ten-nil at first, you'll soon notice an improvement. I sometimes play against Ben Andrews and some of the others guys here via PlayStation Network. I just love football."
One of his early victims was nine-year old Zach Crawford, who also plays for Oxford United in real life. "Well, I am only nine," he shrugged, when asked if he was disappointed to see his Manchester United lose to Bullard's France. "It's only for fun."
As the night progressed, the room warmed as dozens of thumbs flicked frantically across Wireless Controllers in preparation for the knockout stages. Demonstrations from freestyle football champion John Farnworth, martial arts siblings Chloe and Grace Bruce, and human beat machine The Pete Box entertained the crowd between matches.
Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor also stepped onto the stage to field questions from BBC Radio 1 DJs Chappers and Dave, pose for pictures with all of the competitors and to play a game of FIFA 09 against English actor and keen Arsenal fan, Joe Swash. He also revealed that teammates Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Samir Nasri are particularly good at FIFA 09.
It was noisy as the two finalists took to the stage. Hayward had overcome another much fancied player, Michael Barrett, while his final opponent, Graham Ellix, destroyed his semi-final foe 7-1.
Playing as Manchester United and France respectively, neither Hayward nor Ellix were reticent in attack, with a clutch of chances emerging for both players in the first thirty minutes. And after Benzema dinked a cute ship over Van der Sar for Ellix's France at the half-hour mark, the floodgates opened and the crowd were treated to a flurry of spectacular goals.
Hayward replied almost instantly, scoring with Michael Carrick, only for Ellix to re-establish the lead seconds later through an exquisite shot from the halfway line by Franck Ribery. However, Hayward came back from a goal behind to lead 3-2 at half-time and, adding another goal on 50 minutes, he finished the match a 4-2 winner. Disappointed but gracious in defeat, Ellix conceded that the best player had won. "He started well and just got better and better," he said.
After the final, everyone partied long into the night and enjoyed a few games of FIFA 09 under considerably less pressure than earlier. The road to the FIFA Interactive World Cup Final in Barcelona is at the feet of Ryan Hayward; he'll need to practice hard if he wants to taste victory again.
