Cup winners Real So So Bad

Plate winners St. George's Gems

Group Stage

Group 1 was won by Bauer Media. In what was a tight group, they fought off stiff competition from Gamestation Cambridge, AFC Sega and Sports Interactive A. It was Gamestation and Sega who would go on to join Bauer for the afternoon's Cup competition. Sports Interative narrowly missed out and had to make do with a place in the Plate.

Group 2 was dominated by three teams. Sony Playstation A, Xbox UK and Maverick Media could only be separated by goal difference after each won three of their four games. All qualified for the Cup with Sony Playstation doing so in pole position due to a superior goal difference, built largely on their miserly defence.

Perennial under achievers BGS won Group 3 comfortably. They won all four of their group games and looked good, racking up 24 goals in the process. They beat group rivals Konami Kickers 8-2 in the crucial game of this group to ensure they qualified for the Cup as group winners.

Industry Allstars were the second team to qualify from the group stage with a 100% record. The pick of their results came against Imagine Publishing, beating them 9-2. Connect Entertainment were the best of the rest in Group 4. They, along with third placed Splash Damage, joined Industry Allstars in the Cup.

Shop To pipped Real So So Bad to first place in Group 5. The pair met early on in the morning with Shop To running out 4-2 winners. Both were to meet again later in the competition. The other power struggle in this group was between Juicy FC and THQ. Both were fighting it out for the last available place in the Cup and it was the THQ who narrowly missed out.

TT Games, another team with a 100% record in the group stage, finished the morning's joint top scorers after amassing 33 goals over five games In Group 6. They beat second placed Relentless 6-3 in their opening game and then never looked backed. Their biggest win came against Capcom in the group's final game (9-0).

In Group 7, Technicolour A were the other team to score 33 goals. Their strong defence meant that they that they finished with the best goal difference of the morning (+28). Discstribution and Ubinese were the other teams to join Technicolour A in the Cup. This meant that Rebellion Oxford, AB Lightning and Universally Speaking had to make do with the Plate.

Group 8 was the token 'group of death' given it contained two past winners in Centresoft and Global Radio. However, it was last year's semi-finalists Rocksteady who won the group and were one of the standout teams from the morning session. Reigning champions Global Radio qualified for the cup only by the skin of their teeth, thanks mainly to their opening game victory against Zushi Games. Zushi would have considered themselves very unlucky not to have made it through to the Cup after claiming 9 points from the group stage.

Group 9 contained another heavy weight in the form of last year's beaten finalists Grainger Games. Back this year and hoping to go one further they only managed to qualify in second position behind the Daily Star. Both will have entered the Cup competition with high hopes.

Toystore FC won Group 10 after beating closest rivals Volatile Games 2-0 in the final game of the morning. One of the tighter groups of the morning, and it was The Lucky Coin Tossers who beat Testroniclabs and Liberty City Swingers to the final place in the Cup.

The Plate

The Plate competition was a chance for those teams who had got off to a slow start during the Group stage to really make something of their day. A perfect example of this was St. George's Gems. Having not won a single game all morning they started the afternoon session with their first win of the day. To their credit they managed this against a Sports Interactive side that had only just missed out on a place in the Cup by single point. From here they went on to beat Venom Cobras 5-2 in the second round and then THQ Darksiders 5-3 in the Quarter Finals. In the semi's they beat a very handy Zushi team 4-3 on penalties after the two sides had drawn 3-3 during normal time.

In the Final St. Georges Gems were to meet Imagine Publishing. They had booked there place after beating 2K, AB Lightning, Xbox EMEA and Liberty City Swingers all by a one goal margin. The Final proved one step too far, however, as St. George's clinch the 2009 Plate title with a 2-1 win.

The Cup

The first half of the draw for the Cup contained some big teams and consequently some big First Round results. The biggest of these being Rocksteady's demolition of Game Brent Cross 8-1, followed by Grainger Games 7-0 obliteration of Ubinese. Elsewhere in the First Round Bauer Media, BGS, Global Radio, Daily Star and Centresoft all won their first round games impressively. Centresoft continued their strong march towards the final with a second round victory over Technicolur A (4-1) and then bringing Global Radio's day to an end with a 5-1 win. At the semi-final stage they would meet Rocksteady who carried their impressive form forward from the group stage. They beat Bauer Media 5-2 in the Second Round before bringing Grainger Games day to an end in one of the games of the day (6-4). There was nothing really to choose from between the two semi-finalists but it was Rocksteady who eventually stood firm, beating Centresoft 4-1 and booking their place in the Final.

The second half of the draw was arguably the easier. Pick of the First Round results was Connect's 4-0 win over Technicolour B. Shop To and Volatile also won well, beating the Lucky Coin Tossers (4-1) and Gamestation Cambridge (5-3) respectively. The most notable result from Round Two was Real So So Bad exacting revenge over group rivals Shop To. They beat them 6-2 and were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with, this after they dispatched Industry Allstars 5-1 in the Quarter Finals, booking their place in the semis. Here they would meet Connect Entertainment who themselves had been steadily going through the gears. After coming through a tight Second Round game against TT Games (3-2) they beat Volatile 5-1. However, this was to be it for the Connect team with Real So So Bad proving too strong for them. They lost their Semi Final 4-1 meaning it would be Real So So Bad who would contest the final with Rocksteady. In what turned out to be a very cagey affair it was Real So So Bad who, against the odds, beat a Rocksteady team with their tails up. They recovered from a two goal deficit to force a penalty shootout and it was here where they managed to hold their nerve to be crowned MCV & Xbox Games 5s 2009 Cup Champions.

Group stages: Team 17 vs Capcom

Pick that one out...

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