The plane containing Doc Shakib, Fireman Sam and Mr Smith, the three souls set to represent the English peoples on Mega Drive, landed in Lisbon at 7pm. The sun was just starting to descend and the city was starting to cool, although much warmer than Mordor Luton. It was here the first excuse was born "If we don't win we'll just blame the weather." Mr Smith declared to which Doc Shakib added "We'll say we haven't acclimatised." Obviously England's hideous record at International Mega Drive Championshipary was negated. Even during the 2007 Anglo-Irish Mega Drive Tournament, the event that propelled the competitions onto the International Stage, England were battered by an Irish team who were still slightly drunk from the previous night and had little sleep in the bargain.

Doc Shakib:

Qualified by default. With Earl Holbrook withdrawing from the national team, Doc Shakib, as the member who finished fourth in Division One, was offered a slot on the team. He has a wealth of experience and three English league titles, one knockout and one challenge victory to his name, as well as inconsistency and the mantle of worst player statistically in Europe.

"I was more looking forward to going to Portugal with two fine gentlemen, but now on the plane I am looking forward to the tournament itself as well. I'm interested to see how the Portuguese will handle organising the event. I'm feeling good, I'm feeling good about the event. I think we've got a good chance of doing something respectable. We'll probably finish third but won't embarass ourselves and we'll put up a good fight in our games."

Games: Golden Axe 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition and Virtua Racing.

Fireman Sam:

Qualified in second place at the Twentieth Mega Drive Championship. In only his second tournament, joining at the Eighteenth Mega Drive Championship, he dominated Division Two to earn promotion before he showed his 16-bit abilities at the Nineteenth Tournament to earned a spot in the national team. Not afraid to offer his two pennith, his latest suggestion is that the "Pridelands" level of the Lion King should be the next Challenge.

"We're not leaving without any gold. I believe in us the difference between the last shot and this shot is the Fireman."

Games: Micro Machines '96, Sensible Soccer, Streets of Rage 2 and Super Street Fighter 2

The Lion King Challenge?... maybe not!

Mr Smith:

Qualified by flaunting his authority. Nearly two-years since this former legend of English Mega Drive Championshipary took part in his "final" competitive game, desiring once again to pick up his controller, with the withdrawal of Commander Graham from the national team the self-confessed "Sonic God" seized the place as his own. Eight English league victories and winning the Tournament Knockout twice, Mr Smith is still ranked the best English player statistically.

"It is going to be wonderful to meet the old friends we made during the 2008 European Mega Drive Championship and the opportunity to make new ones in Lisbon. While we might not win the competition we certainly will be looking to give a more respectable performance. It will be tough but I hope we will rise to the challenge and score a couple of wins."

Games: Columns, Lemmings, Sonic 3 and Streets of Rage 3.

This year, as well as the usual classics of Sonic 2, Mega Bomberman, Micro Machines and Street Fighter 2, there was an array of dross debuting: Herzog Zwei, Sampras '96, Grandslam Tennis and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story joined the traditional contemptible rubbish of Combat "could we have made this game any less fun?" Cars and Dragon "what the chuff is happening here?" Ball Z. Rock 'N' Roll Racing and Sensible Soccer were the debuting games that appeared most decent. Notable absences were World Cup Italia '90, a game that has produced a number of epic battles in English, German and Portuguese Championships, Eternal Champions, Mortal Kombat (not necessarily a bad thing), Road Rash and Ball Jacks.

I can go no further without mentioning is the warmth and hospitality of our Portuguese hosts. After being met at the airport they spent the entire day prior to the tournament showing us some of the wonderful sights of Sintra, a picturesque town in the hills outside Lisbon. We roamed around the town before heading off to the castle, then to Cabo da Roca - the western most point on mainland Europe (Geographically Iceland is further west), then, with the sun setting, the beach before going to a village party that lasted until the small hours. A fantastic day building up to the main event.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM SINTRA
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2009 saw the Mega Drive Championships become affiliated with the Anipop festival - a celebration of Japanese culture held in the centre of Lisbon. For the first time a real audience was present at an International contest and although many of the spectators drifted between the various events hosted by the Anipop, it will certainly have increased the reputaion of the tournament entity.

Amazingly, after two games in, England led the competition. Mr Smith managed to finish second on Mega Bomberman before Doc Shakib won in the Casino Night Zone. The first quarter of the competition was a strong one for England with Fireman Sam beating Germany on Micro Machines '96 and Doc Shakib and Mr Smith combining well on Sampras Tennis '96 to score a victory over Portugal and gave the English Team seven points. This would be the pinnacle of the English achievement. What followed was a lengthy decline, as over the next four hours the universe realigned itself accordingly, the English were overhauled to fall from first to a very familiar third.

				P		W		D		L		Pts
1st		Portugal		8		6		0		2		12
2nd		England		8		3		1		4		7
3rd		Germany		7		2		0		5		4

Dário Pelixo, Alberto Campos and Pedro Bragança

Team Portugal were the rampant winners of the 2009 European Mega Drive Championship. They started convincingly and maintained their amazing form throughout the competition.Incredibly they were only beaten five times throughout the entire contest and the three team members were ranked highest. Defending their title that they first claimed in England in 2008, the second half of the competition was largely an irrelevance for them, so far out of sight, they won the competition with thirteen games remaining. Showboating, casual mockery and Rául Juliá quotes were in order with the Portuguese on a different plane to their rivals.

"You came here expecting to find a madman..."

LEAGUE STANDINGS - AFTER 30 GAMES

P

W

D

L

Pts

1st

Portugal

21

17

0

4

34

2nd

Germany

20

8

0

12

16

3rd

England

20

6

1

13

13

Team Germany gave a valiant display at the 2008 Tournament in order to push the Portuguese to the final game in the contest for the title. History failed to repeat itself as Team Germany struggled to get any momentum going, they languished well behind the Portuguese and English. The turning point came with game 31 NHL '96, with both England and Germany, jostling for position in the league, going head-to-head on this unpredictable ice-hockey sim, there was a lot at stake. England opened the scoring and were dominant throughout the game with their direct, non-passing, style they kept the German goal under constant threat. However, with a counter-attack in the third-period the Germans were able to get the game back on level terms. Against the run of play, the Germans added a second goal to their tally before adding a third following a beautiful piece of individual skill that put the game beyond all doubt. After this the English challenge capitulated and the Germans were able to pull themselves into a deceptively comfortable second spot.

Richard Neumann, Tobias Berg, Sebastian Sponsel

"All we need is to win our final four games and we'll finish second." Mr Smith whispered to Fireman Sam with a wink and deluded nod. England went and lost their final four games. Yet this was a different type of thrashing to last year. Although against some of the more comitted and practiced opponents, who trained to discover various cheap moves on a number of games, the English were the proverbial lambs to the slaughter, some good performances were given. Doc Shakib on WWF: Royal Rumble, Mr Smith on Speedball 2 (which I cede is actually a bloody decent game!), Fireman Sam on Streets of Rage 2 and the NHL '96 multi-player were all brilliant attempts on behalf of the English.

2009 EUROPEAN MEGA DRIVE CHAMPIONSHIP PHOTOGRAPHS
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So what of the future of the International game of Mega Drive? Predictability is a terrible curse for any competition (See also: Scottish Premier League) and although nobody can take anything away from the amazingly dominant win of Team Portugal it seems there will need to be additional nations to prevent the contest becoming stifled. As long as the onus remains on enjoyability and excitement the International events will expand further. The sky is the limit in regards to what can be achieved, although England for their part are unlikely to remove the mantle of European Mega Drive whipping boys, but who really cares about that when you are surrounding by good friends, classic games and decent coffee?

Obregado folks.