Back in the familiar scenery of the Amadora gym, scene of numerous Mega Drive battles, the elitist of all 16-bit athletes gather once more alongside a batch of newcomers eager to challenge for the title of Twelfth Mega Drive Champion. However, that was not all... The Twelfth Mega Drive Championship heralded the return of Jorge Esteves. Not since the Sixth Tournament has the man who was dubbed "invicible" battled in active 16-bit glorious competition. Making him the ulitmate wildcard - how will the invincible one compare against a new generation of Portuguese Mega Drive superstars? How well will he perform when placed alongside the heros of two European Mega Drive Championships? The Twelfth Tournament wasn't laking in fire and spice, however, it still received the Jorge Esteves zest into mixing pot of tournament battle.

FIRST STAGE: GROUP ONE

Affectionately dubbed the "group of death" featuring Jorge Esteves, Alberto and Fátima Campos, David Magueijo and, an unfortunate, Joana Hamrol. From an unseeded position Jorge Esteves proceeded to romp his way convingly through the group, winning all but a game of Aquatic Games against Fátima Campos, he topped the table with twenty-one points. Alberto and Fátima Campos battled hard for the second qualifying spot into Round Two, leaving an off form David Magueijo behind them, complaining bitterly about his poor game selection and missing sleep - see also: Joe Kinnear. Fátima had been shrewd in tactically scattering her strongest games amongst her opponents, but this counted for nothing when her and Alberto drew with 15 points and a tiebreaker game of Micro Machines '96 had to be used. Any of the Micro Machines games are virtually foregone conclusions when Alberto Campos plays and this was to be no exception. In an unforgiving mood he dumped his sister from the contest, only moments after crushing her 8-0 on Tiny Toon ACME All Stars: Football - a novel sporting game in which the novelty can fade quite quickly.

FIRST STAGE: GROUP TWO

2008 European Champions; Dário Pelixo and Ferdinand Menéndez had been drawn together and would provide virtually impassable obstacles for anybody else in the group who wished to attain a qualifying place into the Second Stage. Both Armando Dias and Orlando Silva have shown they are competent Mega Drive players in the past, but against the two European Champions, the odds seemed stacked against them. A decidedly dismal performance from Orlando Silva saw him win just two of his home games and wind up slumping into fourth place, well short of the two qualification places to the Second Stage. Armando Dias kept pace with both Dário and Ferdinand who predictably dominated the group, but it was a defeat to Orlando Silva on Columns that would cost Armando the opportunity to take both the European Champions to a tiebreaker. He finished with fifteen-points, three behind Dário and Ferdinand. Maria finished at the foot of the group, her only victory coming against a disappointing Orlando Silva.

FIRST STAGE: GROUP THREE

The smaller group of four members left little for margins of error. Luís Xavier, Hugo Vieria and Joâo Pires have all shown their potential to challenge with the best, however, such a challenge is not consistent. These are players of very similar abilities and so the competition for qualification will be fierce. It was Luis Xavier who performed the best, winning all three of his "home" games and qualifying accordingly. Hugo Vieira, Pedro D. Mendes and João Pires all dropped points in their "home" games and shared some very close results, but it was João's "away" victory against Hugo on Fatal Fury that secured him a place in the Second Stage, although this qualification was not secured until a further victory over Hugo Vieira, this time on Sonic 3.

FIRST STAGE: GROUP FOUR

Defending Mega Drive Champion Pedro Bragança was confronted with his biggest nightmare – sports games! He faced the winner of the Eighth Mega Drive Championship and fans favourite, Arsénio Ferraz, and competent opponents in Pedro Mendes and Ricardo Carvalho. Tiago Figueiredo was a newcomer at the Twelfth Tournament and his inexperience was quick to show, typified when he selected a fighting game against the fighting genius Pedro Bragança. Pedro bagged the away win and qualfied for the Second Stage following an unexpected victory over Pedro Mendes on FIFA International Soccer. Arsénio showed his tactical brain by selecting to play Pedro Bragança on Pete Sampras Tennis and duely scored a 6-1 victory. While Ricardo gave good performances in his home games, he was unable to score a single victory in his away games and was eliminated in favour of Arsénio Ferraz who scored an away victory against Tiago Figueiredo on Sonic 3.

SECOND STAGE

While the First Stage saw some very strong preformances in some very finely balanced groups all but one of the seeded players managed to advange to the next round of the tournament. The re-emergance of Jorge Esteves, the only non-seed to qualify, at the expence of Fátima Campos. Now the seeds would go head-to-head, battling for their place in the final and qualification for the 2010 European Mega Drive Championship. In Group A, Arsénio Ferraz seemed to have his work cut out, drawn against arguablly two of the toughest players in the competition; Dário Pelixo and Jorge Esteves, as well as the scheming Luís Xavier. In Group B the pressure was on João Pires, drawn against three Internationally capped players; Alberto Campos, Ferdinand Menendez and Pedro Bragança. Both groups battled over six Mega Drive 4-player titles: ACME All-Stars, Micro Machines: Military, Gauntlet IV, Street Racer, Micro Machines '96 and Mega Bomberman. Unlike previous Portuguese Tournaments only the winners of the groups qualified for Stage Three, with the semi-final abolished.

The "invincible" Jorge Esteves showed himself to be not quite so invincible as he performed badly on the first three games. He rallied to score well in both Street Racer, Micro Machines '96 and Mega Bomberman, but this was only enough to secure himself a third place finish. The winner of Group A was Dário Pelixo who excelled in all the games, but was pushed all the way by Luis Xavier and in the end it was just a single point that seperated the top two. Arsénio Ferraz was never really in contention and seemed contented just to pick up the occassional point.

By the final two games of Group B it was Ferdinand Menedez who seemed on course for the final, and he did not disappoint, qualifying for Stage Three with twenty-one points. The biggest shock of the group was the capitulation of European legend Alberto Campos who limped into third place, not only underachieving, but being crushed on his talisman game Micro Machines '96. Second place went to Pedro Bragança who score a convincing, albeit surprising, win on Mega Bomberman. And while João Pires started well on ACME All-Stars, his points quickly dried up and he slipped down the league until he finished bottom of the group with seven points.

THE FINAL

Both Dário Pelixo and Ferdinand Menendez had faced each other in the First Stage – and not surprisingly, both of them decided to repeat their group picks. Unsurprising both men won comfortably again – Ferdinand mantaining his invincibility on Ball Jacks while Dário exploited Ferdinand’s known weakness on Virtua Racing. Ferdinand's next pick could not have been anticipated and his wild card selection: A missile-free Combat Cars, was a massive mistake on his part and he was haplessly beaten. Dário continued to push his opponent's weaknesses and selected NBA Jam: Tournament Edition where Ferdinand would have to upset the odds and earn victory on a sports game - it didn't happen! Dário Pelixo was crown the Twelfth Mega Drive Champion, earning his third title victory and qualifying for Team Portugal for a third time.

The final word comes from Portuguese Mega Drive legend Jorge Esteves: "It's still the same joyful environment, but now everyone plays much better!"