Violet Berlin did not participate

The History
It all started with Yahoo! in the early 2000's, before Google dominated the Internet and Yahoo stood at the pinnacle of online utilities; everybody had a Yahoo Mail, a shitty website on Geocities (ourselves included) and Ross Willett set up a Yahoo Group that proudly announced "THE UK RETRO CHAMPIONSHIPS". If we are being completely honest, Ross may have been a touch ambitious, especially stating that they would need approximately 1,000 people willing to participate. This group is still live and has 36 participants.(https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/UKretro_championships/info)

We took this opportunity to introduce ourselves to Ross and invited him to join our competitions, which were exclusively on Sega's 16-bit colossus, the Mega Drive. Ross almost made an appearance at the 18th Tournament in 2008, however, it was not until 2016 that he finally made it to England to show the world what Scotland could do on the Sega Mega Drive; joint fourth was the answer! Ross returned for the 2017 event and performed considerably better with a comprehensive third place finish.

On 1 October 2017, Ross Willett, achieved his ambition as eight players assembled to contest the Scottish Mega Drive Championship. The spirit of the Mega Drive Championships endured, with the players mainly amused by their own ineptitude whilst enjoying the nostalgic awesome of 16-bit gaming. We are also proud to declare that the Scottish Mega Drive Championships were endorse by Violet Berlin... well, she held up a piece of paper with the words "Scottish Mega Drive Championship" which is more than good enough for us.

The action at the Scottish Championship

The excessive game of Columns was quickly followed up by WWF Royal Rumble. This game was met by a wave of ignorance from the competitors with nobody entirely sure what they were doing. Leaping in and out of the ring brought much hilarity to this round. The final saw Gaz Cormack slaughter Ross Willett, who had previously shown his quality by winning a WWF Royal Rumble round at the 2017 Mega Drive Championship.

Streets of Rage 2 is an awesome side-scrolling beat ‘em up with catchy tunes, good graphics and is often remembers more fondly than the other two games in the Mega Drive trilogy. This was a swift game, as the reliable Axel, Blaze, Max and Skate went head-to-head. Gaz Cormack took a lead at the top of the table with a 2-1 victory over second placed Nick Atkinson in the final, we moved onto the next round!

Virtua Racing, the awesome 16-bit game with polygons the size of boulders (although less aesthetically pleasing) and cars that handle like boulders. The premise is always simple enough, press B and zoom around the track, slowing for the tighter corners. This turned out to be another successful round for Graham Carroll, who beat Alan Rutter 2-1 in the final.

After the 2017 Mega Drive Championship withdrew Greatest Heavyweights from the line-up, Ross was determined to show the worth of boxing games as competitive titles. Evander Holyfield Boxing was selected for the Scottish line-up and turned out to be one of the most welcome additions to the competition. Each match went the distance and Ross was able to showboat by knocking out all his opponents... Even dispatching Nick in the final in just one round.

Road Rash 2 saw a bit of an epic moment for Gaz McCormick and disaster for Ross Willett. Trailing first placed Ross Willett in 9th, Ross decided to drive into a car, costing him dearly and allowing Gaz to close the gap. Ross still headed the race, however, after deciding to fall from his bike again; this time by erroneously driving into a Moose, allowed Gaz to steal the game at the death. Sneaking into the final, however, was the end of the line for Gaz where he lost to Graham Carroll.

Vega v Chun Li in the USA (Balrog stage)

The next round was Mortal Kombat II. Gaz wasted everybody. In the final Graham wanted to quit when he was 2-0 down, but after some peer pressure, he saw out the inevitable 4-0 drubbing.

Micro Machines provided the usual chaotic laughter that is to be expected at a Mega Drive Championship. The final saw Ross defeat Nick, however, not before a hilarious encounter on the pool table track. Ross held the advantage until the final lap when Nick pulled the score back to 4-4. Ross, however, was not to be beaten and scored two quick points to claim the victory. The Micro Machines round saw Willy score his first point of the event, having stubbornly refused to score any before this game.

Super Street Fighter 2 was the penultimate game of the competition and it is pretty fair to describe this as a tale of Ross Willett and Gaz Cormack... but especially Gaz. While Ross scored some comprehensive victories; 5-1, 6-0, Gaz also obtained 5-0 and 6-0 wins before crushing Ross in the final. Willy's mini-revival continued with a competent display against Nick in round one earning him a place in the semi-final and a further point. Going into the final game, he trailed Gaz Cormack by just 19-points, so the odds of him winning the competition remained extremely slim.

Finally, we arrived at the final game of the competition; Mega Bomberman. This was another title that took an age to complete, owing to people unfortunately blowing themselves up and draws. Gaz won by securing 3 victories first Ross finished second. Graham was able to score a point and draw level with Nick Atkinson.

The Leaderboard

Final Standings
			Pld		1st		2nd		3rd/4th		Pts		O.Rank
1st	Gaz Cormack		10		5		1		4		25		16th
2nd	Ross Willett		10		2		3		5		19		30th
3rd	Graham Carroll		10		2		1		2		12		43rd
3rd	Nick Atkinson		10		1		3		2		12		43rd
5th	Richard Mahan		10		0		1		3		5*		-
6th	Alan Rutter		10		0		1		2		4		-
7th	Lee Reid		10		0		0		3		3		-
8th	Willy O'Brien		10		0		0		2		2		-

The Conclusion
It had been over 10-years in the making, but the Scottish Mega Drive Championship was a huge success. All competitors were eager to return for a future event, even though the competition lasted far in excess of the planned 3-hour time. An area of confusion remains over whether Richard Mahan was actually deducted 2-points for throwing a controller during his crushing 6-0 defeat against Gaz on Super Street Fighter 2, so perhaps his final points tally was really 3. This was the tale of Ross Willett and proof that any struggle in the face of common sense can be achieved, regardless of the odds and roadblocks. This was the tale of Gaz Cormack demonstrating that being awesome on 16-bit gaming is awesome. This was the tale of 16-bit gaming nostalgia and how the classics truly are the best. Special mention goes to Willy O’Brien and his mini-revival in the final few games that didn’t do enough to secure his any other place than last. Hopefully, we will not need to wait another 10-years for the next Scottish Mega Drive Championship…