Day 2 CPL UK, Sheffield, England. 22:10

Day 2 saw the PK tourney get into full swing, although not before we all woke up far too late (9.20am and should of been at the event at 9am!). By we, I mean the 4kings guys, who were kind enough to let me room with them for the tournament.

Once at the venue, my main focus today was on the UK players, namely pbx, Garpy and Zaccubus. The two CPL virgins didnt progress any further sadly, but both should be proud of what they achieved here, beating several highly rated and respected players who have a wealth of experience in these events. By pbx's standards he had a poor last game and his nerves seemed to get the better of him sadly. Garpy didnt appear to be as nervous but never the less still went out of the tournament. He has also played well and will surely learn from the experience. As for the last of the trio, Zaccubus has been a bit of a star today. He cruised through a couple of the upper bracket games only to throw away a 5 frag lead against Gelleshak and then lose in 3 maps. Despite this obvious downer, he picked himself back up to win 3 loser bracket games, including defeating Forrest & Booms to make the last 6 for the first time. Of the other games, predictably fatal1ty came through to the winners bracket after beating Ztrider and vo0 (much more on form here) joined his american rival in the upper bracket final. Tomorrow will see Zacc take on ztrider, with a lot of of local support. He really believes he can do it too and make the last 4. Despite the improvement in form from Zacc, its still difficult to see a winner other than fatal1ty or vv0, but that wont stop the patriotic support for Zacc.

I also managed to check out a few of the CS matches with both 4K and SK incredibly dumped into the losers bracket fairly early on. Inevitably they met in the losers bracket quarter final with 4K seemingly going to dominate there Swedish rivals, rushing into a massive 15-3 lead, needing just one round to take the match. It didnt come easy though as the swedes fought back by taking 11 straight rounds, before finally 4K got the breaks they needed to send the swedes home 16-14. I have spent a lot of the day today with Ben and the guys from 4kings and despite the bad press these guys often get, they are much the same as the rest of us. Gamers at heart who love to compete and I have personally got on with them really well. Just goes to show, you should never judge people before you know them and always keep an open mind.

The BF2 tourney also took place today, however it was no more than a damp squib with just 3 clans attending. This was a real shame for both the community and the clans that turned up. Never the less, there was still money and pride at stake and Dignitas, lead by odee took the first place. Really though, this is not a reflection on the community, but more on the way this part of the tournament was announced (just a week before the event). Had it been announced sooner, the guys from Dignitas felt sure that many of the other top euro clans would have come.

Away from the event, I spent a nice lunch with the guys from fnatic at the local super market food halls. It was my turn to drive today, so I took Rogue, Sizah, vo0 and Ztrider. We were "entertained" by a local old guy performing some form of quiz show re-enactment in the eating area (complete with leg juggler...). The guy drove us mad with his poor routine and general "over the head" jokes. Perhaps I was just getting old, but when he asked for children to come up and sit with him, I was certain I wouldnt have sent MY children anywhere near him. Strange, does not even come close to describing this guy and I cant even print what vo0 shouted at him either!

The net has died here many times again today, in fact I havent had any net for around 6 hours as I write this, making uploading any pics or reports, impossible. Even the wireless has died now too. I have no idea whats going on and frankly I am bored of asking when things will be fixed. We still, even after 2 days of the event, havent been shown the "press area". The good thing at least is that the games have run smoothly today and they have come thick and fast too.

Hopefully tomorrow things will at least allow us to file our reports and upload some pictures. I was looking forward to this event a lot, mainly as its pretty much the only thing happening in the UK this year for e-sports on a major scale. Sadly though, it has been a real let down. Perhaps I expected too much after Quakecon and i25, but then thinking about it in the cold light of day, these two events have been running for many many years and they have a lot of experience of event management. I also dont understand the full issues here and therefore its unfair of me to attach blame to any one organisation. Game Frontier seem to have done their best with many of the issues and the actual matches have run fine (being run by CPL staff from what I can see). Likewise TsN have done a great job, despite obviously suffering from net issues too.

All in all though, its not a great advert for professional gaming in the UK, if we as a country cant provide a venue capable of delivering a professional tournament.

EDIT : Posted at last, net seems to be back in time for the Zacc v Ztrider game on TSN :)