After making it to the final of last year’s football tournament in aid of SpecialEffect, we sent two teams this year in hopes of glory! While not all went to plan, the teams had a great day supporting a worthy cause. Here’s our match report from James. Pay special attention to the intense on-pitch facial expressions in the photos…
After a sterling run to the final in the inaugural SpecialEffect Wembley 5s charity football tournament, this year we decided to stack the deck in our favour and double the number of teams heading south for the event. After all, if you’re playing against yourself in the final at least someone from the company walks home with the trophy.
That was the conceited plan, anyway. Shame the other squads in attendance weren’t on the same page as us.
As with last year the tournament took the same format as the World Cup, a series of groups with every team playing each other with the group winners and runners-up progressing to the knockout stages. Word of the event had spread, however, and so the number of teams had grown to include the likes of Sega, Sports Interactive, Rebellion, and 5-a-side’s most feared gaming team, Testology. On paper alone it looked tough!
With such heavyweights we knew that a tricky draw was a possibility, and Rare Blue (there were no A or B teams for us, we tried to split the squad evenly, honest) of the two Twycross teams fared worse. Carrying on from where we left off last year, Blues tumbled to a defeat against reigning champions Creative Assembly before promptly losing to an impressive SpecialEffect. The latter can almost be forgiven as not trying to upset our hosts but the first was a sharp reminder of how last year we let our game slip at a vital time.
After a short break and some very frank discussions we headed back out against New Star Games. Though a developer with footballing pedigree, they succumbed and by the time we beat King in our final group game a level of positivity had returned to Blues. We may not have made it to the knockout stages but at least we’d put in a couple of decent performances and felt better about ourselves.
In contrast, Rare White put us to shame. Not only did they ease past Creative Assembly’s other team with a 4-0 victory in their opening fixture, they topped their group with a 100% record whilst not conceding a single goal in the process. Jagex, New Star Games, and Gamewagon all saw a rampant frontline score 14 goals between them. And to think they were almost Rare B.
Eyes turned to the quarter-finals, and with favourites Testology going out on penalties to Jagex, the feeling around Wembley was that the competition had been thrown wide open. Whites sensed this and their spirits were up. FreestyleGames were their first test in the knockout stage, but were put to the sword in the Warwickshire derby as the boys from Rare tonked four past them without reply. They were in the semis and the belief grew yet further.
Into the hat went the names and out came Sports Interactive paired with Rare White. Unsurprisingly for a team who produce Football Manager, they were an extremely well-organised and disciplined unit. A mountain of a man patrolled the back whilst upfront pace and possession stretched Rare’s defence the thinnest it had been for the whole tournament. Back and forth the game went but SI always had the slight edge, and despite a valiant performance the Rare defence cracked for the first time and the run came to an end.
A small amount of consolation came from Sports Interactive going on to beat Jagex in the final, but the minibus ride home was one of quiet reflection. Well, after the arguments of how to navigate the North Circular had subsided.
At the end of the day, to resort to footballing post-match interview clichés, what truly mattered was not the result for us but for SpecialEffect. With every passing year their profile grows, and with it the impact they have on helping disabled videogamers. They continue to have a monumental effect on people’s lives and I would quite happily take a drubbing every year if it means we can show our support for them!
Either that or we’ll take three teams next year.
Photos: SpecialEffect