With only a week to go until the UK Champion is crowned at the Emirates and their name gets added to the attendance list for the Global Finals in Barcelona things have been heating up nicely. The last online pre-qualifier has been completed and James Barrett now joins his brother Michael at the UK Final on the 22^nd so there will certainly be some rivalry.

Last Tuesday a number of the qualified players descended on the EA UK office in Guildford to take practice in a “training session” as preparation for next week. A good mix of players attended, with one traveling all the way from Scotland to take part (good job Lewis), and for their troubles they managed to get a hands-on with the 2010 FIFA World Cup game. As part of the day they all took part in a fun tournament with Adam Winster, one of the UK’s representatives at the Global Final last year, walking away victorious over Alan Powell in a thrilling final and bagging himself a copy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup game on release.

From listening to the chat during the day, some players are really looking forward to the finals, while others were apprehensive and concluded they needed to change their play-style and their preferred team to use based on what everyone else was using. Curtis Mahony noted he would likely need to stop using his beloved Man Utd due to the slow defence in favour of Barca or Real. It will be interesting to see who can bring their “A-Game” next week and who cracks under the pressure and the bright lights.

I will also be keen to see how the Portuguese player Nuno Gomes fits into the mix. Having qualified for the UK Final event as the National Champion in Portugal he slips into the Quarter- Finals, so will have an opportunity to scout the opposition before his first match. The downside though is that he may not have the chance to warm-up before he plays his Quarter-Final and could face an uphill struggle if he comes up against one of the UK guys on form from the group stage.

Other questions also present themselves; will the presence of some of the Premiership’s top players put the competitors off or will they step up and be counted? Will the online rivalries transfer to the live environment and how will the brothers fare on the day? It promises to be a great event and for some, the fact that it is before the close of the online in-game leaderboard means they potentially have two chances to get to Barcelona.

Good luck to all those competing and see you at the Emirates.

Check out a special Top 5 from some of the competitors:  FIWC Top 5