Hamilton man wins £50,000 in videogame tournament

Mar 27 2008 By Richard Mooney

HAMILTON man Mark Gardiner last week won £50,000 in a nationwide videogame competition.

Mark was one of 32 people at the Play.com PES Rankings tournament in Wembley competing for the biggest prize in British computer gaming history.

The Hillhouse man competed against 2000 people in online matches to grab one of the 32 places available at the Wembley finals on Saturday 15th March 2008.

Participants were put into groups of eight, with the top two from each progressing to the knock out stages where they would compete for place in the final.

And to boot, Mark, 24, is now the number one Pro Evolution Soccer player in the country.

Mark’s choice team is Inter Milan and he fought hard to win 2-1 in the nail biting final.

He said: “I was doing well up until the closing stages in the match, but then things just went a bit crazy.

“I was trying to keep the ball but I wound up giving it away and my opponent went up the park in the last minute.

“He was six yards out and hit the cross bar. Right then I thought I’d blew it. I was convinced he was going to make it 2-2.

“So I just kept on smashing the buttons and getting the ball up the park.

Mark has played in many Pro Evolution Soccer tournaments and usually remains calm during games, but he was a very different man once the game finished.

He said: “The final whistle went and I jumped out my seat, I was so excited. Usually I just sit there, but for £50,000, I’m going to jump up for that.”

Mark also admitted to enjoying beating an Englishman in front of an English crowd in London.

He said: “I don’t think the London crowd were too happy at seeing a Scotsman win. But I was ecstatic and I didn’t care, I just won £50,000!”

Hamilton Advertiser online’s Richard Mooney challenged Mark Gardiner to a one-on-one match last week.

You can see the full video here