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 Universal City, CA. March 3rd 2008, The North American FIFA Interactive World Cup Qualifiers kicked off at the City Walk’s Gamestop. People started showing up to either pick up their pre-registration or to register at the last minute. Early birds received their award by receiving a Playstation “Goodies” bag on top of the ADIDAS FIFA 08 shirt and ball all participants received. A crowd of about 200 people including over 110 participants, spent the hours on the 11 PlayStation 3 consoles setup, either playing casually or warming up for the tournament.
There was a large variarity of people who signed up for the tournament ranging from your Hard Core top of the FIFA 08 Ranking players to people who just wanted to meet people who shared their passion for the game and to do the best they could in the tournament. The Age group ranged from teenagers to a few players over 50 years old. And as only as LA will have it the ethnicity of the participants was much rather varied too from African American to players from India, Japan, Korean, Latino and white. Not only were their age and ethnicity different they also came from all over the United States and from Mexico as well (this is mainly because there was no qualification stage in Mexico).  The visits from Chivas USA and Galaxy Players were also a nice addition to all the people in attendance many of them got the opportunity to play against them and also chitchat with their real life heroes. Once the match ups were announced you can see the nervousness and anticipation on people’s faces that was it. It was Show time. The first round of matches kicked off and some of the favorite players made their mark early by clearly defeating their rivals. New comers also made their mark and eliminated some of the more experienced and by far favorite players. You can of course see the disappointment on the experienced players when they were eliminated by someone who nobody had ever heard of. There was all types of players in the tournament, people who celebrated their goals like if it was their last goal ever, others who didn’t even moved a muscle (other than their fingers) during the entire match, the classic cocky where losing it’s not his fault, but actually the position of the moon and stars at the moment, and people that seem more than happy just to be there. I actually also got my little piece of action on the tournament and just as I expected, I was defeated in the first round by a player who claimed to have never before played FIFA 08. I found that hard to believe but the guy did stick to his story. He later was eliminated on the 2nd round. The format of the elimination system was 4 minute halves 1 direct elimination game, if tied at the end of 90 minutes over time then penalties. To move on to the quarter finals you had to win your first 4 match ups. One mistake on any of them and you’re out. In the quarter finals we had 3 well known players qualify and the rest were new comers who had shown really good skills. During this phase more upsets happened and 2 relatively unknown players as well as 2 well known players moved on to the semi-finals.  Unfortunately for The Michael LaBelle and Ruben Zercero they had to face each other in the semi-finals. The second the match up was announced all people in attendance agreed it was the final, before the final. Boy were they right!
In the first game Gustavo from Oxnard who had a nice following mostly family but also some girls who became fans while he was standing in the podium were cheering for him. Unfortunately for him his opponent from El Salvador dominated from minute 1 and kept himself always at a comfortable lead in the game. The final score was 4 – 2. The Second semi-final was dramatic to say the least. The game progressed with literally both players neutralizing each other and all in all a very even match. Michael went ahead on the scoreboard and celebrated vigorously. Ruben didn’t waste much time and minutes later tied the match, the crowd just exploded when this happened and as a typical Mexican soccer fan screamed GOOOOL! of the top of his lungs. Michael had another surprise for him and again minutes later scored for the 2nd time taking the lead once again. Ruben’s Reaction was almost instantaneous as he tied once again right off the kick off. The crowd exploded once again and a large number of them started cheering MEXICO….MEXICO….MEXICO…..Both players started being much more careful with their movements and both had a couple of scoring opportunities again yet the score remained the same. Just when overtime was imminent Ruben lost the ball in midfield, opportunity which Michael did not hesitate on taking ran on the wing delivered a perfect pass and finished with class to make the score 3 – 2 to his favor in compensation time. Ruben had no time left to react, the second he took the kick off the final whistle was blown. Michael moved on to the final against the new comer from El Salvador. Ruben now had to play the other semi final loser for the 3rd place price. As soon as the game started it was clear that Ruben was disappointed by the lost and wanted to make it clear that he still was one of the best FIFA 08 players. He attacked and Scored 4 goals before his Gustavo had a goal opportunity which he took. At the end Ruben clearly defeated his rival 6 – 1. The Final was upon us and after witnessing such an interesting and intense match this game seem promising, because the player from El Salvador had dominated all his opponents in the previous stages, and everyone was expecting him to be a worthy rival. Michael maybe inspired by the aggression shown by Ruben also started fiercely attacking his rival and few minutes into the game he had the first goal under his belt. The game was always one sided and Michael was never really in any trouble that would put his chances of crowning himself as the champion in Jeopardy. The final score was 6 - 2. - First place received a PS3 a PS3 game and of course his ticket to participate in the FIFA Interactive World Cup Finals in Berlin Germany.
- Second Place received a PSP and a PSP video game
- Third Place received a PSP and a PSP videogame.
Congratulations to Michael LaBelle who we are sure will represent North America very very well. Listen to the following Interviews: - Anthony Hamilton (Chivas USA Player)
- Israel Sesay (LA Galaxy Player)
- Michael LaBelle (After winning qualifiers)
- Michael LaBelle (before final match)
- Eddi Mercado (Quarter finals player)
- Gustavo Romero (Quarter finals player)
- Matt (player eliminated in first round)
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