Soccer tournament excitement
On a cool rainy day in May my brother sends me a text ‘the tournament is planned for the 24th of June’. Instantly I’m wide awake, a shot of adrenaline goes through my body. ‘I’m there!’ I answer him. Immediately I start analyzing my opponents, trying to guess their strategies and what are the best tactics to put in place to move against them.
The opponents I’m facing are very different. One will be highly offensive and fast, there is one that plays a very precisely and carful game, there is one that is downright blunt and the others are everything in between. One and a half month is what I got. A sense of urgency is coming over me like a sudden thunderstorm at the end of a oppressive hot day.
The soft beep roars up the machine. Right, Right, x. The intro tune start playing as PES 2017 starts up. Immediately I start looking at the different teams, the stats and the best formation of the team. After two weeks after trying Juventus, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid I settle for Chelsea. I play a highly offensive game, the speed of Hazard, Pedro and Willian combined with the finishing power of Diego Costa is what settles the matter.

The bronze medal and some prices from past tournaments.
On tournament day there is electricity in the air. We play in Champions league style with two groups of four players. I’m on a roll! I win every group match and end up first of the group. Unlucky for me the best player from the other group ends up in second place. In the two matches in the semi final I do win the second game, but I lost the first with to great of numbers. I bite the dust. Although I do win the game for the third place, I still have the losing feeling. This game is deeply carved into my heart.
This ritual repeats itself every year. Although the tournament starts in June, preparation starts the year before. September has been the month in which the new release of Pro Evolution Soccer comes out for years now. It even starts earlier when the demo of the next installment is rolled out mostly in July. Still full of the tournament many weekend games get played with the demo.
Most years it takes a while to get used to the new refinements. Sometimes it is hard to learn the new skills and the different ways to play. Like most Pro Evolution Soccer players Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is one of my favorite installments, but I also really liked PES 2013 because of it’s speed. Why Pro Evolution Soccer and not FIFA? Well this is a debate that has been laid out on many game sites and forums. Let’s be really clear I am a PES fanboy so don’t even bother.

In the eighties my love for soccer games started with an exceptional cool soccer game on the Commodore 64: Micropose soccer. Me and my mates played this to death, one of my mates was specialized in the ‘Banana kick’. In the settings he would set banana power to 100%, he would then move his player to the back line near the corner flag and curve the ball into the goal, unstoppable for the keeper.
After that I played FIFA on my PC. The 1997 installment even had a mate of mine in the game in the dutch league. Coming 1999 I read a game magazine that was praising this soccer game called International superstar soccer. I was intrigued and I owned a PlayStation 1 add the time because of Metal Gear Solid so it was time to give it a go. This certainly was a whole different beast and it took me a week to score the first goal. The gameplay was so much deeper then I was used to, I nearly jumped through the roof when I scored my first goal after a splitting through pass. It became abundantly clear this was soccer how it was meant to be.

Konami with the phenomenal Seabass (the key developer of this game) had hit the nail on its head. This game had it all using a television style perspective combined with the PS1 controller it introduced the gameplay much like it is today. With the master league, a competition in which you managed a side of made up players, as it’s apotheosis. With the currency earned with victories one could buy existing players to strengthen your team.
From that time on I preached the gospel of Pro Evolution to my mates, brothers and everybody that was into gaming. After the introduction of PES 6, for which I had to buy an XBOX 360 in order to play online, we started playing regular matches against each other. This resulted in the yearly tournament of which I have won many but not all. Year by year the competition gets better.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 is knocking at the door and many training hours are ahead. Learning the new playing styles, getting the hang of the new penalty system, picking up the new pace of the game, trying out the new close ball controls and perfecting the art of the free kick can help you hold the cup at the end of the day.
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