RESULT- LONDON (1) vs. CARDIFF (2)

Not really to sure what to say, even after 5-6 days since the event me and the London guys are still shell shocked that this could happen..... WOW

Before I go any further, I need to congratulate the Cardiff team and supporters for bringing the heat and making the party pop... It was a great night asides from the result ;)

The evening started so well, hundreds of people came through the door earlier than ever before... cameras, Flips and mics were everywhere - The press were out in force, hungry for a story!

All the artists were ready and pumped for the event - The London guys started well and drew real slickly with clean cut (trademark) lines, while the Welsh threw the black straight up and worked a lot slower...

After 35mins Team London looked nearly finished and kind of shot themselves in the foot as our team captain Discoteck decided to go relax at the bar ?!?!?! Not the right action and example a captain should be setting for his team or the crowd..

Cardiff carried on working hard for there points and lost a few pounds sweating in front of the hot lamps that sit right behind them on the floor.

90mins were up and both walls looked amazing - two very different approaches in style and design - London came with the usual clear, bold line (using the edding special marker) and strong punch line while Cardiff used the mini roller a lot more and chiseled out some inverted characters and Maggie Thatcher riding a miners cart.

CARDIFF - Maggie Thatcher closing down the mines

LONDON - Tom Jones inspired piece

Jimi Crayon back on the mic for the first time since last years London Grand Final was in fine form and he introduced the first judge (Kieran, MTV) who came up on stage looking a little nervous and quickly voted for London....

The came the shock of the century as Cardiff went on to win the crowd vote to make it 1-1 - I was standing behind the decks and could not believe it when 80% of the crowd came out of the closet and voted for Wales over London... shocking and something that still gives me nightmares a week on...

Final Judge vote came down to Anil from Flip Video (our sponsors), he is born and bred in England and came up to the stage smiling with confidence.... And then after a few seconds of though I heard him whisper to himself "oh no I am going to get lynched"... BAM he lifted his arm and there it was CARDIFF in huge letters.... The basement bar went crazy and I literally needed 4-5 cuddles to get over such a defeat that could possible send London out of the EUROLEAGUE...

In response to this result, we are now going to lay on a coach from London to Cardiff for next months return battle on the 30th May

Until next time

Hamburg vs. London

Good things just need longer, and finally here comes the review of an incredible evening!
This battle was off da hook, the venue exploded, so we had to close doors after 30 minutes...

Team London and fans came by this oldschool Casio / G-Shock bus and parked in front of the venue. We used the bus as the VIP and booze area, but no rock´n roll smash window action, nobody wanted to get in trouble with this guy ;)
So before the battle started, "Reeps One" gave us a short insight of his awesome beat box skills. We can tell you, Hamburg was blasted away even before the artists started with their artwork! Unbelievable!
So, the crowd was already exploding when we started the battle! Countdown runs, two more to count!
Everybody was really excited what London will bring on the wall, after that nice dizz against Amsterdam - LOL!
Some more impressions...


Finally time was up...
Team London piece:
Team Hamburg piece:
First Judge: One point Hamburg!
Crowd: Second point Hamburg!
Second Judge: First point London!
Hamburg WON 2:1 cheeeeeers!
Thanks again to everyone for this great evening - it was amazing!

A great battle, a great night out and a lot of fun had by our boys representing Cardiff in Amsterdam.

We managed to consume Heineken, weed and enjoy the sights of the red light district, all before we met our host Mr K (Joe) and took to the white walls of the Sid Lee gallery to battle. The venue was busy and we where showered with free booze tokens as the drawing began. Our boys (Chris Allen, Mcintyre and Rarebit came through with a really strong piece depicting the Amsterdam team getting attacked by Aliens on Secret Wars 3D. Amsterdam won the night with a strong group effort consisting of a robot ripping out the heart of a Dragon (It seems to be a running theme every time we battle we are faced with a daffodil, dragon or maybe Tom Jones) served up on a BBQ as the special of the day. Great attention to detail and full use of the board. Many thanks an congratulations to our dutch hosts.

Lekker!

Battle Plan

Zaandam

RESULT- HAMBURG (2) vs. LONDON (1)

WOW... what an amazing week in Germany!

Team Secret Wars went on the rampage passing through the lovely city of Hamburg and then coached it down to Berlin to meet up with Team Birmingham and Berlin...Lots of drink drunk and toooo much german food eaten! loving the curry wurst...

Feels good to be back in the UK but the last couple of nights I have been having german flashbacks - so much fun had it was ridiculous.

Where do we start?

It all started off with a late night - with the London guys meeting up at HQ for 2am to jump on a 7am EASYJET flight to Hamburg. so just like the old classic film "Planes, trains and automobiles" , we grabbed our bags and set out for the first Secret Wars battle in Hamburg.

Business as usual for MR T...

When we touched down we linked with DiscoTeck (who had got a quicker more direct flight) and checked in to the meininger hostel (would recommend this place to anyone on a budget, super slick and contemporary + cheap).

We got some sleep (recharged) and then the beer drinking started alongside a HUGE german burger.... From here on in it all went a bit fuzzy ;)

SO fast forwarding to the battle - Hamburg vs. London

In the day we were asked to hang out with lots of english press and Casio for lunch and drinks - they hired a sight seeing bus to show us the city in a few hours... we did not learn that much as we were already on the Becks beer at the back of the bus ;)

The pressure was slowly building throughout the day - I could see all the guys on the London team were getting excited to once again showcase their ever growing artistic talents... Full of confidence, seafood and beer - we were then taken to Casio HQ to see the unveiling of the new Casio x Secret Wars routemaster... Amazing designs by DiscoTeck and super slick sound system and bar inside, what else do you need?

Mr Gauky and Martyn posing for a little model shoot

Casio were kind enough to drive us to the battle in this new slick battle tank - so we arrived in style at Secret Wars, with all the queuing german crowds watching on taking snaps as team London jumped off the bus one by one.

For the first event in Hamburg, Yves (local promoter) did not do too bad at all! actually he smashed it... As there were nearly 700 people (double capacity) waiting to get in at 7pm... Amazing to see the Secret Wars concept has already caught the locals imagination.

Team London on the night consisted of Mr Gauky, Wen and Flawn - so we only made one tactical change compared to the Dam battle last month. Hamburg also only made one change and stuck with their main man Anus 1, who has a sick character style!

The lighting was hot and the crowd were hungry for some english blood - both teams started well and pushed forward very quickly with their battle plans...

Around 75 mins in, one of the London team (Mr Gauky) had a vodka breakdown - like a kid in a sweet shop he OD'ed on booze... Silly boy! This was kind of planned sabotage by team Hamburg, but luckily team London had a rescue plan - Terry & Disco were on shifts to prop him up and keep him awake and drawing... ;) Disco was like Rocky's trainer in his ear, eggin him on to the finish line.. haha

The final bell rang and all the edding special markers were dropped - both walls were detailed and amazing, with clear titles and concepts... Was a tough call for the judges! The first went HAMBURG, Crowd then went HAMBURG (only by 2 decibels) and then the last judge came up with some super steel balls and wrote LONDON!

BAM - that was the away point we craved for, so even though it was a defeat - we came away with a precious away point... Will all add up at the end and maybe be the difference in qualifying!

Thanks to all those who came out and a HUGE thanks to Yves and his crew for being great hosts - also a massive big up to our sponsors for supporting this and making it all the more fun.

Team London

Team Hamburg

until next time!

T