The third edition of the Norwich Games Festival SWOS Championships took place at The Forum in Norwich as part of the week-long festival celebrating video games, board games, and the wider games industry.

Theologistic and SensibleDrinker returned to co-host the event and arrived early to set up what was undoubtedly the biggest cup competition taking place that day. (We’ll get to Arsenal vs PSG later.)

As in previous years, the tournament attracted a strong mix of offline community players, local competitors and dedicated SWOS fans. The field featured some familiar faces, including XFlea and SemperFi, who travelled from Poland, Dior from up north, Lobo and RaabDJ from London, and Wugbaspin from Buckinghamshire. Even without the presence of Jon Hare this year, the standard remained exceptionally high.

The format consisted of two groups of four, with each player facing every other player three times before progressing to the knockout stages. First-time Norwich visitor Wugbaspin was given the honour of conducting the draw, and the action soon got underway.

Group Stage

Group A developed fairly predictably, with Lobo topping the table after scoring an impressive 40 goals across his nine matches. However, he did suffer a rare setback in the final group game, losing 3-2 to Theologistic.

Group B proved considerably tighter. XFlea edged out both SemperFi and Wugbaspin to secure top spot, with second and third place ultimately separated by a single goal. A special mention must go to RaabDJ, whose performances earned praise from every competitor. His standout match saw him storm into a 3-0 lead against XFlea, only for the Polish star to mount a dramatic comeback and rescue a 3-3 draw.

Following a brief refreshment break, during which SemperFi invested in a particularly questionable pair of screen-projecting sunglasses, attention turned to the knockout rounds.

Quarter-Finals (Two Legs)

• Theologistic defeated Wugbaspin 5-2 on aggregate.
• XFlea took full advantage of SensibleDrinker being well into his bottle of gin, recording a convincing 9-1 victory.
• SemperFi impressed with a 5-1 win over Dior.
• Lobo completed the semi-final line-up by overcoming a valiant RaabDJ 8-2.

Semi-Finals (Two Legs)

Lobo continued his relentless march towards the title, dispatching SemperFi 9-3 on aggregate.

The other semi-final produced one of the comebacks of the tournament. After trailing 3-2 following the first leg, Theologistic delivered a superb 5-0 second-leg performance against XFlea to book his place in the final.

Final

The final proved one challenge too far for the co-host. Lobo was in scintillating form and demonstrated once again why the former world champion remains recognised as one of the finest SWOS players in the world.

Victories of 5-0 and 1-0 gave him a commanding 6-0 aggregate triumph and secured his third consecutive Norwich Games Festival SWOS Championship title.

Post-Match

Following the medal presentation and photographs for the festival press, the competitors made their way to Norwich’s famous pub, The Murderers, to watch the Champions League Final.

A huge thank you goes to everyone who attended, whether they battled through the unpredictability of the British rail network or flew in from Poland to take part. Your support and enthusiasm continue to make this one of the highlights of the SWOS calendar.

Norwich will always welcome you back. Here’s hoping to see many familiar faces again next year.

Watch this space…

🏆 Norwich Games Festival SWOS Championships 2026 Champion: Lobo
🥈 Runner-up: Theologistic
🥉 3rd Place: XFlea

Hello SWOS Friends!!

Within 2 weeks the biggest SWOS tournament of the Benelux will unfold!!

After the successstressful Kermis Cup 2025 at Swoozh’s place we decided to change things around by holding not 1, but 2!! “PRO” Cups for you total SWOS enthusiasts at Dorpshuis De Stek, Grootebroek, Netherlands in the afternoon.

After the serious business in the afternoon, things will become less serious at M4RK’s place. Food and drinks will be served and more friends will join for the PC Amateur Cup. Here, less experienced SWOS players will take stronger teams, while SWOS veterans go for weaker teams. For reference:

Sebabosh (Winner 2025) = Atletico Junior (COL)
Swoozh = Volendam (HOL)
M4RK = North Korea

To make things run smoothly, please provide M4RK / Swoozh with the following:

• Your desired custom tactic for PC Pro tournament

• Your desired used team for PC & Amiga Pro tournament

• Your desired used team for PC Amateur tournament

Expected Schedule:
12pm Gather, draw / setting up
13pm Start PC Pro tournament (with tactics)
15pm Start Amiga Pro tournament (without tactics)
17pm End evening session
18pm Food and drinks @ plaza a M4RK
19pm+ Start PC Amateur tournament (without tactics)
19pm+ Start Crazy Apples vs Oranges KO tournament

The very first edition of the "Frysian Open" was held last Saturday at Rinusch' place, where the Commodore flag fluttered.

The name of the tourney is a wink to the fact that it took place in the provence of "Friesland", with a number of joining players coming from both the unofficial regions 'West Friesland' (slightly north of Amsterdam) and 'East Friesland' (small area in the north-west of Germany, home of Brixio, the Italian German...or was it the other way around?).
Everybody gathered around 11:30 AM, where they were welcomed and treated with coffee and 'oranjekoek', which is a Frisian specialty.

After setting up the hardware (2 A1200's), being talked through the schedule for the day and having enjoyed lunch, the games started.
The idea behind the schedule was primarily "many matches for everyone, regardless of results". The first round was an 'all against all' 1-leg league.

Based on the results, players were then evenly spread across 2 'equally strong' leagues in a second round, where they played each other 3 times. After a not so Frisian dinner (Asian food), enjoyed at the fireplace outside, this lead to the top players from both leagues battling further in the 'Frisian Stallion Cup' and the remaining players in the 'Bench Warmers Cup' in round 3.
The finals (3/4 and 1/2 in both cups) were played over 2 legs on 1 Amiga. The Bench Warmers Cup was conquered by Brixio, after defeating Romanista (1-3, 1-1).

In a thrilling final between M4rk and Rinusch, M4RK took the Frisian Stallion Cup by pulling off his specialty: scoring the winning ("Ost Frisian" ;-)) goal just before the final whistle (89th minute. 4-1, 1-3). They are entitled to a full year of proud care taking of the respective perpetual trophy's with the 3-D printed, gold-sprayed bulldozers on top, reflecting their unique powers of shoving the competition from the pitch..(well...you get the idea..)
Onno took the 'participation trophy' home.

After an amazing day with each player having played 24 matches (and M4rk estimated to having drunk an equal amount of beers), everybody returned home around 21:30.

Last friday 11 players from Berlin, Eifel, Denmark and Netherlands played the old traditional SWOsterbash tournament at Kindels place.

This time it was a bit more competative than the last editions and we had good fights in the groups and about the medals.

We started at 4pm and ended at 3 am!

We also say big thanks to djowger with his hardware support, which made this tournament possible. 

PC: 

1st Djowger

2nd Bomb

3rd ElMichaJ

Amiga:

1st Bomb

2nd ElMichaJ

3rd Djowger

around 100 beers were killed and maybe some more other bottles ;)

This year Berlin is hosting some nice small SWOS cups in spring time. 

1. SWOSterbash at Kindels Place

we will play on 2 Amigas and 2 PCs. PC is the main tournament, but we will easy get played two tournaments.

Drinks and Snack are provided by the Host Kindel. But we can order from a lot different shops there too.

Sleeping is possible, but need to talk to us (ElMichaJ, Kindel, Bomb) to organize all.

AMIGA

PC

2. Small Amiga Tournament at Retrogamesbörse

The is an retro market in Berlin at Peter Edel Location at 14th of June from 10 to 15.

We will hold a small tournament to get people interested. So it is not a long tournament and on a Sunday.

If you want to join, then tell me (ElMichaJ). I can also arrange some sleeping place if needed.

https://rgb-berlin.de/

Amiga