On 16th September 2000, Dreamarena staged the first ever, live pan-European online console gaming event. The UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain and France battled online for the prestigious title of European ChuChu Rocket! Champion.
At 5.00pm, HMV, Oxford Street, the UK and Irish champions competed simultaneously against national territory champions in key venues in Madrid, Frankfurt and Paris.
Shaun_2 (online user name) from Northumberland represented the UK after winning the UK final. The atmosphere was electric throughout but when it mattered it was the Irish representative Kevin Lim who stormed ahead to be crowned the first ChuChu Rocket Online European Champion.
The final results were: -
1st Kevin Lim (Cloud) Dublin, Ireland
2nd Max Franquelin (number one) La Somme, France
3rd Shaun Locker (Sean_2) Northumberland, UK
4th Daniel Klein (Time) Germany
5th Richard Gorospe (ric) Spain
Each winner received a Sega Dreamcast pod on winning their territory finals and Kevin will now also be flying off for a weeks astronaut training at NASA's Space Camp in Alabama, USA.
In the UK and Germany, the final was part of an online gaming trial event, allowing the public to play the long awaited Dreamcast title, Quake III Arena for the first time ever. The public response was extremely positive with favourable comparisons to the PC version of the game.