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Five minute each way games in a unsuitably lit basement room of a unique London eatery, a cameo appearance from an early 90s youth TV presenter and the most lucrative prize in table football history, contested by a random group of players, some unprepared, some playing with a beer in one hand and some who had taken full advantage of the free bar.
In short it was just another highly surreal chapter in renewed attempts to promote the Subbuteo brand.
The occasion at the Hard Rock Café was the launch of the new Subbuteo World Cup clothing line. However, this was probably as far as direct Subbuteo links with the evening went. Despite a couple of Hasbro Dream Team stadiums being set up, all games were played out on the Astropitch-covered San Siro boards, to (sort-of) FISTF rules, with Astrobase and Profibases proving the popular choice of equipment.
And it was with that that David Russell won the tournament. But rather than the prospect of a modest trophy and something from Hasbro's range of board games, his greater reward was two tickets to the World Cup final. The football one, not the tabletop version.
With such a prestigious prize at stake - provided courtesy of CoalitionTotal.Media, the PR company responsible for the evening- the event was played in a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere. The free beer obviously helped matters.
Regular competitive players mixed with various members of the media, Hasbro representatives and friends, including Normski, famed for his Dance Energy TV programme of the early 90s and also, in his own words, "getting jiggy with Janet Street-Porter".
Using a borrowed set of Astrobases, the yoof TV legend - who could actually pass for much younger than his 40-something age - took to the game quite well, advancing from the novices’ portion of the draw to reach the semi-finals, where he lost 4-0 to Russell.
Russell had of course faced tougher ties earlier on, and it took a late goal to see off Nicky Chappell, whilst a strike 40 seconds from the start and another 40 seconds from the end ensured a 2-0 success over Victor Jones.
Under the circumstances, thankfully there were no confrontations or dubious moments in any games. There was a lot of cheering though, mainly for those new to the game, when they scored, made a save or even just when hit the ball.
The night had plenty of other positives. Hasbro gave encouraging signs about supporting future table football events. They even provided a set of T-shirts, from the new clothing range, for the English squad at the FISTF World Cup (emblazed with the "Germany 1 England 5" football scoreline of 2001).
But the final prize was more valuable, and bearing in mind what was on offer to the winner, nerves obviously got to both Russell and fellow finalist Paolo Barone.
However amongst several shots in the first half, Russell grabbed the only goal of the game, when a replaced block flick left him with a clear sight of the target.
Barone had a guilt-edge chance for the equaliser in the second half, but ultimately the best man took the night's prize.
David Russell is therefore set for the football World Cup, as well as the FISTF version. Any temptation to sell the tickets on eBay would be quickly eradicated by strict new rules governing such transactions.
A Subbuteo T-shirt signed by Normski, on the other hand, could maybe fetch a tidy sum on the internet auction site.
In this surreal new world of table football, anything could happen.
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Games involving regular competitive players only
Victor Jones 1-0 Daniel Fox
Paolo Barone 1-1 Simon Gale (shots: 2-0)
David Russell 2-1 Nicky Chappell
Chris Stapleton 0-0 Les Commons (shots: 1-0)
David Russell 2-0 Victor Jones
Paolo Barone beat ???
Chris Stapleton beat ???
David Russell 4-0 Normski
Paolo Barone 4-1 Chris Stapleton
David Russell 1-0 Paolo Barone
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