Top teams battle for games crown

They have taken part in the first Intel Masters gaming tournament.

It brought together the UK's top teams, or clans, pitting them against each other in a series of computer games.

The clan emerging top takes home a share of the £25,000 pot of prize money on offer.

Star choice

The tournament let the UK's top 16 clans fight it out for the title of top team in games of Counter-Strike, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Warcraft III.

Earlier this year Intel UK signed a sponsorship deal with the Four-Kings clan which will be at the tournament to show how well the chip maker's money has been spent.

The maps being used in the tournament games have been made available to the clans to help them practise before the big day.

To make the tournament as fair as possible all teams and players used the same machines, mice and screens.

The public could watch the event, which was being held in the Wellcome Wing of the Science Museum.

Highlights of the days play and the final games were shown on the museum's giant Imax cinema screen.

The celebrity host of the event was Chris Barrie, best known to many people as Rimmer from science-fiction comedy series Red Dwarf.

The Intel Masters event is just the latest in a series of tournaments that are lending respectability to computer gaming.

The World Cybergames in Korea is now an established event and many clans regularly compete for cash or just glory in online and face-to-face tournaments.

The UK now has a small but growing pool of people that make their living from playing computer games.