The BAVGAs

Well, what can I say? It was a great night, and I'm glad I had the privilege of being backstage with the press. However, the night didn't start off to great, but that was my own fault, then it quickly got better and better.

I arrived at the venue around 7.15, didn't know where I was going, so I asked one of the organisers there where I needed to go, and the pointed me to the direction of a desk.  I casually and happily wandered over and said who I was, they then looked on their list and couldn't find me on it (I started getting scared) then they asked if I was a nominee or for press, so I told them I was press and was there for the media centre.  They then kindly showed me where I should have gone. Panic Over.

I went into the Media Centre (the room for all the press invited). There was only a few other people in there at this point, including MrPointyHead and SuperKaylo, which seemed quite weird to me.

I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I went and sat at a table and just started jotting down some notes in my pad.  Luckily though, after only a couple of minutes someone that I knew I could go and talk to came through the door.  It was my friends cousin, James Batchelor, who works over at MCV.

We were then joined by Iain McKenzie who works for BBC Radio 1s Newsbeat.  I'd listened to him a few times on the radio before, and it was really weird for me that he just came and sat with us.  I found out he was addicted to twitter just like me, and we started talking about everything gaming related.

While we were talking, there was a few groups setting up their cameras and equipment ready to interview the winners and celebs.

Then the awards began.

Everyone got up and surrounded the screen that was in the room to watch the awards being carried out.

The first few awards had been given out and everyone agreed with them, then the 'Use of Online' award was being announced and FIFA won, that's when there was a real state of shock in the room, with everyone asking "How the hell did that win?".

The winners then started coming into the room, as well as some of the presenters.

One thing which I quickly realised is that if you didn't apply to be filming anything and have a crew with you, it was impossible to get any type of interview or even just a photo.

Anyway, the celebs and the winners were entering the room, quickly getting moved to the interview area, each of them doing an interview for the 7 or 8 crews that were there for a couple of minutes each. While this was happening, I was just trying my best to act cool and not have a meltdown of excitement in the middle of the room, which I think I did pretty well.

Then the fellowship was announced and Shigeru Miyamoto started his acceptance speech and you could tell who was excited to see him with his speech, as when he started his speech they all got as close to the screen and speakers as they could get.

Then, unfortunately, the awards ended and everyone was wrapping up whatever it was they were getting on with.  As I found my way out there was a lot of nominees/winners/celebs hanging around in the hall way, but I carried on acting as normal as I could and left.

It was a great night, not what I was expecting it to be like, but still great, and something I won't forget about in a long time.

I feel very privileged that I got the chance to go to the event, as I didn't really think I would ever be able to get to go to anything like this.  That's why I'm going to finish this feature with a big 'thank you' to Marty, if it wasn't for him then this wouldn't have happened, so Marty, thank you.