The losing fighter never sees the first blow: a stinging right hook that crushes his eye socket and bloodies his cheek. His attacker presses the advantage, following with a flurry of savage jabs and a thundering kick to the ribs. The fighter staggers to his left, punch-drunk and half-blind, and clutches his side. Before he can regain his balance, an open-palm blast crashes into his temple. The shot rattles his skull and sends waves of white light exploding along his optic nerve.

He lurches toward the centre of the ring, a walking welt, six feet of bruises and broken teeth and extreme ugliness. The final punch - a sinking sledgehammer that collapses his sternum and blasts the air from his lungs - sends him to the floor in a heap.

Eighteen-year-old Ryan Ward of Edmonton, Alta., rejoices and sets down his weapon of choice - a video game controller - to shake hands with his victim, 21-year-old Paul Mainville of Gatineau. "I was too nervous," Mainville confessed. "My hands were shaking the whole time. (Ward) didn't make any mistakes."

Yesterday, La Ronde hosted the last leg of the three-day 2006 World Cyber Games national final, where 130 of Canada's top video gamers fought tooth-and-nail to win one of 13 spots on Team Canada and a trip to Monza, Italy, for the sixth WCG Grand Final. Seven hundred of the world's best video gamers, including Canada's elite 13, will converge on Monza's hallowed Autodromo Oct. 18 to 22 to battle for supremacy. Following the showdown in Monza, Team Canada will travel to Mexico City to compete in the WCG's inaugural Pan-American Games, Oct. 27 to 29. The WCG will cover all expenses.

Ward's mastery of the Xbox 360's martial arts epic Dead or Alive 4 - one of seven official video games chosen by the WCG - earned him the first spot on Team Canada and a shot at a hefty purse in Monza, where the top individual prizes are expected to burst the coffers at $20,000 U.S.

Mainville's gangly nemesis fingered his wispy mustache as he recalled how his parents were reluctant to let him travel to the tournament. "They were being a bit overprotective," said Ward, "but I think they'll understand more now that I won."

"I did well for an old man. A lot of these guys are 16 or 17. They don't have to worry about paying bills. They have all the time in the world to practice," said Scalia, who works as a waiter and squeezes in practice sessions in his spare time. Scalia hopes to avenge the defeat he suffered in San Francisco's 2004 WCG Grand Final. And pocket a few dollars along the way.

La Ronde's Jardin des Etoiles, which served as the battleground for the tournament, looked like NASA's control centre: dozens of chirping headsets and headphones, rows of desks ringed with red lights, and a whole constellation of flickering computer monitors. Clusters of spectators hovered near the killing floor, ogling a pair of mammoth 8-foot by 10-foot projection screens mounted to relay the intense action.

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