Welcome to my diary of events covering the Brussels 2010 Grand Prix. 

Friday, March 26th, 3:12AM - Stoke-On-Trent
"Why am I not asleep. My train is in less than 4 hours. I should be sleeping. Sleep is necessary to function. I'm still awake. I don't want to be awake."

Friday, March 26th, 11:04AM - London, St. Pancras Station
"Now I'm tired...train...sleeping...channel tunnel..."

Friday, March 26th, 15:28PM - Brussels, Expo Hall 2
"I've been in my hotel room for ten minutes and it's already a mess...It's about time I started writing my article."

So, this weekend I was given the chance to travel from England to Belgium to cover the Brussels 2010 Grand Prix for Alltern8. I travelled from the West Midlands to Brussels not knowing what to expect when I got there.

I've been to a number of large events before, but they've always been casual, public events with a few thousand people showing up for various reasons. The largest dedicated tournament I've ever been to featured around 300 people. The Brussels 2010 Grand Prix featured a staggering 1,667 players, 80 official Judges and an uncounted number of crew and staff members, journalists, onlookers and various other people. In all, there was probably nearly 2,000 people at the event. This is apparently the biggest Standard format event ever and it's the fourth largest Grand Prix ever hosted. 1,700 people showing up from across the globe is a truly staggering sight, it really goes to show how dedicated these people are to the pursuit of their favourite game.

On the Friday alone more than 700 people were playing in the Super Friday Night Magic events and the Grand Prix trials with more people showing up to sign up for Saturday's main event every hour. While Friday's events proceeded, the crew started putting together the displays and booths ready for the next day's main event and the rush of people they were expecting.