IRELAND'S NEWEST team can score quicker, shoot sharper and drive faster than most other squads here - and all with minimum body movement.
Their fantastical skills derive from exhaustive training and a determination to be number one in the skilled but sedentary sci-fi world of computer gaming.
On Saturday about 100 virtual athletes came together to compete for the right to represent Ireland at the World Cyber Games 2008 in Germany in November.
They took part in day-long trials in the Digital Hub centre in Dublin. Following several heats and multiple screen adventures from midday to 10pm, the members of Team Ireland were named.
It comprises seven young males; four working together on the combat game Halo 3and three individuals on Project Gotham Racing 4, FIFA 08and warrior game Warcraft III.
The chosen seven are Vivion Grisewood, Tipperary town; Zachary Campbell, Goatstown, Dublin; Pádraig Lawlor, Dundrum, Dublin; Ian Wardick, Raheny, Dublin; Michael Traynor, Bray, Co Wicklow; Mark Kenny, Rathfarnham, Dublin and Pádraig O'Hara, Belfast.
The selection and participation of the Irish representatives in the finals is costing €50,000, but the investment is being bankrolled by sponsors, said Dr Stephen Brennan of the Digital Hub.
For Keith Bowden (19) gaming is a short-term hobby but one that eats his time at weekends.
The Terenure College scrumhalf and accomplished showjumper confessed to playing for "three to four hours" nightly from Thursday to Sunday on his game of choice, the SAS-style format Counter-Strike.
"I play online with four people from Sweden. It's basically a five versus five person counter-terrorism game, and you blow people's heads off," explained Keith with a smirk.
The business, economics and social science student got four A1s in his Leaving Cert this summer, and described how he was bitten by the interactive computer bug when his dad got a PC in 1999.
However, other gamers got more than they bargained for with their consuming passion.
One person at the weekend event, who declined to be named, told how his quasi-addiction to computer games contributed to the break-up of his first marriage.
UCD computer science student Michael Traynor (19) from Bray is Ireland's FIFAsoccer simulation champ, and the ardent Manchester United fan said he had been playing it competitively for three years. "I have never won a cash prize, but I won my PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii."
Dr Brennan said computer games had social networking, recuperative health and educational benefits.They had moved a long way from their origins in coin-operated amusement arcades.