We laughed, we cried, we nodded sagely and more than once we simply stared in slack-jawed puzzlement. Then we finished reading through the entries to the ‘Name the Servers’ competition and got down to the tricky job of actually picking the winners. Now we’re proud to announce the names of the first two English-language City of Heroes servers in Europe and the clever chaps who picked them:

European English Server 1: Defiant

Winner: Darren Sandbach
Runner-up: Greg Burleton

European English Server 2: Union

Winner: Cesar Martin
Runners-up: Darren Prince, Gregory Verrando, Paul Knights, Warran Escott, Regis Revillon, Stuart Bibby and Andrew Cain

The winners were the first people to suggest the winning names, with the runners-up prizes going to everyone else who made the same suggestion. Speaking of prizes:

Darren and Cesar will receive a limited edition, hand-painted Statesman statue, a copy of City of Heroes Deluxe edition and a one-year subscription to the game.

The runners-up will each be rewarded with a copy of City of Heroes Deluxe edition, a three-month subscription and a City of Heroes T-shirt, hat and bag.

We’d like to thank everyone who entered the competition, and the lovely people at Eurogamer for hosting it.