How this Bolton primary school teacher became one of the best Warhammer players in the world
Being a primary school teacher, a father and one of the best Warhammer players in the world is no easy feat. But that is the life of 41-year-old Mike Porter.
Originally from Southport, Mike fell in love with the board game through his older brother when he was just 11-years-old. After catching the bug he spent his youth in Warhammer stores up and down the North West, like Stockport’s Element Games, honing his craft. “It was very run down and you get 50, 60 people in there, all piled in playing the game you love. You get there at nine in the morning and be playing until seven, eight at night and then you’d get up the next day and do it all again.”“I grew up with high level sports, I represented my county at hockey, football and athletics. I’ve always been very competitive and competed at a good level.
“I probably had like a three to four year break and a teacher’s husband was playing it and I got back into it through them. The game involves a player taking command of an army of humans, elves, orcs and other creatures. Players collect miniature plastic models of these characters and use them to simulate a war played on a makeshift battlefield.
The surge in popularity meant the game Mike returned to was drastically different from the one he left - a much more professional scene with sponsorships and international tournaments that had finals in Las Vegas, Nevada. “I used to watch it from a distance, via streams at home in England of the tournaments around the world," he said.