It was a case of ‘level complete’ rather than ‘game over’ for Neil Robertson after he cruised through to the second round of the World Championship – on the day it was revealed he had been addicted to playing video games.

Neil Robertson. Picture by Monique Limbos

The Australian completed the rather straight-forward task of beating Noppon Saengkham this afternoon 10-4 after enjoying a huge overnight lead of 8-1 from Wednesday’s first session.

But the talk of the day has been reflecting on the 2010 world champion’s opening up about how his love for video games took significant control of his day to day life and his snooker performances.

In an open interview with Eurosport, Robertson said:  “I’ve had really good application in my practice after dragging myself away from playing too many video games.

“One of the games, World of Warcraft is an MMO (massively multiplayer online) role playing game.

“I was part of a raid team, and we played a few nights a week. When we got out to China for a tournament, I was trying to make the raid slot. When I got out there, the connection was so bad that I couldn’t get access. I was furious for four or five days.

“All I was thinking about was getting back home for a connection from China. I lost my spot on the team, and all of a sudden that became more important than the snooker which is absolutely crazy.”

He added: “Those kind of games are designed to take over your life really.

“You find yourself sitting in front of the computer screen for six, seven or eight hours straight. Which is obviously not healthy.

“If you are a single guy, and work in a normal job, you can get around it. But you can’t win professional snooker matches when you are tired.”

But Robertson’s first match was all but over quicker than a Sonic The Hedgehog turbo spin as he dominated from start to finish against the Crucible debutant.

Robertson will hope he can continue his winning ways against Marco Fu in the next round and stay away from the computer screen.