On Saturday July 7th, the best pilots on TrackMania’s planet were battling during the great final of the Electronic Sports World Cup in Paris. Official game of the ESWC as well as Counter Strike, Quake4, PES or Warcraft 3, TrackMania once again showed, with memorable matches, all the intensity and the show that generates a race of TrackMania.

This final was taking place on the main stage and was introducing 3 French finalists amongst 4, all determined to realise a historical triple success. Among then, Carl, young French player aged 17 years old, defending world champion had to battle harshly to reach the final: taken back in extremis in losers’ final, his qualification was dued to his exceptional cold-blood and his excellent driving-skills that were reappearing as by magic. Xenogear, Dutch player from the Dignitas team (Counter Strike, TrackMania) that, as for Carl, was taken back thanks to his second place during losers’ final that took place on the main stage a few minutes before. Great favourite of the final, Simon Ferreira alias Lign, considered as the best TrackMania pilot of the moment, has outrageously dominated the qualifiers and all the opponents he met in final. The quartet was completed by Selrahc37, talented 20-year old French player that showed a lot of envy and skills during this week-end to reach a place on the podium.

The final was taking place on the 3 tracks, the first reaching 30 points wins the round and the points gathered by each player on each circuit are cumulating and will give the final ranking. The first round was mind-blowing! Against all expectations, Carl won the first round while Lign surprisingly finished last with only 18 points. Xenogear was ranked second and Selrhac 37 did what he could to avoid the last place. In the second round, Lign still couldn’t reach his usual level and finished fourth behind Carl, Selrahc and Xenogear who won this round in extremis. The third and final round started with an amazing tension and the audience, completely seduced by the level and drivers’ show, chose to support Carl who was in the best position to allow France to remain world champion. This was before Lign’s resurrection that finally showed his immense talent to overcome his opponents in the last round, a performance that might leave him with some regrets as his victory gave Xenogear the opportunity to win the competition just before a very good Carl. Lign finished third, right before Selrahc and won a few thousands dollars.

The auditorium was completely amazed by such a great final, Jean-Paul Huchon, President of the Ile-de-France local council gave the Cup and 4 the cheques to the talented pilots and said how admiring he had been in front of this outstanding show offered by TrackMania final. Netherlands, with a brilliant Xenogear now has the world cup… until next year!