Papou is one of the strongest TMGL players since the league creation. Always qualified in the final phase since the Beta season, the GamersOrigin player even won the Winter 2020 regular season. Papou had a hard time this year with a last-minute qualification. The French player spent the 5 first weeks outside of the top 8 but a miraculous comeback in step 6 allowed him to secure his place in the Final.
Papou & GamersOrigin always finished into the final top 4 in TMGL. 2nd in the Beta season and 4th in both Winter 2020 & Fall 2020 editions. Despite a difficult regular phase, the Frenchman remains one of the strongest men of the field and might be one of the title contenders! Before the Final, we asked him a few questions.
You were only 13th before the last step. Did you think it was possible to qualify yourself for the Final?
I thought it was possible, but I knew I would have to give my very best to reach The Final. I worked hard this week to maximize my chances. In my head, I didn’t even think about the qualification, I just wanted to do a great step. I would never have thought that it would have been enough, even more after my pointloss at the end of map 4, I just wanted to do well on the last 2 maps. It ended much better than I expected! The waiting for the scoreboard refreshing was so long, I just wanted to go out of bottom 4, so I searched myself in the right of the scoreboard, but when I saw that I was actually on the left and 8th.. that was UNBELIEVABLE, I screamed so hard and I was so happy!!
You won 6 maps in the Fall 2020 season and only 1 in this edition. How can you explain that, is the level higher?
I think the level was indeed a bit higher, but also the maps style was different compared to what we were used to play in the previous TMGL seasons. I don’t have my ” advantage” in dirt anymore as I had in the previous TM. I also had some personal issues in this beginning of 2021, so yeah it didn’t help.
This is your 4th final phase in 4 TMGL participations. You’ve always reached the top 4, is that your goal this year again?
My goal is always to win, nothing changes!
The Final will take place on March 14th from 7 PM CET live on Twitch! Papou will be followed by Lutti for GamersOrigin!
Tags: GamersOrigin , Papou , tm , TMGL , TMGL Winter 2021 , trackmania , Trackmania Grand League