After regulation time, he first took the time to hug his teammates, who had suspected for a few minutes already that the title could not escape them, then Alex “Extra” Paoli prostrated himself on the ground, head in hands, for a few seconds that seemed like an eternity. It took the words of his coach Théo “Mew” Ponzoni, who hadn’t even tried to hold back his tears, for the Frenchman to come to terms with this reality: yes, the tricolor trio of BDS was indeed crowned champion of the world of Rocket League, on the night of Sunday to Monday, in Dallas. A title that had been predicted for him for a long time, but which turned out to be infinitely more complex to conquer than expected.
Paradoxically, it is certainly the final of these Worlds, against the North Americans of G2, logical favorites of the 13,000 spectators at the Dickies Arena, which caused the fewest problems for BDS (4-1). Developing their game plan to perfection, the French quickly took the lead thanks to two sets won by the smallest of margins (3-2, then 2-1). Even Game 3, the tightest of them all, ended in their favor (1-0), thanks to a fine goal from Enzo “Seikoo” Gorndein in overtime. From then on, all that remained was to conclude, which was done on the second occasion, with style (3-0), giving the trio time to savor the title.
Heroic Karmine
Before that, everything had been much more complicated. At the beginning of the evening, Saturday, the luck of the draw had indeed offered BDS a fratricidal duel against the other French-speaking team of the tournament, the Karmine Corp., in the quarter-finals (4-3). With a bewildering level of play, the match was played in a seventh inning, double or quits. In this one, the future world champions took the advantage early on but then sweated for two minutes, braced in their cages, defending themselves from KC offensives until the last second.
In the last four, Evan “Monkey Moon” Rogez and his teammates then expected to find Moist Esports, the team of another Frenchman, Axel “Vatira” Touret, winner of the last London Major, announced favorite of the tournament. But the English team fell to everyone’s surprise in the quarterfinals against the Brazilians of Furia, who in turn caused a lot of damage to BDS, taking the advantage very early (2-0) in their meeting. Before the Habs raise their level of play to begin their inevitable march towards the trophy.
Two years of domination
Ultra-dominant in the past two years (four Majors won), but deprived of the conquest of the supreme title by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 Worldsthey did not however land as favorites in Texas for this 2022 edition. The fault of a bitter failure at the last major meeting in London, which had shaken up all their certainties. “We took the time to analyze our mistakes to install a way of playing that suits us better, referred to coach Mew before the start of the competition. First by defending well, then by taking our time, building our actions. »
It is by remembering these precepts that his team went to build its success, which has rewarded all the choices of the last few months, starting with the most brilliant of them: recruitment. by Seikoo, last April, to break the beginning of a bad dynamic this winter. The last to arrive, 18, was crowned MVP of these Worlds. It is thanks to him, among others, that the clocks could be set back on time: after the title of Renault-Vitality in June 2019the title of world champion is finally back in France.
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