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Kappa wins Gaming WinterFest, tween takes 2nd

7. March 2019

The first offline event of 2019 is over for our TrackMania players Kappa and tween. Once again, Team Sampi leaves an offline event in TrackMania being undefeated. The players, who famously took 1st and 2nd at the world championship back in October of 2018, did it once again.

Martin ‘’Kappa’’ Krompolc won the first edition of Gaming WinterFest back in 2017. Last year, he didn’t attend the event due to a break in his career. This year however, he went back to Melun, France to regain his title, and once again proved himself as the best tech player in the world.

Marek ‘’tween’’ Pacher ended 2018 on a high note, with the 1st place at Giant Cup 2018 and a 2nd place at the TrackMania World Championship 2018. 2019, on the other hand, has started off slow for the Slovakian player. With not making it into the TrackMania Grand League, and placing 5th-8th in the MAN vs. MAN WINTER 2019. After these two results, tween has put more effort into training than usually and it definitely paid off as he was very close to beating Kappa at this event. 

Day 1 – Road to Grand Final

The event gathered 16 players from all around Europe. Players from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were present and ready to fight for €1,500.

Saturday started off like expected for Team Sampi. Tween winning the time attack seeding in front of his teammate Kappa. Tween didn’t slow down after that. In his winner bracket 1/4-final, he won 11 out of 11 rounds. Kappa also won his 1/4-final in a solid fashion. In the first winner bracket semi-final, we saw the two Sampi players face-off against each other. This time, it was the Slovakian who came out on top and won the match in front of Kappa. However, both of them advanced to the Winner Bracket final.

The winner bracket final ended up being Team Sampi against Venture eSport. This time it was the Team Sampi who could end the Saturday on a high note and having both players reaching the grand final without dropping down to the loser bracket. Kappa won the match in front of tween, and therefore went into the grand final with 10 bonus points. Tween went into the grand final with 6 bonus points.

Day 2 – Grand Final

The grand final ended up being the same four players as we saw in the winner bracket final. Kappa and tween from Team Sampi. Dutchy and MathiCs from Venture eSport.

Instead of ending up as a match between the teams, it ended up being a match where the Sampi players battled against each other for 1st place, while the Venture players battled against each other for the 3rd place.

The grand final ended up with both Kappa and tween having reached finalist mode, and the chance to become the Gaming WinterFest 2019 champions. In the end, it was the world champion, Kappa, who once again proved himself to be the best tech player in the scene at the moment. Making his streak of winning tech events to 3.

Kappa: “Every offline title is worth it.”

After the event was over, I was lucky enough to have a chat with the winner of the event. To hear how it felt to win the first offline event of the year. The Czech player didn’t seem to be happy about his own performance.  

  • ‘’It feels good. But on the other hand, I am not too happy about my performance in the final. I am happy about the result, but I could have played much better. But in the end, it’s the result that matters.’’

The final that ended up being a battle between two guys, instead of being a match where all four could’ve won it, as we saw at TrackMania World Championship.

  • ‘’At least it was a really good fight between me and tween. Unfortunately, the other two guys were not able to keep the pace of us or be as consistent as we were. The fact that me and tween have a lot of experience with all different stages really helped us.’’

Kappa who now has won Gaming WinterFest two times, and becomes the first to do so. But what win meant the most to him? Was the first win bigger?

  • ‘’The first one had a bigger meaning to me. It was the first offline event I won in my career. This one was more about regaining the title since I wasn’t present last year. I still raise this achievement pretty high – every offline title is worth it.’’

Now winning three tech event in a row: TrackMania World Championship 2018, MAN vs. MAN WINTER 2019 and Gaming WinterFest 2019. Where does this put Kappa? Is he the best at the moment?

  • ‘’I feel like the best tech player at the moment, but that might change.’’

Statement from tween:

  • “Gaming Winterfest 2019 was about regaining confidence for me. After disheartening performances in TMGL qualifications and MAN vs. MAN online, I was looking to turn over a new leaf offline. I could feel that I had what it takes to continue doing as well as in late 2018. After making it to the finals pretty convincingly, I was feeling very confident going into it. Mistakes were made, however, and I didn’t manage to take it home despite having one extra finalist round over the world champion Kappa. Still, I am happy with how it all went, and I sense that 2019 can be a fruitful year for me in Trackmania.”

The winning streak continues for Team Sampi at offline events in TrackMania. So far we’re at 3 out of 3. Will it continue in the future? Follow our social media to get updates on upcoming events!

Written by Eirik Holdal

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