The group stage of the TrackMania Grand League BETA Season finished last Sunday. Over three months of intense training and competition are now over.
Eight players have qualified for the playoffs, one of them being British player Thomas ‘Pac’ Cole from GamersOrigin, reports Eirik Holdal.
The TrackMania Grand League is the newest and biggest event in TrackMania. It boasts a prize pool of €15,000 for the group stage, the biggest prize pool we have seen since 2008. Alongside this, there will be an additional prize pool added to the playoffs.
The BETA Season of TrackMania Grand League started off with regional qualifiers. 16 slots were divided among the different regions. Players from the United Kingdom had the chance at fighting for one of these slots: a slot that Pac won without facing any real challenge from the other British players.
The next phase for the UK player was the group stage. Ten steps determine which eight players would advance into the playoffs, which will take place later this year.
Step 1 started off slow for Thomas ‘Pac’ Cole, as he only finished 10th with 3 points, while the step winner, CarlJr, collected 69 points and had a solid lead when we left the first step.
However, the GamersOrigin player proved what he is capable of already in step 2, placing 3rd this time with 43 points. But when it looked like Pac had figured out how to drive and compete in this new format, and on the new type of maps, he once again placed 10th with only 3 points added to his overall score.
The next two steps, 4 and 5, turned out to be the best for the British player. He won step 4 with a score of 92 points, a score that so far was the highest any player had reached on a single step. Pac’s momentum continued in step 5. This time, he won the step with a score of 79 points.
Halfway through the BETA Season group stage, Pac found himself sitting at 2nd place in the overall leaderboard, with 220 points. The leader was the Canadian, CarlJr, with 319 points, while the world champion from the Czech Republic, Kappa, was 3rd with 129 points.
Steps 6 and 7 ended with Pac placing 2nd in both of them, just behind the overall leader CarlJr. When we left step 8, the streak of placing among the top 2 was broken, as Pac placed 5th with 31 points. In the penultimate step, Pac once again found himself finishing on a podium spot, placing 3rd with 39 points.
When we entered the last step of the group stage, a step where the received points were doubled, Pac only had a theoretical chance at overtaking CarlJr. However, at the same time, he had a solid lead down to the 3rd player, Spam.
This step didn’t go the way ‘Pac’ wanted, however, and he finished in the same fashion as he started the season, in 10th place with 3 points, which were multiplied by two.
Here is the final ranking of the #TMGL group phase.
GG to our 16 champions but only 8 of them will participate in playoffs!
?@CarlJrtm ??
?@GO_Pactm ??
?@Spammiejj @ScrapieTV ??@GO_Papou ??@RollinTM ??@TM2Bren ??@KappaSampi ??#TMGL pic.twitter.com/9qPSsriG2e— Trackmania Grand League (@TrackmaniaGL) May 12, 2019
Pac ended up placing 2nd in the group stage of TrackMania Grand League BETA Season, winning €2,000 for that placement, along with €1,300 from winning 13 different maps during the league.
The next phase is the upcoming playoffs, which are yet to be officially announced.
Check out this playlist with all the steps here.
In other news, Gamers Origin announced Pac in one of its duos for the 2019 Trackmania Cup.
Nous serons bien présents à la Trackmania Cup 2019 de @ZeratoRSC2 avec deux duos inédits ⤵️
?️ @GO_Papou & @GO_Cap
?️ @GO_Pac & @GO_AurelComptez sur nous pour prendre notre revanche @CarlJrtm @Bren_TM2 ? pic.twitter.com/H591LsY73w
— GamersOrigin (@GamersOrigin) May 18, 2019
Further reading: British TrackMania player Thomas ‘Pac’ Cole creates history at Gamers Assembly
