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[[Image:DSC00030.JPG|thumb|Mini-Flo]]
 
[[Image:DSC00030.JPG|thumb|Mini-Flo]]
 
Florent was born in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes Rennes], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France]. He grew up in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauban-de-Bretagne Montauban-de-Bretagne], a small town near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes Rennes]. It’s there where he started playing [[SMK]] around 1994/1995, reaching respectable times of 1’02”00 and 12”30 on [[Mario Circuit 1]] ([[PAL]] [[Non-NBT]]) back then. The internet era had not taken off by then yet, so these achievements were reached without being aware of competition elsewhere and without watching any strategy videos. After these initial results he did not play [[SMK]] again until 2005.
 
Florent was born in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes Rennes], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France]. He grew up in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauban-de-Bretagne Montauban-de-Bretagne], a small town near [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes Rennes]. It’s there where he started playing [[SMK]] around 1994/1995, reaching respectable times of 1’02”00 and 12”30 on [[Mario Circuit 1]] ([[PAL]] [[Non-NBT]]) back then. The internet era had not taken off by then yet, so these achievements were reached without being aware of competition elsewhere and without watching any strategy videos. After these initial results he did not play [[SMK]] again until 2005.
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[[Image:CDF 2005.JPG|thumb|Championship of France 2005]]
 
[[Image:CDF 2005.JPG|thumb|Championship of France 2005]]
 
It was not before long until Florent learned about the art of mushroom generated [[Long Boosts]] (LBs) and quickly specialized himself in this technique. This specialization would soon become a fruit bearing one, allowing him to hit his first ever GP WR, taking down Camille Batier’s (a French karter also known as Don Camillo and mostly known for his GP skills) [[MC1]] flap, with an LB aided record of 7”76. Later on he would drive countless more LB involved GP WR’s and also create a couple of video compilations demonstrating the use of LB’s nicely, one of them can be found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x29bcbfgUUk here].
 
It was not before long until Florent learned about the art of mushroom generated [[Long Boosts]] (LBs) and quickly specialized himself in this technique. This specialization would soon become a fruit bearing one, allowing him to hit his first ever GP WR, taking down Camille Batier’s (a French karter also known as Don Camillo and mostly known for his GP skills) [[MC1]] flap, with an LB aided record of 7”76. Later on he would drive countless more LB involved GP WR’s and also create a couple of video compilations demonstrating the use of LB’s nicely, one of them can be found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x29bcbfgUUk here].
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== SMK Championship of France 2005 ==
 
== SMK Championship of France 2005 ==
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[[Image:Kart Meet London 2006.JPG|thumb|Worlwide Kart Meet, London, July 2006]]
 
[[Image:Kart Meet London 2006.JPG|thumb|Worlwide Kart Meet, London, July 2006]]
 
Florent’s first GP WR came right before the start of the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2005.php CDF 2005] (which was the first CDF he participated in). Because his name was on the list of participants, many people were wondering who this new kid on the block was: the newcomer who beat one of Don Camillo’s most prolific WR’s. This created a fuzz amongst the karters present and they could soon observe a new star in the making. Outside of [[Mushroom Cup]] GP and some Battle Mode practice, Florent was relatively unexperienced playing against other players, but he still performed quite well, ending on an 11th position in the overall ranking of the tournament. He almost caused an upset by beating [[Harold Christensen]] in the Battle Mode quarter final. At this point in time Harold was already an accomplished Battle Mode player and well known for his skills in this mode; in other words a clear favourite to win that tournament. In his match against Harold however, Florent was leading 5-3, much to the shock of the karter’s watching. In the end Harold’s experience proved a little too much as he came back to proceed to the semi final with a 7-5 win.
 
Florent’s first GP WR came right before the start of the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2005.php CDF 2005] (which was the first CDF he participated in). Because his name was on the list of participants, many people were wondering who this new kid on the block was: the newcomer who beat one of Don Camillo’s most prolific WR’s. This created a fuzz amongst the karters present and they could soon observe a new star in the making. Outside of [[Mushroom Cup]] GP and some Battle Mode practice, Florent was relatively unexperienced playing against other players, but he still performed quite well, ending on an 11th position in the overall ranking of the tournament. He almost caused an upset by beating [[Harold Christensen]] in the Battle Mode quarter final. At this point in time Harold was already an accomplished Battle Mode player and well known for his skills in this mode; in other words a clear favourite to win that tournament. In his match against Harold however, Florent was leading 5-3, much to the shock of the karter’s watching. In the end Harold’s experience proved a little too much as he came back to proceed to the semi final with a 7-5 win.
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== World Wide Kart meet, London 2006 ==
 
== World Wide Kart meet, London 2006 ==
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[[Image:Flo and Nico.JPG|thumb|Championship of France 2006]]
 
[[Image:Flo and Nico.JPG|thumb|Championship of France 2006]]
 
In the summer of 2006, the webmaster of the [http://www.mariokart64.com/smk SMK Time Trial site], [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami Çetin], hosted a world wide kart meet in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon Croydon], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England England]. Florent attended this event and this was the first time he travelled outside of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France] to meet fellow karters. He wore a T-shirt specifically designed for this event, a gesture that was greeted with much enthusiasm by the other karters. At this point he had already become a strong force to be reckoned with in [[SMK]], but he still lacked a little experience against the likes of [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] and [[Sami]], thus losing to them marginally in Match Race by 12-8 scores respectively. He did however pull out a 10-10 tie against the [[PAL]] [[Time Trial]] Champion at that time, [[Karel van Duijvenboden]].
 
In the summer of 2006, the webmaster of the [http://www.mariokart64.com/smk SMK Time Trial site], [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami Çetin], hosted a world wide kart meet in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon Croydon], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England England]. Florent attended this event and this was the first time he travelled outside of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France] to meet fellow karters. He wore a T-shirt specifically designed for this event, a gesture that was greeted with much enthusiasm by the other karters. At this point he had already become a strong force to be reckoned with in [[SMK]], but he still lacked a little experience against the likes of [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] and [[Sami]], thus losing to them marginally in Match Race by 12-8 scores respectively. He did however pull out a 10-10 tie against the [[PAL]] [[Time Trial]] Champion at that time, [[Karel van Duijvenboden]].
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== SMK Championship of France 2006 ==
 
== SMK Championship of France 2006 ==
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Florent effectively became the PAL World Champion of Match Race by winning the [http://nextlevelgaming.ogamewar.com/nlg-history-f4/nlg-07-norway-t3.htm SMK tournament] at the Next Level Gaming Championships ([http://nextlevelgaming.ogamewar.com/ NLG]), which was held in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkanger Orkanger] ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Norway]), July 2007. He beat his eternal rival [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L’Hoëst] in a historically thrilling semi final and secured the victory by beating [[SMK]] veteran [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami Çetin] in the final with a convincing 10-5 win. The Match Race World Championship had karters from far reaches of the World including USA, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, France and UK.
 
Florent effectively became the PAL World Champion of Match Race by winning the [http://nextlevelgaming.ogamewar.com/nlg-history-f4/nlg-07-norway-t3.htm SMK tournament] at the Next Level Gaming Championships ([http://nextlevelgaming.ogamewar.com/ NLG]), which was held in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkanger Orkanger] ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Norway]), July 2007. He beat his eternal rival [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L’Hoëst] in a historically thrilling semi final and secured the victory by beating [[SMK]] veteran [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami Çetin] in the final with a convincing 10-5 win. The Match Race World Championship had karters from far reaches of the World including USA, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, France and UK.
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He also took part in various other tournaments and delivered an especially fine performance in the [http://www.absolute-playstation.com/api_review/rcircuit.htm Circuit Breakers] tournament. He almost made the final round, which featured the 4 best players, but in the end he lost out to [[Patrick Wessels]] in the deciding semi final tie-breaker.
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He also took part in various other tournaments and delivered an especially fine performance in the [http://www.absolute-playstation.com/api_review/rcircuit.htm Circuit Breakers] tournament. He almost made the final round, which featured the 4 best players, but in the end he lost out to [[Patrick Wessels]] in the deciding semi final tie-breaker.
      
== SMK Championship of France 2007 ==
 
== SMK Championship of France 2007 ==
    
Two months later in Paris, Florent signed off on another momentous year with a winning performance at the French Championship. Because of his success in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Norway], Florent entered the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2007.php CDF of 2007] as one of the two clear favourites to win. It was expected that the overall win would either go to [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst] or him. The rivalry between the two became clear from the very start as they faced eachother in the final of the first event, which was the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2007.php TT tournament]. This final took place on one of his favourite tracks, [[KB1]], but the pressure got to him as he hit some weed and ended in 2nd place with [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] grabbing the first gold medal of that [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with a clean race. Florent made his candidacy for the overall win clear early on though. In the Match Race tournament he faced [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] in the final again, but this time the gold medal went to Florent after a convincing 11-7 in his favour. The Battle Mode tournament saw another [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] versus Florent final. The level on display was extremely high and to this day Florent claims that the level he reached in this match was the highest he has ever reached as an [[SMK]] player. Despite Pierre’s strong resistance and fine form, Florent proved to be an unstoppable force from now on, winning the tournament in style with a 11-4 victory. Florent was comfortably in the lead in the overall rankings now, with his best mode (GP) still ahead. Only a miracle could stop him from winning his first CDF from that point onwards. When Florent reached the final of the GP tournament ([http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] was knocked out at this point), he was already certain of the overall victory. But as a true champion he gave it his best once more to also claim the title in the GP final in a thrilling early morning match against [[Nicolas Haufmann]] (also known as El Nico on the boards). Nicolas could not prevent Florent from reaching a landslide 5-1 victory, meaning that Florent succesfully crowned his [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with another gold medal. Rarely had the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] seen such a display of dominance from one karter, winning all the multiplayer modes with big scorelines plus reaching the final of the TT event as well.
 
Two months later in Paris, Florent signed off on another momentous year with a winning performance at the French Championship. Because of his success in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Norway], Florent entered the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2007.php CDF of 2007] as one of the two clear favourites to win. It was expected that the overall win would either go to [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst] or him. The rivalry between the two became clear from the very start as they faced eachother in the final of the first event, which was the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2007.php TT tournament]. This final took place on one of his favourite tracks, [[KB1]], but the pressure got to him as he hit some weed and ended in 2nd place with [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] grabbing the first gold medal of that [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with a clean race. Florent made his candidacy for the overall win clear early on though. In the Match Race tournament he faced [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] in the final again, but this time the gold medal went to Florent after a convincing 11-7 in his favour. The Battle Mode tournament saw another [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] versus Florent final. The level on display was extremely high and to this day Florent claims that the level he reached in this match was the highest he has ever reached as an [[SMK]] player. Despite Pierre’s strong resistance and fine form, Florent proved to be an unstoppable force from now on, winning the tournament in style with a 11-4 victory. Florent was comfortably in the lead in the overall rankings now, with his best mode (GP) still ahead. Only a miracle could stop him from winning his first CDF from that point onwards. When Florent reached the final of the GP tournament ([http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] was knocked out at this point), he was already certain of the overall victory. But as a true champion he gave it his best once more to also claim the title in the GP final in a thrilling early morning match against [[Nicolas Haufmann]] (also known as El Nico on the boards). Nicolas could not prevent Florent from reaching a landslide 5-1 victory, meaning that Florent succesfully crowned his [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with another gold medal. Rarely had the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] seen such a display of dominance from one karter, winning all the multiplayer modes with big scorelines plus reaching the final of the TT event as well.
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== SMK European Championship 2008 ==
 
== SMK European Championship 2008 ==
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This year the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] became the Championship of Europe (CDE), with players joining from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Switzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/england England], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands the Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium Belgium], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany Germany] and even one from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA]. Because of all those countries being represented, the list of participants was historically high, reaching a total of 39 entrants. With his biggest rival [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] now being retired from multiplayer SMK, Florent entered the tournament as the big favourite. New rivals emerged though, the American [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] would prove to be the surprise package of this edition, both in his behaviour and his extreme karting abilities. Florent’s main focus was on winning the [[Time Trial]] event, which he labeled his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Open Roland Garros], seeing it was the only mode where he didn’t win a gold medal yet. Obviously this refers to his idol and look-a-like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federer Roger Federer] not being able to win [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Open Roland Garros], whereas he has won all other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(tennis) Grand Slams] numerous times. Florent would break his own tradition though; he enjoyed a prosperous start, doing very well in the qualifying stages and winning with seconds to spare in the [[CI1]] final versus [http://speedrunwiki.com/Karel_van_Duijvenboden Karel] by making the wall Shortcut 5 out of 5 times.
 
This year the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] became the Championship of Europe (CDE), with players joining from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Switzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/england England], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands the Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium Belgium], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany Germany] and even one from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA]. Because of all those countries being represented, the list of participants was historically high, reaching a total of 39 entrants. With his biggest rival [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] now being retired from multiplayer SMK, Florent entered the tournament as the big favourite. New rivals emerged though, the American [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] would prove to be the surprise package of this edition, both in his behaviour and his extreme karting abilities. Florent’s main focus was on winning the [[Time Trial]] event, which he labeled his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Open Roland Garros], seeing it was the only mode where he didn’t win a gold medal yet. Obviously this refers to his idol and look-a-like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federer Roger Federer] not being able to win [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Open Roland Garros], whereas he has won all other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(tennis) Grand Slams] numerous times. Florent would break his own tradition though; he enjoyed a prosperous start, doing very well in the qualifying stages and winning with seconds to spare in the [[CI1]] final versus [http://speedrunwiki.com/Karel_van_Duijvenboden Karel] by making the wall Shortcut 5 out of 5 times.
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In Match Race everything was going according to plan as well and he reached the final with relative ease, after a strong semi final performance against UK Champion [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] (9-5). The fact [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] would be his opponent in the final came as a surprise to pretty much everyone, seeing [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew’s] only previous [[PAL]] experience came from playing it on an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_emulator emulator], which is sub-optimal compared to practicing on a real [[SNES]]. Even more surprisingly he even gave Florent a good run for his money, though Florent did finish the job by winning 11-7 in the end. Battle Mode was the mode everyone was waiting for though, the field had never been this strong, especially with Battle Mode World Champion [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] taking part. Florent faced [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] in the semi final in an epic match. He gave it his outmost best, even so much so in fact that he ran out of breath after the match had finished. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] did win (9-6), but Florent definitely didn’t go down without a fight. Florent and [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] were quite close in the overall rankings at this point, however Florent already practically sealed the victory with his strongest mode GP coming up. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] got knocked out early, whereas Florent went on to win the final against [[Matthias Boucher]] (also known as Gatchan on the boards) in a 5-0 clean sweep. Thus, Florent was the winner of the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2008.php CDE 2008] edition. Being the trophy hunter that he is, he also won the Master Cup after, defeating [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] comfortably in the final.
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In Match Race everything was going according to plan as well and he reached the final with relative ease, after a strong semi final performance against UK Champion [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] (9-5). The fact [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] would be his opponent in the final came as a surprise to pretty much everyone, seeing [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew’s] only previous [[PAL]] experience came from playing it on an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_emulator emulator], which is sub-optimal compared to practicing on a real [[SNES]]. Even more surprisingly he even gave Florent a good run for his money, though Florent did finish the job by winning 11-7 in the end. Battle Mode was the mode everyone was waiting for though, the field had never been this strong, especially with Battle Mode World Champion [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] taking part. Florent faced [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] in the semi final in an epic match. He gave it his outmost best, even so much so in fact that he ran out of breath after the match had finished. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] did win (9-6), but Florent definitely didn’t go down without a fight. Florent and [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] were quite close in the overall rankings at this point, however Florent already practically sealed the victory with his strongest mode GP coming up. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew] got knocked out early, whereas Florent went on to win the final against [[Matthias Boucher]] (also known as Gatchan on the boards) in a 5-0 clean sweep. Thus, Florent was the winner of the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2008.php CDE 2008] edition. Being the trophy hunter that he is, he also won the Master Cup after, defeating [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] comfortably in the final.
      
== SMK World Championship 2009==
 
== SMK World Championship 2009==
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[[Image:Sami,_Florent_and_Geoffrey.JPG|thumb|World Championship 2009]]
 
[[Image:Sami,_Florent_and_Geoffrey.JPG|thumb|World Championship 2009]]
 
In 2009, the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] evolved into its final form, that of a World Championship (CDM, abbreviation for Championnat du Monde, which means World Championship in French). The event was open for and advertised towards the global SMK population and in the end karters from two additional continents participated. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_america North America] was represented by [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA] once again and this time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/south_america South America] was represented as well by the Champion of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil Brazil], [[Guilherme Arantes]]. Of course, much like in 2008, karters from throughout [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe Europe] were present,  including karters from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Switzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/england England], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/germany Germany]. Of course the vast majority of the participants came from the hosting nation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France] itself.
 
In 2009, the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] evolved into its final form, that of a World Championship (CDM, abbreviation for Championnat du Monde, which means World Championship in French). The event was open for and advertised towards the global SMK population and in the end karters from two additional continents participated. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_america North America] was represented by [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA] once again and this time [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/south_america South America] was represented as well by the Champion of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil Brazil], [[Guilherme Arantes]]. Of course, much like in 2008, karters from throughout [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe Europe] were present,  including karters from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Switzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/england England], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/germany Germany]. Of course the vast majority of the participants came from the hosting nation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France] itself.
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As [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] was still in retirement, Florent was expecting the most fierce competition to come from SMK’s Godfather [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami], who had been training on-line through [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_emulator emulators] for months. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] himself had high expectations of this rivalry as well, judging by a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbT16aFfFvI&fmt=18 trailer] he published in the week prior to the event. It turned out both of them were right, as this year’s tournament essentially was a historically thrilling race between the two, starting right from the beginning and lasting all the way until the very last match. In the [[Time Trial]] event Florent and his opponent [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] both reached the final with some strong performances. This year the final was raced on three tracks and a wall crash on the final one, [[BC2]], meant that Florent could not take the gold medal home this time. He was especially focused on Match Race this time around though and much like in previous years he reached the final with relative ease. As expected, he had to face [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] in the final again, in what would become one of the most memorable matches in [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] history. To most onlookers it appeared that Florent was in control of the proceedings, albeit very slightly at most. However, thanks to a somewhat lucky 5 lightning streak (Florent only had 1 to compensate) [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] managed to bring the match all the way to the wire. With both players tied on 10-10, the final race on [[VL1]] had to bring the decision. With both players under immense pressure, it was Florent who missed his vital zoomstart and [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] won the gold medal as a result. This was undoubtedly one of the most emotional moments in the careers of both karters; Florent broke down in tears afterwards. He later came back on what had happened stating that this had been his way to handle this sensitive moment of extreme disappointment; of course his reaction was also driven by the unlikely circumstances that had contributed to the final score.
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To still have a shot at winning the overall title, Florent had to rank above [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] in both of the remaining events. After having been eliminated by an unleashed [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] in the Battle Mode semi final, Florent cruised to a 9-6 victory against [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] in the bronze medal play-off. This meant that with only GP left, he still had a clean shot at gaining the World title. With GP being his strongest mode, he made short work of all of his opponents and reached the final, suffering only 2 cup losses during the entire tournament. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] followed a similar path to the final, losing only a single cup and drawing one. For the first time in history the Championship was decided by the very last match; absolutely everything was on the stakes. During the final Florent reached out for his maximum level once more and crushed [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] 5-1, in what could only be described as a devastating tour-de-force. This meant he was crowned the [[Super Mario Kart]] World Champion of 2009. He later claimed this to be the most important victory of his career, as he really had to earn it through a hard and lasting battle.
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Moreover, Florent was interviewed for a french TV documentary about the SMK World Championship 2009. It is available to watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzlfWwCcrYY
      −
As [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] was still in retirement, Florent was expecting the most fierce competition to come from SMK’s Godfather [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami], who had been training on-line through [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_emulator emulators] for months. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] himself had high expectations of this rivalry as well, judging by a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbT16aFfFvI&fmt=18 trailer] he published in the week prior to the event. It turned out both of them were right, as this year’s tournament essentially was a historically thrilling race between the two, starting right from the beginning and lasting all the way until the very last match. In the [[Time Trial]] event Florent and his opponent [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] both reached the final with some strong performances. This year the final was raced on three tracks and a wall crash on the final one, [[BC2]], meant that Florent could not take the gold medal home this time. He was especially focused on Match Race this time around though and much like in previous years he reached the final with relative ease. As expected, he had to face [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] in the final again, in what would become one of the most memorable matches in [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] history. To most onlookers it appeared that Florent was in control of the proceedings, albeit very slightly at most. However, thanks to a somewhat lucky 5 lightning streak (Florent only had 1 to compensate) [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] managed to bring the match all the way to the wire. With both players tied on 10-10, the final race on [[VL1]] had to bring the decision. With both players under immense pressure, it was Florent who missed his vital zoomstart and [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] won the gold medal as a result. This was undoubtedly one of the most emotional moments in the careers of both karters; Florent broke down in tears afterwards. He later came back on what had happened stating that this had been his way to handle this sensitive moment of extreme disappointment; of course his reaction was also driven by the unlikely circumstances that had contributed to the final score.
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== SMK World Championship 2010==
    +
Florent succesfully defended his title at the second SMK World Championship, the CDM 2010, adding another milestone and achievement to his already illustrous career. Attendance rates to the event were still high, however, when compared to the previous two editions, this year the balance in number of participants shifted even more towards  karters from the hosting country [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France].  That said, international karters from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands the Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Zwitzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England England] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA], were present to complete the field.
 +
The 2010 edition had without a doubt the strongest line-up of participants that the [[SMK]] playing world had ever witnessed thus far: in addition to the presence of all the top ranked players of the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2009.php CDM 2009], triple [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] winner [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst] and multi-medal winner [[Matthias Boucher]] (known as Gatchan on the boards) also returned to the competition for this event. As could be expected after the events that transpired during the previous year ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2009.php CDM 2009]), Florent’s biggest opposition once again came from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom UK] Champion [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami], who announced his ambitions in the days prior to the event by an inspirational [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYxitvoVlXQ trailer], heralding the now famous words: “The Time is Coming”. To underline this, [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] took the #3 spot from Florent in the [[PAL]] [[Time Trial]] rankings at around the same moment. The intense rivalry between Florent and [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] was really starting to resemble the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federer Roger Federer] vs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Nadal Rafael Nadal] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis tennis] rivalry in an increasing number of ways and in reference to this, [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] now called himself 'the Rafael Nadal of SMK', wearing a sleeveless top to match.
   −
To still have a shot at winning the overall title, Florent had to rank above [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] in both of the remaining events. After having been eliminated by an unleashed [http://speedrunwiki.com/Drew_Blumfield Drew Blumfield] in the Battle Mode semi final, Florent cruised to a 9-6 victory against [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] in the bronze medal play-off. This meant that with only GP left, he still had a clean shot at gaining the World title. With GP being his strongest mode, he made short work of all of his opponents and reached the final, suffering only 2 cup losses during the entire tournament. [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] followed a similar path to the final, losing only a single cup and drawing one. For the first time in history the Championship was decided by the very last match; absolutely everything was on the stakes. During the final Florent reached out for his maximum level once more and crushed [http://speedrunwiki.com/Sami Sami] 5-1, in what could only be described as a devastating tour-de-force. This meant he was crowned the [[Super Mario Kart]] World Champion of 2009. He later claimed this to be the most important victory of his career, as he really had to earn it through a hard and lasting battle.
+
Therefore, Florent started the Time Trial one-try competition as a warned man. The top 4 of the PAL Time Trial rankings (Karel, Pierre, Sami and Florent) found themselves facing each other in the semi final. Florent and Karel came out victorious and had to battle for gold, in a repeat of the 2008 TT final. Karel crashed once during his BC1 race, Florent did not, which meant he bagged the first gold medal of the CDM 2010. Sami lost his bronze medal play-off to Pierre in the little Final on KB1, giving Florent a nice margin in the lead before Match Race started. In the aftermath of last year’s historical Match Race final, Florent had expressed on various occasions that alongside winning the overall title, regaining the Match Race gold medal would be his main goal during the CDM 2010. However, Florent faced the threath of early elimination in the quarter final against Time Trial World Champion Karel van Duijvenboden. Being one of the outsiders for the gold medal in this mode, Karel proved to be a very tough opponent for Florent; in fact the Dutchman even received two match-points  at a score of 6-5. After a thrilling final lap on GV2 with a last ditch mushroom platform-jump effort, Florent subverted the first of those matchpoints miraculously. The decisive match had an even more surprising climax; when it looked like Karel was cruising for the win in the final lap of MC1,  faith decided otherwise as Florent received a lightning from his very last item pick-up. After last year’s drama in the big final, lady luck was finally smiling Florent in the face; this escape was of monumental value for him, as a Match Race quarter final exit might have meant losing the overall title, when considering Sami’s prowess accross all modes. Instead, Florent progressed to the Match Race final to once again meet with his big rival Sami; a chance for revenge. However, Florent was facing a big defecit early on in the match, not appearing as sharp as usual. When Sami was closing in on match-point, Florent gathered all his strength to mount a huge comeback and provide a close match, but it proved just too late to prevent Sami from winning 11-9.  
    +
For the third year running, Florent got eliminated by Drew Blumfield in the semi final of Battle Mode, though he put up a good fight with a 9-6 score. Furthermore, Florent obtained the bronze medal in a battle with Sami that had direct consequences for the overall rankings. This result meant that reaching the GP finals would be sufficient for Florent to propagate his World Champion title. Being the absolute favourite in the GP tournament, this proved to be no problem for him. With the overall result decided, the final  against Sami still proved to be one of the biggest fights in the history of the championships, with both players determined to show the world who was best. Florent started out winning the first cups by utilizing some techniques adopted from Match Race, to give him the extra edge. On the other end of the spectrum in this clash of styles, Sami managed to take the match back to 4-4 with very impressive Time Trial like driving. Eventually, Florent came through as the victor in the final and ninth cup by driving a very solid Flower Cup; for the first time in CDF history a ninth cup was needed to decide the GP final. In his victory speech Florent had some encouraging words for his rival Sami, when he expressed that Sami was too strong a karter to not win a CDM one day, signaling a sentiment perhaps shared by many. Future speculations aside, Florent could now boast about becoming the first back-to-back World Champion of Super Mario Kart.
   −
Moreover, Florent was interviewed for a french TV documentary about the SMK World Championship 2009. It is available to watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzlfWwCcrYY
      
== Championship Medal Collection ==
 
== Championship Medal Collection ==
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In various [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF]/CDE/CDM events since 2005 Florent has gathered 4 gold medals in GP ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2006.php 2006], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2007.php 2007], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2008.php 2008], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2009.php 2009]), 3 gold medals in Match Race ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2006.php 2006], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2007.php 2007], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2008.php 2008]), 1 gold medal in Battle Mode ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/BM2007.php 2007]), 1 gold medal in Time Trial ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2008.php 2008]) and one Master Cup* ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/MC2008.php 2008]). Furthermore he has won 1 silver medal in Match Race ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2008.php 2009]), 1 bronze medal in Battle Mode ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/BM2009.php 2009]) and 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in Time Trial ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2007.php 2007], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2009.php 2009] and [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2006.php 2006] respectively).
 
In various [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF]/CDE/CDM events since 2005 Florent has gathered 4 gold medals in GP ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2006.php 2006], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2007.php 2007], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2008.php 2008], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/GP2009.php 2009]), 3 gold medals in Match Race ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2006.php 2006], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2007.php 2007], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2008.php 2008]), 1 gold medal in Battle Mode ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/BM2007.php 2007]), 1 gold medal in Time Trial ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2008.php 2008]) and one Master Cup* ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/MC2008.php 2008]). Furthermore he has won 1 silver medal in Match Race ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/MR2008.php 2009]), 1 bronze medal in Battle Mode ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/BM2009.php 2009]) and 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in Time Trial ([http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2007.php 2007], [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2009.php 2009] and [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2006.php 2006] respectively).
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*The Master Cup was introduced as a new element at the SMK Championships of 2008 as an experiment and was scheduled after the overall competition was finished. The goal was to see if a more randomly organized tournament system could work for future tournaments, clear favourites were not seeded for example, but it was not an undisputed success and will not return in future tournaments.
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*The Master Cup was introduced as a new element at the SMK Championships of 2008 as an experiment and was scheduled after the overall competition was finished. The goal was to see if a more randomly organized tournament system could work for future tournaments, clear favourites were not seeded for example, but it was not an undisputed success and will not return in future tournaments.
      
== Time Trial ==
 
== Time Trial ==
0

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