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[[Image:Sami_and_Flo.JPG|thumb|Championship of Europe 2008]]

[[Image:Sami_and_Flo.JPG|thumb|Championship of Europe 2008]]

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 number of participants reached a record high of 39 (this record has now been eclipsed by the [http://www.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2012 CDM 2012]. 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 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thil,_Marne Thil], the number of participants reached a historical high of 39 (this record has since been eclipsed by the [http://www.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2012 CDM 2012]). 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.

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.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2008 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.

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.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2008 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.