Changes

Florent signed off on another momentous year by winning the SMK World Championship of 2014 with crushing dominance, reaching 4 out of 4 finals and 3 out of 4 gold medals ([http://www.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2014 CDM 2014]). On top of winning the CDM, Florent also organized it, proving that it is possible to be a succesful competitor even when burdened with organizatorial tasks. For the second year in a row the CDM opened its doors in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Suze-sur-Sarthe La Suze-sur-Sarthe], with its fantastic venue. The usual top players were all present and with a total of 43 participants the CDM was popular as ever. This year media coverage reached a new pinnacle with the NESblog team (http://www.nesblog.com/) creating a documentary of the event on site. Moreover, there were various big news papers conducting interviews with the top players (and Florent in particular) and further coverage was provided by a live-stream of the proceedings on the CDM Twitch channel (www.twitch.tv/ffsmk).

Florent signed off on another momentous year by winning the SMK World Championship of 2014 with crushing dominance, reaching 4 out of 4 finals and 3 out of 4 gold medals ([http://www.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2014 CDM 2014]). On top of winning the CDM, Florent also organized it, proving that it is possible to be a succesful competitor even when burdened with organizatorial tasks. For the second year in a row the CDM opened its doors in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Suze-sur-Sarthe La Suze-sur-Sarthe], with its fantastic venue. The usual top players were all present and with a total of 43 participants the CDM was popular as ever. This year media coverage reached a new pinnacle with the NESblog team (http://www.nesblog.com/) creating a documentary of the event on site. Moreover, there were various big news papers conducting interviews with the top players (and Florent in particular) and further coverage was provided by a live-stream of the proceedings on the CDM Twitch channel (www.twitch.tv/ffsmk).

Florent cruised to the final in the [[Time Trial]] event with relative ease, never really getting into trouble. One of the upsets of the tournament was that the big favourite for TT, [[Guillaume Leviach]], did not reach further than a bronze medal this year. Instead the traditional Sami versus Florent final happened once more, conducted on MC2 this time. Unlike Sami, Florent was prepared to take extra risks to beat his opponent, performing the tricky Long Boost in the two opening laps. This created a big enough gap for Florent to win the first gold medal of the 2014 edition. Florent showed killer-form in the MR tournament all day long, disposing of [[Raphael Braun]], [[Matthias Boucher]] and [[Harold Christensen]] in the KO-stages to reach the final, winning 21 out of 26 races on the way. Particularly impressive were the item short-cuts that Florent was hitting, the highlight being a spectacular Long Boost-assisted feather-jump to the finishline at GV2 in the semi final, the likes of which have never been showcased before at a CDM event. Unsurprisingly, the final provided another Florent versus Sami face-off. Florent jokingly refers to these rivalry matches as "el Classico's" now (after the classic Barcelona vs Real Madrid showdowns in football). Sami started the match powerfully, taking a 5-2 lead with solid drivings and strategy. Florent shook his nerves and clawed himself back into the match by applying a more daring style to try and pressure his opponent. This proved succesful as Florent ended the match with a string of wins to reach a 11-7 overall score and the gold medal. It should be noted that Florent was also helped back into the match with some luck: when Sami threathened to go 7-4 up, a lightning came to the rescue, one of two Florent would get this match. It was never as excessive as in the 2008 MR final though (that time Sami got 5 lightnings), therefore it was clear that Florent earned this victory mainly through superior ability.

Florent cruised to the final in the [[Time Trial]] event with relative ease, never really getting into trouble. One of the upsets of the tournament was that the big favourite for TT, [[Guillaume Leviach]], did not reach further than a bronze medal this year. Instead the traditional Sami versus Florent final happened once more, conducted on MC2 this time. Unlike Sami, Florent was prepared to take extra risks to beat his opponent, performing the tricky Long Boost in the two opening laps. This created a big enough gap for Florent to win the first gold medal of the 2014 edition.  

Subsequently, Florent showed killer-form in the MR tournament all day long, disposing of [[Raphael Braun]], [[Matthias Boucher]] and [[Harold Christensen]] in the KO-stages to reach the final, winning 21 out of 26 races on the way. Particularly impressive were the item short-cuts that Florent was hitting, the highlight being a spectacular Long Boost-assisted feather-jump to the finishline at GV2 in the semi final, the likes of which have never been showcased before at a CDM event. Unsurprisingly, the final provided another Florent versus Sami face-off. Florent jokingly refers to these rivalry matches as "el Classico's" now (after the classic Barcelona vs Real Madrid showdowns in football). Sami started the match powerfully, taking a 5-2 lead with solid drivings and strategy. Florent shook his nerves and clawed himself back into the match by applying a more daring style to try and pressure his opponent. This proved succesful as Florent ended the match with a string of wins to reach a 11-7 overall score and the gold medal. It should be noted that Florent was also helped back into the match with some luck: when Sami threathened to go 7-4 up, a lightning came to the rescue, one of two Florent would get this match. It was never as excessive as in the 2008 MR final though (that time Sami got 5 lightnings), therefore it was clear that Florent earned this victory mainly through superior ability.