Will 2018 be the year for our Trackmania Team? [Updated]

Since MnM Gaming entered the TrackMania scene in 2015 they’ve been one of the major contenders at team cups. Being a stable team in the top 4, and often making it into the grand final. However they’ve yet to claim their first title win. Now the chances look better than ever. But will they break the curse and finally get that long awaited title?

The curse?
In sports when a athlete or a team is always amongst the best, but never at the top spot, you refer to it as a curse. How come they all end up just below that 1st place? Is it just a coincidence, or is there actually something to it? For MnM Gaming it might be a mixture of facing the tournament favourite in the semi finals or being unlucky at the most important moments. We saw in July an example of MnM Gaming being close to their first team title. In the grand final of Playoff Team Cup they faced another giant in TrackMania; E-corp Gaming. MnM Gaming had the opportunity to close it out already in the second submatch, and take the title home. However, one of MnM’s strongest players Fabian “beat” Kuhn clipped the last turn in the deciding round allowing E-corp Gaming to take the submatch and eventually the title.

Following that tournament, MnM Gaming had the opportunity to claim the title already in the next team event at the TrackMania Open. MnM Gaming once again saw themselves in a grand final. But this time it was against Venture eSports who performed too strong, and ended up as the champions of the tournament.

Another shot at a grand final

After placing 2nd in the group stages behind Elementaries, MnM yet again find themselves in a semi final. Reaching 5 out of 5 semi finals at major team events in 2018 is a indication on what level this team possesses. So far they’ve reached the grand final two out of four times. Will this be the third one?

In the semi final they face the winner of the other group; Runtime. Runtime who went undefeated through their group, and only having one draw. So it’s safe to say that MnM Gaming are facing a strong contender. Since MnM Gaming so far is also undefeated, one of the teams will be handed their first loss of the season, and be eliminated from the tournament.

Statement from Cosmin ‘’nevermind’’ Mihalcea:
The player who is a synonym with MnM Gaming in TrackMania is the team leader Cosmin nevermind Mihalcea since joining the scene back in 2015. Arguably nobody in TrackMania wanted a title more than him. But what does he think about TrackMania Stars Competition Premiership so far, and what does he expect against the upcoming opponent who is waiting in the semi final?

We started off a bit shaky, by drawing against Elementaries, which we might have underestimated a bit. But then we woke up and won convincingly against Team Q, orksGP and outsects. Rounding it up by winning with a very good performance against Venture eSports, which we fought for the playoffs spot. Finishing 2nd overall in our group with same points as Elementaries. I think it’s going to be a close match as usual against Runtime, who won’t make it easy, but I am confident we can get to the grand final and hopefully grab our first championship title.

Cosmin nevermind Mihalcea

It’s left to see if 2018 will be remembered as the year when MnM Gaming broke the curse, and finally claim that missing title. Or will 2018 will be another year MnM Gaming speaks about how they almost won the title?

ONE LAST STEP FROM ACHIEVING HISTORY

After successfully beating Runtime in the semi final of the TrackMania Stars Competition Premiership 20 (TMS CPS 20), MnM Gaming find themselves in yet another grand final. This being the third consecutive final in a TrackMania team tournament. Will this be the event where MnM Gaming claims their first title as a team?

Road to Grand Final

Like written previously, MnM Gaming went unbeaten through the group stages. In the semi final they faced another undefeated team in Runtime. Everything was set for a close battle. However, people who tuned into to watch the match, saw another reality. The match ended up being one sided, and MnM Gaming took home all sub matches, and won the semi final 4-0.

Will history be written or repeated?

Being one of the TrackMania teams with the strongest history of reaching grand finals, many would’ve thought that the squad already had won a team title. However, they’ve been one or two steps away from claiming the title. Before the TMS CPS 20 they’ve been in four semi finals and reached the grand final two times.

The team that awaits in the grand final is Planetkey Dynamics. A squad with strong success in 2015 and 2016. For the MnM players this is a known opponent. Having history back to days before MnM Gaming and Planetkey Dynamics supported their squads, and names like Funteam and PENTA were representative of the squads. Battles that went down in the history books as some of the greatest team matches. On Sunday there a chance of another classic being battled out. Will history be written or will history repeat itself?

Statements from Cosmin ‘’nevermind’’ Mihalcea

The player who has led the squad to another title and another shot of winning a title is Cosmin ‘’nevermind’’ Mihalcea. Will people finally stop asking him questions about when they will win and why they didn’t win, and instead ask how they won it and how it felt winning it. Let’s see what the leader himself has to say before the grand final of TMS CPS 20.

We are happy that we have reached the grand final a third time consecutively this year, and we have a really good feeling about this one, mostly after the semifinals match. I would say this final is way more prestigious than the other two before, also I think we are way more prepared mentally for this than before. It’s going to be a really close match against PkD, as usual these matches go very high up in tennis mode (13-11 is the highest score reached as far as I remember), but I think we will finally take it home this year to end it!

Everything goes down Sunday 23rd of December at 20 CET. Now you’ve the chance of witnessing history. Make sure to join the stream and support MnM Gaming.

The stream for the competition can be found here. For updates regarding the event follow MnM Gaming on Twitter and Facebook.

Written by Eirik Holdal.