He is known for hosting the biggest, craziest and most popular cups in Trackmania, and now he is ready with another edition. We asked him about the upcoming Trackmania Cup 2017, the idea behind the cup, his maps, being popular on Twitch and more!
Enjoy!
Hello! Sure thing! I am a video content creator on Twitch. I basically livestream when I’m playing video games, and people watch my broadcast to have fun or learn a bit.
Originally, when I thought about the Trackmania Cup, I asked myself a simple question: “What would be the result if someone created lame circuits (me in fact) but there was still a cashprize at the end to catch the interest of the pro players? Will they try the maps and play? Even if those maps suck? Will people like the event? So I decided to give it a go and I realized that people enjoyed it. I even got better with mapping! Meaning everything is possible really!
As crazy as it may seem, I don’t get any help. I just start the editor without prior thinking about what I’m gonna do. I’m not sure where the inspiration comes from to be honest. Directly from hell if I recall what some contestants said about the cup. My viewers sometimes make suggestions when talking in the chat on my livestream, and it can be quite useful!
In fact there were 2700 tickets! That makes a difference believe me! It was a huge bet for my team to go for an offline event. Originally we booked a smaller theatre with only 500 seats available, but tickets were all sold in 13 seconds! When we learned that the booking for the biggest stage (of the same theatre) had been cancelled, we just made another CRAZY bet, which was to book this big stage instead. To my own surprise, it worked out pretty well! I had never done something like that before, it was the first time that I made an entire show by myself (with the help of a production company owned by friends of mine).
Even worst, at the time we booked the big stage, the date of the Trackmania cup was already announced and only 3 weeks were left to re-make the whole show from scratch. We had our load of bugs and problems to solve of course, but overall it went great. If we cumulate everything, there were 40000 viewers, which is… amazing!
There are quite a few changes compared to last year’s event. First of all, this time it will be held in Lyon and not in Paris. The theatre has more of a round shape, kinda like a colosseum. Also, I had this impression that last year’s competition was very “serious”. I decided to lighten the mood a bit by creating fun challenges. There will be three:
- Number 1, during which you have to play a whole track blindfolded (the map will be adapted obviously).
- Number 2, where you’ll have to play with your controller (or keyboard) upside down.
- Number 3, during which you’ll have to go touch (physically) a specific point on stage whenever you cross a checkpoint and get back to your seat to continue playing.
The idea was to create challenges you can train for at home, because the goal wasn’t to destroy the competitive aspect, just to make the whole show more entertaining and spectacular! I don’t want people to think of the TM Cup as a tournament, but as a show. That’s the main difference.
Indeed, it’s a shame that JaviFlyer won’t be there to defend his title. On a side note, when you’ve won a TM Cup you’ve won with your life so does it really matter? On a more serious note… there are a bunch of strong candidates this year, I’m not sure that the level has been that high before. I have no clue who’s the most likely to win at the end, but it seems hard to imagine the semi-final in Lyon without CarlJR, Bren, Paco or Aurel.
I think that the most emotional was when I got on stage in Paris facing a crowd of 2700 people. That’s when I really thought: “Damn, this joke transformed into a real show in Paris, that’s unbelievable!” It was both moving and funny.
To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t focus that much on Trackmania except for my event. I’ve always been a fan of the game, but more in casual sense. I completed the solo mode with gold medals of every game in the series. It doesn’t require a very good level but a few hours of playing still! Even if I haven’t played that long, I’m pretty satisfied with my level. I haven’t completed the solo mode of Lagoon yet! Time will come!
Visible changes for someone like me are minors. That being said, having way less landing bugs is really cool, especially for the competitive aspect. Pro players will be more serene and I can create maps full of complex jumps, which is reeeeeaaaally fun! The game is also prettier, which is nice. There are new block editors, but it was a bit too early to try that out. Maybe next year if we decide to make another edition!
It’s actually pretty tough to answer because Trackmania is really a “one of a kind” video game. Nonetheless, I think Rocket League can be quite fun for every player who is good on Trackmania and would like to try another game with bigger tournaments. I’ve seen previous Trackmania pro players try out that game and they were really good. You have to handle your vehicle perfectly and even if the physics and controls are different, it’s still a game based on precision and decision making. In my opinion, those are also mandatory qualities to be a good TM player (in round mode at least).
Thank you very much for this, it’s always heart-warming to see that people are interested in the event. I hope to meet you in Lyon, even if it must be quite a trip for you!
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