The chance to change his own narrative

Looking back at 2018, many would remember Justin ‘’DexteR’’ Frömming for getting banned at TrackMania ProLeague Season 3. Getting a 5 season ban in the biggest event at the time, many thought that his chances at participating in the biggest event were over. However, when 2019 started off with the qualifiers for TrackMania Grand League, previously called TrackMania Champions League, ‘’DexteR’’ once again was ready at the start line.

Due to the distribution of slots given in the qualifiers, ‘’DexteR’’ ended up in arguably the toughest group. Players from Germany, Austria and Switzerland would fight for 2 slots, and the only thing that was certain was that good players would be left out.

In the end, ‘’DexteR’’ made it together with the Austrian player ‘’Rollin’’. And we saw names like ‘’Massa’’, ‘’riolu’’ and ‘’oNio’’ not making it.

But there is more at stake for the German player than just being one of the 16 players competing in the biggest event in the game. It’s the chance of removing the reputation of being the guy who was banned from the latest edition of TMPL. The best way to get rid of the old story is to create a new story people can talk about.

Players being banned from events, and then coming back is not a new thing in TrackMania. The most famous incident is when ‘’Massa’’ ended up being banned from ESWC 2015. Playing the ESWC Qualifiers with a different account, trying to help a friend out. Some people thought that was the end of his professional career. But after that event ‘’Massa’’ proved himself at other events, and had a streak of six offline grand finals back to back. Nowadays people rather focus on the current player and his achievements, rather than mistakes done in the past.

The magnitude of ‘’DexteR’s’’ reason for being banned compared to ‘’Massa’s’’ is more or less insignificant. Telling the event admin, ‘’softyB’’, days before the event that he hadn’t trained the maps as much as he should’ve, is in the bigger picture not a valid reason for a 5 season ban. ‘’softyB’’ is the admin of TrackMania Grand League as well, and allowed ‘’DexteR’’ to participate due to the reason of him seeming motivated and ready to do his best.

What the outcome of this story will be, and if it will have a happy end is unsure. But what we know is that one of the best players and most promising talents in the game is back at the biggest stage, and has the chance of testing himself against the best of the best.

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