Day Two in Paris:
Neon’s Five World Records,
and an Absolute Domination from Gwen
Bracket play began in Paris. Four lower bracket semifinals, four upper bracket matches and the first eliminations of EWC 2026 in Paris.
First Eliminations
Bottom two in each match are out of EWC 2026.
Nayko clutches through, first eliminations of the day
Nayko started the match quite shaky, but clutched exactly where it mattered most. Flimsy was able to follow through, and Charles, together with Spark, became the first players out of EWC 2026.
Josh1248 survives a triple finalist scramble
Everyone was expecting Mudda to dominate in this one, but it wasn’t to the extent everyone had expected. The real deal in this match was the battle for second. Mistakes piled up across the board and that opened the door for a triple finalist scramble, with Josh keeping his nerve to clutch it up.
Whizzy in total control
Whizzy, quite literally, took the steering wheel of this one, with a steady pace throughout and Richie backing it up for a solid second. Unfortunately for one of the Kiwis and for Neal, they couldn’t keep up with the pace and consistency needed, and their keys were crushed.
LinkMax strings together the clutch, Affi’s finalist run ends
The N64 guy came with real pace behind it. LinkMax clutched the most important rounds at the very end of the semifinal to close out the win, denying Affi’s own finalist attempt in the process. The Turkish favorite and the second Kiwi have been eliminated, closing out the lower bracket for the day.
Neon’s Statement, Gwen’s Perfect Run
Bottom two in each match drop to the lower bracket.
CarlJr wins as expected, Neon steals the headline
CarlJr won this one as expected, but as he said in the post-game interview, he had to be on his A-game because Neon pushed him to the limit. The highlight of the match, outside of the incredible pace and consistency shown by the seven-time World Champion, is of course Neon. The seventeen-year-old wonderkid dropped five world records on five different maps. You can’t deny the pace, and if the consistency catches up, this is potentially a name that belongs in the history books of Trackmania. Both Massa and Soulja dropped to the lower bracket, and Massa’s tweet about the match summed it up: “what the hell just happened, they didn’t let me get into the game at all.”
Stufts drops a WR on Japan, Binkss edges Otaaaq by 0.002
Was it an upset? A small underdog story? Or was it simply Stufts showing what he’s really capable of. He backed up his Day 1 form with a WR on Japan to take the win. Behind him, the two Frenchmen went down to the wire for second, with Binkss sliding into playoff DMs by 0.002 in front of Otaaaq, who will play alongside Pusztitopako in the lower bracket.
eLconn21 holds on as Mime and Bren close the gap
This was an example of what Trackmania is all about. Mime and Bren spent the match chasing down the Czech fast-learn king and GranaDy. Unfortunately for the latter, he was outpaced at the very end by Mime and dropped to the lower bracket alongside Bren after eLconn21 closed it out in first. What’s interesting is that we’re apparently still somehow in 2005, seeing packet loss during a match, which nearly cost GranaDy points on one of the rounds.
Gwen’s perfect run: two world records and a lead that never shrank
The final match of the day, the event of the day, the most stacked field of the day, and nobody expected what happened. Nobody touched Gwen, and we mean nobody. By round 9 he was already 20 points up, and he stretched the lead past 30 not long after, dropping world records on both Argentina and Poland along the way, with the Poland run becoming the cherry on top as he closed out his finalist for the win. Behind him, the Brits reached finalist at the same time, but the beatboxing Team Liquid player got there first, dropping the King of Birmingham Pac and Gen.G’s Wosile into lower bracket survival mode.
Eight players bid farewell to the Paris stage after Day 2: Charles, Spark, L1ngo, Noiszia, Jswag, Neal, Cemko, and Baiwack. Neon’s five world records and Gwen’s dominant run are the headlines to carry into Day 3, but the lower bracket is as stacked as it gets, with Day 1 winners now fighting to survive. Full standings and the updated bracket are live on the home page.
