Thanks to Cathal for helping out with the article!
Lyon 1(Morgan, Quentin, Vincent, Alphonse) won the “Polozoo” in Perpignan.
24 teams from all over France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland competed in Perpignan. It was a 4 vs 4 city quad bench. Meaning that each games were full of passion. Also there was a bit of a “déja vu” sensation as the same courts hosted WHBPC 23 only one year ago. Lyon came first after not losing any games on the Saturday. Montpellier 2 (Jason,JThouin, Victoria and Laurent) and Geneva (Jojo, Clement, Woody, Jo), were just behind with only one loss.
On the Saturday night, people went to participate in an Escape Game (great idea from Perpignan) and others went to see Riton and Pushdown mixing their favourite vinyls. The overall ambiance was great.
On the Sunday, two Swiss Round games were played before entering the 16 team simple elimination. It then started, the most intense simple elimination ever. After 1 round only, Barcelona (Dani, Ale, Romina, Mcfly) and Montpellier’s both top teams were knocked out. Round Two, surprisingly Annecy (Max, Gas, Rémi, vinz) stepped it up and knocked Geneva out. At the same time Milano (Top, Gallo, Pyetro, Tomy) managed to show great strength and knocked Lyon 2 out.
The semi Finals were tough and Lyon 1 only barely managed to win vs Annecy (1-0) and on the other hand Toulouse (Albatar and Parcim) won vs Milano 3-1.
Jason came in to sub Rems as le Rems scratched his arm open following a clumsy fall against Perpignan… resulting in 10 stitches.
The fight for the third place was interesting, Annecy almost definitively had it but Milano put on a great recovery show and made it back to a tie. Then Michele Top killed the game with a wonderful long shot goal giving them the 3rd Place that they deserved with only 20 seconds on the clock.
Lyon 1 played Toulouse in the final. The dices were thrown and players stared at each other ‘waiting’ for whom would dare to change the scoreboard first. Bouchard got away with the first goal and Jason equalized thanks to a lovely back hand assist from Cathal. Toulouse played freely and created a nice series of passes and chances. However after a clear opportunity of winning the tournament, Cathal and Silvio crashed into each-other during the golden goal giving Morgan the moment of truth. An experienced player such as Morgan obviously seized the opportunity and celebrated with style after a smart shot vs Parcim. Final score 2-1.
Big big up To Lausanne,Marseille, Roma, Valencia, Magdeburg, Caen, and Rouen who represented their true colours that week end.
Well done Perpigan for hosting another great week end.
Thank you Down over polo for capturing the wonderful scenes
https://challonge.com/fr/Polozoo_3
Winners History:
2024 Lyon (momo bouchard vinz fonzi)
2022 Nantes (chevance, baptiste, samir, Théo )
2021 Lyon (momo bouchard vinz fonzi)