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→2009: The consecration
== 2009: The consecration ==
== 2009: The consecration ==
In the beginning of 2009, Guillaume stops playing for a while, probably feeling the need to have a rest after a very exhausting 2008 year, the first one he was constantly playing SMK, especially because he was reaching higher and higher standards. On February 11th, he makes a special retirement announcement on the SMK Championships French message board, which eventually turned out to be a joke.
In the beginning of March, he's already back on the tracks and performs a few PRs that make him lower his AF under 10 and get a Player of the Week award for his first 2009 update presence. All spring long, Guillaume keeps on PRing in PAL, getting other awards, and reduces the gap between Angelo and also [[Sebastian Stellmacher]] who were also sending some PRs from time to time. He starts to realize he may have a bigger potential than he was thinking until there, especially when he wins a tough battle on Choco Island 1, being the first one before Angelo, Sebastian and Manuel to break the 56" barrier. He also quickly switches to NTSC where he manages to reach French #3 AF and gets a French Record on Koopa Beach 1 with a 46"38 time, ranked #4 in the world, one day before his 23rd birthday.
The second part of the year is probably the most impressive of his SMK carreer. Guillaume finally marries Claire on August 1st but this gaming fan wife really keeps on motivating him. One week later, his latest PAL PRs make him pass [[Julien Holmière]] for #4 in France and worldwide top 8 for the first time of his carreer. The next days are crazy, with a big battle with Angelo and Sebastian where Guillaume proves better than expected, overtaking three players in a row (including French rival [[Matthias Boucher]]) and reaching top 5 for 0.025 AF point the day before the first SMK World Championship! This event is also a great moment for Guillaume, who performs much better than he did in 2008, probably because the competition was held in Allenjoie, far from home, where he had no responsabilities at all. He fails at reaching Time Trial semifinals because of a stupid fall on Ghost Valley 3, exactly like in 2008, but performs rather good in Match Race (2nd and invincible in the group stages, defeated by [[Karel van Duijvenboden]] in quarterfinals) and at a correct level in Battle Mode (defeated by [[Florent Lecoanet]] 5-1 to begin the final phase). The big surprise happens in GP where he ranks 2nd again in the group stage, with the same amount of points as future World Champion Florent, before knocking Karel out in quarterfinals and resisting [[Sami Çetin]] much more than expected in semifinals. He eventually reaches the bronze medal after an endless 3rd place match against his longtime friend [[Geoffrey Label]] and ends the "CDM" as number 5, the key number of the week for him.
Angelo then Matthias pass him again in PAL, and Guillaume will end the year as #7 without playing PAL again. Just before visiting Sami in his "SMK Tower" in October, he switches to NTSC again and starts a long series of PRs, including a couple of national records (on Mario Circuit 2 and Vanilla Lake 1 single laps) that are instantly beaten by Florent. Guillaume has grown up and doesn't give up this way, reaching a surprise CI1 NBT World Record a few updates later. He's now part of both PAL & NTSC top 10, like Karel, Pierre and Florent. He spends the whole month of Decemeber playing, PRing and NBTing in a very aggressive way and ends the year overtaking Florent and even [[Oliver Segarra Gonzalez]] to become #4 for the last update of the year. Sami decides to reward this impressive year with the Player of the Year award, that eventually looks much more deserved than if he had got it in 2008. Guillaume is now part of the best Time Trial players in the world and has reached the summit of his carreer.
== 2010: Never getting bored of SMK ==
== 2010: Never getting bored of SMK ==