British Trackmania player Thomas ‘Pac’ Cole has won the Arctic Gaming Experience 2022 tournament in Meløy, Norway.
The player, who represents UK esports organisation MNM Gaming, took home the first-place prize of $6,000 in the $30,000 tournament.
French player Binkss of IziDream finished second, Canada’s Carl Jr of Solary third, and Slovakian player tween of Orks GP Numelops finished fourth.
Arctic Gaming Experience is a unique event put on by Trackmania expert and multiple Trackmania Community Person of the Year award winner Eirik Holdal.
The Arctic Gaming Experience consists of a tournament for 16 of the best Trackmania players in the world (including every world champion since 2012), plus a tournament for streamers and a local youth final.
When visiting the Arctic, players also had the chance to experience Norwegian nature and culture, including the mountains, fishing, visiting islands and more. It resulted in Pac holding not only the winner’s trophy aloft, but a toy fish!
Pac added in an interview with Marcel Roszyk: “From day one, I thought it’d be nice to not come last, and get a four-figure payout.
“One day I practiced all day and I was absolutely dead to the world! Then I felt comfortable where I was at, and lo and behold I ended up in the final!
“It was one hell of a week. I’ve never cheered like that after winning a tournament before, I had tears in my eyes.”
Pac, MNM Gaming
“It was great to see everyone again, a week away in Norway, the ability to chill out with the guys for a week and explore North Norway for a bit, it was great.”
Event organiser Eirik Holdal gave a passionate speech during the Arctic Gaming Experience too.
“These esports players are some of the nicest people I know. The esports stereotype might seem scary, but this is not scary. This is the future and this is creating memories for kids.
“And I hope to see you in 2023, thank you so much.”
Eirik also received an honorary award for his work.
Earlier this year, Pac re-signed with MNM Gaming after his TMGL Fall 2021 victory and was named Trackmania Player of the Year, as MNM picked up the Team of the Year award.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
