Bonjour, my fellow roundnet aficionados (hard word). Today we’re taking a trip to France for the first ever Spikeball Tour Series Major in Europe!

To commemorate this monumental event, I asked AI to “create an epic image of teams playing roundnet in Toulouse, France for the ever-coveted Pitcher.”

This is what we got (AI has no idea what roundnet is).

Anyways, today we’re breaking down a fantastic tournament on both the Women’s and Men’s side. We’re in Toulouse baby!

Below:

• 🥐 Toulouse Major breakdown

• 🎯 Quick Hits

Someone serve and let’s go!

🏆️ The Toulouse Major

Two Americans, Buddy Hammon and Clark Marshall, of Assistive Touch took the gold.

After an impressive run in 2022, which included winning the The Championship and a T5 finish in Salt Lake City, Assistive Touch finally broke through in a 2023 Major. 

In the Powerpools, Assistive Touch was solid—coming out with a record of 4-2. But when it was time for bracket play, Hammon and Marshall turned it up a notch.

Assistive Touch didn’t lose a game on the road to victory, taking down back to back German teams in the Semifinals and Finals. Their defensive prowess was on full display, solidifying their reputation as one of the best defensive teams in the world.

In the Semifinals, the Rainbow Warriors had a strong first game against Assistive Touch, as they had a difficult time adapting to the out of the box play style of the Rainbow Warriors. The German team hit jam serves, backhand serves, and more—constantly switching it up and leaving their opponents perplexed.

But in the second set, it seemed like Assistive Touch finally figured out their opponents and it was smooth sailing from there.

In the Finals, Assistive Touch met Nothing Toulouse—a last minute Canadian team comprised of Vincent (Vinny) Mathieu and Elie Pilon—who were having an incredible tournament. Vinny went on a seven train in the Semifinals to beat Eisenträger and Siemer (3^rd), who won in Stockholm and Paris, and had an incredible amount of hype behind them.

But in the end, Assistive Touch adapted to the serving prowess of Nothing Toulouse and just didn’t let them get in a groove. It was a great tournament for them after a disappointing Round of 16 exit in Salt Lake City.

Women’s Division: The Laura Kunzelmann Show

To no one’s surprise, two teams dominated this tournament.

Tiramisu, an Austrian duo who have had great success in the past two seasons, absolutely shined. With a win in Stockholm, a runner-up finish in Prague, and a T5 in Paris, they were once again performing at the highest level, reaching the Final with a perfect 9-0 record. But then they ran into the #1 Women’s player in the world, Laura Kunzelmann.

Newly formed team, towerful, which includes international superstar Laura Kunzelmann, were crowned champions in Toulouse. Kunzelmann has bounced around partners this year, starting with team K2., then a stint in Paris with Klara Bauer (a tournament which they won). But it seems like Kunzelmann has found her perfect partner in Ronja Lorenzto to improve her chances of taking down TWINZ when they inevitably meet again.  

towerful went an impressive 10-0 in the tournament—only losing a single set the entire tournament.

towerful is just so impressive. So smooth, fantastic serving, and Laura comes out of nowhere diving across the net to put away points.

Tiramisu had a great tournament and put pressure on towerful in the first game of the final—but it just wasn’t enough. 

The “No Hit Zone” calls also played a massive role in this match, with both teams having multiple faults in the zone. 

Mixed Division

Laura was actually beaten in a three-set, back-and-forth battle by Tiramisu’s Megan Leybourne in the Mixed Division Finals. 

Laura teamed up with Clark Marshall from Assistive Touch, and it looked like they had a lot of fun out there.

The division was incredibly deep with 69 entrants. Yes, there was actually 69, grow up.

 🗞️ Headlines & Storylines

🎱 Importance of “Powerpools”

Powerpools is a new addition from the Spikeball Tour Series for the Majors with the intent of having less “easy games” early on in the tournament. You can check out our full breakdown of Powerpools in our Richmond Major Recap, but essentially, it ranks the top 16 teams, puts them into four pools of four team, and all sixteen of those teams get a bye to the Round of 64 regardless of their record in pool play.

These pools ended up having a huge impact on Assistive Touch’s success (spoiler alert). It allowed them to play against foreign teams they’ve never seen before (Nothing Toulouse), which gave them time to learn their opponents. Assistive Touch credits the early look they got at these teams as a major reason for their success at this tournament.

Many players in the lower divisions citing their annoyance that they couldn’t watch the great matchups in the morning because they had their own games. But this is a great problem to have! People are interested in the tournament right from the start.

🍼 Lines drawn by a 2-year-old?

When the Toulouse Roundnet Team got to the venue in the morning of the tournament, they found horribly drawn no hit zones and serving lines. They were basically egg-shaped from what we were told, and they had to completely redo the lines with red paint over the white. This happens sometimes when non-roundnet players make the lines, but in a Major, this can’t be happening—especially in Europe’s first ever Major.

😎 Women showed up and showed out

After an incredibly disappointing season in terms of female participation and support, the Europeans made up for it and then some. There was an incredible number of signups, which should excited the entire sport and hopefully this momentum will continue going forward. This also allowed the Mixed Division to be even more competitive, as there were so many talented female players/

👊 Quick Hits

Premier Spike posts TikTok on “Basement Roundnet.” It looks like these people are in jail.

Chico should’ve hit a nasty cut serve on Shark Tank to really show off the game.

What we get every time we’re surfing social media for Spikeball related content