The 23-year-old breezed through the group stage yesterday without dropping a single map against Wulin and Tree before meeting rival Xuwen 'InFi' Wang in the play-offs, whom he edged out in the bronze medal match in IEF 2008 in Wuhan, China, a week ago.

Though the World E-sports Master champion set the pace in the best-of-three match, ToD held on and came back from behind to slice past the Chinese elite. He went on, sweeping another Chinese Human player Xiang 'MacSed' Hu and awaited his rival Sky in the final.

The Chinese esports figure has long been known as the Frenchman's nemesis, defeating the latter in various occasions including the World Cyber Games 2006 final as well as last week's IEF 2008. But ToD brought this infinite loop to an end with a clear 2-0 win over Sky and finished this year with a championship title together with a prize cheque for $2,900.

Final standing of WGT 2008 Global Final
1st. Yoan 'ToD' Merlo ($2,900)
2nd. Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li ($1,450)
3rd. Lin 'Wulin' Wu ($730)