Roundnet Germany’s International department strives to bring to roundnet aficionados located in Germany and Europe worthy roundnet news from outside our borders. We asked various NGB’s how they lived last year’s and roundnet’s biggest event yet: the Worlds, what exciting projects they currently develop to bring roundnet further at their national level, where the hottest roundnet communities are and which tournaments are open to international players. We hope you will enjoy this series starting with Roundnet France!
On top, international tournaments start now to be listed on our RG PlayerZone, so watch out!
*1. Your Worlds Ranking, and overall feedback on the tournament*
At Worlds 2022, France came in tied for 6th place in the men’s squad division, tied for 7th in the women’s squad division, and tied for 5th in mixed. Overall great results for us, our community was involved in the event, supporting our teams financially but also morally by being present at the event as supporters. The event in itself was incredible, it was a big boost for us as a federation to better structure ourselves and our french season so that our players would have the best preparation possible.
*2. Current Roundnet National Champion presentation in all available categories.*
Our current nationals champions:
- for men are PourCombien (Robin Florinda & Dorian Ameziane, @pour_combien_roundnet on Instagram),
- for women it’s Puces & Dives (Natacha Alt & Ines Paysan, @pucesdives_roundnet on Instagram)
- for mixed it’s NADA composed of Dorian Ameziane and Natacha Alt, our second best team being Backflick (Robin Florinda & Ines Paysan).
Interestingly enough, 3 of them are from Toulouse, and Ines is from Gif (close to Paris).
*3. Hot Roundnet Hubs in your country: where are located the biggest roundnet communities.*
Our biggest community in terms of number of players is Paris, and our the strongest community in terms of players is Toulouse. We also have fairly big hubs developing in Lyon, Nantes, Montpellier, and many many more.
*4. 2023 expectations for Roundnet growth in your country (players base growth, how many new clubs and so on)*
This year, we’re implementing a pro division called the „Baguette division“! We’re very excited not only for our best teams who will get to play each other more often, but also for our contenders who will now have a clear objective to grind towards.
Another big change is that we’re changing our men category to an open category, meaning that some women teams or mixed teams can now join this category. Both of these changes were made after consulting our communities, in order to make sure these were changes wanted by our players and not imposed by the federation.
This season is composed of 4 Major events in Rennes, Paris, Montpellier and Lyon. These tournaments are open to internationals and we have a committee that can give the „pro“ status to deserving international teams if they want to participate in the highest open division. Finally our national championships (not open to internationals) will take place in Toulouse.
*5. Projects at the NGB (e.g. national team, club, individual ranking, pro division etc.)*
As mentioned above, our biggest projects are the Open category and the Baguette division. Besides that, we’re also working towards developing our reach through streaming our major events, looking for partners to help us develop the sport, and as we have in the past we will continue to do everything to support new french communities.
*6. The big upcoming national and/or international events taking place in your country this year.*
This year is filled with big tournaments in France. Roundnet Paris is hosting an ETS tournament on April 15th. And Toulouse is hosting a Spikeball Major on July 1st. So we expect to see you there!
*7. Any tournaments open for international players forecasted already?*
Yes, our Majeur Tour Stops (Rennes: 25-26th March, Paris: 6-7th May, Montpellier: 24-25th June and Lyon: 2-3rd September) are open to internationals. And of course Paris ETS and Toulouse Spikeball Major are open to internationals as well.
