After the success of the SCOOP League earlier in the year, the inaugural WCOOP league expanded to six teams and once again pitted PokerStars Ambassadors against one another with over the course of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).
Now after four long weeks of competition, Team peace&loove captained by Sebastian “peace&loove” Huber has emerged triumphant. He spoke exclusively to PokerNews and reflected on the competition and what it means to be WCOOP League champion.
League Came Down to the Wire
“I’m very happy about it,” Huber told PokerNews. “I think it began to sink in a couple of days before the Main Events started. By then, I knew it would be tough to lose because the bigger the events, the tougher they are to win. Obviously, the Main Events are the biggest events on the schedule! So, I knew it was unlikely for a team to get lots of wins and turn things around.”
Final League Standings
- Team peace&loove – 8,270 points
- Team tonkaaaa – 7,020 points
- Team easywithaces – 6,485 points
- Team L. Veldhuis – 5,715 points
- Team Aakkari – 4,695 points
- Team Spraggy – 4,475 points
The added motivation from WCOOP League helped Huber navigate the “tough times” during a long series, and says that it ensured he gave it his best from day one.
“It’s the best thing that could have happened for me”
“I love the grind and competing for leaderboards, the competition with the other ambassadors. It doesn’t matter how much money you’re winning or losing, I’m just made for that kind of stuff. It’s the best thing that could have happened for me.”
How Team peace&loove Won the 2024 WCOOP League
A sluggish start for Team Spraggy and a maiden WCOOP title for Lex Veldhuis all in the first week meant it was all to play for during the first week of WCOOP action, but Team peace&loove hit the front for the first time on September 12.
They would give up the lead for a day, after Team tonkaaaa’s Niklas “Lena900” Astedt won two WCOOP titles in the space of an hour on September 16, but moved back ahead the following day after three final tables from stand-out player and WCOOP League MVP “FAL1st”
“FAL1st” won five WCOOP titles over the course of the series, and Huber said he was lucky to have the overall leaderboard winner in his team.
“Everyone on my team performed as they were supposed to,” he said. “But I was lucky that “FAL1st” outperformed his competitors as well. For example, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov was on Lex’s team during SCOOP, and he beat “FAL1st” in the SCOOP leaderboard. So there’s always a bit of variance there.”
Also contributing was “king153246”, Team peace&loove’s WCOOP Bootcamp draft pick, someone Huber has known for over five years.
“He’s a low- and mid-stakes crusher but he’s climbing the ranks. I know he’s an absolute beast of a grinder, so he was probably the best pick I got.”
Huber says he knew when drafting him that “king153246” would “crush” the leaderboard, and he was proven right with both the Low and Medium WCOOP leaderboards going their way.
“He absolutely outperformed everyone and is probably the reason I won.”
So Near for Team tonkaaaa
While “FAL1st” won five titles and secured the Overall WCOOP Leaderboard, Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot also notched up a handful of WCOOP titles, but wasn’t able to reign in Team peace&loove.
Helped by Swedish crusher Niklas “Lena900” Astedt (four titles), “ShipitFTW911” and Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen (both one title), Team tonkaaaa one 11 WCOOP titles, the most of any Team.
- Team tonkaaaa – 11 WCOOP titles
- Team easywithaces – 7 WCOOP titles
- Team peace&loove – 8 WCOOP titles
- Team L. Veldhuis – 3 WCOOP titles
- Team Aakkari – 2 WCOOP titles
- Team Spraggy – 0 WCOOP titles
With titles being one every night, Huber said he was checking in on the updates and scores quite a lot.
“Since the teams are smaller [than SCOOP League] with more crushers and leaderboard grinders in every team, it’s gotten way closer. Basically, every player in every team played everything! Because of that, it has always been very close. Tonka’s performance himself has just been insane, how many points he earned for his team.”
Talbot’s five WCOOP titles came in five different disciplines: Badugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, 8-Game, No-Limit Hold’em and HORSE — something that Huber says is inspirational to see.
“You can see that if Tonka is motivated and really wants to go hard in these tournament series, he’s just so capable of playing every game. Obviously, you need to run well, too, but it’s absolutely wild to see a guy winning five titles. He was just casually playing everything he wanted; it was really impressive.”
League Motivation
On a personal level, Huber won his second WCOOP title in Event 88-L: $11 HORSE, something he’s super proud of.
“It was the first mixed game tournament I’ve ever won. It just shows that you don’t have to fire the big stuff non-stop; it’s just cool to grind your way up and get known.
“If you play those low and medium WCOOP tournaments, and fill your schedule with those and try to win titles, you can achieve success and then you can move up in stakes. It’s definitely possible to just grind the lower end of the schedule.”
Meanwhile, Huber only had thanks for his team of “mixed game crushers” and also to fellow PokerStars Ambassador and member of Team peace&loove Lasse “Wistern” Jagd Lauritsen.
“He’s been a lovely buddy for me during the series. We’ve had a lot of fun together and he had a great WCOOP as well. It was a great performance by him.
“Thanks to all the other Ambassadors for making up this competition. It was really cool. And hopefully next time Spraggy takes the Draft a little bit more seriously because his team was kind of a disgrace…”
“But the WCOOP league was exciting throughout the whole series, and there’s so much potential in the concept ahead of 2025.”
Managing Editor