Andreas and Julius face each other in their second Fight Night Combat final at Wintercon Ludwigshafen

What do Alexander Müller, Andreas Braun, Jan Poolen, Iver Tronstad and Andreas Braun have in common? They have all won a Fight Night where one of the finalists was Julius Preu.

Why is Julius not in that list? Because he has not won a Fight Night yet, despite being in five finals. He's the current holder of the Always The Bridesmaid title, surpassing Alexander Müller's and Jon Peat's four finals each before their first victories.

And why is Andreas Braun's name on the list twice? Because he has now beaten Julius in two of those finals.

This past weekend, Julius and Andreas met in their second Fight Night Combat tournament final, at Wintercon in Ludwigshafen, Germany. 12 jugglers entered the tournament, with eight players taking part in the knockout. Each match was played in the "first to three points wins a set, first to two sets wins the match" format, except the final, which was first to three sets.

Andreas didn't drop a point in his round of eight match against Jan Daumen (3-0 3-0). He faced a sterner test against Leo Ostenrath, winning two sets to one (3-2 2-3 3-1). Then Andreas won the final against Julius in another blowout, losing only one point in three very decisive sets (3-0 3-0 3-1)

Andreas earned himself 250 rankings points, enough to boost him up from 9th to 5th in the current rankings. He is the current title holder at four 250/200 level tournaments (Brussels, Eindhoven, Bad Ems and now Ludwigshafen), earning almost the maximum points possible at that level, and way more than any other player. To increase his rankings further, Andreas will have to do better than his round of 8 losses at the two higher level tournaments he entered in 2015 (Hamburg and Karlsruhe).

Julius, with his two second place finishes so far this year, has leapt up to 1st in the 2016 race rankings, 30 points ahead of Iver Tronstad. He's also back into the top 10 in the 52 week current rankings. Leo Ostenrath beat Tilman Sinning in the third place match, enough to boost him to 5th in the 2016 race rankings.

Find all the results and details from Ludwigshafen 2016 at: http://fightnightcombat.com/tournament-Ludwigshafen-2016.html

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