Gianni Torchio (Italy) Rank:01

The human trophy magnet that answers to the name of Gianni Torchio had little trouble triumphing in Denmark and reclaiming his title, the fourth one in the last seven world cups. With only a draw (9-9 against Fabio!) and 24 victories in 25 matches, his fourth world cup, sixth top scorer trophy and third best defense trophy came as no surprise. The more the tournament progressed, the stronger he looked, storming his way out of the the groups and knockout phases without breaking a sweat. In the final, he found Fabio, an opponent he rarely has trouble against, having 31 wins and 3 draws in 38 matches, with the last defeat dating back to 2009.

Fabio Fichera (Italy) Rank:02

Try to imagine two starving rottweilers fighting over the last bone on the planet. Both biting it with full force, deadly jaws tightly clenched, refusing to let go and holding on for dear life while simultaneously growling menacingly at each other. If you can picture that, you get a slight idea of what it was like to witness the matchup of the century, the semi-final between Fabio and Dagh. First game 7-7, rematch 9-9, one goal for each during overtime and ten perfect penalty kicks for each, before the Danish' last kick struck the woodwork and sent the Italian to the final for the first time in his career.

Alkis Polyrakis (Greece) Rank:03

After a rather uneven performance in the group stages, the title holder Alkis faced three opponents in Denmark he had never managed to overtake before in previous world cups. In the quarter final against Gianluca, he managed to keep the Roman down to merely three goals in 20 minutes, costing him his first ever quarter finals elimination and leaving him without a medal for the first time in seven competitions. In the 3rd place final, he was up against a very drained Dagh and got his fourth bronze medal in a world cup. In the semi-final though, he was as helpless as ever against his nemesis Gianni.

Dagh Nielsen (Denmark) Rank:04

"Can he ever be stopped?" was the question that we had asked after Dagh's surreal 10+ GPG performance in Milan 2012. It turns out that the answer is yes, but it takes a special kind of curse for that to happen: The one that indicates that nobody has ever managed to win the World Cup in his hometown, no matter how strong he was. After two world cups in Milan, two in Athens, one in Rome and one in Copenhagen, that curse has proven itself very hard to break. Still, his numbers were as impressive as ever, as he continued the tradition of losing exactly one game per world cup.

John Hogstrom (Sweden) Rank:05

People are usually very rusty when returning to action after 4 years of absence, but that was not the case for John. Although he hadn't played a single official match since Duesseldorf 2010, he had a fantastic tournament and managed his best placing ever. Just like in 2007, he bested a world champion in the classification stages.

Gianluca Troiano (Italy) Rank:06

All good things come to and end one day, and so did Gianluca's continuing presence on the podium in all the world cups that he had attended in the past. The man who leads the entire KOA with a mere 2.02 defense average, he was as good as ever in front of his own goal securing the second best defense of the competition, but his offensive skills abandoned him in some games, most importantly the quarter finals.

Andy Gregoris (England) Rank:07

A step back in Andy's Kick Off career, the Englishman gave us but glimpses of his considerable talent in Copenhagen. After making it to at least the semi-finals for three consecutive competitions, this time he had to settle for 7th place. His story in Denmark could have been a lot different if he had scored but one more goal in his Round 2 games, as he would then have faced Fabio instead of Gianni in the quarter finals.

Christopher Durrans (Norway)  Rank:08

After the fourth place in his first appearance in Voitsberg, Chris had to prove that nothing about it was coincidental, and although he couldn't repeat it he certainly succeeded. He became the first Norwegian who ever beat Alkis, and only lost the quarter final matchup to Fabio by a single goal.

Thor Egil Skaug (Norway) Rank:09

Just like his mate Christopher was a year before, Thor was definitely the rookie of the year in Denmark. Beating the likes of Oliver, Steve, Alessandro, Ektoras, Sandro and Mario and ultimately finishing above all of them indicates that we may have a potential medal winner in the making.

Oliver Stender (Germany) Rank:10

What was the main cause for Oliver's second consecutive absence from the tournament's top 8? He had some good and bad moments, but it looked like he was going to make it until he suffered a catastrophic defeat to Alessandro.

Jakob Kofoed (Sweden) Rank:11

Jacob returned to a world cup after four years, but he did have some appearances in regional tournaments in the meantime, such as the impressive third place in Dubai. He was in a tough Round 1 group and yet he made it to the Top 16 by defeating Ektoras.

Sandro Torchio (Italy) Rank:12

Sandro was fourth in the 2007 world cup in Rome, but has never managed to return to the top 8 ever since, and this year was no exception. The skills are obviously there though, so he's bound to make a come back at some point.

Mario Fichera (Italy) Rank:13

Not counting his rookie year in 2004, Mario had never been out of the world's top 10 because he's always a reliable attacker. In Copenhagen though, although he had the fourth goal average of the tournament and he played quite well in the first Round, he suffered narrow defeats on Sunday.

Steve Camber (England) Rank:14

The ever present Steve, when he doesn't make it to the semi-finals he's usually between positions 12-16, so this is a familiar territory for him. His first victory against Ektoras in seven matches got him to the world cup round.

Alessandro Verrani (Italy) Rank:15

Not a very good world cup for Alessandro, who barely made it to the top 16 and was not his usual competitive self there. Even so, he managed to beat Alkis for the first time in 12 games.

Jorn Flagtvedt (Norway) Rank:16

Making it to the world cup round in such a tough competition was no small feat, so the organizer should be pleased with himself. Had he not made it, he would have been a tough contender for the Silver Cup title.

Ektoras Kapsoulis (Greece) Rank:17

Limit down for the Greek player who had won a bronze medal four years earlier in Germany, but simply wasn't himself in Copenhagen. He managed to shape up in time to bring back the Silver Cup trophy home, becoming the second Greek to win it after Nikos in 2002.

Mark Williams (England) Rank:18

Mark did not repeat the amazing Day 1 performance he had managed the year before, when he'd finished third among 18 players - on the contrary, he only won three out of his 11 Saturday matches. Sunday was a different story, he made it to the final undefeated but couldn't beat Ektoras again.

Torgny Andersen (Sweden) Rank:19

The Swedish newcomer's best result was a 5-3 victory against Jorg. He occasionally displayed decent defensive skills.

Michele Lorenzetti (Italy) Rank:20

Michele has some good moments on Sunday, particularly his 7-1 victory against Helmut. Although he was fifth in the group, he got to play in the Silver Cup semi-finals as Jorg needed to depart early.

Jorg Panhorst (Germany) Rank:21

Jorg has definitely had better tournaments, yet I have the feeling that he will remember this one fondly. The reason is that he became the first German who was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Helmut Hausmann (Austria) Rank:22

An impressive victory against Mark was Helmut's highlight of the tournament. One notices plenty of close defeats though, even against very good players.

Gunther Wening (Netherlands) Rank:23

Gunther became the third Dutch player and the second KOA founder to win the Shirt of Shame. He wore it almost as proudly as his uniform.

Peter Sommer (Germany) Rank:24

Peter is often a better defender than his placings indicate against players of his own caliber. In Copenhagen, he had the third best defense among the 10 Silver Cup players.

Wolf Heyer (Germany) Rank:25

Wolf had a few good results on Saturday, such as a draw against Mark and a win against Michele. But he scored less and conceded more than his KOA average.

Thomas Niekamp (Germany) Rank:26

Thomas was happy to avoid playing in the Game of Shame on Saturday evening, a feat he accomplished after beating Gunther. As is almost always the case, he beat his friend Peter, this time by the impressive 6-0!