Well I think that specific example of the MR quarter final had nothing to do with mérite.
I really believed I could beat Florent and Sami in Match Race, which is why many months prior to the CDM I started training with you on zsnes and developed the training method we used. I 100% believed that this training would boost our chances of a good performance and it definitely turned out to be true as that match against Flo was probably the best one I ever played.
When I learned during the CDM that Flo would be my opponent in the quarter final I cursed a little, as I would have preferred to have him in either semi final or final, definitely not this early. But again I didn't despair at all (like I would have done in previous years), in fact I really had the feeling I would beat him this time, also because in a first to 7 (quarter finals) you have a better chance to surprise a high level rival. You can basically kill him before he realizes what is happening and before he has time to mount a real comeback.
Even after Flo was winning the first races of our encounter easily (I think I was like 4-1 down), I firmly believed I could beat him still and kept my composure. This was evident from the strong comeback I had, even making it to double match point (winning GV2 or MC1 would give me the win).
Even in the final on MC1 I used my shroom in lap 4 rather than lap 5 to overpower him with the element of surprise and keep the controlling edge. I think he was expecting me to keep the shroom until final lap, like Sami and most others would do, but I wanted to prevent an all deciding face down at the items of lap 5. This decision worked beautifully and the only thing that could have ruined it was in fact a lightning.
I honestly believe this was just a case of horrendous bad luck, instead of mérite. The only thing that could be mérite about it was the fact Flo went down in the final of last year because of all those lightnings, but even in that case, it would be a mérite from Flo's side and not a result of lack of belief from my side.