Following months of buildup and nearly eight months of play, the first Global Poker League champion was crowned Thursday night inside The Cube in Las Vegas. In a best-of-11 heads up format, the Montreal Nationals overcame a furious rally by the Berlin Bears to take down the trophy along with the $100,000 team prize.

Led by manager Marc-Andre Ladouceur, the Nationals, who had the best regular season record, came into the match as a slight betting favorite over the Bears. Ladouceur elected to sit the match out and started Mike McDonald, Pascal Lefrancois, and Jason Lavallee. The Bears countered with a trio comprised of Sorel Mizzi, Bill Perkins, and Brian Rast.

The first match of the 11 would be the longest one of them all as Mizzi and McDonald traded blows for nearly an hour. McDonald held the early lead but it was Mizzi who would come away as the victor of the match after 61 hands to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

Despite being in an early hole, the Nationals fought back and won three straight matches to surge ahead. Lefrancois, who went 3-1 in the finals, took down the initial victory as he held off Perkins to tie up the series. Lavallee came in after Lefrancois and kept the momentum going as he dealt Rast his first loss in six career matches inside The Cube. McDonald completed the mini-sweep as he defeated Perkins to avenge his earlier loss against Mizzi.

The Nationals may have held the early lead, but the Bears would not give up easily in their hunt for GPL supremacy. Next up was a rematch of Rast versus Lavallee. Rast took down a few sizable pots early on against Lavallee and the Canadian was not able to recover before Rast closed out the match. After Lefrancois bested Mizzi to put the Nationals up 4-2, a lot was riding on the shoulders of Perkins heading into his match against McDonald. A win by McDonald would give the Nationals a nearly insurmountable lead with Lavallee on deck to close the series out. In his final match of the series, Perkins stood tall against the challenge in front of him and pulled the Bears within a single match.

Rast and Lavallee squared off next for the third time in the series and it was Lavallee taking the rubber match between the two to put the Nationals only a single victory away from closing the Bears out.

Lefrancois stepped in next against Mizzi and for the first time in three matches in the series, Lefrancois would leave The Cube with a loss as Mizzi bested him to stave off elimination. Mizzi stayed in The Cube to face off against McDonald with the Bears down 5-4 and needing another victory to stay alive. Mizzi surged ahead early against McDonald and never looked back on his way to a consecutive win to pull the series even.

Everything was on the line in the final match between Lefrancois and Rast. The Bears had staged a fierce rally to force the 11th match but would not see their efforts pay out in full. Lefrancois finished his GPL finals on a high note as he took down Rast in 43 hands to claim victory for his team.

Below is a table of all individual matches held in the GPL final with the winners of each match emboldened.