went one better at the 2012 European Championship than his 2011 performance as he reached his maiden semi-final of a PDC major event. He beat Vincent van der Voort and Ian White in the opening rounds, before extending his record over Raymond van Barneveld to played five, won five, courtesy of a 10–8 victory. In his semi-final he was beaten 9–11 by Simon Whitlock, but his run in the tournament saw him move into world's top 32 for the first time. Huybrechts had a disastrous debut at the World Grand Prix in October, as he lost 0–2 in sets to Kevin Painter without winning a leg, but returned to form at the Dutch Darts Masters, by reaching his fifth semi-final of the year. There, he was beaten 1–6 by Whitlock. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Huybrechts finished ninth on the Order of Merit to qualify for the Players Championship Finals for the first time. It was there that Huybrechts reached his debut major final with comfortable victories over Vincent van der Voort, Michael Smith, Peter Wright and Justin Pipe, with his average of 104.34 against Wright in the quarter-finals being at the time his highest on television. He faced Phil Taylor in the final and kept pace in the early stages with Taylor's heavy scoring by clinically finishing legs on his own throw to level the match at 5–5. However, the pressure exerted on Huybrechts eventually told as he only won one out of the next nine legs to lose 6–13. 2013 Huybrechts' father Ludo Huybrechts (1947–2012) died on 11 December nine days before his son's first round match in the 2013 World Championship. Huybrechts still decided to compete in the event and although he led 2–1 in sets against Scott Rand, he went on to lose 2–3. However, after the tournament he broke into the world's top 20 for the first time. Huybrechts partnered his brother Ronny in the World Cup of Darts, becoming the first brothers to do so and had a spectacular run to reach the final of the event. Highlights included a 5–1 doubles win over the Australian pair of Simon Whitlock and Paul Nicholson, averaging 101.08 in beating Croatia 4–0 in the quarter-finals, and averaging 105.47 in their semi-finals victory over Finland, at the time the highest ever in a doubles match in the history of the event. They faced