A total of 26 European countries will be participating in ESL's European Nations Cup. 6 of them are seeded directly to the group stage, whereas the others will have to fight through the qualification rounds.
European Nations Cup 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Main Round | QR 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sweden | Ukraine | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Germany | Denmark | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgaria | Netherlands | |||||||||||||||||||||||
France | Austria | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Russia | Switzerland | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Finland | Croatia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
QR 2 | QR 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Greece | Spain | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Romania | Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Poland | Hungary | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Slovakia | United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Norway | Bsn. and Hrzg | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Belgium | Latvia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Belarus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Portugal |
The qualifying teams have been seeded in to four different categories. The seedings are seen to the right. The ones that have been seeded in to the first qualification round, labelled "QR 1", got the lowest seeding and will have to fight their way through all the qualification rounds if they want to make it to the group stage. The system is pretty complicated, but here is a great page to clarify things. It is very much alike the qualification system for the UCL, if it helps you in any way.
The qualifications start off with the first round on March 17, with the actual match drawings to be announced shortly.
Links
ESL.eu/ENC - Soruce