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With 6 out of 15 national qualifiers played, the first participants for the European Qualifiers are set in stone and hold a few surprises as well as expectedly strong players.

We are drawing closer towards one of the biggest StarCraft 2 events this year as the Battle.net World Championship Series National Qualifiers are on their way to determine the roster of the European Qualifiers, who will in turn decide who will go to the main event in Asia later this year. Not only do these national qualifiers decide who will receive a fully paid trip to the continental tournament, but also were they spiced with a generous prize pool. Together with national and international leagues, Blizzard managed to offer even lesser known player a shot at going big at what will be one of the most prestigious tournaments in StarCraft 2 history.

The royalty of each country are currently meeting up to find out who will be granted one of the few slots to advance o the continental decider on September 15th and 16th prior to Dreamhack Open Summer. The number of slots per country can be seen below.

Slots per country
Italy	2
Poland	2
Netherlands	2
Belgium	1
Denmark	1
Finland	1
Norway	1
France	3
Sweden	3
Germany	4
Spain	2
Ukraine	2
United Kingdom	3
Russia	3
Combined Europe	2

Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Spain are the first to have found their representatives as of now and have quite a upsets in store.

While Italy is widely regarded an underdog in all things StarCraft 2, one player has always stood out internationally. Cloud has been playing in the German EPS since its birth and is currently doing average in his NASL group. Luck was not on his side, though, when he first dropped out of the winner bracket against JeaL, who would move on to take first, and then lose to StarEagle, the loser of the final, yet a solid second and thus moving to the European qualifiers.

The Polish superstars Nerchio and MaNa weren’t up for these shenanigans and routinely marched through the bracket, each losing only one map against other players. MaNa looked promising after he took the first best of 3, coming from the loser bracket, before Nerchio came back and took another two maps. Tefel, who went to New York a week later to participate in the MLG Spring Arena 2, lost 1-2 to Millenium’s DieStar, taking 4th place.

Equally uninspired were the Dutch qualifiers, during which the two dominating forces Grubby and ret were hardly ever in serious trouble from their mostly inferior opponents and safely took first and second respectively.

Orly from LowLandLions took home the $800 and the single slot in the Belgian qualifiers after the supposed favorite, Feast, did not attend and received default losses for both of his matches.

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The best in Germany? Socke.

Time will tell if the German qualifiers will be remembered for their introduction of fresh faces to the German scene, or the underwhelming performance of some of their more reknowned players. The strong Terran play of 14-year old HeRoMaRiNe reminds one of MaruPrime, as he beat Jaxx who in turn took out TLO 2-0. In the same round GoOdy fell to DBS, leaving two of the four seemingly secure advancing spots for others to take. This came in handy for KrasS, who, after losing to HasuObs and DarKFoRcE took a very surprising fourth. Socke, however, avenged his loss to HasuObs in the winner bracket final to gather an important win and $6000.

Last, but not least, we have the Spanish qualifiers which were dominated by no other than former WarCraft 3 Orc LucifroN, not losing a single map in the entire course of the tournament. VortiX, falling to the loser bracket in round 2, had an impressive run and takes a deserved silver medal.

Qualified players

Italy

JeaL

StarEagle

Poland

Nerchio

MaNa

Netherlands

Grubby

ret

Belgium

Orly

Germany

Socke

HasuObs

DarKFoRcE

KrasS

Spain

LucifroN

VortiX

Some of the countries that are still missing are surely going to be nice to watch as players such as White-Ra, NaNiwa, Thorzain, DeMuslim and NightEnD are still to come in their respective qualifiers, before we’re going to find who the best of the best is in Europe on September 15th-16th.

Link: Liquipedia

Battle.net World Championship European Pre-Qualifiers