The national open qualifiers for Esports Nations Cup have concluded with 87 teams advancing to the regional qualifier stage, from which 24 will advance to the $1,320,000 main event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, scheduled to run from November 10-15.
The Esports World Cup Foundation ran what it dubbed as "the largest open qualifier in Counter-Strike history," with 96 open qualifiers originally slated to run worldwide. In the end, nine national qualifiers — five in Sub-Saharan Africa, two in North America, and two in Oceania — were cancelled as a result of no teams signing up, resulting in a final list of 87 national teams.
Several national rosters featured familiar names playing in mixed teams, with a few utilizing the cores of already existing lineups. Among those were the fnatic core of Rodion "fEAR" Smyk, Dmytro "jambo" Semera, and Nikita "jackasmo" Skyba, who united with Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev and Sergiy "DemQQ" Demchenko to qualify from Ukraine.
The Ascend core of Teodor "SPELLAN" Nikolov, Dimitar "Skrimo" Yanulov, and Hristiyan "REDSTAR" Pironkov topped the Bulgaria qualifier, while Germany saw M80's Elias "s1n" Stein and Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich qualify alongside Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz and David "prosus" Hesse from BIG in a lineup that also featured former G2 skipper Jan "Swani" Müller as coach.
Sebastian "volt" Maloș, who holds both Romanian and British citizenship, qualified from the latter region alongside Owen "smooya" Butterfield, Oscar "AZUWU" Bell, Jack "Gizmy" von Spreckelsen, Cai "CYPHER" Watson, and coach Max "MiGHTYMAX" Heath.
GenOne had four players qualify, two through the Belgian qualifier and two through France, with the latter seeing Thomas "Djoko" Pavoni reunite with his former 3DMAX teammate Pierre "Ex3rcice" Bulinge. Johnny Speeds, meanwhile, faltered in the Sweden qualifier final to a trio of roamsfiest.
Other notable names include Justinas "jL" Lekavicius and Vilius "tAk" Keserauskas playing for Lithuania, Laurențiu "lauNX" Țârlea joining a pair of Nexus members for Romania, and Aulon "Krabeni" Fazlija linking up with several former Bad News Eagles members for Kosovo. Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak, who was sidelined by Liquid, also qualified for Poland alongside a pair of Betclic and KOLESIE players.
North America's qualifier includes Joshua "steel" Nissan and Justin "FaNg" Coakley playing for Canada, Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa for Guatemala, and a trio of Voca members representing the United States. Three BESTIA players earned the Argentina spot in South America, while a trio of ODDIK players qualified from Brazil and XSE Pro League Guangzhou MVP Matias "HUASOPEEK" Ibañez Hernandez linked up with David "dav1deuS" Tapia Maldonado in Chile.
The Oceania qualifier features just two teams, with FlyQuest duo Joshua "INS" Potter and Declan "Vexite" Portelli combining with THUNDER dOWNUNDER's Alistair "aliStair" Johnston and Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas for Australia.
The 87 teams will now compete in qualifiers across the following regions from July 17-19:
- Western Europe
- Eastern Europe
- North America
- South America
- Middle East
- &
- Central Asia
- North Africa
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- South