Updated on 22 March 2023.
We need to inform you about major changes towards the spot distribution for EQC2023. These changes have impact on plenty of the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and we want to give you the full run-down.
Turkey will not be present at EQC
QE were previously made aware of the possibility of elections in Turkey on May 14th, 2023.
This would be within the same weekend as EQC2023 Division 1. We also informed the community about this previously.
We have now been informed that these elections will definitely take place that weekend, and all qualified Turkish teams have decided to not attend Division 1.
QE offered these Turkish teams to instead attend Division 2, but after some deliberation on the Turkish side, they decided to not attend Division 2 either for 2 major reasons:
- Visas are going to be hard to obtain for political reasons, as well working with a very limited timeline.
- Teams want to compete at their own level.
Therefore, the 3 D1 Spots from Turkey need to be redistributed.
The 3 NGBs next in line were:
- Poland (Δ 0.63)
- United Kingdom (Δ 0.42)
- Spain (Δ 0.4)
All 3 NGBs accepted the extra spot. As all 3 NGBs already previously held a spot in Division 2, one spot from these NGBs moves over to Division 1.
Therefore, 3 Spots in Division 2 need to be redistributed.
Denmark will not be present at EQC
Additionally, we also received the news that Denmark will not be present at EQC2023, sadly.
The Danish NGB has reached out to QE that they have to forfeit their Division 2 spot.
The sole team currently does not have enough players to properly be able to attend the tournament.
Therefore, another Spot in Division 2 needs to be redistributed.
No Emerging Area Applications
We have also not received any applications for the 3 Emerging Area spots in Division 2.
European non-member NGBs and/or countries could apply to get one of the three “Emerging Area” spots for EQC2023 Division 2.
The deadline was reached and no applications were sent in.
This opens another 3 Spots in Division 2, which need to be redistributed.
In Total, 7 D2 Spots to Redistribute
After redistribution in Division 1, the following NGBs were next in line to receive an additional spot in Division 2:
- Catalonia (Δ 0.4804469274)
- The Netherlands (Δ 0.4804469274)
- United Kingdom (Δ 0.4748603352)
- Austria (Δ 0.07262569832)
- Norway (Δ 0.07262569832)
- Poland (Δ 0.07262569832)
- Czech Republic (Δ -0.2234636872)
- Switzerland (Δ -0.2234636872)
With ties between Catalonia and the Netherlands; Austria, Norway and Poland; and the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
We offered the first 6 NGBs an additional spot (Catalonia, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Austria, Norway and Poland). Everyone accepted, with the exception of Norway. This meant 5 of the 7 open spots were filled.
The remaining 2 spots were offered to Czech Republic and Switzerland, which have been accepted.
(Update) Slovakia will not be attending EQC2023 D2.
Right before the deadline of all spot confirmations, Slovakia informed QE that their sole team will not be attending Division 2. Due to this forfeit, we have offered the spot to France, who were next in line. France has since accepted.
Final Distribution
With the full run-down, we can summarize the spots. Changes are noted in bold italics.
You can also find the full calculations here.
| NGB | D1 Spots | D2 Spots | Total Spots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Belgium | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Catalonia | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Czech Rep. | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Denmark | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| France | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Germany | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| Iceland | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Italy | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Norway | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Poland | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Slovenia | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Spain | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Sweden | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Turkey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UK | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| Emerging Areas | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 32 | 24 | 56 |
Performance Points at EQC2023
Because of the performance-point system, this re-allocation can have massive impacts in future years. Therefore we will apply the same system as we have already done so for the last spot allocation after the forfeit of Turkish spots for EQC2022:
NGBs who gained spots from the reallocation cannot gain additional performance points beyond the initial spot allocation, i.e. before any forfeits and the resulting redistribution of forfeited spots. Therefore, the lowest-ranking team of the NGBs who gained spots (either at D1 or D2) as a result from the forfeit cannot earn any performance points for their NGB.
Due to the nature of Turkey’s forfeits, the Board has decided that Turkey will keep 3 spots in Division 1 for EQC2024, no matter what the result of 2023 will look like.
Attending Teams at EQC2023
You can find the full list of attending teams per Division on the corresponding Gameplay page of the tournament: