posted Aug 24th, 2012 - The NSL News reported on 22 November 2011 that the European teams and competitors would select the host for the ESL Championship 2012 by themselves. They voted until a set deadline, and the majority decided to go to Belgium this year. The skydiving center in Moorsele will welcome the teams for a combined event, including the Belgian Nationals and the ESL Championship on September 7 - 9.

Meet Director Mike Pennock informed the NSL News that 37 teams from seven different countries are registered in all four competition categories (AAA - AA - A - Rookie) at this point in time. The delegation from the Netherlands is the defending champion and has won the trophy for the winning nation, the ESL Spirit, five times since the event was launched in 2004. Belgium won two times and the United Kingdom took the ESL Spirit to England in 2008.

Each delegation can send an unlimited number of teams, but only the rankings of the best four teams will count for the total number of points.

It will not be as easy as in the past three years for the Dutch delegation to win the ESL Spirit. The Netherlands had the highest number of teams at the events and always scored the maximum number of possible points for the delegation. No other country had four teams in 2011, and only the UK delegation had a total of four teams in 2010 - compared to 11 teams from the Netherlands.

It was a much tougher fight in 2009 when the UK delegation consisted of 12 teams, and the Netherlands had a total of six teams on UK home turf. The Dutch delegation still won the ESL Spirit by taking the first places in three categories (AA - A - Rookie).

This year, there will be at least three nations who will be in contention for the trophy, as Netherlands (11), United Kingdom (7) and Belgium (15) have more than four teams at the event. Belgium is hosting the national championships integrated into the event, which explains the highest number of participating teams.

ESL Championship 2009		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	N,2,M,H	E,4,14	9,L,B,D	Q,A,3,11	C,O,18,20	17,12,21	19,P,16	J,22,15	F,G,1,7	8,6,13	Total	Avg
1	UK Satori	26	19	35	21	20	16	19	19	21	17	213	21.3
2	Belgium 4XTT	23	17	31	18	17	15	19	16	23	15	194	19.4
3	Norway Frost	18	16	25	16	15	15	16	15	21	14	171	17.1
Rank	AA Class	G,L,21	7,11	A,D,20	9,Q,1	18,14	8,C,E	13,N,15	2,M,F	J,4,6	19,B,K	Total	Avg
1	Ignition (NL)	12	9	13	13	9	12	10	13	11	12	114	11.4
2	Empat Laki Laki (NL)	8	11	10	10	7	10	9	16	9	13	103	10.3
3	Random Vengeance (UK)	8	11	7	13	8	10	9	13	11	11	101	10.1
Rank	A Class	F,A,N	21,Q	19,J	P,8	H,6	C,E,M	4,D	9,O	G,7	L,2	Total	Avg
1	Netherlands Creeps	19	10	11	9	11	16	8	13	13	9	119	11.9
2	UK Slot Machine	14	9	6	5	11	18	10	14	12	11	110	11.0
3	UK PE	14	8	9	8	9	13	10	12	10	10	103	10.3
Rank	Rookie	L,F,K	D,M,G	P,J,Q	A,N,C	B,H,E	O,F,B	L,C,J	O,M,Q	G,D,H	A,P,N	Total	Avg
1	Netherlands Meo	11	11	18	12	15	21	11	19	12	14	144	14.4
2	UK Gr4vity	13	11	11	7	13	17	11	19	11	12	125	12.5
3	Greece Blue Rebels	9	7	9	9	12	17	5	13	7	9	97	9.7

Belgium also has a head start as of scoring points for the delegation. NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Thunder guarantee for at least 18 points to begin with. Any 1st place earns 10 scoring points, and a 2nd place collects 8 points. Other AAA Class teams are unlikely to outscore those two teams competing for the Belgian delegation.

It's a good start, but it doesn't guarantee the ESL Spirit for Belgium at all. The Dutch delegation demonstrated in 2009 that it can be compensated for. Satori won the AAA Class competition, and the Dutch teams made up by winning the three other categories and adding a 2nd place for a total of 38 points. The UK delegation ended up with a total of 32 points.

It will be a very open and tight battle in the other three categories, and the three nations with more than four teams could be closer to each other than ever before.