posted Sep 8th, 2012 - The ESL Championship 2012 is in full swing, and it seems as if the race for the ESL Spirit will turn out as many observers expected it. Belgium has a solid lead after the completion of Round 9 in the AAA and AA Class and Round 8 in the A and Rookie Class.

It is still not over yet, and the Dutch delegation could catch up with Belgium, while the UK delegation is only three points behind the Netherlands. Lithuania and Germany are winning the A Class (Paradox Kassel) and the Rookie Class (Equinox), and Greece (Blue Rebels) and the Czech Republic (Hvezdy) are collecting ESL points, as well. Those countries cannot win the ESL Spirit, which goes to the delegation with the highest number of ESL scoring points of its best four teams.

Only the event host Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have more than four teams in the race to collect enough ESL points for winning the trophy.

ESL Championship 2012		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	12,10,14	D,N,21,O	M,17,13	Q,2,9	E,6,15	4,P,19	K,16,J,18	1,11,H	C,A,7,20	3,5,8	Total	Avg
1	Thunder (BE)	15	24	19	26	23	21	21	21	25	-	195	21.7
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	15	25	21	27	23	19	22	18	23	-	193	21.4
3	Creeps (NL)	10	16	13	16	14	14	11	12	10	-	116	12.9
4	Keerikeweere (BE)	9	12	10	10	11	10	8	8	11	-	89	9.9
5	Colostomy (UK)	8	11	9	12	9	9	9	9	11	-	87	9.7
Rank	AA Class	14,O,20	D,N,21	M,13,22	Q,2,9	E,6,15	4,P,19	K,J,18	1,11	C,A,7	8,F,H	Total	Avg
1	Potes En Ciel (BE)	10	10	9	13	8	11	9	10	15	-	95	10.6
2	Hvezdy (CZ)	9	11	9	8	11	10	10	10	14	-	92	10.2
2	Cool Runnings (NL)	7	12	9	13	9	11	10	9	12	-	92	10.2
4	Habanero (NL)	7	11	9	12	9	10	10	8	14	-	90	10.0
5	High Altitude Heroes (UK)	9	11	8	11	7	11	10	8	14	-	89	9.9
Rank	A Class	O,9	D,N,21	M,19	Q,2	E,6	4,P	K,J,H	B,L,G	C,A,7	8,F	Total	Avg
1	Paradox Kassel (DE)	14	11	11	11	12	12	13	10	-	-	94	11.8
2	MACH4 (NL)	16	7	8	11	10	10	16	12	-	-	90	11.3
3	4mula (UK)	9	11	13	10	11	11	13	11	-	-	89	11.1
4	Brakcs Banggang(BE)	14	6	11	11	10	9	14	12	-	-	87	10.9
5	O wat leuk (NE)	14	8	11	7	11	9	12	14	-	-	86	10.8
6	Fun (BE)	15	6	10	10	9	10	13	10	-	-	83	10.4
7	Blue Rebels (GR)	8	7	10	9	8	8	8	10	-	-	68	8.5
Rank	Rookie	O,K,B	D,N,J	M,H,L	Q,G,C	E,A,O	P,F,D	K,J,H	B,L,G	C,A,N	F,M,Q	Total	Avg
1	Equinox (LT)	16	11	20	12	14	18	13	14	-	-	118	14.8
2	4theQueen (UK)	10	10	13	11	12	11	16	9	-	-	92	11.5
3	Jesters (UK)	10	7	13	7	11	6	5	7	-	-	66	8.3
4	Electrons Libres (BE)	9	8	13	7	11	3	9	5	-	-	65	8.1
5	Team Tetley (UK)	9	4	11	8	8	9	7	7	-	-	63	7.9

The first eight teams in each of the four NSL categories can collect ESL points for their delegations. The winner of each category collects 10 ESL points, the team in 2nd place gets 8 ESL points, the 3rd place team 6 points. The teams in 4th to 8th place receive 5 to 1 ESL points. The total number of the four highest ranked teams are adding up for the score of each delegation.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Thunder are solid in their positions and guarantee 18 points for Belgium. Potes En Ciel currently adds another 10 points in the AA Class, and three other Belgian teams are currently in 4th place to collect additional 5 ESL points for a total of 33 points.

By the way, NMP-PCH Hayabusa is competing with alternate Jeroen "Bob" Nollet since Tail Roy Janssen got sick the day before the competition began. Hayabusa did not want to take a chance at this point in time and decided to give Roy Janssen the break he needs to recover and the team's alternate the opportunity of a serious test.

What has to happen for the Dutch and the UK delegations to catch up with Belgium? Creeps cannot improve the Dutch score in the AAA Class and has 6 ESL points in the bag. Cool Runnings has one round left to push the Belgian leader from the top position in the AA Class. Habanero could pass Hvezdy and take the 3rd place. MACH4 has a theoretical chance to win the A Class competition.

This would give the Dutch delegation a total of 32 ESL points, while Belgium would drop back to 31 points, which means that it is possible, even though not very likely to happen.

The UK delegation cannot catch Belgium any longer. However, the 2nd place is in reach if the Dutch teams don't watch out. The High Altitude Heroes are only one point behind Habanero in the AA Class and 4mula only one point behind MACH4 in the A Class. Those two switches alone would be enough for the UK delegation to get ahead of the Netherlands...