posted Sep 9th, 2012 - The NSL News reported yesterday how interesting the race for the ESL Spirit trophy was at the ESL Championship 2012. The situation after Round 8/9 still had the potential for some relevant moves in the rankings, and it turned out that the UK delegation really managed to catch up and pass the Dutch delegation in the final rounds.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa without Roy Janssen eventually won the AAA Class competition after a jump-off round with Thunder. This did not change anything in the race for the ESL Spirit, as both teams combined for 18 Belgian ESL points either way. In fact, nothing changed in the AAA Class rankings at all after the last round.

The NSL News mentioned that the Dutch delegation still had a theoretical chance to catch up with Belgium, and Cool Runnings did eventually take away the first place in the AA Class from Belgium and initiated a Dutch charge for the ESL Spirit. However, Habanero and MACH4, the other two key factors for a Dutch charge, could not copy the Cool Runnings effort. Belgium's total ESL score dropped to 31 by giving away two AA Class points to Cool Runnings, but the Dutch delegation could not take advantage of it.

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	18	213	21.3
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	15	25	21	27	23	19	22	18	23	20	213	21.3
3	Creeps (NL)	10	16	13	16	14	14	11	12	10	12	128	12.8
4	Keerikeweere (BE)	9	12	10	10	11	10	8	8	11	9	98	9.8
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	Cool Runnings (NL)	7	12	9	13	9	11	10	9	12	15	107	10.7
2	Potes En Ciel (BE)	10	10	9	13	8	11	9	10	15	11	106	10.6
3	Hvezdy (CZ)	9	11	9	8	11	10	10	10	14	13	105	10.5
4	High Altitude Heroes (UK)	9	11	8	11	7	11	10	8	14	13	102	10.2
5	Habanero (NL)	7	11	9	12	9	10	10	8	14	11	101	10.1
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	12	10	116	11.6
2	4mula (UK)	9	11	13	10	11	11	13	11	12	12	113	11.3
3	MACH4 (NL)	16	7	8	11	10	10	16	12	10	10	110	11.0
4	Brakcs Banggang(BE)	14	6	11	11	10	9	14	12	11	9	107	10.7
5	O wat leuk (NE)	14	8	11	7	11	9	12	14	9	9	104	10.4
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	12	25	155	15.5
2	4theQueen (UK)	10	10	13	11	12	11	16	9	11	24	127	12.7
3	Jesters (UK)	10	7	13	7	11	6	5	7	9	16	91	9.1
4	Team Tetley (UK)	9	4	11	8	8	9	7	7	7	15	85	8.5

It became even worse, despite the Cool Runnings success. The NSL News had also mentioned that the UK delegation was still close enough to threaten the Dutch 2nd place in the total rankings for the ESL Spirit, and the UK teams in the key positions followed through.

The High Altitude Heroes passed Habanero in the last round of the AA Class competition, and 4mula used the last two rounds to leave MACH4 behind in the A Class. This was enough for the UK delegation to get ahead of the Netherlands by one single ESL point.

The leaderboard of the teams winning ESL points for their delegations shows that the British strength was in the Rookie Class, despite the dominating Equinox performance. Belgium collecting the most ESL points in the AAA Class, while the Dutch delegation was strong in the AA Class and in the A Class. However, the outcome of the ESL Championship 2012 (31 - 27 - 26) was the closest ever between the same three delegations, and the current scoring system for the ESL Spirit seems to work very well.

The trophy now comes back and stays in Belgium where it was two times so far. Germany (Paradox Kassel) and Lithuania (Equinox) both won 10 points for the 1st places in their categories, and Germany would even have enough teams to go after the ESL Trophy. Hvezdy won 6 ESL points for the Czech Republic and brings home bronze medals in the AA Class. The Blue Rebels from Greece finished in 8th place and won 1 ESL point for their country.

Czech team Hvezdy deserves special credit. The AA Class team had trained the random formations in the Rookie Class and attended all four indoor meets at the Sportflight Arena in Prague. Martin Kratochvil, Radek Bednar, Michal Podruh, Petra Krajzlov, with Jitka Hejlov on camera, then moved up into the AA Class for the two outdoor meets in the Czech Republic this year. The 8.2 and 8.5 averages would not have been enough to win medals at the ESL Championship. However, the Czech AA Class team stepped up right in time and lifted the meet average by two points.

Paradox Kassel did the same in the A Class competition and won with the team's highest 2012 average. Paradox Kassel was also the busiest German team this year after attending the 5th competition in Moorsele. Rookie Class team Equinox even beat their own indoor results at the World Challenge 2012 easily with the 15.5 average at the ESL Championship 2012.