After much deliberation the organising committee behind the ESWC have handed out the final golden ticket to one lucky team.

Before you ask, they haven't increased the slots of the CS:S tournament, the reason they have a spare invite to hand out is thanks to CKRAS who, after receiving a direct invite, went and won the bloody online qualifier. This meant that their invite would be handed out to another lucky European team who had shown the world - and more importantly the organisers - that they deserved a spot in the most prestigious tournament to grace CS:S since the demise of the CGS. Many hopefuls began messaging people in the know hoping for a miracle but in the end there was only ever one team who truly deserved the invite. Well, two.

The two teams who played 5th/6th in the online qualifier - Beasts and ESC Gaming - were the front runners to receive the invite, with the organisers taking past achievements, current stature and future potential into account when making their decision. For some reason ESC Gaming didn't actually apply to the ESWC in the first place, so they were swiftly crossed off the list, meaning that the natural recipient of the invite would be Beasts. The mixed Swedish/Scottish lineup performed brilliantly throughout the online qualifier and were hugely unlucky not to secure at least fourth place, this follows an impressive third place finish at i43.

The team will be hoping to continue this run of good form into the ESWC next month and have already begun practicing for what will be the biggest event of their careers. This of course means that all twelve slots for the ESWC have been filled and the CS:S tournament will look like this:

The list of attendees are as follows:

CKRAS Gaming - (3k2, cajun, FeTiSh, h0lm, wantz) - Online Qualifier (1st)
Reason Gaming - (frozt, gla1ve, hunden, JOKERN, kev1n) - Online Qualifier (2nd)
Team DSRack - (Hatten, MSL, Nille, p0se, trumaN) - Online Qualifier (4th)

mTw - (hudzG, KRAEUTERHUMPEN, nooky, TORNADOTONI, weber) - Online Qualifier (3rd)

Virus Gaming - (aNGeldusT, CISU, disturbed, kononen, nashje) - Direct Invitation

Team LDLC.com - (apex, HysokA, ScreaM, Shokkk, Uzzziii) - Les Masters Français du Jeu Vidéo
Team VeryGames - (Ex6TenZ, NBK, RpK, shox, SmithZz) - Les Masters Français du Jeu Vidéo

ONLINE KINGDOM - (BuJ, emotioN, Frizen, Fyx, n3w) - ESWC Portugal

BEASTS MULTIGAMING - (friberg, msk, NeiL, ptk, rdl) - Direct Invitation

Team Dynamic - (adreN, ANGER, AZK, Legend, PEX) - Direct Invitation

CyberRevolution - (COLO, flashstep, freakazoid, nikoN, pr3) - Direct Invitation
Netcode Illuminati - (DaZeD, frozt, Marlin, Steel, tck) - Direction Invitation