Through several tournaments and leagues teams have been able to qualify themselves for this EMS. There were sixteen spots available and a lot of teams participated in the qualifiers. Yesterday ESL|Paddel published the groups. Unfortunately two teams (K1ck.tf2 and Laukaus) already dropped and had to be replaced.

TFPortal.de, a team from the bottom of the 1st ETF2L division and surprisingly Babylon eSports, a third division team, took their places. Having a deeper look into this choice we found out that Babylon was ranked 6th for an extra slot in the EMS after the qualifiers finished. Rats-clan and TFPortal.de are already participating and TLR folded which only left Mousetek, Veritas and Babylon.

Mousetek gave me the following statement about ESL's choice for Babylon.

Some of the players in our clan are having problems running Aequitas (fps issues, stability issues etc.) and some of us are just lazy. So unfortunately in one of the EMS Qualifier #3 matches none of us were using Aequitas (some of us simply just forgot and nobody talked about it). That resulted in us getting kicked from the Qualifier which is a fair enough decision. Before that match, we have played lots of matches in both EMS Qualifier #2 and #3 - actually we have done so well that we've been ranked 3rd by their own rating system.

So when k1ck folded I assumed they were going to find a good replacement, like Mousetek, wotr or Panache (all very promising teams and the two first are going to play in division 1 in ETF2L next season). Even if they didn't want to be subjective and pick a "good" replacement, they could've looked at their "extra slot ranking" and have picked Veritas (2nd) or Mousetek (3rd). Instead they chose Babylon - a clan that this season in ETF2L plays in div3 and also will next season. Babylon isn't a bad clan, but I thought EMS was supposed to be a tournament for the best clans. Seems odd.

Group A Pandemic Crack Clan rats-clan plan-B	Group B Team CoolerMaster Doppelnullen Prior.eSports TF2 Oh My God It Is	Group C Four Kings Team Druidz n20 - gaming.TF2 Evil Babylon	Group D Ubersexuals redLine SAW TF2 TFPortal.de

A few weeks ago Moose gave you his predictions on the TF2 EMS. After three group matches the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will play a relegation match. The winners will advance to the playoffs. The playoffs will be double elimination, giving every team at least two matches before they are eliminated from the tournament. Comparing the groups with the predictions we expect the following teams to reach the playoff stage from the tournament.

Group A Pandemic Crack Clan	Group B Team CoolerMaster Prior.eSports TF2	Group C Four Kings Team Druidz	Group D Ubersexuals redLine

Visit ESL.TF2 for more information. We wish all the participating teams the best of luck!