Silviu 'NightEnD' Lazar encountered difficulties after qualifying for the Regionals, as he was allegedly informed he was not allowed to participate due to coming from an "eligible country". Russian Nikita 'Nicker' Pomadov the next in line in the final Ladder standings replaces him in Cologne. Blizzard however, make no mention of the change on their tournament page.

Other interesting topics are the fact that Spanish real-life brothers Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán and Juan 'VortiX' Moreno Durán both qualified for the Regional Finals. VortiX recently left nGize to pursue his own Warcraft3 career after he did not get enough playtime in the clan, whether he has what it takes on the big stage, we will soon find out.

Elsewhere Team EG duo Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen and Dmitriy 'Happy' Kostin will be present to add a touch of class to what will be an interesting group of players. Despite a handful of proven LAN players there are a good few European players out of the equation; Yuri 'Sting' Sheremetov, Mykhaylo 'HoT' Novopashyn and Hjalmar 'DowaQ' Högberg all did not get high enough to earn themselves an invite. Nevertheless it should provide some interesting clashes, especially with the likes Benjamin 'DeMusliM' Baker thrown in for good measure.

In the US Regionals no real surprises with the list of attendees aside from retired Nicholas 'ShrieK' Miao Whittier managing to qualify himself. He will be joined by Nick 'HolyHuman' Pesu and Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy to provide the Human trilogy.

The EU participants are:

Dmitriy 'Happy' Kostin
Kim 'SaSe' Hammar
Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán
Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen
Benjamin 'DeMusliM' Baker
Thomas 'ThomasG' Glinski
Juan 'VortiX' Moreno Durán
Nikita 'Nicker' Pomadov

The US participants are:

Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy
Phil 'LongWalk' Crawford
Abdulaziz 'CrunCher' Abed
Nicholas 'ShrieK' Miao Whittier
Nick 'HolyHuman' Pesu
Deuce
BoX
Unknownguru

blizzard.com