There are two invites left for the European Masters 2016 but FOUR jugglers have a realistic chance of earning their place.
Jan Poolen is currently 9th on the invite list, and is awaiting the outcome of the final tournament of the 2016 regular season to see if he'll be traveling to Berlin at the end of November.
Taking part at the Cottbus 2016 Fight Night tomorrow night are three players in the top 20 of the 2016 Race Rankings: Martin Schwalenberg (11th), Alex Leymann (16th) and Florian Marienfeld (20th).
The points level of the Cottbus tournament has yet to be set, and will be decided by qualification participation and the size of the knockout bracket. If there are 19 or more total participants and 12 jugglers in the knockout it will be worth 500 points. If there are 18 or fewer participants and only 8 jugglers in the knockout it will be a 350 level tournament.
For Martin, currently 10th on the invite list, his mission is simple: reach the semi-finals! If he does, no matter what the tournament level, and no matter what else happens, he secures his place at the European Masters. He would pass Jan Poolen's 819 points and it would be impossible for both Flo and Alex to overtake him.
The other scenarios are more complex, so we'll break them up into two sections based on the tournament level.
Martin will qualify if:
- Martin reaches the semi-finals.
- Martin reaches the round of 8 AND Flo doesn't win.
- Martin reaches the round of 8 AND Alex doesn't make it to the final.
- Martin reaches the round of 16 AND neither Alex nor Flo make it to the final.
Jan will NOT qualify if:
- Martin reaches the semi-finals AND either Alex or Flo wins the tournament.
Alex will qualify if:
- Alex wins the tournament.
- Alex comes second AND Martin doesn't reach the semi-finals AND Flo doesn't win the tournament.
- Alex comes third AND Martin wins fewer than 50% of his qualification matches AND Martin fails to make the round of 16 AND Flo doesn't make it to the final match.
Flo will qualify if:
- Flo wins the tournament.
- Flo comes second AND Alex doesn't make the final AND Martin wins fewer than 66% of his qualification matches AND Martin doesn't reach the round of 8.
Martin will qualify if:
- Martin reaches the semi-finals.
- Martin reaches the round of 8 AND neither Flo nor Alex reach the final.
- Martin reaches the round of 16 AND Alex doesn't reach the semi-finals AND Flo doesn't reach the final.
Jan will NOT qualify if:
- Martin reaches the semi-finals AND either Flo or Alex reach the final.
- Both Flo and Alex reach the final.
Alex will qualify if:
- Alex wins the tournament.
- Alex reaches the final AND Flo doesn't win the tournament.
- Alex reaches the final AND Martin doesn't reach the semi-finals.
- Alex gets third place AND Flo doesn't reach the final AND Martin doesn't reach the round of 8.
- Alex reaches the semi-final AND Flo doesn't reach the final AND Martin doesn't reach the round of 8 AND Martin wins fewer than 96% of his qualification matches.
Flo will qualify if:
- Flo wins the tournament.
- Flo reaches the final AND Alex doesn't win the tournament AND Martin doesn't reach the semi-finals.
- Flo comes third AND Alex doesn't reach the semi-finals AND Martin wins fewer than 66% of his qualification matches AND Martin fails to make the round of 16.
© Copyright 2025, Luke Burrage. All rights reserved.