The Swedish Quake community has hit out at the new ESWC's decision to offer them just one qualifying spot at next month's Swedish qualifier.
Previous ESWC events had offered two or more qualifying berths to previously successful nations in order to ensure a strong representation of the world's best players but the new ESWC have eschewed this method in favour of a simpler one country, one spot system. Sweden are the second most decorated nation in ESWC history - with a total of fifteen medals since 2003 - and can boast a strong contingent of QuakeLive stars, including Magnus "fox" Olsson, Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira and Alexander "Z4muZ" Ihrfors.
Excello's Pelle "fazz" Söderman spoke out against the decision on esreality.com, arguing that "it should be 2-3 slots and only 1st get paid travels/hotel". The Swede, a previous 4th place finisher at ESWC, pointed the finger of blame at the new organisers, admitting he still had "big doubts about this ESWC organisation", even suggesting "it might just be good that [other Swedes] don't go there to get ripped off as well."
The Swedish qualifying event will be held from the 5th to the 6th of June in the Game City LAN centre in Dreamhack host-city Jönköping. Gamers will have the chance to compete in Counter Strike 1.6, Guitar Hero 5 and Street Fighter 4 qualifiers as well as QuakeLive with the winners earning the chance to represent their country at the world finals in Disneyland, Paris later this year.
