With 40 players, a qualifier, a group stage and play offs this tournament will take some time until it is finished. I asked MepH for his prognosis about the qualifiers.

chrizZo: Can you comment on the qualifier groups MepH?

MepH: For me, Group A is the strongest. Players as NeW, niki and Balcer are very good in cups, also there is aloprando and emik, who are good in cups and recording. I think NeW can pass this group easily, even if he doesn't finish every map on the first place. For aloprando his ping will be a disadvantage, sadly.
My bet: NeW, niki, Balcer and emik

Group B will be the most interesting. That is because of the known, upcoming players we can see here and it's exciting to watch how they perform. Another way to become famous! Presumably at least one of the favourites will fail and let Klunya, Chichin or guz go through!
My bet: Gene, MEEL, Nukk, Shooting-St4r

In Group C Ducu, ShoCk and w1zz will most likely lead the melee; skillwise they are a bit above the other players. The battle for the 4th spot will be tough, good candidates are coreUPT, Perdo and ivansky.
My bet: Ducu, ShoCk, w1zz, ivansky

Group D is the weakest and it is hard to say, who will make it. I will give you my bet, but I am not sure about this one!
My bet: Bibika, Toffifee, Cobrex and Nicla$$

chrizZo: What do you think about the maps? What do you propose as a good tactic?

MepH: The difficulty of these maps for cups is average and sometimes they are risky, so a lot of good players will seem bad by failing jumps or combos. You need to keep calm. If you go with a slow speed, but without fails, you will make it to the group stage.

That is the tactic for the first two maps at least, because there are always people, who fail jumps in a 10 or 8-Man-Melee. The third and final map will be trickier, when only 6 people are left; it is getting more technical there. Some jumps on kznl_factory are confusing, I guess it is the best map to spectate.

chrizZo: Do you think the known world recorders can play out their skills?

MepH: I doubt they have a big advantage because of their skills, it is more about experience here. Everything can happen with these kind of maps and I don't think someone will dominate the qualifiers. If I remember right, in the last qualifier 6 really unknown players made it to the next stage. I would like to see something like that once again!

chrizZo: Thanks a lot MepH!

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