The organizers of this August’s WHBPC 2012 in Geneva have allocated 16 spots to North American teams, plus another 4 or so for a wildcard tournament.
NAHBPC 2012 is taking place this July 6-8, which doesn’t give much time for teams who place well to get their tickets for Geneva, so NAH has created a system to ensure that as many top NA teams will be able to participate, while still making NAHBPC an essential part of qualification, as it was in 2011.
Like in other types of NAH qualification, you can register as a team if 2 of your 3 players are “qualified”. This system is designed for 48 players, where a minimum of 32 players will be “qualified”.
There are three ways to qualify:
- WHBPC 2011 (3 players)
The top placing North American team from WHBPC 2011 is qualified for WHBPC 2012. That’d be Crazy Canucks, so Chris P, Alex C, and Rory, from East Van are now qualified, and have until June 30 2012 to claim their spot.
- NAH Regional qualifiers (21 players)
Three players from each NAH regional qualifier will qualify for WHBPC. The team that places first at the qualifier tourney has 7 days to lay claim to their spot, which means that two players on that team must form a team and register for Geneva within those 7 days. If after 7 days this hasn’t happened, players on the team that places 2nd at the regional qualifier can claim the spot. Similarly, if after 7 days two players on the 2nd place team do not claim their spot, the players on the 3rd place team can claim it. But it stops there, the spot can not get passed to the 4th place team. For these players to keep their “qualified” status, they must attend NAHBPC 2012 in Milwaukee. Players who won the SW and SC regional qualifiers have until April 30 (10 days) to claim their spot. NAH regional reps will be managing this process in their respective regions, and checking in with the players who qualified at their respective region’s qualifier. By the 4th week of June, we will have a full list of the players qualified for WHBPC 2012 via the regional qualifiers.
- NAHBPC 2012 (8-24 players, or more.)
The remaining spots will be allocated via NAHBPC 2012 in Milwaukee, according to how their teams place. We expect this to be the top 8 teams, approximately. If, 7 days after NAHBPC, the spots earned at NAHBPC 2012 have not been claimed and the 16 slots allocated to North American teams have not been filled, this will become first come first served.