Jochen Pfeiffer wins in Cottbus, Alex Leymann qualifies for the European Masters - Nov. 11, 2016

Congratulations to Jochen Pfeiffer for winning his third tournament of the year at Cottbus Juggling Convention 2016, and going 11 matches in a row without a loss. The rankings points he won lifted him back to 2nd in the Race Rankings, and with the European Masters coming up, within striking distance of securing the 2016 year end number one spot.

24 jugglers took part in the qualifications in Cottbus, and 12 jugglers made it through to the knockout.

In the final Jochen beat Alex Leymann 5-0. However, Alex only had to make it to the final to secure his a top-ten finish for 2016, and so he qualified for his second trip to the European Masters.

Martin Schwalenberg needed to win just one knockout match to secure an invite to the European Masters, but in a very close round of 8 match he was upset 5-4 by Stephan Cipra, and failed to qualify.

Both Stephan and Florian Marienfeld would have had to win the entire tournament to qualify for the end-of-year finals, but as both lost their semi-finals, they had to settle for 3rd (Flo) and 4th (Stephan).

The field is now set for the European Masters, with Jan Poolen taking the tenth invite spot. Look out over the next two weeks for more details on the lineup, draw, points on offer and the possible impact on the year end rankings.

See all the results and details from Cottbus 2016 here: http://fightnightcombat.com/tournament-Cottbus-2016.html

Two remaining European Masters 2016 invites up for grabs at the Cottbus 2016 Fight Night - Nov. 3, 2016

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.

If Cottbus 2016 is a 350 level tournament...

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.

If Cottbus 2016 is a 500 level tournament...

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.