By He Who Must Not Be Named
Mark your calendars! ETS Bern (June 8th & 9th, 2024) is shaping up to be the biggest roundnet tournament of the season yet. With a staggering 119 open teams (including 41 in the Pro Division) and an impressive 46 women's teams, a total of 165 teams will battle it out across five divisions on Saturday. On Sunday, a staggering 103 mixed teams will play it out to see who is the best.
We're well into the European roundnet season, with the fourth ETS about to take place. After Barcelona, Bologna, and Leuven we're now going to Bern, Switzerland.
The high participation in the ETS Bern tournament won't surprise casual observers. Being the only EURA-selected ETS tournament in central (Roundnet) Europe, Bern's accessibility naturally attracts many teams. In addition, Roundnet Club Bern has been successfully running events since 2018 and it is known for its professionalism and welcoming community.
The season has been quite unpredictable with some surprising results and upsets. Every tournament so far was been won by a different team. However, we'd like to mention that the European powerhouse Eistenträger/Siemer only played in one of those, winning Leuven in a very convincing fashion.
Lukas and Paul haven't lost in Europe to a European team since their semi-final loss to RCG Powerline (🇦🇹) at the European Championship in Ireland in 2022 (the only other loss was at STS Toulouse 2023 in the semi-final against a Canadian duo V. Mathieu/E. Pilon). A very impressive win streak, making them the top favorites once again.
Even if it's the most stacked tournament so far, it's hard to see a different outcome for ETS Bern, but... The weather forecast is looking pretty bad, predicting a lot of rain, which could prove to be a huge factor. There are a lot of serve-dominant teams who might struggle to find their cuts and reverses due to the wet conditions because one cannot get a good grip on a wet ball, necessary to give the ball a desired spin.
If we were to name a few: Harder/Bürkle, Willy Wonka, Christiani/Krehle (all 🇩🇪), Vibin', Bazzani/Borsotti,... All teams would be in a lot of people’s top 3 predictions. And yes also E/S won’t ace as much, as their improved serving game has helped them a lot so far this season.
The rain offers the defensive-minded teams a bigger chance of victory. RCG Powerline (🇦🇹) is one of them of course, Rainbow Warriors (🇩🇪) also comes to mind, Erik/Markos (🇪🇸), RCB Drü (🇨🇭), Paindrops (🇩🇪/🇦🇹),… It's a pity French champions Hors Service (🇫🇷) aren't here this week, these conditions would have favored them a lot.
If it turns out that it's not raining then this preview was for nothing - touché.
Return of Willy Wonka
Moreover, European Roundnet fans will finally have the opportunity to spectate the German phenomenon and roundnet entertainers - Willy Wonka from Berlin. Last season, after qualifying for Pro at ETS Prague by winning the Contender division, WW - E. Grönebaum/R. Prüfer, played only one other ETS - Vienna, where they finished 3rd, only falling short of eventual winners, consisting of two superstars: 2022 World Champion from the USA, Fredric Hinkle and Mario Bürkle (🇩🇪).
On the question, of why does WW not travel more, they answered:
“Although the people at the international tournaments are incredibly nice and always offer a nice atmosphere, the traveling distances and destinations are also far away and therefore more expensive than German tournaments, where you can also play at a high level against European top teams.”
Furthermore, WW explained that the German coaches decided at the start of the season that the performances at the German Masters tournaments would be the biggest factor in the selection process for German teams, therefore they focus on them. Their big goal for the season is to become part of the German national team for Worlds 2024 in London.
Lastly, as we're getting closer and closer to the ETS Championship in Vienna more teams will also be thinking about the points they still need to earn to secure a spot in the elite division. It's proving to be a tight race.
As we didn't want to have another regular preview, going over possible winners, we asked some of the teams to give their top 3 predictions.
Frederik Hinkle (2022 World Champion 🇺🇸):
3. RCB Drü
Zwaffle Everyone
3. Roundnet Bourguignon
Never Cold:
Christiani/Krehle
Rainbow Warriors:
1. Rainbow Warriors
3. Willy Wonka
Willy Wonka:
3. Rainbow Warriors
Paindrops:
1. Paindrops
2. RCG Powerline
3. Bo Jondi
Erik/Marcos
2. Zwaffle Everyone
3. Christiani/Krehle
Bazzani/Borsotti:
2. Bazzani/Borsotti
Bürkle/Harder:
1. E/S
2. Rainbow Warriors
3. Zwaffle Everyone
Hot take: Zwaffle are the only players in quarters not speaking German
Do you agree with the predictions? Let us know here, or on European Discord server in the channel “hot-and-cold-takes”.
https://fwango.io/etsbern2024
“What are the expectations of WW coming to their first ETS in 24?”
Our greatest expectation is to have fun playing Roundnet and once again compete with the best teams in Europe. We will try to play a good tournament, but we don't want to set ourselves high expectations in terms of performance and approach the tournament with little pressure on ourselves. Also the prognosed rain will be a big factor so a big goal is to not get sick and land some serves on the net :)
Last year, your only pro tourney, you lost only to Hinkle/Bürkle, who do you perceive as the biggest threat in Bern?
2. The standard at European level is very high. We are looking forward to playing against as many new teams as possible and are sure that any team can be beaten in a best-of-3 series. The team that always demands the most intensity is certainly Rainbow Warriors. Every game against them is a back and forth, so it's a new challenge every time we play them.
3. Our big goal for the season is to become part of the German national team, which is a highly contested goal for many good players.
The German coaches decided at the start of the season that the German Masters tournaments would be a big factor in the comparison with the other German professional teams.
The German coaches decided at the start of the season that the performances at the German Masters tournaments would be the biggest factor in the selection process for German teams, therefore we focus on them.
Although the people at the international tournaments are incredibly nice and always offer a nice atmosphere, the travelling distances and destinations are also far away and therefore more expensive than at German tournaments, where you can also play at a high level against European Top teams. So we are looking forward to being able to play an ETS in Bern.