So here are the final rankings from Divs. 1, 2 and 3 :
1A:
France (promoted)
Poland
Kazakhstan (I TOLD YOU YOU SHOULD HAVE ADDED YOUR NA-BASED PLAYERS GUSSEINOV YOU IDIOT :Green_Colorz_PDT_21)
Estonia
Netherlands
China (relegated)
1B:
Slovenia (promoted, oh boy did they ever kick ass)
Hungary
Japan
Great Britain
Lithuania (wtf happened to these guys? :WTF: )
Romania (relegated)
2A:
Croatia (promoted)
Belgium
Spain
Serbia
Bulgaria
Turkey (relegated)
2B:
Korea Republic (promoted)
Australia
Israel
Iceland
Mexico
Korea DPR (relegated because they withdrew)
3:
New Zealand (promoted)
Ireland (promoted)
Luxembourg
South Africa
Mongolia
Armenia (because they withdrew)
The Championship division starts on Friday with its 16 teams. Here's how they're grouped for the preliminary round:
Group A
Sweden, Switzerland, Latvia, Italy
Group B
Czech Republic, USA, Belarus, Austria
Group C
Canada (GO CANADA!!), Slovakia, Germany, Norway
Group D
Finland (HYVÄ SUOMI), Russia, Ukraine, Denmark
My thoughts: Unless Germany bombs like they did two years ago, they'll move on. It should be Italy-Austria-Norway-Denmark going into the relegation group, but I'm expecting Austria and Denmark to stay up, despite the expected absence of Thomas Vanek and Thomas Pöck from Austria and Jannik Hansen from Denmark.
Barring a collapse, Sweden, Finland and Russia should move on from qualifying group E (the qualifiers from Groups A and D) with Switzerland and Ukraine to fight over the remaining spot unless Latvia brings a good team to the table this year.
Group F (from B and C, naturally) will be Canada, the USA, Slovakia, and the Czechs, unless one of the four goes bust. It's happened. If it happens to anyone, I hope it's the Czechs. (I'm such a bastard, aren't I
) I'd like to see Belarus pull a stunt like they did at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics
More once official rosters are declared.
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