Biggest Roundnet Tournament of the Year! (so far) - ETS BERN, Open Pro Preview

Written by He Who Must Not be Named, edited by J. Popluhar

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.

Battle for Elite Points for the Championship

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 🇺🇸):

1. E/S 2. Zwaffle Everyone 3. RCB Drü

Zwaffle Everyone

1. E/S 2. RCG Powerline 3. Roundnet Bourguignon

Never Cold:

1. E/S 2. Rainbow Warriors 3. Zwaffle Everyone

Christiani/Krehle

1. E/S 2. Zwaffle Everyone 3. Christiani/Krehle

Rainbow Warriors:

1. Rainbow Warriors 2. Zwaffle Everyone 3. Willy Wonka

Willy Wonka:

1. E/S 2. Zwaffle Everyone 3. Rainbow Warriors

Paindrops:

1. Paindrops 2. RCG Powerline 3. Bo Jondi

Erik/Marcos

1. E/S 2. Zwaffle Everyone 3. Christiani/Krehle

Bazzani/Borsotti:

1. E/S 2. Bazzani/Borsotti 3. Zwaffle Everyone

Bürkle/Harder:

1. E/S 2. Rainbow Warriors 3. Zwaffle Everyone

🔥Hot take🔥: Zwaffle Everyone are the only players in quarters not speaking German.

You can follow the event scores here and watch the stream on EURA YouTube channel.

Do you agree with the predictions? Let us know here, or on European Discord server in the channel “hot-and-cold-takes”.

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