Europe Announces 2018 Team for 4th Annual Atlantic Challenge Cup

The European Pocket Billiard Federation today announced its team to face the Americans during this year’s staging of the 4th annual Atlantic Challenge Cup taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 29 – December 1, 2018 at the South Point Hotel and Casino.

The European team consists of Russia’s Fedor Gorst, Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski, Netherland’s Jan van Lierop, and Germany’s Patrick Hofmann. On the girls’ side are Russia’s Valeriia Trushevskaya and Poland’s Weronika Karwik. Zielinski and Hoffman have qualified for the European team for the second year in a row and both played key roles in last year’s victory, with Zielinski pocketing the last 9-Ball for the team win and Hoffman returning as the 2017 MVP.

“Every year is a new year with a new team, we cannot look at Europe’s past performances in the Atlantic Challenge Cup and think this year will be easy,” said EPBF president Gre Leenders. “We have tremendous respect for Allison Fischer and we are confident she will have Team USA ready to play and be very competitive. However, I am positive Team Europe’s Captain Tomas Brikmanis will have this year’s team focused and ready to play. His experience and insights from the 2016 Chicago victory will help our team members traveling to the United States and playing in such a high-pressure team atmosphere for the first time.”

Launched in 2015, the Atlantic Challenge Cup features the best youth players from Europe and America in a Mosconi Cup style event. Six players on each team, four boys and two girls, battle it out on an annual basis to see who has bragging rights across the Atlantic. The event is the result of a joint venture between the Billiard Congress of America and the European Pocket Billiard Federation.