Congrats Norway,
I know it's a little predictable, but hey it's a good song. :D

Thanks for 13th for Estonia it's more than I expected for sure.

Thanks for hosting Alex, you're an amazing host. :D

Would it be possible for Macedonia to become available straight away? It seems such a shame for Andrew to have stopped someone else from taking part for another contest. I  know three people who would love to be a part of this game and would vote every time (Alanduncan in particular is really hoping for a country). I'm sure there is more people who would want it. :)

Im afraid it won't be possible. Macedonia will be drawn in ESCT33, in the meantime, Azerbaijan is free for the upcoming edition and it has some good music that has not been used yet.

is there going to be 2nd chances ??

Despite placing 22nd for Iceland, every qualification feels like a win :) Thanks for the points, everyone.

Yes Luca, you know it perfectly hahaha.

Can I start my next pre-selection Alex?

It's a little different to how I normally run pre-selections so would like some more time for it to be be run. :)

First of all I want to thank to those who voted for Hungary although we got a bad 24th place, however I knew that being part of the Big 5 could hurt us.

Grand Final:

-Congrats to Norway, it's a really good song and it deserved to win.

-Happy with Montenegro, Switzerland, Austria who left his bad luck out and  Ukraine this would have been a epic winner though.

-Slovenia was the biggest robbed entry, it deserved Top 10. Finland, Morocco and Iceland were robbed too.

-I can't say that any song is overrated but maybe Luxembourg cause this country doesn't put any effort in the contest and just a little bit Sweden but maybe because we have listened to it so much since winter.

-Belarus and Bosnia were about to qualify once again after so many editions doing the same... :( #Pray4Them

Here are the list of songs that I would have liked to vote in the grand final:
11.  Italia
12.  Noruega
13.  Albania
14.  Finlandia
15.  Estonia
16.  Francia
17.  Dinamarca

Thank you so much for this amazing edition and we'll see you in the next one!! :D

I know you were upset that we were included in your thread.
But why kick us? We had been added by that point...surely that's a good thing?
It just makes it seem like you don't want us to be in a group chat with you all. If it's a general chat thread that's fine, but it seems to me that you discuss things to do with the game there.

At the moment we get drip feed information from people that are included in the chat. If people are talking about 'block voting' we should have a say in that.

If you want to be included in our TSC chat just ask, we'll include you. You're not in it at the moment because you don't participate in TSC, we don't have a specific ESCT chat. We sometimes talk about ESCT there, but mainly about the songs and things. Things we would do in your chat if we were in it. :p :)

I don't think you meant to make people feel that way, but it does kind of feel like we're not cool enough to be included in the 'main' ESCT group.

I was upset with Luca cause Rod asked me first and then Luca answered in my name and started adding people in the chat. That happened yesterday and I saw everything today and that pissed me off, not because of you, it was because Luca messed it up.

Of course I don't have anything against you, it just because it's a group made in 2014 with people who we met in Tengaged.es since it was shut down and I would prefer to create a proper ESCT group and then, start adding people.

Why do I say this? Because most of the people there, we speak spanish and some of them don't have a good english level and adding new non-spanish people who can not speak or understand spanish would make them feel a bit uncomfortable I guess. Why Rod and Luca are there? Cause they can understand spanish and somehow they wanted to learn it.

About blockvoting, I was kidding, but I said it cause Le Hérisson mentioned it in the other forum and that was public, nothing we wanted to talk about privately in a skype group.

The thing I said about TSC it was just an example of another group, I wasnt talking seriously, but imagine if I start adding people from Tengaged.es for some reason in that group, and they don't speak english, would make you feel weird. So it's not because you are not cool enough to be included in that group, it's just that in that group we talk about many things, not only ESCT and most of us we do it in spanish.

So I propone Luca to create a new group to come together there and if someone doesn't want to be there can leave and if someone want to be included he or she just have to ask us.

Please don't make this too serious and please forgive me for kicking you out like that but Luca really pissed me off as he usually doesnt think before doing something.

I totally understand you wanting to keep that chat thread to your original group, but what was happening is that there would be something said in your thread and then that would be mentioned in our TSC thread without any context. For example this block voting thing we immediately thought people were talking about our group.

It made it seem like this was the official Skype group and people who had been in the contest a shorter amount of time than myself who isn't a part of your original .es crew were being included did make us wonder why we weren't being invited. I understand that some people having got fantastic English, I haven't got fantastic Spanish skills either, but music and this contest should transcend language. Me posting that 'I love the French entry' should be understandable by all. :p

You're forgiven, tbh there isn't anything really to forgive, I understand why you were upset.

Guys it's all my fault. I just wanted to be a happy family and getting people to know each other a bit better, but i should have given alex the final word.
For those who wants i created a skype group and i kinda want to become a family and getting to know each other a bit better. I think it should be brilliant to talk about the music, the contest all together and having fun and since I had the opportunity to talk to lot of you in private i think other people should have the chance too.
I am sorry for being messy and for creating troubles, but I think everyone here wants the same thing : enjoying this beautiful contest hosted by an amazing person and talented guy.
In the end there will be always discussions but this will happen in all situations.
So just move forward and get ready for 2nd chance where i wanna win so badly ahhaa

No, it isn't the official group of ESCT I just dont want anyone to make uncomfortable because of the language. I know that there are some people who dont talk too much when Luca, Rod or some of us speak English and I didnt want to take it too further with more new people.

Btw, no one invited me to be part of the TSC group and I know about it and I didn't feel excluded or bad for it. It's just that I know that some people have their groups for some reasons and the best solution as I said in my opinion, was to create a new group and be added there and feel free.

Well if you took part in TSC you would most likely have been invited. :p :) When you played TSC, I wasn't in it either, I'm not even sure if it was a thing. :p

It's fine, you've explained it now.
Before all I knew was that I was kicked from the thread  and you were annoyed.

I'm not going to post about it any more. :)

I created a skype group to talk about the contest and to make communication easier. It would be nice if we could even know each other more.
If you are interested please contact me for private message. thanks and good luck to everyone for the second chance contest

Differences between the betting odds and the Grand Final results:

1. 🇳🇴 Norway (+4)
2. 🇨🇭 Switzerland (+8)
3. 🇦🇹 Austria (+9)
4. 🇺🇦 Ukraine (+7)
5. 🇦🇩 Andorra (+2)
6. 🇲🇪 Montenegro (+17)
7. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (-6)
8. 🇸🇪 Sweden (-4)
9. 🇩🇰 Denmark (-6)
10. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (-4)
11. 🇦🇱 Albania (-2)
12. 🇵🇱 Poland (+2)
13. 🇪🇪 Estonia (+7)
14. 🇮🇹 Italy (+7)
15. 🇫🇷 France (+4)
16. 🇸🇮 Slovenia (-3)
17. 🇲🇩 Moldova (+7)
18. 🇦🇲 Armenia (+4)
19. 🇫🇮 Finland (-11)
20. 🇪🇸 Spain (-4)
21. 🇬🇷 Greece (-6)
22. 🇮🇸 Iceland (-4)
23. 🇲🇦 Morocco (-21)
24. 🇭🇺 Hungary (-7)
25. 🇭🇷 Croatia (=)

Once again, the bookies didn't guess the winner of the edition,  Norway, although it wasn't too far away (+4). The countries with best results were Montenegro (+17) who was never trusted to do so well and  Austria who climbed +9 places more.
In the other hand, the countries who failed the most were  Morocco (-21) who unfortunatelly failed 21 places, it was the second favourite in the betting odds and finished almost last; and  Finland (-11). This proves that the betting odds are not 100% accurate.