Josh Blanchard (pictured left) of the United States won the qualifying of the 12th Brunswick Euro Challenge, which concluded Saturday night with Squad 17 and the ultimate Desperado Squad at Dream-Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany.

The PBA Rookie of the Year 2011-12 was the lone player who surpassed the magic 1500-mark (250 average) after finishing the penultimate Squad 16 with 1506 pinfall total and an average of 251. Blanchard rolled games of 249, 240, 268, 247, 235 and 267 to overtake previous leader Sean Rash, United States, by 30 pins.

The former PBA Player of the Year was second with 1476 and was followed by Finnish national team members Petteri Salonen and Joonas Jehkinen, both on 1471. Jehkinen (above right), who was the only player to qualify through the last Squad 17, behind games of 270, 224, 264, 278, 223 and 212.

Richard Teece (left) of England led a fully booked Squad 15 in the 52-lane house featuring 104 players with 1459, an average of 243.17, including games of 231, 227, 279, 256, 237 and 229. Teece cracked the top 12, who earned a first-round bye for the finals, and finished qualifying in ninth place.

Kelly Kulick, United States, and Singapore's Jazreel Tan (right) were the best of 62 women in the 316-player field from 33 countries in 10th and 12th place with 1455 and 1440, respectively, including 48 pins handicap, an equality handicap provided to women in all EBT events.

Adrian Ang (left), who rolled the lone 300 game in qualifying, made the first cut in 19th place with 1428 total. 38 players have scored series of 1400 and higher.

Mattias Möller (right) was the lone player of Squad 14, who surpassed the 1400-mark. The Swede had games of 237, 223, 245, 227, 255 and 225 for 1412, an average of 235.33, to improve his previous high series by 174 and to rocket from 140th to 29th place.

Former European Masters champion Jesper Agerbo of Denmark had a remarkable start into Squad 15 with 279 and 275 (554) en route to finish in 41st place with 1395 (232.50).

Steven Gill (right) of Scotland took the 52nd and last place to directly qualify for the finals with 1379 or an average of 229.83 including handicap.

The top 52 qualifiers will be joined in Sunday's finals by the top 8 from a separate leaderboard of the squads conducted March 14-18 and the top 4 of the Desperado Squad, who were seeded 53rd to 60th and 61st to 64th, respectively.

The 12th Brunswick Euro Challenge is the 10th tournament on the 2015 World Bowling Tour and also the sixth stop on the 2015 European Bowling Tour and the second of three EBT "Platinum" events this season, the highest of the four EBT tournament categories.

The BEC will be held from March 14-22 at Europe's biggest bowling center, 52-lane Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring in suburban Munich, Germany.

Players will compete for total prize money of 112.000 Euro with 12.000 Euro going to the winner, 9.000 Euro to the runner-up and 6.000 Euro to the third place finisher.

According to an agreement between World Bowling and the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), the Brunswick Euro Challenge will award a PBA title, if won by a PBA member.