The 23rd and last qualifying squad in the Norwegian Open 2015 by Brunswick was full of drama and excitement Saturday evening at Veitvet Bowling Center in Oslo, Norway, with lots to offer for everybody.

Norwegian national team member Svein Ã…ke Ek (pictured above) waited until the very last moment to book his spot for Sunday's finals. Ek started his six games with 202, 277 and 279 followed by low games of 189 and 188 before he closed out with 259 for 1394 total to jump into 28th place, the last place to earn one bye for the semi-final round.

Former world champion Nina Flack (right) of Sweden averaged over 230 for the first four games (205, 279, 205 and 232) but struggled in the last games. She spared a 4-9 split in the 9th frame followed by three clutch strikes for 180 in game 5 and finished game 6 with a four-bagger for 215 to fight her way into the semi-final round.

Flack totaled 1464 to miss the cut by one pin, yet moved into 43rd place to advance as the best of four women outside the top 42.

Finally in the last game of the squad, 17-year-old Norwegian youth national team member Jens Mathiesen (left) reeled off 12 consecutive strikes to post the third 300 game of the tournament. Mathiesen, who chalked up 1316, was already qualified thanks to a 1432 series in Squad 5.

Two-time Norwegian Open champion Mads Sandbækken (right) of Norway dominated the qualifying of the Norwegian Open 2015 by Brunswick. The lefty paced the 208-player field, 166 men and 42 women, from Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, Sweden and the host country Norway since Squad 18 with 1561 or an average of 260.17.

Sandbækken, who won the tournament in 2009 and 2010 when it was unfortunately off the European Bowling Tour schedule, had games of 221, 215, 279, 300, 278 and 268. His 300 game was the second perfecto of this year's event. Mikael Roos (left) of Sweden had the first in Squad 14.

Jimmy Mortensen (right) of Denmark was the only other player who surpassed the 1500-mark to finish in second place with 1514 (252.33).

EBT women's point ranking co-leaders, Ida Andersson and Jenny Wegner (pictured below with the Swedish national team for the World Championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE) were the best women in the field in third and fourth place with 1476 and 1470, respectively.

Ida's brother Pontus Andersson was more one pin behind Wegner in fifth place with 1469 set in the fifth qualifying squad last Sunday. Rounding out the top 8 who will be seeded in Final Round 4, were Norwegians Tor-Øyvind Lunde (1467), Audun Boye Hansen (1443) and Martin Moen Stikbakke (1442).

The top 3 women after qualifying, Andersson, Wegner and 11th place Heidi Thorstensen of Norway received 5.000 NOK, 3.000 NOK and 2.000 NOK bonusses.

Monica Lislien (right) of Norway took the 42nd place and last place to survive the qualifying cut with 1365 and an average of 227.50 including eight pins handicap.

Total 60 players survived the first cut. The top 8 qualifiers receive four byes (semi-final and Round 1, 2 and 3), qualifiers 9-16 (16th Roger Öberg, Sweden, 1424) get three byes, qualifiers 17-24 (24th Victoria Johansson, Sweden, 1409; pictured left) earn two byes and qualifiers 25-28 (24th place Ek, 1394) will miss the semi-final round.

Qualifiers 29-42 plus two players from a separate leaderboard of Squad 1-7, who are not among the top 42, the next four women, four juniors, four seniors and two players each from the Turbo 1 and 2 list (highest score in qualifying game 5 and 6, respectively) advance to the semi-final round starting at 9 p.m. on Saturday evening.

In a change to last year, there will be only one semifinal round. All players bowl six games scratch with the top 12 advancing to Final Round 1 starting on Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

The remaining forty players will determine the champion in five three-game rounds with rounds 1-4 starting from scratch. The field will be trimmed to 32, 24, 16, and then eight players who bowl a final three-game block with the pinfall from round 4 being carried forward.

The player with the highest six-game total will earn the title, the 40.000 NOK top prize and 50 EBT ranking points (men and women in separate rankings).