WBC Semifinalists Announcement Ceremony in Photos

After two days of intense preliminary round performances, the 54 national barista champions gathered here at the World Barista Championship in Rimini, Italy, gathered on stage to hear which 12 of them had scored high enough to qualify them for the semifinal round. If you thought winning on a national level was tough, rest assured, earning a position among the elite 12 competitors who will compete in the 2014 WBC semifinal round is something else entirely. There were a lot of tears and broken hearts from those who did not make it to the next round, but also extraordinary excitement and sense of accomplishment from the 12 who did.

The semifinal round of the WBC begins at 10 a.m. (Rimini time) on Wednesday. The announcement of the 6 finalists will take place at 5:30 p.m. Stay tuned to Barista Magazine’s blog for all the photos, breaking news, and emotion from this preeminent coffee competition.

All 54 national barista champions were called to the stage before the names of the 12 semifinalists were announced. Photo by Kate Beard

The 54 national barista champions at this year's WBC completed an intense two days of preliminary competition. — The 54 national barista champions at this year’s WBC completed an intense two days of preliminary competition. Photo by Kate Beard

Emcee Steve Leighton goes in for a hug with Semifinalist Laila Ghambari, Barista Champion of the United States. Photo by Kate Beard

Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, Barista Champion of the UK, gets a big squeeze from Steve Leighton when his name is announced as one of the semifinalists. Photo by Kate Beard

2014 WBC Semifinalists! From back row left: Kapo Chiu, Hong Kong; Tse-Lin (Berg) Wu, Taiwan; Laila Ghambari, USA, Craig Simon, Australia; William Hernandez, El Salvador; Ben Put, Canada; Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, UK; Pete Williams, Ireland. Front row, from left: Erna Tosberg, Germany; Coen van Sprang, The Netherlands; Hidenori Izaki, Japan; Chris Loukakis, Greece. Photo by Kate Beard

Want to learn more about the 12 Semifinalists in the 2014 World Barista Championship? Barista Magazine has written profiles of all of them. See links below!

Pete Williams, Barista Champion of Ireland

Hidenori Izaki, Barista Champion of Japan

Ben Put, Barista Champion of Canada

William Hernandez, Barista Champion of El Salvador

Kapo Chiu, Barista Champion of Hong Kong

Coen van Sprang, Barista Champion of the Netherlands

Tse-Lin (Berg) Wu, Barista Champion of Taiwan

Erna Tosberg, Barista Champion of Germany

Craig Simon, Barista Champion of Australia

Laila Ghambari, Barista Champion of the United States

Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, Barista Champion of the United Kingdom

Chris Loukakis, Barista Champion of Greece