Long Beach, Calif., USA, August 18, 2015 – Led by Beach Volleyball power, eight teams from seven countries won two qualifying matches each during the opening day of men’s competition at the third annual ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball.The 10th men’s stop on the 2015 FIVB World Tour calendar, the US$800,000 FIVB World Tour event is being played on the TrueCar Court at Alamitos Beach as the venue becomes the site to host the most international Beach Volleyball events in the United States since the start of officially-sanctioned events for men in 1987 and 1992 for women.Brazil had two teams advance from the qualifier to the open Main Draw rounds, including top-seeded Vitor Felipe/Alvaro Filho and 20th-seeded Saymon Barbosa/Gustavo Carvalhaes. Felipe and Alvaro placed second at last month’s PanAm Games in Canada while Saymon and Gustavo upset newly-crowned FIVB world champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt Sunday in a Brazilian domestic event in Rio de Janeiro.Other teams advancing were third-seeded Ryan Doherty/John Mayer of the United States, fifth-seeded Christian Garcia/Francisco Marco of Spain, sixth-seeded Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen of Germany, seventh-seeded Martins Plavins/Haralds Regza of Latvia, ninth-seeded Dmitri Barsouk/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia and 18th-seeded Andrea Tomatis/Francesco Vanni of Italy.Tuesday’s schedule also featured women’s qualifying action where eight pairs from each gender’s competition advanced to Wednesday’s opening Main Draw rounds. Twenty-four (24) men and 24 women teams were already placed in the “money” rounds where the winning teams will each share the $57,000 first-place prizes on Sunday.Doherty and Mayer will now be one of five host country teams in Wednesday’s Main Draw. Other American pairs in the “money” rounds will be Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, Tri Bourne/John Hyden, Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena and Theo Brunner/Sean RosenthalThe 32-team Main Draws will feature pool play with the top three group finishers advancing to the elimination rounds. Pool winners are guaranteed a first-round “bye” in the knockout rounds when the 24-team elimination bracket begins Friday.The ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball is the second of two events in the United States this season that are part of the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The first 2015 American Olympic qualifier was held in mid-June at St. Petersburg, Fla. Prior to the St. Petersburg Grand Slam, the last Olympic Beach Volleyball qualifying event in the United States was staged in September 2003 at Carson, Calif.Following the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, the final Grand Slam event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour will be played August 25-30 in Olsztyn, Poland. The “test” event for the Rio 2016 Olympics will be staged on September 2-6 at exactly the same location for the Summer Games’ Beach Volleyball competition on Copacabana Beach.Prior to returning to the United States for the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (September 29-October 4), the international circuit will stage “open” tournaments in Russia (Sochi, September 8-13) and China (Xiamen, September 22-27).