Whats the difference? elite just means no inca and start from ancient? Or is elite just for a single difficulty? they seem almost identical.

Elite has some restrictions as you noted. There is also the dropdown that shows Elite Quattromaster that have completed all the requirements at a given difficulty or above. (Notice the Elite Level dropdown?) So a Deity Level Elite Quattromaster would have played all their games on Deity.

Which is quite serious, just to elaborate on Denniz' point :) Standard quattromaster permits quite a few possibilities that elite rules out - duel maps, any era start. This enables players to chalk up victories in a fairly trivial fashion (not being judgemental here - take a look at the number of future space victories I played before elite quattromasters was introduced!).

The purpose of the Elite level was to try to eliminate the so-called "cheesy" wins ... future starts, duel maps etc So Elite is a lot more challenging ... although there is a sub-group, instigated by The-Hawk, doing the NTM EQM - No Tiny Maps Elite Quattromaster :)

totally voluntary, of course ...

ahhh so if i want to become an elite i should pick one difficulty i am comfortable with and stick to that for the quattromasters events. As normal quattromaster seems a lot less challanging. thx for explaining

-edit-
if i play continents, darius, conquest, epic and prince i got 5 filled up right? the real killer are the nations as it are quite a lot :D

That's right - pick a level you feel comfortable with and you can fill multiple slots with a single game, so you would get 5 slots filled with the game you describe. And yes, League of Nations is ... lengthy :)

If you keep track, you should be able to finish most of the events while playing one game for each civ to complete the League of Nations. If you play different map types, start in different eras, play on different speeds, etc. you will be meeting several requirements with each game. For EQM you will still have to complete the Rock of Ages. Both QM and EQM may require you to replay some civs that you have "checked off" when playing the Major and Minor Gauntlets.