Inside ECL

Entry posted by FINSeRe January 7, 2016

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Inside ECL

Hello everyone!

This is the opening post of ’Inside ECL’ which will be posting all kind of interesting stuff; interviews, previews, week recaps and so on. Later on I’ll try to add up some videos also and personally I think it would be cool to make ‘’TOP-5 goals’’- or ‘’TOP-5 saves’’ of the week but it really is up to few things: do I have the time and also do I get material from you guys to make those happen. I have to think how to proceed from here since league is approximately at middle point now. Time will show.

I was supposed to publish this before starting of the league but since the site was unfinished it was impossible before this. I feel sorry for the guys I interviewed since I pretty much promised to publish these interviews like month ago but as I noticed, it was unrealistic. Better later than never though. So this means I’ll publish interviews throughout this week and maybe next week also, keep tuned.

But however in this first post I’ll be introducing myself! You might know me beforehand or you might remember me from ConsoleHockey where I published ‘EHL Insider’’ -blog. I think most of the readers enjoyed everything I posted so now my goal is to be more active than I was there and do similar kind of stuff over here, of course I will try to do even better and deeper posts this time! I will be doing this post as I would be interviewing myself, hopefully it doesn’t seem too weird! Let’s get started!

Who am I?

Yeah hi! I’m known as FINSeRe (just call me SeRe) and as I previously mentioned you might have heard of me before. I’m a 23 years old and I live in Helsinki, Finland (as you might have guessed). I currently play floorball, but I’ve also played football, basketball, tennis etc. I also like to write songs, since writing has always been my strength (as you might have guessed again). My goal is to actually try what happens if I’d do one proper song in the future. At the moment I’m working but I will start my studies later on January.

When did I start to play hockey games?

I played quite much NHL 05 and NHL 07 on PS2. I truly started to play NHL when I got PS3 and NHL 08. I can’t even understand how much I played that game, it was probably around 500-600 hours and I got it on Christmas. I’ve played every NHL since that.

Best hockey game?

For me it’s NHL 2k10. I like to play offline and compared to EA Sports NHL’s it was much more realistic even though graphics weren’t the best. Only problem throughout the years was that I had to pretty much create every team and player to keep squads in date. I just wish there was a proper offline hockey which would be realistic and challenging to play unlike NHL series which is too unrealistic to play on offline. So if you guys want to try realistic ice hockey game in offline, get 2k10.

How did I start playing NHL semi-professionally?

Well the thing what I’m actually known for, is playing NHL around Finland and world for money. I assume it all started in NHL 10 when I was introduced to this one forum where people played NHL tournaments on online for fun. I participated and noticed that I’m actually pretty good at this game. I started my own league later on where my goal was to get the best Finnish PS3 players into same league where I could truly test my skill level and improve as a NHL player. I managed this league for few years.

When NHL 12 came there was Finnish Championship tournament held where I lived. I just wanted to try out and test how I will perform there. As it turned out I won silver (thanks for the rape Hansulinho) and after that I decided to play NHL more seriously.

Other games I play?

I also like to play few other games like Fallout 4 and League of Legends at the moment (just finished Until Dawn). I was part of League of Legends eSports team year ago, but it all fell apart because I wasn’t just skilled enough back then. I could try once again later, but not sure yet if I really have the time to play as much as needed when I need to study and work and also playing NHL like you guys. Also writing these kinds of articles isn’t very fast thing to do!

Why do I do these kinds of articles?

It’s just simply because I enjoy writing and doing stuff that people can read. Even though I know my English isn’t perfect I like to do my own part for the community as I believe EASHL will be in eSports one day and when that day comes I would love to be part of it as I see myself vanguard of NHL eSports on my own way.

Funny fact is that when I was ‘EHL Insider’ on ConsoleHockey, I used those interviews as a demonstration of skill to get a new job. The job was PR-man for the biggest basketball team of Finland which played Eurocup back then. I was able to get that job (for a while) even though I had no experience of that kind of work. Oh, it was total blast while it lasted.

Accomplishments on eSports?

I will keep this one short, since this sounds like I would be bragging since I’m ‘’interviewing myself’’.

I have few Finnish Championship medals and few tournament Championship wins over here in Finland. I’m a member of official Finnish National team (Sweden got their asses kicked last year ;)). Accomplishments I’m most proud of are these two tournaments. First one was World Championship tournament in New York where I was 17^th of 128. Next year the tournament was held in Las Vegas where I finally was 5^th of 128. Those both tournaments had whooping prize pool of 200 000$. I’ve also made quite a lot of money by playing this game for money on online.

Also by playing NHL I’ve had chances to get publicity on Finnish media which I never ‘’dreamed of’’. Even though it’s not hard to find out what my real name is, it’s the actual reason why I’m just being ‘FINSeRe’ here.

At the moment I’m retired for a while since I don’t have too much motivation to play this game, because the limited amount of tournaments. Also these tournaments contain pretty bad prizes, so personally I think they aren’t worth of my time. Meanwhile I just enjoy EASHL (when it’s not lagging like hell)!

What I want from this blog?

First of all I want you to enjoy everything I write. There is no point to write unless there are people to read it. And if I want people to read my articles, it means I have to do good job with these and do quality writings. I just hope I can deliver.

So as I told previously, I will be interviewing people. I want community to really know each other and this is one way to do it. I was supposed to do preview of the season before ECL started but since it wasn’t happening I’ll try to do this before play-offs, we’ll see. One thing I will be trying to do is ‘Week recaps’’ where I’m going to choose 3 stars of the week (or something similar). Not sure yet if it will contain anything else and when I’m going to start this, maybe after next week or next season? Also doing ‘Season recap’ after the season would be nice where someone would choose the best players of the season. Maybe doing this with the Captains?

Also doing TOP-5 videos of this tournament could be nice (weekly/ monthly?), but as I told it won’t be up to me. I’m also not the best video editor even though I have one YouTube video myself (go check it out ;)). But this is definitely something I want to do, so hopefully we can start discussion on this!

Anyways you are free to suggest what kind of material you want to see! Also if you are interested to help me out with this blog, be free to message me.

What kind of future is there for EASHL?

EA has been saying that they are trying to bring EASHL into eSports. And in my opinion honestly, I believe that they can succeed. Tournaments like ECL are just first step and we as a community are the vanguards. Actually we had Finnish Championship tournament few days ago in Finland which was broadcasted in national TV with studios and commentaries etc. I have to say that it was pretty cool and showed me that this game has potential to be part of eSports in the future. People also enjoyed this as I was checking twitter for the reactions.

There is actually one thing. I’ve been fantasizing about National teams over here. It would be super cool and probably the next step for these tournaments. Having National tournaments on the offseason and seeing how players battle to get into the team. There would be something to achieve for the players. Only real problem is that do we actually have enough nationalities for this and what kind of skill cap there would be. Also how they teams would be chosen? And I don’t even have to mention about the connections. Maybe this is something for the NHL 17?

I’m sure this will happen some day for sure but just not today

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I think this is what I wanted to say. It’s not easy to talk about myself when no-one is interviewing. I’m just going to say big thanks to Kenneth and Samuli. They have done great job with this site and are truly pushing EASHL community boundaries to a whole new level.

And guys! Remember to keep up the discussion! It’s what I want and it’s what this community needs! Just be active so we can grow together!

Now I’m just going to thank everyone who had the time to read this opening post. I hope you guys are interested to read what I write now and in the future.

I would actually be very pleased if you guys wanted to follow me in social media!

See you later!