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Hello NHLGamers Today we bring you a preview of the ECL 3 Finals or as Gandalf would put it: "So, we come to it at last... The great battle of our time". The featured teams in this spectacular finish to our longest season yet will be Finnish Roosters and X-Factor - two teams that have lived up to their hype before the season and navigated their way through some of the toughest teams in the world to reach this point. But enough hype, let us move on to the show: [Research (statistics) and matchup analysis by Ranksu] [Additional text, player interviews and editing by The_Alpha_Furyan] [Art by OxtreeLAT] X- FACTOR Projected lineup Vilupoika - Penatski - KingOfApes_ nylanderi - F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ Danielcadabra Statistics (Forwards): Vilupoika Regular season: 44 GP [55G + 55A] 110 P / +127 / 8 PPG / 2 SHG / 148 HITS Playoffs: 23 GP [17G + 17A] 34 P / +14 / 2 PPG / 0 SHG / 87 HITS Penatski Regular season: 46 GP [70G + 95A] 165 P / +134 / 9 PPG / 1 SHG / 129 HITS Playoffs: 20 GP [17G + 21A] 38 P / +18 / 3 PPG / 0 SHG / 49 HITS KingOfApes_ Regular season: 46 GP [48G + 63A] 111 P / +134 / 9 PPG / 0 SHG / 135 HITS Playoffs: 23 GP [13G + 17A] 30 P / +14 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 97 HITS Statistics (Defenders): nylanderi Regular season: 40 GP [14G + 38A] 53 P / +87 / 3 PPG / 1 SHG / 38 HITS Playoffs: 23 GP [3G + 12A] 15 P / +14 / 1 PPG / 1 SHG / 19 HITS F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ Regular season: 8GP [4G + 10A] 14 P / +19 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 40 HITS Playoffs: 22GP [2G + 17A] 19 P / +14 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 59 HITS Statistics (Goaltender): Danielcadabra Regular season: 28GP / 18 W / 6 L / 4 OTL / 79.38% / 1.67 GAA / 5 SO Playoffs: 23GP / 16W / 5 L / 2 OTL / 78.67% / 1.95 GAA / 5 SO How did they get here? X-Factor reached to finals by defeating the top-notch team Aapon Taikasauva in Game 7 in the 3rd round. This is X-Factors first appearance in the ECL Finals. X-Factor and Finnish Rooster faced each other in the regular season with the following results: 1-3 to FR and 0-4 to XF. How will they win? X-Factor signed F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ at the ECL Trade Deadline which was in my book easily the best acquire at TDL. "Andy" is well known for playoff performances and is considered a "big games player". He's going to face the FR top scoring forward PleeMaker, who had yet another outstanding regular season and an even better post-season. If "Andy" can win that match up, that would be huge for X-Factor. Finally, I believe they will win if Penatski can break down Finnish Roosters redline trap and find the holes for it. How will they lose? X-Factor can sometimes be too reckless offensively which will put their D pairing in awkward positions - knowing the fast break game Finnish Roosters will execute. We saw it in game 6 against Aapon Taikasauva (1-5 to Aapo). It will be hard for X-Factor if they don't keep up nylanderi's game philosophy and trust his gameplan. X-Factor will lose this series if they can't find a way to deal with FR's hard blueline trap and can't find a way to shut down PleeMaker. You could say this set-up is almost the same like against Aapo were they needed to shutdown Joukki13 and they did. However, this time they are facing more defensively oriented 5-man team who will heavily lean on offensive mistakes and lurk around for fast breakaways. * * * FINNISH ROOSTERS Projected lineup PleeMaker - tbnantti - johtaja699 JParola - ktewjh FinKonna Statistics (Forwards): PleeMaker Regular season: 46 GP [83G + 56A] 139 P / +137 / 10 PPG / 2 SHG / 251 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [29G + 11A] 40 P / +24 / 8 PPG / 1 SHG / 125 HITS tbnantti Regular season: 46 GP [68G + 84A] 152 P / +137 / 7 PPG / 6 SHG / 11 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [17G + 20A] 37 P / +24 / 4 PPG / 0 SHG / 22 HITS johtaja699 Regular season: 44 GP [39G + 42A] 81 P / +118 / 9 PPG / 0 SHG / 81 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [5G + 13A] 18 P / +24 / 1 PPG / 0 SHG / 44 HITS Statistics (Defenders): JParola Regular season: 36 GP [5G + 60A] 65 P / +87 / 3 PPG / 0 SHG / 67 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [1G + 23A] 24 P / +24 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 36 HITS ktewjh Regular season: 46 GP [8G + 40A] 48 P / +137 / 2 PPG / 1 SHG / 104 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [2G + 11A] 13 P / +24 / 0 PPG / 1 SHG / 46 HITS Statistics (Goaltender): FinKonna Regular season: 52 GP / 43 W / 8 L / 1 OTL / 80.88% / 1.82 GAA / 10 SO Playoffs: 19 GP / 16 W / 2 L / 1 OTL / 83.78% / 1.57 GAA / 3 SO How did they get here? The Roosters reached the finals by first beating Alliance HT, only to enter a tough battle with Nordic Blizzard. After narrowly defeating the Blizzard in an entertaining Game 7 they moved on to Written In The Stars - a team many thought would go far in the playoffs. However, Written were missing some of their players and the Roosters played a great series to win 4-0. After such a morale booster, they went on to dethrone championship favorites Laser HT in 4 straight games. How will they win? The Roosters will win by unleashing their offense while maintaining their tight team defense. The key is for johtaja699 to keep doing the terrific two-way work he has been doing together with defenders JParola and ktewjh and for Plee and tbnantti to work their offensive magic on a somtimes reckless X Factor squad. FinKonna also needs to be his usual talented self. How will they lose? The Roosters will lose if they can't get that offense going and also if they underestimate the X Factor offense which at times can be really dangerous. If FinKonna should falter or have a bad series, this could also spell doom for the Roosters because even if they have a truly impressive offense, their defense and goaltending is what has gotten them this far. * * * 5 things to look for, in general: 1. Both teams have 1-2 punch, Penatski - Ape and tbnantti - Plee. 2. Both teams have a guy who can change the series in Plee vs. Ape. 3. FinKonna vs. Danielcadabra - who will step up and who will melt down? 4. Finnish Rooster has the best powerplay % from regular season 35.4%, compared to X-Factors 21.6% 5. tbnantti has the most SHG in regular season by 6 goals - look out! * * * 5 Questions with X-Factor Captain nylanderi and Finnish Roosters Assistant Captain PleeMaker Give us a few words on your opponent! Nylanderi (X Factor): Roosters is a great team with good mixture of offense and defense. They got forwards who can score and defenders who work really well together. With FinKonna being one of the top goalies in the game, it is certainly going to be really hard to score against these guys. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): XF is a great defensive team with a lot of individual skill. They have two top quality defensemen and a great goalie. And they also have three really high skilled forwards - Penatski is a top center and the wingers Vilupoika and Kingofapes_ can score goals thanks to their great talent and stick handling. Who would you consider to be the toughest player to defend on the opposing squad? Nylanderi (X Factor): Tough question! PleeMaker and tbnantti are both really dangerous, and it is going to be really hard to keep that tag team from scoring. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): Penatski is, in my opinion, the best player of XF so I would consider him the toughest opponent to defend. I would say he is one of the best playmakers in this game with maybe the best hands out there. Tell us a little bit of your playoff run so far Nylanderi (X Factor): I did expect us to go pretty far, especially since our game has developed a lot throughout this tournament. We had our fair share of problems, but I am still really happy with our performance in this ECL. I feel like we could have maybe done even better (considering a couple of our series went to game7) but since we have made the Finals I can’t really complain, can I? Haha. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): Our goal was champion so it's not surprise to me that we are playing finals. Our first round opponent was Alliance HT and I think it was kind of a warm up round for us, but they are actually the best Russian team that I have ever seen so, well played. The 2nd round against NBz - that was close. I will tell you more about them in the next question! Then the 3rd round against Written In The Stars. That was… well, much easier than I was expecting before the games. After Adetikki and Flyerkungen left for the army, they have started to play with a "weird" style. Lot of shots and always trying to go for rebounds. But anyway, well played SKY. As for the semi-finals against Laser HT - 4 tight games against them. They have lot of skill but team defense was their weakness in that series. So 4 tight wins to us (I think it was 2 OT wins?) and we managed to get our spot in the finals. Which series gave you the most amount of trouble? Nylanderi (X Factor): I would have to say… either Aapon Taikasauva or Dynasty. To be honest, those were two totally different kind of teams and especially Dynastys defense was one of the best I have ever seen in this game. On the other hand, Aapos offense was really hard to defend. Really hard to decide actually, but in my opinion Dynasty was the tougher series. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): Nordic Blizzard was the toughest opponent for us in this tournament so far. Great team defense and truly a dangerous offense. If you have players like Gendlik and Hooneli, your opponent will always give you a hard series. It was actually close that NBz beat us, when the 3rd period of Game 7 started NBz was leading 1-3 but we managed to get momentum with a 2-3 goal and then it was our game after that… Well played NBz and it is a shame that it seems you can't get a team to next season. What key factors should the community be on the lookout for in this series? Nylanderi (X Factor): Both teams have rock solid defensive strategies, so I think that will certainly be one of the deciding factors in this series. Also, in my opinion, tbnantti and Penatski are both Top-3 centers overall in this game so it will be nice to see who can put on the greatest performance and lead their team to victory. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): I think the key factor in finals will be which team can break their opponents great team defense! I think the finals has the two best defensive teams in the ECL so I acutally think that we won’t see so many goals this series. Anyway, good luck in the finals XF and good luck to next season everyone! * * * The series goes live at 20 CET/21 FIN tonight so be sure to check it out! For NHLGamer.com, The_Alpha_Furyan

Hello NHLGamers, For the second week in a row we bring you a very special kind of news story here on NHLGamer.com. It is a deal that has been in the works for quite some time but we can finally say - with great pride - that we have confirmation that another one of our fellow NHLGamer members has signed a deal to play NHL professionally. We are of course referring to previous ECL championship winner, champion of the last NHL 17 10k$ Worldgaming Faceoff tournament and captain of Laser HT... Risto "Dominointi" Järvi! What team was lucky enough to snag this top-ranked player? Look no further than the eSports section of professional Finnish football club SJK (SJK eSports), currently playing in the top Finnish division. Just like with Hansulinho, The_Alpha_Furyan managed to get a hold of Dominointi for a few minutes to pick his brain on this recent development NHLG: Congratulations Dominointi - I'm sure you must be thrilled to sign this deal! Dominointi: Haha, thanks. Yes, of course I am! To be honest, I actually had a couple really good options to consider... but for me this was the best offer. I was truly happy that a team like SJK would like me to play in their eSports section. I feel like this team has enormous potential overall and I hope - and also believe - we are going to do some great stuff together in the near future. Tell us a bit more about SJK - I am sure a lot of people (especially non-Finns) aren't entirely familiar with them SJK is actually a finnish football club from Seinäjoki! They play in what is known as the "Veikkausliiga" - which is the highest football league in Finland. SJK eSports is their video game team... I really can't explain it any better, haha. At the moment I am their NHL eSports player and "Koppinen" is their FIFA eSports player - meaning they have a total of two players in their eSports team at the moment, but they are expanding. For example, they actually have another connection to this website (NHLGamer.com) because they also have Rynnäkköviikset as their "minor" team. What do you mostly hope to achieve while playing for SJK eSports? Of course I want to continue playing good and win some tournaments as a SJK member. Personally, I also hope that these kind of contracts help our NHL community here to grow even bigger so that maybe in the future we might see some 6v6 team contracts too! I feel like most people know "Dominointi the NHL player" - people certainly know after they have played you in Versus, HUT or EASHL - but when did this whole journey start for you? When did you realize you were actually really good and one of the top players to play the game? Well, I have been playing the NHL Series since I think... NHL 07 and a few years after that (NHL 09) started playing online games and competing for real. I guess it was in that same game - NHL 09 - when I first started experiencing success with my NHL playing. If I remember correctly, I think I was ranked 4th Overall for Versus at the end of that game. I didn't lose that many games and eventually a lot of players were wondering who I was - that is when I would say I started to realize I was pretty good at this. "Pretty good"... I'd say that is being humble. What would you consider are some of your biggest achievements and greatest memories playing this game? Haha, thanks. Ah, that is a tough question. Well, I won the Finnish Moneyleague once in NHL 16 and also a 2v2 Finnish Championship with Hansulinho in NHL 14. My most recent win at the Worldgaming $10K Faceoff Tournament in NHL 17 is of course special. I am very proud over having been in Top 5 in Versus rankings ever since NHL 09. I would consider winning ECL 1 with Nordic Blizzard a great memory. Playing NHL professionally - will your view of the game change? Is it now more of a job than a hobby? It hasn't really changed that much, atleast not yet. I mean, after I won the Worldgaming tournament the support has been insane. Of course, there has been a lot of "roasting" too... but I like it. I think it is great because I love reading those messages. Honestly, in my opinion this is still a hobby even though I will now get paid So - with these news in mind - where do you see yourself in 5 years? Ah, man... that question is so damn hard. It is really tough to say but I of course hope I am able to keep playing NHL professionally. I mean, then again I could be doing so many different things. To be honest with you, things happen so fast nowadays that it is sometimes unreal - almost hard to keep up. Just take a look at whats going on with eSports - so many people streaming, many teams have social media accounts. But it is great - I love it - and again, I hope that with these kind of contracts we give a lot of hope for others to achieve similar things. Certainly. So, when you think of the future of NHL eSports - what do you see? The future of NHL eSports is bright in my opinion, I believe that. We just need more of these kind of contracts and we will continue to be noticed more and more. On a more personal note, what are your hopes for NHLGamer.com and this community moving forward? NHLGamer and the entire NHL community in general are really important for me. I see a lot of potential in NHLGamer. The site already features the best 1v1 players and 6v6 teams in Europe, for example. In the future, I hope we could play against NA teams/players more in the future. Also, some form of a live 6v6 tournament would be really cool. Got any tips for players who want to improve their NHL gaming? I will actually be streaming in SJK eSports twitch channel in future. So, if you want to challenge me and get some tips you are free to join! As a tip if you want to get better in game you have to play against the best players and teams, that is truly how you improve your skills. I might take you up on that! Lastly, what is the secret to beating our very own NHLGamer co-owner, @Kenu, in Versus? You should! Tough question again. How do I beat Kenu? Well, he is a really good player.... but I guess I know a few secret tactics that could give him a hard time if we would matchup, hehe. Dominointi Fact Box [Player profile] Winner of Worldgaming.com NHL 17 $10k Tournament Finished Top 5 at the Versus rankings in all iterations of NHL since 09 Participated in all 3 ECL tournaments, twice for Nordic Blizzard (champions of ECL 1) and now Laser HT 185 ECL regular season points in 58 games and 121 playoff points in 45 games Favors the C position in EASHL Read the full announcement article at: http://www.sjk2007.fi/w/sjk-esports-kiinnitti-risto--dominointi--jarven On behalf of the NHLGamer staff, The_Alpha_Furyan