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Hey NHLGamers, The ECL 7 Pro Final has now been played and we have a winner! After a long season with a total of 52 games played, we're able to crown Deadly Phantoms HC the champions of ECL 7 Pro! DPH had an excellent playoff run, where they were able to overcome adversity and power on until the end. They really made a statement in the finals by dominating opponent Synergy Hockey. The final series were expected to be very tightly contested as both teams play a very conservative game, leaving very little to chance and defending well. Synergy had a tough time figuring out the German defense and fell short this time. Both teams are promoted directly to ECL Elite for season 8. Congratulations to the teams! If you missed any of the action, you can check the games out on DPH's twitch channel. These are the results of the final series: Game 1: Synergy Hockey @ Deadly Phantoms | 2-1 OT Game 2: Deadly Phantoms @ Synergy Hockey | 3-2 OT Game 3: Synergy Hockey @ Deadly Phantoms | 2-3 OT Game 4: Deadly Phantoms @ Synergy Hockey | 1-0 Game 5: Synergy Hockey @ Deadly Phantoms | 1-2 Deadly Phantoms HC - Championship roster: GOALTENDERS #30 @RPH_31 DEFENSEMEN #23 @gzell60 #27 @Mannheimer1938 #40 @willywonkaaa #83 @steveERC #90 @Jeason99 FORWARDS #11 @neymar92ftrio2 #13 @Rayman (The_Rayman80) #16 @Tim_FlyersFan #87 @Daniel Thenextone (XxTHENEXTONE89xX) #96 @Playmaker (Playmaker1010) DPH's road to the cup: 27-3-0 during the regular season, seeding 1st into the playoffs. 16-4-2 in the playoffs. Round 1: 4-3 VS Saints Quarterfinals: 4-0 VS Pata Hellalla Semifinals: 4-2 VS Bucketeers Finals: 4-1 VS Synergy Hockey Thanks for tuning in NHLGamers! Be on the lookout for the season recap article, up soon. Pro Writing Team @Panarinz & @jahajaha93

One of the biggest weekends of the year for the Finnish NHLGaming scene is here! It's time for the IS Cup 3: NHL19 1vs1 eSM final event and the venue is nicely set up by your NHLGamer staff together with our partners from SJK eSports and Ilta-Sanomat. The final event, played at Kauppakeskus REDI in Helsinki kicks off on Saturday at 12 CET with the group stage. 16 of the the very best Finnish NHLGamers have qualified for the tournament through local qualifiers at our event at GameXpo 2018 and through online qualifiers. Here is the list of players participating is the IS Cup 3: NHL 19 1vs1 eSM final event, sorted by the groups they were placed in: Group A Arttu “Artuzio” Mustila @Artuzio Risto “Dominointi” Järvi @Dominointi Juho “eskoeinari” Sillantaus @eskoeinari Roni “MrNipsuli-“ Kaján @MrNipsuli Group B Kristian "Kriketsi17" Veijola @kriketski17 Niklas “NikkeDangles” Tukiainen @NikkeDangles Toni "Thounidinho" Hirvikorpi @Thounii Aaro "xDoumi" Ruuhinen @xDoumi Group C Vesa “Dreamickie” Rajamäki @Dreamickie Erik “Eki” Tammenpää @Eki Marko “Markoohh-“ Pennanen @Markoohh- Mikael “Nassustelija” Katajisto @Nassustelija Group D Sami “buranaburana” Piiparinen @buranaburana Hannes “Hansulinho” Kettunen @Hansulinho Paul “PleeMaker” Arontie @PleeMaker Samuli “xKeskitalo” Keskitalo @xKeskitalo In the group stage starting at 12 CET, each player faces off against every other player in their group. Two players from each group advance to the playoff bracket. The playoff matchups are played best-of-three series and the matchups will be as follows: A1 vs B2 D1 vs C2 -------------- C1 vs D2 B1 vs A2 Veikkaus is hosting the betting for our event. You can log in and place your winner bets over here. At the time of writing this article, the three winner favourites are: 1. EKI (odds 6,84*) 'Champ' or 'Goat' are some of the nicknames you might have heard being thrown around when the discussion revolves around EKI. By signing with Team Sampi in the summer, EKI became the first professional NHL player, so he surely has some practice hours under his belt. EKI is also a highly skilled offensive player, alike Plee, but his defensive game is considered slightly better. He also overcomes opponents by second-to-none puck control and is by now an experienced live-event player. 2. PleeMaker (odds 5,09*) After taking home the championship in the very first IS Cup, Plee didn't participate in the second iteration. Everyone knows the capabilities of this 17-year old though. Plee is a dangerous offensive player who makes you pay for your mistakes with deadly efficiency. His trademark is short, quick passing play and patient puck possession. Plee made his way to the finals through our local qualifiers at GameXpo. 3. Hansulinho (odds 12,63*) 'Hansu' is the most experienced player of the bunch by far. He has five Finnish championships under his belt and doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. Despite not doing all too well in a few tournaments this year so far, Hansu doesn't feel the need to put any pressure on himself. He's going to take it easy and enjoy the atmosphere and meeting people. Underdog: xKeskitalo (odds 3,41*) xKeskitalo is one of the most inexperienced players of the bunch despite not being the youngest of age. This player has recently surfaced in the versus scene as a potential name of the future and is mentioned in this article due to currently having the lowest betting odds. xKeskitalo competed in the Syyscup at the launch of NHL19 and dominated his group stage by winning all games and conceding only 8 goals in 12 games. This group included names such as Artuzio and Esdor. He also completed a rather successful campaign as a right winger for Resurrection in ECL 7 Pro. Underdog: eskoeinari (odds 15,95*) 29-year old eskoeinari is the oldest player at the event. He is also the reigning Finnish Champion. Although maybe not matching the other players in raw skill and quickness, eskoeinari possesses eye for the game and is known for playing a but of an unorthodox style. Don't count the old guy out! *Odds are updated in real-time. This means that the odds will be changing until the betting is closed when the event starts. The prize pool of 8000€ will be divided between the eight best players of the event. The winner takes 4000€, runner-up 1600€, third 900€, fourth 500€ and the quarter-finalists will go home with a check of 250€ each. Schedule for IS Cup 3: 1vs1 eSM: 12.00 – Group stage, round 1 12.30 – Group stage, round 2 13.00 – Group stage, round 3 14.00 – Quarter-finals 1 & 2 15.00 – Quarter-finals 3 & 4 16.30 – Semifinal 1 17.30 – Semifinal 2 18.30 – Bronze game 19.05 – Final We'll be streaming the event on our Twitch-channel tomorrow starting approximately 11:45 CET. Remember to tune in and cheer for your favourite! Your NHLGamer Editor, @jahajaha93

73 teams down, two remain standing. It's been a wild ECL 7 in 'The Jungle' formally known as ECL Lite. As we know, the Lite regular season is probably not as tightly contested as in our other divisions simply due to the fact that a vast majority of teams will make the playoffs. The playoffs, however, are an absolute free-for-all. With 64 teams making the playoffs, we've now weeded through five rounds in order to make it to the finals, that's a lot of games right there. Number one seed The Next Gen has played a total of 25 playoff games so far and the opposing number 3 seed The Black Jacks have fought through a total of 26 playoff battles. Here's what our ECL 7 Lite Final matchup looks like: (1) The Next Gen vs The Black Jacks (3) As previously stated, both teams have fought a long way to make it to the final. There's still a lot of hockey left to play, so let's hope their tanks don't run empty and there is some hunger left to claim the very top spot of ECL 7 Lite. Seeding first into the playoffs, we have the favourite from Finland, The Next Gen. The offensively strong team started off with a 'bang', sweeping Bombers Hockey in the first round. After this, they've ran through their opponents at a rather steady pace (Pink Panthers HC 4-2, Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat 4-0, Supremacy 4-2 and Supernatural 4-2). You could see that the opponents were getting tougher as the games went on, but the playoff favourites still managed to engine their way on. By advancing to the semifinals The Next Gen gets to enjoy a promotion to ECL Pro for season 8. On the opposing side is a team from small Switzerland, The Black Jacks. TBJ has had a similar playoff run as their final opponents, but they ended up with a close scare in round 2 against Lehmannen Badboyz. Their round 2 went into overtime of game seven until captain and center @julmi21 (Original-SnuS) scored the decisive goal. This is the complete run of TBJ: HC Keskikalja 4-0, Lehmannen Badboyz 4-3, Infinity 4-0, Dubnation Gaming, 4-2, Mentula SKA 4-1. Alike their final opponents, TBJ has secured promotion to ECL Pro for season 8 by advancing to the semifinals. It'll be interesting to see these teams go at it, as we without a doubt have two highly skilled opponents going head-to-head. The Next Gen packs a massive amount of individual skill and holds several young and potential players, whereas The Black Jacks are probably more reliant on their routine and some set plays in their game. Both teams like to use their center as a target player to set up their game, so it'll be a battle of who can execute said strategy better. My personal opinion is that TnG has a slight advantage in skill level but TBJ is a more coherent unit. Margins are small and I expect a tightly contested series. My prediction is TnG in 7. Head-to-head The Next Gen The Black Jacks C NikkeDangles C Original-SnuS LW Ninjawiq LW Krinke RW thounidinho RW Freeman7187 LD koppipelaaja LD Bille1990 RD lambu89 RD Cami__7 G ramseyyy2 G Afc_Tschitsch TOP SCORER Thounidinho (25GP, 22+23=45) vs Krinke (26GP, 34+39=73) GOALTENDERS Ramseyy2 (25GP, 19W, 91.75 SV%, 1.24 GAA) vs Afc_Tschitsch (12GP, 11W, 87.57 SV%, 1.66 GAA) Schedule for the finals: Game 1: Wednesday, 12th of December 20:15 CET The Next Gen vs The Black Jacks 6-7 Game 2: Wednesday, 12th of December 20:45 CET The Black Jacks vs The Next Gen 2-3 Game 3: Wednesday, 12th of December 21:15 CET The Next Gen vs The Black Jacks 3-2 Game 4: Wednesday, 12th of December 21:45 CET The Black Jacks vs The Next Gen 2-1 Game 5: Monday, 17th of December 20:15 CET The Next Gen vs The Black Jacks Game 6: Monday, 17th of December 20:45 CET The Black Jacks vs The Next Gen Game 7: Monday, 17th of December 21:15 CET The Next Gen vs The Black Jacks The games will be streamed on: twitch.tv/gameturniertv and twitch.tv/tbj_hockey unless otherwise informed. Good luck in the finals for both teams! Thank you to @julmi21 for reaching out and assisting with this article. All opinions are my own. Your NHLGamer Editor