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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