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NHLGamers, SAWO ESPORTS is an organisation fresh out of the box and is the brainchild of community favorite caster Arttu @OLVARI Hämäläinen with help from the likes of Savo Volley and Finnish national team hitter Olli-Pekka Ojansivu, Iiro Naamanka from VR & AR specialists 3D-Talo and Mika Hyvärinen from hockey club Iisalmen Peli-Karhut. The organization prides itself in its heritage in the Savo-area in eastern Finland and has brought together four major clubs that are staples in sports across different sports in the area. Behind SAWO ESPORTS we find hockey clubs KalPa and Iisalmen Peli-Karhut together with football club KuPS. Their heritage is largely visible in the teams branding with the rooster logo that's become synonymous with Kuopio hockey and the black and yellow color scheme that is also repped by all three backing clubs. The objective of SAWO ESPORTS together with its partners is to create an organization with a widespread representation at the very top in various games. Two rosters will be announced this weekend and both are expected to make an immediate impact in their own games. In addition to focusing on the professional side of things, the organization wants to lay heavy focus on their youth operations, which will be run in cooperation with Juniori-KalPa ry. "We're launching an exceptional cooperation in the Finnish esports scene by having three major Savo-based sports clubs invested. Esports is definitely here to stay and will only continue the growing trend. There's also several development opportunities for us with KalPa", states Kalpa-Hockey Oy CEO Toni Saksman to Ilta-Sanomat. "A massive part of running a successful club is being able to productize and being an interesting and above all beneficial partner to our stakeholders. The beauty of these partnerships is the fact that we offer our traditional sports clubs a gateway to reach an audience unique to esports." - General Manager Hämäläinen on creating successful partnerships Today SAVO ESPORTS also announce their first roster, which will be competing at the highest level of NHL esports. The organisation has signed the roster of Checkmate, who has solidified their position as a fierce competitor in ECL Elite after working their way up from the Pro-division at the end of their ECL 8 campaign. The team has now completed two full seasons at the highest tier, having back-to-back heartbreak seasons where they barely missed the playoffs by not even a points margin. The Nikkinen brothers Jonne @TackleControl and Juuso @Juizki are the dynamic duo running the show at center and in net whereas the pieces around them have been shuffled a bit. After ECL 10 the main change will be seen in defense, as mainstay supporting cast Vesa @VesKuLiNe Voutilainen will step up in a bigger role and young stud Roni @MrNipsuli Kaján will move down the wing. The team has also acquired talented but unproven Atte @Akunkku Kuningas to boost their offense. When talking to captain @TackleControl, the man ensures that the team hasn't been in any rush to find a suitable organisation despite having been one of the few Elite teams with no affiliation: "The topic has come up on several occasions but the prevailing sentiment has always been that an affiliation isn't something we actively need, and that the organisation would have to seem interesting and professional for us to consider it. SAWO ESPORTS seems to be just that, we found our ambitions to line up nicely and wanted to see this opportunity through." "FCL is a challenge we take on with high, but realistic expectations, we've analyzed our game and made some roster changes out of necessity but also to simply improve our squad. We're confident in our defense, @Jooonasaurus adds some firepower up front and goaltender Saku @Mehukatti10 Serttilä impressed us during the offseason", Nikkinen continues when speaking about their roster. GM Hämäläinen is familiar to the NHL scene and therefore signing an NHL roster seemed natural: "Getting into NHL esports seemed like a natural choice also because we've partnered with two great hockey clubs KalPa and IPK. After a longer period of negotiations we finally managed to secure an ambitious roster that we believe can do great things for our team. We're hoping to start stocking our trophy shelves within our first year and the upcoming FCL is a great place to start." SAWO Esports start their NHL journey on Monday, 24th of August when the FCL season commences. Expect some tight battles in the fierce competition for the Finnish Championship title.

Tendy Heaven! Goalie Guild Gaming’s New G3 Prospects Program is Here If this is the first time you’ve heard of Goalie Guild Gaming, allow me to quickly introduce myself. My name is Justin Goldman and I am the founder and president of The Goalie Guild, a 501-c3 nonprofit foundation based in Colorado, USA. I am the author of four books on goaltending, an emergency backup goaltender (EBUG) for the Colorado Avalanche, a former writer for NHL.com, and have been involved with USA Hockey goalie scouting and development for seven years. Since 2009, The Goalie Guild has been creating and hosting some of the largest goalie coaching symposiums and learning experiences in the world. In 2015, I transformed The Goalie Guild into a nonprofit focused on grassroots development. In my opinion, goaltending is an amazing life experience, but the position has many barriers to entry. That is why I have been dedicated to giving back to the game by building free educational resources and opportunities for underprivileged kids and goalies around the world. Along with Lift The Mask, Gear Givers, and the Global Goaltending Retreat, G3 also falls under the umbrella of our nonprofit organization. While I have been a gamer all my life (just for fun, as I’ve yet to hit the sticks in the competitive NHL scene), over the past three years, I’ve become very passionate about taking my equity-centered and holistic approach to goalie development and applying it to the NHL esports community. Thanks to @Kenu and our partnership, I can bring this passion project to the NHLGamer community. The G3 Prospects Program Shortly before the first puck dropped on the Northern Arena NHL 20 Cup on Tuesday, Goalie Guild Gaming officially launched a new development program called G3 Prospects. Nearly two years in the making, this innovative platform supports the growth of NHL esports goalies and inspires them to learn through a free-to-play rewards system. To get started, here’s a walkthrough video on YouTube. This breaks down how the program works, how to register, and how to begin competing. Once approved, G3 Prospects that play in our sanctioned leagues, events, and tournaments are eligible to earn rewards and prizes for their gaming and goaltending excellence. We also host different monthly G3 Challenges, which are an assortment of gaming-based activities that vary depending on theme, time, and subject. The first monthly challenge will kick off in September. Thanks to our strong partnership with NHLGamer, we’re also excited to announce that the FCL (6v6) and SCL (6v6) tournaments have already been sanctioned and sponsored by G3, meaning active goalies in both events will be eligible to earn various rewards and prizes! These rewards are as follows: FCL & SCL 6v6 TOURNAMENTS PuckEaters (Most Saves): $25 Save of the Tourney: $25 The Donut King: $25 Vezina Trophy (MVP): $50 Sickest Setup: $25 *Prizes awarded for each tournament in $USD Another new feature we rolled out yesterday for the NHLGamer community is our G3 Depth Charts. This free interactive data tool helps bring more exposure and awareness to NHL esports by offering the community a way to discover and directly connect with active esports goalies. Just like in real life, there are always good teams looking for goalies, and good goalies looking for teams. Centralizing the active goalies that compete in our sanctioned events is a great way to bring the community together and open doors for more playing opportunities. A good example of what this may look like in the future can be found on our NHL Goalie Depth Charts feature. Now that the Northern Arena #NHLCup 6's tournament is underway and goalies are already pitching shutouts left and right, it’s time to dive right in and get this party started. If you have any questions about Goalie Guild Gaming, feel free to add me on Discord at TGG_Goldy#9818 as I’m excited to meet, mentor, and support as many NHLGamer goalies as possible. Good luck and keep that stick on the ice! ~Goldy

Pictures courtesy of ENCE. NHLGamers, We've all heard about ENCE on the CS:GO ans Starcraft II-side of things, but what about NHL? The powerhouse organization that has solidified their position as the pinnacle of Finnish esports currently actually ventured into NHL esports quite some time ago as Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen signed to ENCE back in early 2017 when the Brent Burns lookalike was at the top of his 1v1 game. The contract only lasted for eight months and came to a surprising stop, likely due to a lack of action in the community at that time and the organization wanting to move in another direction - which has seemed to work wonders for them. Now the time is right for the successful organization to dive back into NHL esports and what better way to do that than by signing recent free agent and former multi-champion Erik @Eki Tammenpää. ENCE General Manager Niklas "Willkey" Ojalainen talks about their recent signing as follows: "We are very happy to have another World Champion join our ranks. When the opportunity to sign Eki became a possibility and after we sat down a few times, he felt like a natural fit not only as a player but as a great ambassador in the console gaming community. This also marks ENCE's return to sports games after quite a few years and we are excited to see what the future holds." Eki had a world class year in 2018 when he really put his name on the map by in fact winning everything he set out to do in the NHL scene. Within a span of a few months, the young star then conquered championships in both IS Cup 1v1 and 6v6, the NHLGWC and in the ECL. He would then go on to win the inaugural SCL title with Vesa Pompa HC in the spring of 2019, after which Eki has consistently competed at a high level. "It feels amazing to be a part of ENCE. I've followed them grow for a long time and I can't wait to get started. I'm eager to see what we can accomplish together. The bar is now set very high." - Eki on signing with ENCE. Eki will represent ENCE in all upcoming 1v1 competitions in the NHL series.