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NHLGamers, Your inaugural eSHL champions have been crowned! Twelve eSHL teams entered, eight progressed to the playoffs, and eventually, we were left with a somewhat familiar-looking matchup in Linköping HC vs. Malmö Redhawks. Both teams are no strangers to winning, with LHC featuring their exact same roster from their most recent ECL Elite victory, and Malmö boasting two players from HAVU as well as four from the Vesa Pompa HC team who won the SCL last Spring. Despite the final series resulting in a BO5 sweep, two of the three games were decided by one goal, and each game felt like it was on a knife's edge. Once the dust had settled LHC emerged as your eSHL champions, continuing their impressive form over the past few tournaments they have competed in. Your new eSHL Champions - Linköping HC / Photo credit: Elias Gammelgård Linköping HC 🏆 Group stage record: 21-1-0 (1st) Round 1: vs HV71 (8) 3-0 Semifinals: vs Leksands IF (4) 3-1 Finals: vs Malmö Redhawks (2) 3-0 GOALIES #72 C. Lundgren @ICappeI DEFENSEMEN #27 A. Loimuvirta @loimmu #40 J. Torro @jtorro1233 #88 J. Virta @SUPERVIRTA FORWARDS #23 N. Tukiainen @NikkeDangles #25 E. Tammenpaa @Eki #44 P. Arontie @PleeMaker #86 J. Paatiala @Juunas After the games were played and Linköping HC had emerged as the champions, our editor-in-chief @jahajaha93 had a chance to talk to @Eki and asked him some questions: You've now managed to secure two titles within a short span of time, what do you have to say about your run as of late? "Obviously a championship always feels great, Cappe did an amazing job setting this up for us so it feels especially great to be able to play for him." Malmo was your expected final opponent for quite some time, did you prepare for that ahead of time? "We expected to meet Malmö in an eventual final. They have a very strong roster and we know their players well, so we didn't actually prepare too much per se since we've obviously met them before and had time to think things over." The eSHL differs quite heavily in character from the ECL for example, what did you think were the biggest differences? "Well, there's quite many but especially the heavily varying level of competition is different. Some clubs went with local talent and it's respectable, but they didn't fare too well in the end. It's obviously a bit of a different mindset going into the game when you're meeting a contender like Malmo versus when you're going up against a team you know you will beat with ease." Finally, how did you like representing Linköping HC in this tournament and what does the future hold for you? "It's been absolutely awesome and the support has been second to none. Linköping is a first-class organization that has really taken care of us players and seen to it that we can perform at our highest level. About the future - our contract term is for the remainder of NHL 20, no talks about extensions have been had yet so that's something that remains to be seen." Eki and all of Linköping HC were all smiles all weekend / Photo credit: Elias Gammelgård NHLGamer would like to congratulate Linköping HC for their championship and thank all of the teams, players and organizations for an amazing first season of the eSHL! Stay tuned for a more detailed season recap later this week.

The NHL Gaming World Championship returns for its third iteration with a record breaking $150,000 USD prize pool. This year, the championship features a number of changes based on public feedback from previous iterations. Together with a number of partners, the NHL has realised the rapid growth of the gaming community and will be bringing gamers the biggest event of NHL esports yet! Registrations are open now - register here. Here's how the tournament will be played: Round 1: Online open play The online open play will be running on PS4 and Xbox for four weeks, starting March 11th. Each week 32 players from each console and each region will advance to round two. The last chance to register for online open play is on Sunday, March 29th. Round 2: Online play-in bracket This is a bracket that will be hosted on two dates for each region. EU: April 11th & April 19th US: April 18th & April 25th CAN: April 25th & May 2nd NEW! The Online play-in bracket will be played in best-of-three rounds head-to-head. NEW! Players who advance to rounds 4-7 of the Online play-in bracket will earn cash prizes of between $200-$1,000 USD. Find specifics in the tournament rules. Regional finals: EU: Viaplay Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark - May 16th US: NBC Sports Studios, Stamford, Connectitut - May 22nd CAN: Sportsnet Studios, Toronto, Ontario - May 30th NEW! Players finishing 3rd and 4th will face each other in a best-of-three consolation round, with the winner earning a spot at the World finals. World finals: The World finals will be hosted at the 2020 NHL Awards, time and place still TBA. The champion will receive the largest share of the prize pool - $60,000 USD. NEW! This year, the World final features nine players in a two-stage event. The first stage consists of a head-to-head round robin best-of-three series between the three third place regional finalists - the top two will be advancing to the final eight-person bracket. NEW! The World final is played with the top eight competitors in a single elimination bracket consisting of head-to-head, best-of-three series (1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6 etc.). Where to watch and follow? Find all information about the tournament at www.nhl.com/fans/gaming The Regional finals and World finals will be streamed on the NHL Twitch channel. Tournament brackets can be followed on FACEIT once the play has commenced. On social media, #NHLGWC lets you follow the conversation around the event.