Örebro Hockey signs new roster to compete among the European top

Virtual ice hockey is on the rise among traditional hockey clubs, as many top international clubs have announced their involvement and are thus launching their own teams.  Along with that trend, Örebro Hockey from Sweden, who previously participated with various rosters in both the SCL and ECL, have now signed a new Elite-level roster. Prior to joining forces with the Swedish club, the former POGGERS advanced to the quarterfinals in the last ECL 12 Elite playoffs. As the head of Esports för Örebro, hometown player Elie @eliekamel87 Kamel will take on a new role with the club in developing their operations, while also being the netminder on the virtual ice. 

“Since I live in Örebro and also played for Örebro in my youth my goal has always been to represent the club in the esports scene. When their previous affiliation ended, I saw my chance and contacted Ludwig at Örebro Hockey and in a short period of time we agreed that we could do great things together with me as a local esports representative, but also as a member of the playing squad and having history with POGGERS from before.

Elie mentions that Örebro has a vision to make their club an attractive esports team and to create an academy for local players to further boost the growth of NHL esports in the area. The academy will help young players to learn, grow and evolve while representing Örebro eHockey on the virtual ice: "The first phase is to introduce the new Örebro Elite team, while phase 2 is going to be recruiting an academy team of potential younger talents."

We also had a short talk with team captain Tero @Terodee Dahlström and asked about his thoughts on their new affiliation, and the story behind it all: “After all, for me, things don't change at all. He (Elie) has been a part of the core group here for a long time. Although in our group, at least in my opinion, it means much less than elsewhere. We are primarily a group of friends and all decisions are made together. We were without an organization for quite some time after the SJ contract ended, but at some point talks about representing Örebro surfaced, with Elie being local and all. How Örebro can help us will certainly be seen better in the future, but the support of the organization is always a great help and we're really excited to be a part of the future with Örebro.”