Erik "Eki" Tammenpää is your 2022 NHL GWC European Champion!

This weekend, the 2022 NHL GWC European Finals were concluded in Maastricht, the Netherlands and after a long tournament and some dramatic events throughout the weekend, the golden boy Erik @Eki Tammenpää secured his back-to-back title.

With the grand prize of 15 000 USD at stake and for most players, the return to LAN events in practice was a very exciting setting for the weekend in Maastricht at the GG DreamHack Sports Festival, which eventually culminated with the crowning of a new European NHL GWC Champion. The contenders had all paved their way through a gruelling online qualifier stage, and eventually the eight best players were invited to enter the final weekend. Here's a list of those contenders:

Erik @Eki Tammenpää 🇫🇮
Johan @Lehmannens Lehmann 🇸🇪
Henrik @Eken45jr Eklund 🇸🇪
Olli "IOLL1" Lehtimäki 🇫🇮
Jimi @jamal-_- Rönkkönen 🇫🇮
Teemu @Teemuyy Polttila 🇫🇮
Aaro @xDoumi Ruuhinen 🇫🇮
Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen 🇫🇮

Eventually, after lots of excitement and even some controversy we saw the Finns Eki and J-_-Jamaltheman qualify for the finals, and the two truly proved that both of them could be worthy of the Championship. The two of them went head-to-head in a full three game series, trading blows in a true ebb and flow situation. The first game of the finals was a 3-1 win for the defending champion Eki, and it looked like he had it all under control, but in the low-scoring series Jamal was able to surprise in the second game, taking it to a decisive third match. After a full three periods of the third game, the game was tied at 1-1 and we knew we'd see a worthy finish for the European NHL GWC Finals - the two best players going at it for one goal only. As the title of our article suggests, the scorer was eventually Eki, who managed to secure his back-to-back title!

We reached out to the Champion for some comments about his feat:

How would you compare this campaign to the one you had last year, and who was the best opponent you played?

Well obviously the biggest difference was the LAN finals. It's all different when you get to see everyone and play at 0 ping, which is always great. I have to say that @jamal-_- was in a class of his own today, the finals were absolutely crazy and it speaks volumes that we went all the way to game 3 OT. I feel like he was way calmer than everyone else around and some of the dekes and plays he tried to pull were very different. The fact that he managed to stay so relaxed put me in a tough place since it's usually way easier to play off your opponents when you can tell they're nervous.

What are your thoughts about this years GWC overall and the format, how about the live finals?

The format was good, I liked the fact that we had the draft earlier than before (already at the top 16 stage) and that the console qualifiers had a double elimination format. However, I've always wanted the GWC to be a longer tournament and for players to have more chances to qualify, I'm not a big fan of the "one and you're done format". Naturally it makes for some thrilling moments as we witnessed today but in general it's not my cup of tea.

How has it been for you to return to LAN games after a longer pause with the pandemic?

It's been great. I already got some touch for playing big LAN games in Tampa Bay earlier this year. I've always been good at LANs for some reason, my first ever tournament I finished second although I by no means were the second best player at the event, but ever since then it's just been working for me. I can't tell why but maybe I'm just less nervous than the competition or can better use the advantage from the 0 ping factor, I'm just guessing but some of that could be.

Finally, how are you going to celebrate this Championship?

It's 10 PM and I'm at the hotel answering these interview questions, so that's pretty much it! We've got an early flight tomorrow and I'm not one to party too much anyways, so maybe I'll figure something out when I'm home but no bigger plans than that.

On behalf of the SportsGamer community, I extend a heartfelt thank you to the Champion and congratulations on the title! Now it's time for all the contenders to turn their heads toward next year and what's to come, maybe that will be your time to challenge Eki?