Fresh organization SAWO Esports announces NHL roster

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.