Roots Gaming returns to NHL: “It’s time to talk less and really turn the work mode on!”

Roots Gaming returns to competitive virtual hockey after a short break. The goal of the organization is to provide its players with great opportunities to focus on gaming and things around it that make the gaming itself a better experience.

After a break of around half a year, Roots Gaming makes a comeback to the virtual ice. Their first time around, they played in Elite with no changes in their core roster. Back then Roots had three top 8 placements at the highest level of NHL 6v6 gaming.  

The new team that’s going to compete under the Roots Gaming organization is former BoxinElite. Next ECL season they will play in the Pro division. We asked from the team captain Santeri @xleksa35(xleksa_) Levänen how it all got started with this lineup: “The dea of an own team got started in May 2020 when we used to play the 1v1 game mode on Xbox. In spring 2020 we decided to move to Playstation with Linus @Limu95 Christiansson, Samuli @ssampee37 Mäntylä and a couple other of our friends. In that year’s autumn we participated in our first tournament and after that we have had quite favorable results in tournaments with small roster moves. Last Pro season we proved that we belong among the top teams but now it’s time to take the next step.”  

The captain says that the biggest strengths in their team consists of team spirit and the fact that every player has a big role: “Our team has a couple experienced guys and the rest of the group are hungry young talents. Every team member has an important role on achieving our future goals as a team."   

Roots Gaming ry is from Kerava and was founded in 2019. They are a non-profit esport organization with a goal to develop the Finnish esports and culture in Kerava. They also want to provide a safe and modern environment for children to practice and improve themselves in esports. Roots Gaming also offers coaching activities. Their objective is to change certain attitudes towards esports and that’s why physical activity, healthy eating habits and understanding rest are important things for them along with the core operation of gaming.  

Esports director of Roots Gaming Väinö @vSilenttioPietilä was playing for Roots Gaming when they made their first appearance in the scene. We asked him to share some thoughts about the past and what things he’s excited about in future with BoxinElite: “Our first one and a half years in NHL taught us a lot of good things on and off the ice. We realized during that time as an organization that like many other esports games also NHL 6v6 playing consists of many other things besides just individual skills on the ice. That’s why we think that NHL as a team sport is made for us.”

”When we stepped aside from the scene in May 2021, we already knew that we would come back and now after we have looked into different teams, NHLGamer and the whole scene, we are ready to come back to our beloved esport. BoxinElite was one of the first teams that were under our radar for a long time and was actually the first team who we were in touch with about a possible cooperation. The team has done some good long-term work in all silence, even though they have only played a couple of tournaments together where they have got some good results. I see a lot of great things with the team and their team play, and with those things it’s easy to get started with our mutual journey”, Pietilä continues.

Boxinelite is also really excited about their future with Roots Gaming: ”A little while ago, Väinö contacted us and told that Roots would be coming back to NHL esports and they would want us to join the project. We were humbled by that and realized in a short time that Boxinelite and Roots had similar ambitions and the desire to push things forward. Our cooperation with Roots Gaming is kind of a reward to us for our hard work but also it is a good motivator for the future!", states captain @xleksa35.

Sonja Ahtiainen, Vice Chairman of Roots Gaming wants to emphasize some major points from their organization’s values and their future objectives: “We have experienced with our CS:GO team as also with our former NHL team that participating in everyday life with them has a comprehensive effect. Improvement of performance and team skills in a team sport and at the individual level are clearly noticeable. As an organization we want to be a part of our team’s actions and we want to improve it as a whole instead of only bringing basic things to them and after that leaving responsibility to the players. Our player’s wellbeing is at the center of our actions and our main target is to reform people’s thoughts about esports. The fact that Finnish esports culture has grown little by little in past years doesn’t mean that we could sit there and watch what happens next. It’s time to talk less and really turn the work mode on!”