Tune in for the ECL '23 Winter 1v1 Finals this Friday!

SportsGamers,

With the ECL '23 Winter season moving on towards the Playoffs in our 6v6 divisions, we are already in for the Finals on the 1v1 side of things. The 1v1 Finals will be hosted as a single day event this upcoming Friday, January 20th, with the top 4 players in attendance live in Helsinki. The full event will be streamed live over at www.twitch.tv/SportsGamerGG.

Ahead of the Finals on Friday, we received the unfortunate news from #1 seed Henrik @Eken45jr Eklund, who confirmed his inability to participate in the Finals event. For this reason, the next best seed from the Quarterfinals stage, Erik @Eki Tammenpää will replace him. The Finals seeding will change as follows:

1. Sisu @sisu33_ Nurminen
2. Arttu @Artuzio Mustila 
3. Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen 
4. Erik @Eki Tammenpää 

Due to the unfortunate news from Eken, this opens up an interesting and very rare second chance for Eki, who previously opened up about his disappointment and struggles with finding his game on Twitter after taking a clear loss against fellow finalist Hansulinho in the Quarterfinals. Eki now joins the Finals as the lowest seed, which shuffles the matchups and he'll now end up going against the youngster of the bunch - Sisu33, only 16 years old hailing from Lahti, Finland. The wunderkind seems to have taken the community by storm during the first third of NHL 23 as he's really managed to come out guns blazing in several tournaments already. This Bruins fan is now in for his first ever LAN event in the good company of several of the scenes most prestigious players.

Artuzio, much alike Eki is a player who has managed to keep up his competitive level and seems to always perform at his best when the stakes are the highest. He managed to beat some highly skilled players like Tomi @tombo_02 Laitinen and Saku @Sagee95 Björn on his way to this stage, so it's safe to say that he'll be warmed up for his matchup against Hansulinho on Friday night. The OG Hansulinho on the other hand is also coming into the Finals in great form, having his Quarterfinals win against Eki in his back pocket as his most recent triumph. The Artuzio vs Hansulinho Semifinals series is going to be an exciting matchup, where two fierce competitors will clash for a spot in the limelight. 
 

Schedule

• Friday 20.1. @ the SportsGamer studio in Espoo, Finland
  • Semifinals: 18:00CET
  • Finals: 20:00CET

We reached out to the players ahead of the Finals event and definitely got some interesting insight into the upcoming series between multi-Champion Eki and the new kid on the block Sisu.

"My journey in the 1v1 ECL has been surprisingly good so far and I think my game has improved all the time. I'm quite a new face in these tournaments so I think I've been a dark horse throughout. The toughest opponent I've faced thus far is definitely Niklas @NikkeDangles Tukiainen due to his offensive skill, where you have to be alert in your own zone at all times. I haven't played Eki much at all, but I've watched him on Twitch and YouTube a lot so my expectations are to play at my best level and give him a hard matchup", Sisu pays homage to his Semifinals opponent Eki.

"This is an entirely new situation for me, where I lost in the Quarterfinals and still got the chance to squeak into the semis! It's a shame that Eken couldn't make it as he's definitely deserving of the spot, and I wish him well in his recovery. Hansu has been my toughest opponent in the tournament as I lost quite clearly to him in the Quarters. The game clearly suits his playstyle and I got some flashbacks to playing prime Hansu from years back. To be honest, my game has been off during NHL 23 and I feel like most games against top players are 50/50 for me. I've done a lot of work to find the competitive edge, but my game isn't where I want it to be yet. I've played Sisu five times in my career and all of them in the last two weeks. Four of the games I've lost and all of them were one goal games, he's a tough opponent, who plays a good game. I think his inexperience from a LAN environment and bigger tournaments is an advantage for me and I expect to be able to win the series", Eki goes reflects on developing his game and the upcoming series against an unfamiliar player.