NHLGamer on the Road: IS Cup 2

Hi fellow NHLGamers.

Like many of you guys know the IS Cup was played about a week ago in Helsinki. I want to say thanks to everyone involved and to all the Finnish guys in the community that made me feel very welcome.

Now to the more important stuff, the actual gaming.

On the first day of the tournament, players that did not make it to the main tournament through the online qualifiers had a chance to qualify. 64 players got divided into two different knockout brackets. The winner of the first bracket was hardly surprising, as on top came @Dominointi after beating @Rimpe in the final. In the other bracket a more (to me) unknown player made it all the way to the group stage of the IS Cup Finals. @MUFASAN-VALITTU won the second bracket after beating Kaneyh (@Kane) in the final.

The final 16 competed in the IS Cup Finals on Saturday and the first phase was for the TOP 8 to make it through the group stage. The 16 players were split into four groups and below is how things went down:

Group stage

Group 1: In my opinion this group was the group of death. I_Eki_I (@Erkki) had a lot of pressure going into the tournament after finishing second in the eSM (Finnish Championships) and after beating @willekunq in the final of the online qualifier. I_Eki_I got a very good start in the first game against Dominointi with an early 4-0 lead that Dominointi never managed to recover from. I_Eki_I won the game 6-3. Dominointi got his revenge on @xDoumi after losing to him in the online qualifiers but that game was not the most important in their careers since both of them were out already after losing to @SadaPoika and I_Eki_I. Sadapoika impressed me by beating Dominointi as well and won the group after beating I_Eki_I in the last game with a score of 4-3.

Group 2: In this group I expected @Hansulinho to win comfortably, but I was so wrong. Hansulinho lost his first game 6-4 to @Dreamickie and @Leksa94 lost his first game to @Nikeez98 3-2. SJK eSports teammates Hansulinho and Leksa94 were now up against each other in a game that would mean that one of them were out of the tournament. Leksa had the lead until there was only 2,3 seconds left of the game. It was unreal how Hansulinho was only 2,3 seconds away from being eliminated. It´s even more impressive the way he scored in that crucial moment. Hansu scored a spectacular goal after a difficult saucer pass when he tied the game 2-2. Hansu managed to win the game in overtime. Dreamickie impressed and won the group after a perfect 3 wins. Hansulinho joined Dreammickie into the top 8 knockouts after beating Nikeez98 5-0 in their last game of the group stage.

Group 3: The Finnish Champion @eskoeinari managed to win this group after an impressive 3 straight wins. Buranaburana (@[email protected]) followed him into the playoffs after beating both @Kim_20_00_ and @JaKurrii. It was great to see the skill of the players participating in live-tournaments and to see that there are so many good players, for example JaKurri made it to the semifinals in eSM but now in IS Cup he did not manage to win any of the three group stage games.

Group 4: This group was the one that I had the least knowledge about upfront. I must say that I am impressed by MUFASAN-VALITTU winning this group after he secured his spot the day before. MUFASAN-VALITTU did participate in the eSM but he did not make it to the top 8 in that tournament. @Kemppane_ took the other top 8 spot from group 4 after beating @kojowaa 4-1.

Quarterfinals

In the first quarterfinal Hansulinho beat Sadapoika 2-0 in games after winning the second game 4-3 in OT. The most entertaining quarterfinal was between Dreamickie and I_Eki_I. Dreamickie managed to win the first game 5-3. The second game in the series was the craziest game in this tournament I would say. Dreammickie managed to come back into the game after being down 3-1. With around 4 minutes left Dreammickie scored 6-5 that was so close of being the game series winning goal, but somehow I_Eki_I managed to equalize with only 13 seconds left. I_Eki_I won the game in OT after being very close to be out of the tournament. In the third game I_Eki_I won the game 4-2 to secure his spot in the semifinals. In the third quarterfinal the Finnish champion eskoeinari beat Kemppane 2-0 in games after two close games (3-2, 4-2). Last quarterfinal was played between MUFASAN-VALITTU and buranaburana. The first game of the series was very close. buranaburana had the 3-1 lead, but MUFASAN-VALITTU made it back into the game and took the game into OT. In the OT buranaburana scored to make the series 1-0 in his favor. buranaburana won the second game with the same result 4-3 in regulation time. 2-0 in the series for buranaburana took him to the semifinals.

Semifinals

First out in the semfinals was the series between buranaburana and eskoeinari. The question was if buranaburana was going to get revenge against eskoeinari after losing to him in the semfinal of the eSM. The answer was no. Exactly like in eSM, the series went to a third game where eskoeinari was able to win and go through to the final. eskoeinari won 2-1 in game 3. The second semifinal between the 5x Finnish champion Hansulinho and I_Eki_I was going to be something special. In Hansulinho's latest live apperance he lost the semifinal against Pleemaker in the IS Cup last year. I_Eki_I has become very experienced at events like this after being in the final of both the eSM and the IS Cup last year. I_Eki_I managed to win game 1 with 5-4 in OT. After that Hansu won two straight games with 3-1 that took him to the final.

Final

The reigning Finnish champion Eskoeinari against the five-time former Finnish champion Hansulinho. I was hoping for a series that would go to game 3 but Hansulinho wanted something else. Hansulinho won both finals with the score of 4-2. In the second game Hansulinho found Crosby in the perfect spot to make it 3-2 in the game, that goal was the game winning goal that made Hansulinho the Champion of IS Cup this year.

Enjoy the short after movie that was made by Ilta-Sanomat of this event.

Below you can find the final results of the IS Cup 2 Final tournament:

Place	Player	Prize
1.	Hannes "Hansulinho" Kettunen	2000 €
2.	Juho "eskoeinari" Sillantaus	1000 €
3.-4.	Erik "I_EKI_I" Tammenpää	500 €
3.-4.	Sami "buranaburana" Piiparinen	500 €
5.-8.	Jim "Sadapoika" Leskinen	250 €
5.-8.	Vesa "Dreamickie" Rajamäki	250 €
5.-8.	Jesse "MUFASAN_VALITTU" Ruuskanen	250 €
5.-8.	Juuso "Kemppane_" Kemppainen	250 €
9.-12.	Juho "kojowaa" Törmälä	125 €
9.-12.	Kim "Kim_20_00" Suokas	125 €
9.-12.	Nikolas "Nikeez98" Hämäläinen	125 €
9.-12.	Risto "Dominointi" Järvi	125 €
13.-16.	Aaro "xDoumi" Ruuhinen	125 €
13.-16.	Leo "Leksa94" Torri	125 €
13.-16.	Jussi "JaKurrii" Koivuniemi	125 €
13.-16.	Antero "xSelanne8x" Enbuske	125 €

We want to thank the players and everyone who showed up to enjoy themselves and show their support. Together we are strong, so let this only be the beginning!

Text by: @esdor

Edited by: @Kenu

Video: Ilta-Sanomat

(Sorry for the poor quality of the group photo, we don't know why a potato was used to take this photo. Also, next time, let's get everyone in there!)