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FILADELPHIA is our IS Cup 3: 6vs6 eSM champion! (Picture courtesy of Jussi Jääskeläinen) What a weekend, gamers! GameXpo is now in the books and we can surely say it was a success. Saturday was the end of IS Cup 3 6vs6 and we set all kinds of records! It was most definitely a great stepping stone for the whole 6vs6 community. On behalf of NHLGamer, I’d like to thank everyone who showed up either to the event or joined via stream. Also a massive shoutout to everyone who helped out with the production of the event. Although we faced some adversity, our persistence prevailed and we were able to bring you what we are now proud to call the biggest event in NHL 6vs6 ever so far. While the stakes were high, the players were enjoying themselves. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) Late on Saturday night, FILADELPHIA was crowned the champions of IS Cup 3: 6vs6 eSM. They are the first ever 6vs6 Finnish champions. FILADELPHIA’s road to the cup: 10 wins, 1 loss and 1 overtime loss earned FILA a 2nd place behind Symphony in their group. Their one loss came in a 1-0 game against Symphony, who they later swept in dominant fashion in the semi-finals. @PleeMaker led the team in scoring through the group stage with 20+10 combining for a total of 30 points. FILA was coming in very confident into the finals event at Messukeskus, as captain @Patzlaf stated in an interview for Ilta-Sanomat that nobody is going to stop them from winning the tournament. FILADELPHIA played their semi-final against Symphony, who managed to steal points from them in the group stage. This time, FILA came out strong right from the get-go and were determined to send their competition home quick. The first game ended up being tightly contested and ended in a 2-1 win for FILA, with an impressive amount of people watching the game both at the event and on stream. The boys in orange also managed to win the second game, now with a larger score margin, 4-1. FILA was now in for a short break as the bronze game was taking place before the finals. The final series were extremely even and long, the players had to focus for an extended amount of time. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) The finals were a different kind of spectacle for sure. I think it's safe to say we've never seen two teams matching up that well agains each other. All games went into OT and a total of only five goals were scored over the around 15 periods of hockey played. FILA won the first game as right wing @Eki opened the scoring of the IS Cup 3 6vs6 finals early in the first overtime period. The second game of the finals was one for the ages. Both teams went at it full-force and Written In The Stars had came back to play with their backs against the wall. FILA drew first blood and they looked like certain champions but SKY had different thoughts as they tied the game two minutes before the buzzer. Regular time ended 1-1 and we headed into overtime again. The teams played through five scoreless periods despite several scoring chances and bouncing pucks around the crease, only to see SKY right wing @Dominointi bury the series-tying goal in 6th overtime. What a thriller! There was still one decisive game left, both teams very exhausted but ready to go head-to-head for the trophy and a whole lot of cash that comes with it. We saw no surprise as it was yet agains a very tightly contested battle and both teams showed excellent defensive play and outstanding patience with the puck. It took 2nd overtime in game 3 to decide our IS Cup 3 6vs6 champion as @vatalisti, the right defenseman of FILA blasted a rocket from the blueline. The puck chipped the left post and crossed the line at 8:45 into double overtime of game 3 and we had a champion! Vatalisti scored the decisive goal of the IS Cup 3 6vs6 finals. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) 1. FILADELPHIA 🥇 Championship roster: Forwards Patzlaf (C) @Patzlaf 🥇 I_Eki_I (A) @Eki 🥇 PleeMaker @PleeMaker 🥇 mikaasi @mikaasi 🥇 FIN_Potilas @FIN_Potilas 🥇 Defensemen vatalisti @vatalisti 🥇 Janzuh @Janzuh 🥇 oGBioLan @oGBioLan 🥇 Goaltenders FinKonna (A) @FinKonna 🥇 Zande95 @sibeelius 🥇 2. Written In The Stars 🥈 Written In The Stars had to settle for second place this time - despite their great effort. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) Forwards Dominointi (A) @Dominointi 🥈 FlyerKungen (C) @FlyerKungen 🥈 Bugimir @Bugimir 🥈 topikeranen @topikeranen 🥈 Defensemen jtorro1234 (A) @jtorro1233 🥈 willekunq @willekunq 🥈 JOHTAJAVIRTANEN @JOHTAJAVIRTANEN 🥈 VesKuLiNe @VesKuLiNe 🥈 Goaltenders JANURI98 @JanneK. 🥈 Hansulinho @Hansulinho 🥈 3. Symphony 🥉 Symphony managed to win the bronze game and secure the bronze medal. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) Forwards ADETIKKI @ADETIKKI 🥉 indi969 (C) @indi969 🥉 Puantso (A) @Buantso 🥉 Defensemen vSilenttio (A) @vSilenttio 🥉 Ilmari_30 @Ilmari_30 🥉 Entii112 @entii112 🥉 Goaltenders Laurilion @Lauri 🥉 Results of IS Cup 3: 6vs6 eSM Semi-final: Written In The Stars - Dynasty 2-0 (5-0, 3-2 OT) Semi-final: FILADELPHIA - Symphony 2-0 (2-1, 4-1) Bronze game: Symphony - Dynasty 2-0 Final: Written In The Stars - FILADELPHIA 1-2 (0-1 OT, 2-1 OT, 0-1 OT) IS Cup 3 ended in a disappointing 4th place for Dynasty (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) Once again, thanks to all the teams, viewers, staff and everyone who in some way participated in the event. We made history and we will continue on that path onto even greater things to come. Also, congratulations to FILADELPHIA as the recent IS Cup 3 6vs6 champions!

What's up NHLGamers, Today we're extremely happy to have the opportunity in bringing you some world class 6vs6 action from our live event at GameXpo, Messukeskus in Helsinki. We're of course referring to the Finnish Champiopnships in NHL 6vs6, also known as IS Cup 3 and more exactly the final four of this tournament. The schedule of today will look as follows (times are CET): 10:30 | Dynasty – Written In The Stars (BO3) 12:00 | FILADELPHIA – Symphony (BO3) 16:00 | Bronze Game 16:30 | Final (BO3) All games will be streamed live over at our Twitch channel. Please tune in and support your favourites! We'll also be active on all our social media channels, so make sure to follow our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. If you're from around the Helsinki area, you can also visit us and watch the games live on the big stage at GameXpo. Also note that t-shirts are still available at our booth if you didn't preorder. See you at 10:30!

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Today we're taking a look at a team that has the skill, has the grit and has the vision to take it all home, they just haven't had the luck so far. The team that's next in line has found the way to stay at the top and be continuously successful, but despite that they haven't managed to win anything yet. You could say they've built a Dynasty around core players like@jumalpeku, @Snapster, @Tehh and @Sandr0hh. Might have given it away already, but yeah.. we'll be checking out Dynasty. Personally, I've been in the scene for a far shorter time than many of you other guys around, but I've always found Dynasty to be an annoyingly good opponent. Be it unorthodox breakout plays by @DieCutterMC or seeing the game ten steps ahead of the opposition like the tactician Ahola - they've always been one of the toughest teams to beat. They're not only really skilled players, but also seem like a great group of guys. I managed to get a hold of captain jumalpeku for an interview, which you can read at the end of this article. IN MukiMaisteri <-- Northern Ascendancy OriginalPumaz <-- SJK eSports Leksa94 <-- SJK eSports OUT Lukkolinho --> Break from NHL Puantso --> Symphony Current Roster: Forwards jumalpeku (C) @jumalpeku MukiMaisteri @hpkfani Filariou @Filariou Leksa94 @Leksa94 TehhAhola @Tehh Defensemen DieCutterMC @DieCutterMC Snapu48 (A) @Snapster JParola @Jorma Parola Goaltenders Sandr0hhh (A) @Sandr0hh OriginalPumaz @Hiiruh Dynasty has been a difficult opponent based on some occasional games played against you guys on the offseason. How did the guys spend the summer and what kind of reception has the new game had among the Dynasty boys? Your mind must be playing tricks on you! I'd say we're possibly the worst offseason team in all of Elite. I don't think we've had a single night where we've won two or more games in a row. Most of our guys pretty much took the summer off from NHLGaming. Other teams might have kept practicing hard all summer, our guys were out chasing tail and gassing beers. The new game has taken some getting used to. Feels like we've had to adjust our game a bit after every update as things we used to do didn't work all of a sudden. I think it's quite well known that we like to spend time in the penalty box and ath least that hasn't changed for the better with the new game. However, I think we all agree that NHL19 is a better version than the previous iteration. You guys acquired notorious goal-scorer MukiMaisteri early on, did you guys make any other moves during the summer? Our youngster @Buantso made a deal with @indi969 at his confirmation camp last summer, so we decided to honor their contract and ended up letting Puantso go. MukiMaisteri was acquired to fill the gap left by Puantso and I believe we hit the jackpot on this one. Luukkonen is probably the best goal scorer in the game, he's also a very competitive and vocal teammate. Exactly what we needed. Other acquisitions we made were @Leksa94 and OriginalPumaz @Hiiruh. Leksa is an excellent all-rounder in the offensive end of the ice, he will certainly see some ECL time if he can hop off Fortnite every once in a while. @Lukkoukko(Lukkolinho) decided to take a step back so we needed another goaltender. That's where OriginalPumaz stepped in and we're happy to have such an experienced and trustworthy guy behind our defenders. I think we still have the best goalie tandem in the league. How do you guys feel about the ECL Elite license? Of course we're happy about it. To start off, we were wondering if we're going to be active enough for it to pay off for us. However, I think this might have been the incentive needed for us to start taking it more seriously and get excited again. The license fee isn't bad and the return is decent, I'd surely like to have that in my wallet. We're moving in the right direction and props to @Kenu & the rest of the staff for that. Several sources have mentioned ECL Elite being tougher than ever this season. Which teams have been your toughest opponents and who do you think has potential for a surprise? SIKA is probably the only team we haven't managed to win in the preseason so I'd call them our toughest opponent. It's no joke, the SIKA roster right now seems so much better than before. I think they could also provide one of the potential upsets this season. Finally, are there any players in the league you would like to highlight for the upcoming season? Not on our team, that's for sure. I'd say keep your eyes on @vSilenttio. Thanks jumalpeku! Good luck for Dynasty with the upcoming season. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty The options are running out! Who do you think is number four?

Hey NHLGamers, ECL Elite Semi Finals continue tonight. Starting at 20:15 CEST, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as we will be exclusively featuring the first three games between Carlsberg HC and Dynasty. Below you'll find our prediction for this series: You can see tonight's lineups below: The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. Exceptionally, tonight's games will not be commentated.

Hey NHLGamers, The heat is ramping up, both outdoors and in the ECL Elite Playoffs, as we get into the semi final stage. Only four teams left and each of them needing four wins to make it far enough to play in the finals. Who will want it the most? You'll find our predictions below. (1) Written In The Stars vs Northern Ascendancy (4) Written held up to their expectations in the quarter finals dismantling Northern Stars in five games (4-1). Written In The Stars are often considered an offensive team, but it is their defensive game as a unit that is the one that puts the opponents to sleep. With solid goaltending by @JanneK. (Januri98), Written looks very hungry to win the championship. In the regular season Written won both games (6-0, 2-1), but it's the playoffs now and things tighten up. After me barking on Northern Ascendancy last weekend, they showed some character bouncing back against Unlucky Boys to win the series 4-3. After last night's heroics from @hpkfani (Mukimaisteri) - who scored all 5 of his teams goals in games 6 and 7 - this team looked fired up and took their game to another level. Northern Ascendancy plays a beautiful passing game with fast quick passes back and forth and it is going to be interesting to see how the Written defensive game is going to handle Northern Ascendancy's offense. I will put the slight advantage on offense to NOR, but the cohesive unit in Written is going to be too much to handle for NOR. Prediction: 4-2 Written In The Stars (2) Dynasty – Carlsberg HC (3) Wow - what a matchup this is going to be! Dynasty took care of what seemed like a somewhat uninterested team in SJK by beating them in five games. @ICappeI in net for SJK did everything and a little more to shutdown Dynasty, but he wasn’t able to stop Dynasty all alone. Dynasty gets good goaltending night after night and they defend like the best of them. Add @Buantso (Puantso) to the mix and you have a very dangerous, championship kind of team. This series against Carlsberg can be one of the tightest series we've seen. Carlsberg took care of Sjukstugan in six games ( 4-2 ) and got a good warmup for the next series playing against a tight defensive unit. @Penatski showed up again, playing an MVP type of game, but so did the defensive unit with @Janzuh and @vatalisti, as the latter looks like one of the best defenseman in the game right now. @Zande95 bounced back after a tough first night in the series and Carlsberg was too much for Sjukstugan to handle. What a battle of monsters this is going to be and expect this series to go the length. It is very hard to predict who advances to the finals, but I expect the team who has the hotter goaltender is the one who advances after an even game 7 and in this case its going to be @Sandr0hh. Prediction: 4-3 Dynasty The semi finals are underway now and have to be finished by the 24th of April 2018 (Tuesday). No extra time will be given! We wish the remaining teams good luck and most importantly: have fun! Please let us know when you will play your respective games so we have the chance to cover them on our Twitch channel. EDIT: The last day to play is Tuesday the 24th, not Monday the 23rd. Fixed in the article.

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Elite Playoffs are already partly underway, so let's jump directly into our predictions for the first round, also known as the quarter finals, where the best eight teams battle for a chance to make it into the semi finals. These predictions were written by @chavelski and @pnordetun. (1) Written In The Stars vs Northern Stars (8) Written In The Stars won the regular season in style. The team really had that 'wow'-factor being talked about from time to time. A left-wing seemed to be what SKY needed to out them on a rocket ship right towards the title. Except for acquiring the new winger, little has changed and we can expect SKY to try to control this series. With great goalies in @eissi83 and @JanneK. (Januri98), amazing defenders that can dominate both blue lines and all three zones, and a highly skilled offensive trio up-front. So, is the sky the limit or will Northern Stars be the end of the line? NOS took the 8th and final playoff spot this time, avoiding pressure and expectations, perhaps. However, the old giant fears no one. NOS knows these situations and certainly holds more experience of these tight spots compared to their opponents. With their basic game and some @tbnantti magic they can surely match SKY. These players have been in so many playoff games together that we might see their low playoff seed actually work in their favour. Prediction: 4-2 Written In The Stars (2) Dynasty vs SJK eSports (7) Second seeding Dynasty goes up against SJK eSports in the quarterfinals in a matchup that could have, and in many Community members' minds would and should have been a clash later down the bracket. That's not the case this time around, as here we go! Dynasty has been nothing but a true joy to watch in the regular season. With quick passing, movement, their timing close to perfection and some great variety in their offense - they are as effective as they are stylish. @Buantso (Puantso) is deadly and with @jumalpeku and @Tehh (TehhAhola), they have a perfect trio. Puantso and jumalpeku combined for 55 goals between them in the group stage, just 10 shy of the SJK total. As always, it's important to shut your opponents offense down, and this will not be an easy task for SJK to do. Dynasty is also really solid on the defense and won't give up anything for free with @Snapster keeping the lines clear from intruders, alike the Finnish war hero Simo Häyhä. In the net, DYN has a good situation with @Sandr0hh and @Lukkoukko (Lukkolinho) having similar, strong stats. SJK will have to respond to Dynasty's offense in this series, and they need to prove that they really are defensive masters. Like we are used to, @Dominointi will be the cornerstone of their game. It'll remain to be seen who SJK will ice on the wings but your best bet will likely be @Leksa94 and @indi969. @Ilmari_30 on defense is set in stone and beside him we will most likely see @Selarit. @ICappeI stood tall in net for yet another great regular season, it'll remain to be seen if he can put up another stellar showing in the playoffs. Showcasing their defensive ability, SJK allowed only 48 goals (1,6 per game) in the regular season (2nd to SKY) and they have a tremendous defense in all zones. Sometimes playing SJK you're happy being able to create any good scoring chances at all, and how frustrating isn't that in a best of 7 series for the opponent? Can SJK lower the games' pace and ace their defense? Do they have the variety and creativity not to get stuck chasing behind every game? SJK has so much experience from these games it's almost scary. They are used to tight spots and used to advance - can they do it this time? Prediction : 4-2 Dynasty (3) Carlsberg HC vs Sjukstugan (6) Carlsberg HC was one of the hottest teams in the off-season and was one of the favourite teams coming into ECL 6. They finished with a solid third place right after Written In The Stars and Dynasty. @Vilupoika, @Penatski and @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_) comprise a forward line that makes any GM out there jealous. All of them have great hands and vision and also the game changer ability, as anyone of them can win a game for their team. With one of the best defensive pairings in the league with @Janzuh and @vatalisti, this team looks like you couldn't replace one player with another and expect better results. If CAR wants to be successful they can and if they can stay humble and focused facing a very seasoned 112, they will prevail. Don’t count their opponent out just yet! You can easily say that Sjukstugan is the underdog in this matchup, but if you look closer at the players they have, the team looks really good. With one of the most prestigious right defensemen in the game in @Gustafsson7 returning back after a season in Synergy, taking his familiar place as the king of the hill in Sjukstugan's defense, they have a strong leader down low. Helping him along the way we have @Karkkyjaa, @Basstian23 (JaromirSniper) and @Klingen45 who is expected to be dressing for the next game. Look for him to be a game changer as well. On the forward side we have the brothers @pnordetun and @Bjono with @Norpee skating out with them. Norpee could easily be one of the most underrated players in the whole community. I suspect we will see @Nampa77 in this series as well, as he adds something the rest of the forward core doesn't have - the right-handed shot. The real MVP of Sjukstugan can be found in net as @Hullued has taken the community by storm and been excellent throughout the season. If CAR can stay focused and disciplined for the entire length of the series, they will move on to the next round. On the other hand, if 112 wants to have a chance in the series, they cannot try to mimic the play style of opponent Carlsberg, as they tried to do in game #2 of the series. The series currently stands at 1-1. If Sjukstugan can score the first goal and play as a defensive unit out on the ice, we might have a long series here that could end either way. Prediction: 4-3 Carlsberg HC (4) Northern Ascendancy vs Unlucky Boys HC (5) Northern Ascendancy vs Unlucky Boys is already far into the series (2-3) as UB are only one win away from the Elite Semi finals in their first season in Elite! The last season runner-up in Pro has surprised the whole community by beating a few of the big teams during the season and finishing the season as fifth in the standings. Lead by @Anhel (Anhel_Kuru) alongside @JimBoo (jm__98___) and @Wenger (re_wenger), the trio has been playing together all season, and with @Jugeh_ and @Frilander on the back end, the five skaters really come together as a team. @Danielcadabra has bounced back from a disappointing last season in Synergy where he looked somewhat rusty. This season he has been again at the very top among goalies and he can steal games for you. Northern Ascendancy with the fast paced very beautiful style of playing ended the regular season on a solid fourth place. @poliskontroll has been better this season and @Foppatofflan has been scoring points as usual. This season he got some help from @hpkfani (MuKiMaisteri) who was the leading scorer this season for NOR. @MartindalexC has switched from LW to RD and transitioned quite nicely making a nice pair with @Haldeem. And the cherry on top is that you have @anrh17, an excellent two-way player, as a center. You could think this team would be ready for a championship. However, once again they are facing a team who looks to want it more and play to win and not simply to get on the scoresheet. Can NOR bounce back, come together and break the trend that has been haunting them and get past the quarterfinals? Prediction: 4-2 Unlucky Boys Many of the teams continue their series' tonight, and while we sadly won't be able to provide an official commentated stream tonight, be sure to be on the lookout for the team's own streams in the streams section and the chatbox over in the community section. What did you think of the above predicitions? Who do you think will go all the way? Let us know in the comments section below!

Good evening NHL Gamers! In a tremendous finale tonight, and with a last minute game winning goal in game 7, Laser HT beat Dynasty and secured a 4-3 series victory to be crowned ECL 4 Elite Champions! These are the series results: Game 1: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 2-1 Game 2: Dynasty @ Laser HT | 2-5 Game 3: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 1-2 OT Game 4: Dynasty @ Laser HT | 1-2 Game 5: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 0-2 Game 6: Dynasty @ Laser HT | 3-2 Game 7: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 2-1 Laser HT Championship roster: G: #33 P. Roy (aka Hiiirulainen) G: #88 D. Hansek (aka Hansulinho) D: #16 K. V (aka VesKuLiNe) D: #43 Y. Wilhelm (aka willekunq) D: #87 I. Junub (aka Selarit) F: #11 L. Lekker (aka Leksa94) F: #13 I. SK (aka Dominointi) F: #67 I. Dishmaster (aka hooneli) F: #68 J. Jagr (aka Hermurderer) Laser HT's road to the cup: 18 wins, 10 losses & 2 OT-losses during the regular season, ranked 7th Quarterfinals: 4-1 victory against Synergy Semifinals: 4-1 victory against Nordic Nightmare Finals: 4-3 victory against Dynasty NHLGamer staff congratulates the whole team for winning the most prestigious 6 vs. 6 tournament in NHL 17! Even in truly outstanding and merciless Elite competition, Laser HT were consistently showing great playoff performances for a deserved championship victory. A big shoutout to Dynasty as well: Carrying the series to game 7 after being behind 1-3 deserves special mention and huge respect! During the live stream on Twitch, almost 150 people were watching the game winning goal in the end of game 7, which is an outstanding number. It confirms the growing relevance of the ECL championships and NHLGamer.com, people are more hungry for top tier virtual ice hockey than ever before. ECL 4 is not over yet though, as Pro and Lite Divisions are still fighting for their championships and promotions, with some really intense match-ups ahead. Make sure to keep an eye on further coverage! A more detailed ECL Elite season recap including award winners will be released in due time - stay tuned. @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com