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NHLGamers, The second round of playoffs offered some even games, but in all matchups except one, it was the home team and thus the favorite who walked away with the win and on to the quarterfinal round. This is the last stage of the online phase and the winners of this round will have paved their way all the way to the live event at GameXpo next week! Please note that the schedule for the IS Cup 4 playoffs is as follows: Round 1: 28.10 - 30.10 Round 2: 31.10 - 3.11 Quarterfinals: 4.11 - 6.11 Semifinals & Finals @ GameXpo: 15-16.11 Here are the matchups for the quarterfinals: (1) HAVU Gaming vs Roots (12) (2) Delusion vs POGGERS (8) (3) Symphony vs Butterfly Effect (6) (4) TIKI TALK vs FILADELPHIA (5) We would like to wish all of the teams good luck! Please agree on your game times as soon as possible and let us know in the comments when your games will be played. We will do our best to broadcast as much as we can during the quarterfinals, so knowing our options well ahead of time gives us the best chances of featuring matchups! Also feel free to let us know your predictions for this round in the comments!

NHLGamers, The IS Cup has become a tradition and with us stepping into uncharted territory and ramping it up on the 6vs6-side last year, we're now bringing the same, improved concept for the 4th iteration of one of the biggest NHL esports tournaments of the year. IS Cup 4 is presented by NHLGamer and Ilta-Sanomat, sponsored by PlayStation, Prisma Gaming and Alpro. Originally a Finnish tournament, IS Cup breaks new ground with its 4th iteration; expanding the scope of the tournament in allowing all European teams entry to challenge the Finns for the throne. In NHL19 we saw Finnish HAVU Gaming and FILADELPHIA dominate the playing field, but it'll remain to be seen if we can find some new competition this year. The 4th iteration of IS Cup will alike last year, cap off at GameXpo in Helsinki, Finland between the 15th and 16th of November. In the final event, the four best teams will meet to battle it out for a prize pool of 5000 €. Schedule of IS Cup 4: Group stage 14-20.10 Playoffs 28.10-6.11 Semi-finals & Finals @ GameXpo 15-16.11 The prize pool will be divided as follows: 1. 3500€ 2. 1000€ 3. 500€ Prizes are subject to tax as per Finnish law and the tax is withheld before payment Please note: Both the group stage phase and the playoffs will be very intensive and your team will be expected to play almost every day, so while the minimum required players amount is 7, be sure to have a roster big enough to take care of your duties. Teams that make the final four are responsible for their own travel and accommodation The semifinal games on Friday, November 15th will start during daytime Sign ups close on Friday October 11th 12:00 CEST. Gather your team and sign up to challenge last years champions FILADELPHIA! To sign up your team for IS Cup 4: If you're a player looking for a team: If you're a team looking for players: Brief in Finnish / Lyhyesti suomeksi: Ilta-Sanomat ja NHLGamer toteuttavat yhteistyössä IS Cup 4 -turnauksen, jossa etsitään parasta 6vs6-joukkuetta NHL 20 -pelissä. Turnausta sponsoroivat PlayStation, Prisma Gaming ja Alpro. Lue Ilta-Sanomien uutinen tästä. Karsintojen runkosarja pelataan 14.–20.10. ja pudotuspelit reilua viikkoa myöhemmin 28.10.–6.11. Neljä parasta joukkuetta jatkaa finaalitapahtumaan. IS Cupin nettikarsinnat järjestää NHLGamer. Nettikarsintoihin voivat osallistua kaikki halukkaat ympäri Euroopan. 5000 euron palkintopotti jaetaan seuraavasti: 3500 € 1000 € 500 € Huomioittehan ystävällisesti seuraavat asiat: Turnauksen pelitahti on intensiivinen sekä runkosarjan, että pudotuspelien osalta ja pelejä on pelattava lähes päivittäin. Vaikka turnaukseen voi osallistua seitsemän pelaajan rosterilla, varmistattehan, että ilmoittamanne joukkue pystyy pelaamaan aktiivisesti. GameXpoilla pelaavat joukkueet vastaavat itse matkustus- ja yöpymiskuluistaan Semifinaaliottelut perjantaina 15.11. alkavat päiväsaikaan Rekisteröityminen päättyy perjantaina 11.10. kello 13:00 Linkit: Ilmoita joukkueesi IS Cupiin Etsi joukkuetta itsellesi Etsi pelaajia joukkueeseesi

NHLGamer, in co-operation with Ilta-Sanomat, SJK eSports and SEAMK will be organizing the Finnish Championship in NHL 19 and FIFA 19. The sponsors of the tournament named IS Cup 3 are ED and PlayStation. IS Cup 3 includes three tournaments: NHL 19 1vs1, NHL 19 6vs6 and FIFA 19 1vs1. Purchasing an eSM license will grant a player eligibility to participate in all of these tournaments. Please note that participation also requires Finnish citizenship. The total price pool amounts to 15 000 €. The first event of the eSM tournament series will be held in the beginning of November (2.-3.11.) at the GameXpo-exhibition at Messukeskus in Helsinki. The second event will be held at the OmaSp Gaming House in Seinäjoki, after which the final tournament is back over in Helsinki at Kauppakeskus REDI. www.is.fi/cup will be the place to follow the progression of the tournament throughout October, November and December. Three main events The first IS Cup 3 final event will be the NHL 19 6vs6 final at GameXpo on the 3rd of November. At this event, the four top teams from the online qualifiers will be competing for a price of 4500€. The FIFA 19 1vs1 event will be held at the OmaSp Gaming House in Seinäjoki, the event takes place on the 24th of November. Six players will qualify through online qualifiers, and two players will receive invites from the organizers. These players will battle it out for the price of 2500€. The NHL 1vs1 tournament takes the IS Cup back to Helsinki, as 16 players (four invites) will be fighting for a price of 8000€ at Kauppakeskus REDI on the 15th of December. A qualifier tournament will be held on the 2nd of November at GameXpo, the two top players will secure spots in the final. The remaining ten spots will be secured through online qualifiers between 8.-28.11. How to participate The online qualifiers will be organized by NHLGamer. There is no maximum amount of participants in the online qualifiers. As stated, an eSM license and Finnish citizenship will be required to participate. The license costs 5€ and can be bought at http://www.esm.gg/pelaajalisenssi/. One license will grant eligibility to all tournaments and events. Registration takes place at NHLGamer.com. Schedules for the tournament can be viewed at NHLGamer.com. For now, the schedule is an estimate. The final schedule will be confirmed after the registration is closed. For more information on how to sign up, visit www.is.fi/cup. For all of our international members - don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you! Sign up for ECL 7 now and stay tuned for more exciting announcements in the near future!

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!)

Hey NHLGamers, Finland’s largest news media Ilta-sanomat, Playstation Plus, SJK eSports, Kamppi Center, NHLGamer and SEAMK collaborate in creating the event in Kamppi Shopping Center on 17th to 18th of November. The sixteen best players compete for the prize pool on the most popular console platform in the country - Sony Playstation 4. The IS Cup 2 final event is currently being played on the fourth floor of the Kamppi Center. You are welcomed to join in and spectate the event live or follow the stream on www.is.fi/esports. The 6000€ prize pool will be distributed as follows: 1. 2000 € 2. 1000 € 3.-4. 500 € 5.-8. 250 € 9.-16. 125 € Short facts: You can watch the stream here (audio in Finnish): https://www.twitch.tv/streamcorner Finns can follow the action here in Finnish: https://www.is.fi/iscup Group stage schedule and scores: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/schedule.php?leagueID=4&lang=en Group stage standings: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/standings.php?leagueID=4&lang=en Top 8 go to the knockout rounds (best-of-3) and you can eventually find the playoff tree here: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/schedule.php?leagueID=4&lang=en

NHLGamers, It seems like it has been the month of announcements, doesn't it? Well, today we bring you another one. NHLGamer.com are immensly proud to announce that we are partnering with Ilta-Sanomat, SJK eSports and SeAMK for the latest edition of the IS Cup! You may remember our reporting from the last edition of IS Cup, if not you can find it here (Part 1) and here (Part 2), where we met up with many community members (including eventual winner @plee999) and covered the event from a journalistic perspective. This time around we will be an active host and participant in the prestigious tournament that will be open to players from all over Europe and is free to sign up for. Oh and, did we mention the 6000€ prize pool? Here you can find the official news story from main partner Ilta-Sanomat [Article in Finnish]. However, if you're not a native Finnish speaker, here's our brief breakdown of the event: As mentioned before, here at NHLGamer.com we are truly proud to be one of the main, active partners of this tournament and will work tirelessly to see it top the tremendous experience that was provided through the last IS Cup. So, how do I sign up? As mentioned above, the tournament is available to anyone in Europe, as long as you're available to travel to Helsinki for the final tournament (at your own expense). Here's where to sign up: Finnish speakers can sign up by heading over to https://nhlgamer.com/iscup If you're not from Finland, you might want to head over to the sign-up page in English over at https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/index_en.php For all of our members out there, old and new, I suggest you strap in - the NHLGamer journey is just getting started. (Article editor: @The_Alpha_Furyan) Facebook (NHLGamer)Twitter (NHLGamerCOM)YouTube (NHLGamer Official) Instagram (NHLGamerOfficial) Twitch (NHLGamerTwitch)

Hey NHL Gamers, We recently posted our first part from our visit to Seinäjoki to attend the IS Cup. I had the privilege of attending this event with the wonderful @The_Alpha_Furyan. You can read more about the tournament in that article, as this time around it's about the video recap we've put together from that weekend. To make sense of all the material we collected during this intense day (it was a lot), we enlisted the help of professional Viaplay video editor @LastMandalorian who did a fantastic job putting everything together. You can check out the end result below! Hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed being there! Can't wait to be a part of more of these events in the future! As mentioned above, check out our written first part if you missed it previously: Until next time,

Good day NHLGamers, As some of you may know, we here at NHLGamer.com recently made the decision to provide coverage of the IS Cup NHL tournament, hosted by SJK (Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho) - a sports team in the top professional league of Finnish football and also one of the first organizations to establish an eSports section within their club. You may remember that a big part of SJKs investment in eSport was signing NHLGamer staff member Dominointi as their NHL player and enlisting ECL franchise Rynnäkköviikset as their grassroots organizaton. The following article will be Part One in a Two-Part series where we cover the event, recap all the exciting things that happened and show off all the fun image and video material we collected during our stay. Look for a video-heavy Part Two later this week where we provide you with some interviews plus some sights and sounds of the tournament! The IS Cup The concept of the IS Cup meant bringing together 16 top NHL Versus players from all over Finland (including NHLGamer members Jageksi, Hansulinho, Dominointi, Artuzio, KingOfApes_, Chafak, PleeMaker, Kaneyh and I_Eki_I) to do battle at SJKs home stadium, OmaSP Stadion, for a total prize pool of 1500 €. The tournament also featured a FIFA competition using the same structure and prizes but for the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on NHL. To be able to participate in the IS Cup finals, the contestants had to either fight their way through an extensive online qualifier or participate in a local event organized in Seinäjoki a couple of weeks prior. For me personally, covering this tournament meant traveling from the relatively safe confines of Stockholm, Sweden to the deep forests of Seinäjoki, Finland. In an effort to try and get to know the city I was due to visit, I did what any reasonably sane man with limited time would do - I turned to Wikipedia. During my research process, I learned a great many things. I learned that the city of Seinäjoki originated around a gunpowder factory around the turn of the 18th century. I learned that the city is famous for its three big events; its tango festival, its racing festival and its rock festival. Finally, I also came to understand I was looking at a 3 hour train ride from Helsinki to Seinäjoki, accompanied by nothing more than @Kenu and his wits. As I was leaving Wikipedia, I was not sure what to expect. However, as it turns out, I needn't worry - the city (and tournament) exceeded all my expectations. But now, let us get to the coverage of this event: All 16 players of the IS Cup were divided into groups of 4 and put through a group stage to determine which 8 players would move on to the tournament Quarterfinals. Going into the tournament, professional eSports players Hansulinho of ENCE eSports, Dominointi of SJK eSports and Chafak of Paranoia eSports had to be considered among the favorites to win the trophy, but each player would be tested early and often in their groups. The level of play at IS Cup was incredibly high and not something you see in your everyday NHL 17 Versus sessions. After many tough games and unexpected outcomes, the playoff tree shaped up like this (with all series being played Best of-3): Quarterfinals Dominointi - PleeMaker [1-2 in games] Hansulinho - Eskoeinari [2-0 in games] Chafak - Dreammickie [0-2 in games] I_EKI_I - EEPI [2-0 in games] As expected, the Quarterfinals featured several big moments and tight-checking playoff hockey. The first-round series we found ourselves most invested in was the one between @Dominointi and @plee999, this partly due to the rivalry of the match-up (these players faced each other quite recently in another Versus tournament, FCT - Finnish Championship Tournament, where Plee barely edged out Domi in the Semifinals) but also due to the big crowd of people amassed around these two star players. Throughout the entire tournament Plee had, without a doubt, the biggest fan following - something that can usually either make or break a player when push comes to shove. At this point in the tournament the fan support had seemed to benefit Plee, but going up against Domi would prove to be his biggest test yet. Plee took Game 1 by a score of 4-3 and also took the lead in Game 2 to loud cheers, but Domi showed his tournament pedigree and came back to win Game 2 by another 4-3 score. The stakes were incredibly high for Game 3 but both players seemed unfazed and cool under pressure. Ultimately, Plee got off to a good start by scoring the first goal, forcing Domi to play more aggresive to go for the equalizing goal. As often happens when one team goes all-out, the other team takes advantage and mounts an effective counter-attack. Plee did just that and ended up shutting the game down by a 3-0 score. Plee moved on the next round where he would face tournament favorite @Hansulinho. In the other playoff series, MUKIMIEHET player @Erkki (I_EKI_I) managed to win his round and move on to the next round where he would face Dreammickie. Dreammickie advanced through somewhat of a surprise 2-0 win over @EA_BUNKA (Chafak). Semifinals I_EKI_I - Dreammickie [2-1 in games] Hansulinho - PleeMaker [0-2 in games] The matchups above meant 3 out of 4 players in the final rounds were members of the NHLGamer community, something we couldn't be prouder of. Perhaps Dreammickie will make it 4 out of 4 in the near future? Keep an eye out, Gamers! Sadly, we didn't get a chance to watch the Semifinal games as we were busy interviewing SJK tournament host Mikko Jokipii at the time, but judging by the amounts of cheers coming from the main event hall (where the game between Hansu and Plee was being displayed on the main screen), we could tell there was a great game going on. After consulting with fellow NHLGamers that were at the stadium, we learned that I_EKI_I had won his matchup over Dreammickie in a tight 2-1 series while Plee had continued his incredible hot streak and beaten Hansu by a score of 2-0. Bronze game Hansulinho - Dreammickie The Bronze game didn't actually feature a Best of-3; the tournament organizers instead opting for a one game, winner takes all-approach to this battle. Ultimately, these types of games can be hard to re-load for after you've been eliminated in the semifinals, but Dreammickie managed to give it one last push to beat Hansulinho and receive the consolation prize of a PSN Plus subscription (12 months). Finals I_EKI_I - PleeMaker [0-2 in games] So came the finals, and a chance for the winning player to walk away with 1000€ while the runner-up would receive 500€. Plee was heavily favored by many after weathering such a tough storm on his way to the finals, but I_EKI_I had nonetheless impressed as well on his way to the championship finals. The room was packed, the crowd was loud, both players had music in their ears and the announcers were ready - showtime. During the finals, the Twitch stream for the event reached almost 1000 viewers, which was incredibly fun to see. As far as the actual games go, Plee came roaring out of the gates with a vengeance and put up several goals in the first few minutes of Game 1. I_EKI_I never recovered from the intense start by Plee and lost Game 1 by several goals. He managed to re-load for Game 2 though and went toe-to-to with Plee through the scores of 1-1 and 2-2. In the end, Plee was a man on a mission and despite a quality game from I_EKI_I, Plee was the ultimate - and well deserved - winner of the IS Cup. Additional thoughts As we approach the end of this article, NHLGamer would also like to give a shout-out to the members of our community we got to meet that weren't playing in the tournament. For me personally, it was a lot of fun putting faces to gamertags I had been playing against for years. Outside of our 9 members that were tournament contenders, we met at least 9 more around the event hall. I can't even remember everyone I shook hands with and talked to but off the top of my head @Joonas Paatiala, @nylanderi, @Hoiggaa, @Zande95, @FinKonna & @RutonMosse. Remind me in the comment section who I missed out on mentioning! On a final note, we here at NHLGamer.com would like to thank organizers SJK for being so incredibly hospitable towards us - offering us chances both to interview tournament host Mikko Jokipii and to be interviewed ourselves on the official Twitch livestream for the event, putting us in front of hundreds and hundreds of stream viewers wearing nothing but our NHLGamer shirts. Well, pants too. We should have an edited version of the clip for you available in our upcoming video coverage of IS Cup, but if you want to check it out right now, go to the IS Cup Twitch feed and browse to the 3 hour, 42 minute mark. Look for the two guys wearing NHLGamer t-shirts Until we see you again in our video coverage post from IS Cup - later skaters, @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com