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(Source: Ilta-Sanomat - Picture by Mika Tuononen) @Eki takes it home once again. Seems to be the common occurrence nowadays, right? Success just seems to follow this youngster. IS Cup 3: NHL 19 1vs1 eSM was a blast and we had a lot of people showing up to cheer for their favourite in our stream! On top of that, we also had a nice amount of people show up at the event in Kauppakeskus REDI, Helsinki. The atmosphere was intense especially as the last games were being played. NHLGamer, together with your partners Ilta-Sanomat and SJK eSports would like to thank all of you for showing up, either live or through the broadcast! The event didn't lack any excitement as we were treated to some absolute thrillers by our competitors. Here are the results of each group after the group stage: Group A was regarded as 'the group of death' prior to the games, with really strong and experienced players @Dominointi, @Artuzio and @eskoeinari, joined by youngster @MrNipsuli who managed to cause an upset and make his way into the finals, playing as his favourite team Toronto Maple Leafs. Everything was up for grabs until the last round in group A, but Dominointi and MrNipsuli- managed to snag their second victories and move on. In group B we saw the only player who made it through the group stage without a loss in @kriketski17, a name that will certainly be on peoples lips in the versus scene from now on. @xDoumi managed to pave his way into the playoffs as the second player from group B. Group C didn't offer much in terms of surprising outcomes. @Eki took a routine route to the big games and @Nassustelija managed to cop the second place spot, although he edged out @Markoohh- only by goal differential. To no surprise @PleeMaker grabbed the first spot in group D, whereas @Hansulinho had himself a night to forget going 0-3-0. @buranaburana made his way to the playoffs in second place of group D. Upsets Galore. We definitely saw some upsets in the group stage already. @kriketski17 took the whole competition by storm as he went undefeated through a tough group B. Group A with @Dominointi, @eskoeinari, @Artuzio and @MrNipsuli was an absolute free-for-all, as players pretty much traded wins through the first two rounds, leaving a ton of factors to decide who moves on to the playoffs. The underdog in that group was definitely Nipsuli, who together with Dominointi managed to make it through from the group stage. Another massive surprise was the weak performance of @Hansulinho, who didn't quite get into the groove of things this time around. In a group where he could have had the chance of moving on from on a good day, the former IS Cup champion didn't get it done, dropping all group stage games. Playoff bracket: The most interesting quarterfinal matchup was definitely Dominointi vs xDoumi, which ended 1-2. The two guys battled hard trading wins and going into double overtime of game two. The younger xDoumi showed his skill and managed to take home the tight series, moving on to a semifinal matchup against PleeMaker. Plee managed to overcome Nassustelija 2-0, as did Eki against buranaburana. Kriketsi17 also won 2-o against MrNipsuli, we saw an interesting turn of events in their second game, as Kriketsi managed to score on a pass from the neutral zone after Freddy Andersen of Nipsuli's Maple Leafs let in an abomination of a goal in the first period. The game was tied up after which Kriketsi managed to secure a win in overtime of game 2. Jani "JiiHoo86" Hetta and Arttu Hämäläinen had a busy day in the commentator booth. (Source: SEUL - Picture by Jussi Jääskeläinen) The semifinals offered us a series to remember as PleeMaker and xDoumi went head-to-head. Plee drew first blood in game 1 after a long period of offensive pressure from Doumi to start the game. The game was close all the way through, Plee leading 2-1 until just about the end of regulation when Doumi managed to score off of a shorthanded one-timer chance with 4,7 seconds remaining in the game. To start OT we saw some undisciplined play by Plee, allowing Doumi to snag the win of game 1 by scoring on the powerplay. The second game was a one goal bout - a defensive battle ending in Plee tying up the series. Game 3 was certainly a headscratcher. Doumi came out swinging with two quick goals to start the game, whereafter Plee managed to mount a comeback and the guys went on somewhat on a scoring spree, leaving the game at 5-4 in favour of Doumi at the start of the 3rd period, which is where miracles happened. Doumi scored two goals first, putting him at a three goal advantage. Plee came back to 7-5, Doumi made it 8-5, Plee scored - 8-6 - spectators couldn't even keep up! The guys were nowhere near done, Plee scored three unanswered and the game seemed like a win until Doumi decided to spoil the party again, tying it up AGAIN with 8,5 seconds left! Regulation ends 9-9. Plee ended up securing a final spot in after scoring his 10th goal of the game about halfway through the first period of OT. As Eki managed to win two games against Kriketski, we were treated to a final game with the matchup Eki vs Plee! See PleeMaker vs xDoumi here: The Plee - xDoumi series is certainly hard to top in terms of excitement. However, the final matchup was one of the best we could ever have asked for. Eki and Plee are FILADELPHIA teammates, they are arguably the two best NHL 19 players of the world - and we were treated to the opportunity of seeing the two battle it out with 4000€ on the line. The first game of the finals was a tight battle as expected, Plee opened the scoring, but Eki quickly came back. Both guys scored once more in regulation sending us to overtime, which was decided about three minutes into OT at the hands of Eki, making his first claim for the championship. Game two was a bit different in the sense that Eki seemed to run away with the game early as he made it 2-0 in the first period. Plee had different ideas as he scored three unanswered. That remained the case until 41,9 seconds remaining, when Eki managed to find twine on a cross-crease one-timer. We had OT on our hands once again! The first OT period went into the closing seconds, where Eki had an offensive zone faceoff and managed to find the lane for a blueline slapshot - we had a winner! See the decisive final game here: Eki was certainly the favourite to take it home all along. The world champion joined the tournament through invite and didn't disappoint. Eki lost only one game in the final tournament, his last group stage game against Nassustelija - a game without any real meaning going forward as Eki had already secured a playoff spot by winning his first two games. When being asked how he felt about the result of the final, Eki stated: "Games between me and Plee have always been a coin toss, he had his chances that didn't go in and I had some luck on my blueline slapshot. It's the way this game is, sometimes the bounces go your way." Eki is the new champion! (Source: SEUL - Picture by Jussi Jääskeläinen) PleeMaker had to settle for second place (Source: Ilta-Sanomat - Picture by Mika Tuononen) Kriketsi17 took home the bronze. (Source: SEUL - Picture by Jussi Jääskeläinen) Here are the final standings of IS Cup 3: NHL 19 1vs1 eSM: (Source: Ilta-Sanomat) Congratulations to all participants! Once again, NHLGamer would like to thank everyone involved in the event and all of you who tuned in to the stream or showed up at the event. You have played a significant part in promoting the NHLGaming scene and we greatly appreciate every single one of you! Thank you.

One of the biggest weekends of the year for the Finnish NHLGaming scene is here! It's time for the IS Cup 3: NHL19 1vs1 eSM final event and the venue is nicely set up by your NHLGamer staff together with our partners from SJK eSports and Ilta-Sanomat. The final event, played at Kauppakeskus REDI in Helsinki kicks off on Saturday at 12 CET with the group stage. 16 of the the very best Finnish NHLGamers have qualified for the tournament through local qualifiers at our event at GameXpo 2018 and through online qualifiers. Here is the list of players participating is the IS Cup 3: NHL 19 1vs1 eSM final event, sorted by the groups they were placed in: Group A Arttu “Artuzio” Mustila @Artuzio Risto “Dominointi” Järvi @Dominointi Juho “eskoeinari” Sillantaus @eskoeinari Roni “MrNipsuli-“ Kaján @MrNipsuli Group B Kristian "Kriketsi17" Veijola @kriketski17 Niklas “NikkeDangles” Tukiainen @NikkeDangles Toni "Thounidinho" Hirvikorpi @Thounii Aaro "xDoumi" Ruuhinen @xDoumi Group C Vesa “Dreamickie” Rajamäki @Dreamickie Erik “Eki” Tammenpää @Eki Marko “Markoohh-“ Pennanen @Markoohh- Mikael “Nassustelija” Katajisto @Nassustelija Group D Sami “buranaburana” Piiparinen @buranaburana Hannes “Hansulinho” Kettunen @Hansulinho Paul “PleeMaker” Arontie @PleeMaker Samuli “xKeskitalo” Keskitalo @xKeskitalo In the group stage starting at 12 CET, each player faces off against every other player in their group. Two players from each group advance to the playoff bracket. The playoff matchups are played best-of-three series and the matchups will be as follows: A1 vs B2 D1 vs C2 -------------- C1 vs D2 B1 vs A2 Veikkaus is hosting the betting for our event. You can log in and place your winner bets over here. At the time of writing this article, the three winner favourites are: 1. EKI (odds 6,84*) 'Champ' or 'Goat' are some of the nicknames you might have heard being thrown around when the discussion revolves around EKI. By signing with Team Sampi in the summer, EKI became the first professional NHL player, so he surely has some practice hours under his belt. EKI is also a highly skilled offensive player, alike Plee, but his defensive game is considered slightly better. He also overcomes opponents by second-to-none puck control and is by now an experienced live-event player. 2. PleeMaker (odds 5,09*) After taking home the championship in the very first IS Cup, Plee didn't participate in the second iteration. Everyone knows the capabilities of this 17-year old though. Plee is a dangerous offensive player who makes you pay for your mistakes with deadly efficiency. His trademark is short, quick passing play and patient puck possession. Plee made his way to the finals through our local qualifiers at GameXpo. 3. Hansulinho (odds 12,63*) 'Hansu' is the most experienced player of the bunch by far. He has five Finnish championships under his belt and doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. Despite not doing all too well in a few tournaments this year so far, Hansu doesn't feel the need to put any pressure on himself. He's going to take it easy and enjoy the atmosphere and meeting people. Underdog: xKeskitalo (odds 3,41*) xKeskitalo is one of the most inexperienced players of the bunch despite not being the youngest of age. This player has recently surfaced in the versus scene as a potential name of the future and is mentioned in this article due to currently having the lowest betting odds. xKeskitalo competed in the Syyscup at the launch of NHL19 and dominated his group stage by winning all games and conceding only 8 goals in 12 games. This group included names such as Artuzio and Esdor. He also completed a rather successful campaign as a right winger for Resurrection in ECL 7 Pro. Underdog: eskoeinari (odds 15,95*) 29-year old eskoeinari is the oldest player at the event. He is also the reigning Finnish Champion. Although maybe not matching the other players in raw skill and quickness, eskoeinari possesses eye for the game and is known for playing a but of an unorthodox style. Don't count the old guy out! *Odds are updated in real-time. This means that the odds will be changing until the betting is closed when the event starts. The prize pool of 8000€ will be divided between the eight best players of the event. The winner takes 4000€, runner-up 1600€, third 900€, fourth 500€ and the quarter-finalists will go home with a check of 250€ each. Schedule for IS Cup 3: 1vs1 eSM: 12.00 – Group stage, round 1 12.30 – Group stage, round 2 13.00 – Group stage, round 3 14.00 – Quarter-finals 1 & 2 15.00 – Quarter-finals 3 & 4 16.30 – Semifinal 1 17.30 – Semifinal 2 18.30 – Bronze game 19.05 – Final We'll be streaming the event on our Twitch-channel tomorrow starting approximately 11:45 CET. Remember to tune in and cheer for your favourite! Your NHLGamer Editor, @jahajaha93

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!