NHL

Washington Capitals Faceoff with EKI

On February 22nd, our player Erik ‘’EKI’’ Tammenpää will battle in Washington D.C. against seven other world class NHL19 competitors. The prize pool is set to $10,000. What thoughts does EKI have going into this? Who are the favorites?

When we look back at 2018 and how that year played out for our player Erik ‘’EKI’’ Tammenpää, it’s hard to picture it being any better. Winning the world title in June, as well as finishing the year off with being crowned as the Finnish Champion.

Now ‘’EKI’’ once again travels over the Atlantic trying to continue his success at events in the United States. He famously won the world championship title, along with $50,000 back in June 2018.

The tournament itself is played out between eight players who needed to qualify to the event, during four online qualifiers. The eight players will not only battle for the $10,000, but the top 3 will represent the Washington Capitals in a showmatch against Tampa Bay Lightning on March 20th.

The eight players qualified for the tournament are:

• EKI [FIN]
• MrNipsuli [FIN]
• Regs84 [CAN]
• Canadiens-27 [CAN]
• Joshfearless13 [CAN]
• eken45jr [SWE]
• Keso_Paghuni [USA]
• NippinBiscuits [USA]

Interview with Erik ‘’EKI’’ Tammenpää:
What are your goals going into the tournaments in 2019? Is it possible to top the last year you had?

• “I’m looking to continue what I did in 2018 to 2019 and do everything better, there is always room to improve.”
  

The tournament is taking place in Washington, DC. When will you travel over and how do you prepare to not be affected by the jetlag?

• “I will travel the 20th and jetlag isn’t an issue for me atleast now when I’m a full time player and go to sleep usually pretty late so I’m already kinda close to US timezone.”

Looking at the event itself and the field. Who would you say is the strongest contenders to take the title home?

• “Hard to say because I haven’t played any of the guys there on LAN. But excluding me I would say Eken and Regs are strong, I also expect fellow Finn Nipsuli to show up. Then there’s a lot of players I really don’t know how they play so hard to say anyone apart from those 3 but It’s going to be interesting.”

You’re currently ranked as the number 1 on the NHL19 rankings. Would a win here make it clear that you’re the one to beat for the upcoming events and a potential future world cup?

• “I don’t really care about that. If that’s what people want to believe then sure. I know I have a target on my back because of recent success but I don’t mind It’s just fun to compete.”

Written by Eirik Holdal