The matchups are set for the playoff round of the 2022 IIHF eWorld Championship.
From 18 teams that entered the group stage of the eWorld Championship, eight have survived to move on to the knockout phase of the tournament, set to begin on the weekend.
Full coverage and live streams of the 2022 IIHF eWorld Championship: Tournament Website / IIHF Twitch
Here is a recap of the group stage that took place over the weekend.
GROUP A: Overtime thriller puts Germany into the quarter-finals
Finland has confirmed its role as favourite in the group stage of the IIHF eWorld Championship 2022, while Germany reached the quarter-finals in a wild comeback.
With 2020 MVP Erik 'ENCEKI' Tammenpää leading Finland once again, the group stage once again did not pose a challenge for the top favourites.
A perfect start was also made by the Danes Mikkel 'Birkedal96' Birkedal and Martin 'xProAm69x' Vibholm Nielsen. With two 3-1 wins against Konrad 'stormshadow' Glowacz and Martin 'Venomenyce' Perenz the first six points were scored.
The Hungarians did not fare well at their IIHF esports premiere: Against Finland (1-9 and 1-16) Sebastian 'Freezy' Szepessy and Beres 'Beres Boldizsar' Boldizsar were thrashed. They also came up empty against Germany (1-2 and 0-15), Poland (1-4 and 1-12) and Denmark (2-9 and 1-10).
Finland, on the other hand, marched through Group A without a doubt: After the wins against Germany and Hungary, 'Vattuyy' and 'ENCEKI' also beat Poland (6-1 and 5-1) and Denmark (4-1 and 2-1) – with 'ENCEKI' being forced into overtime by 'xProAm69x'.
But the much more dramatic overtime happened between Poland and Germany. 'Cpt_DirtyDangler' and 'Kevinator-373' had won the direct comparison against Denmark (3-4 and 5-3) – the last round became a thriller.
Denmark dominated Hungary, Germany had problems against Poland. 'Kevinator-373' was trailing 1-3 until shortly before the end of the regular time. Of all things against 'Venomenyce', who had competed for Germany back in 2020.
The Germans needed two more points to move past Denmark onto second place. 'Kevinator-373' made the comeback, two goals very close to the end guaranteed him the overtime against 'Venomenyce'.
There both players had numerous chances to decide the game. In the end Würterle had luck on his side and secured Germany the entry into the quarter-finals with his golden goal to the 4-3 victory.
Co-favourites Canada got off to a perfect start against Slovakia: Sayed Safir 'SafirSnipezGOLD' Sodouri beat Anton 'PowerBeton' Mesko 4-0.
Justin 'Regs84' Reguly also secured three points against Ondrej 'Aigeu' Jurasi, but the 1-0 win on Xbox was much closer.
Latvia took the first major step in its road to the quarter-finals against Great Britain: Kristers 'chibra' Bauers defeated Jake 'Notzpanthers' Leversuch 2-0, Juris 'snipencelly8' Lopatko celebrated a 5-1 victory against Sean 'Sean' McIntosh.
'SafirSnipezGOLD' and 'Regs84' continued Canada’s dominance. Two wins against Latvia (4-1 and 4-0) brought Team Canada close to the quarter-finals. Great Britain stayed in the race for second place, a 6-5 overtime win and a 3-1 victory against Slovakia gave them five points.
While Latvia had two wins against Slovakia (2-0 and 3-0) in the third round, the players under the Union Jack had to accept two defeats. 'Notzpanthers' lost to 'SafirSnipezGOLD' with 0-5.
Most surprising was the performance of 'Sean' against Canada’s 'Regs84': The Briton forced the finalist of the NHL Gaming World Championship into overtime. There, however, Reguly had the happier end for himself with a 4-3 success.
It was the only loss of points for the Canadians, who enter the quarter-finals as the group leader. Latvia finished group B in second place and also moves into the knockout phase.
Great Britain put up a brave fight, but six points were not enough to advance. The Slovaks, on the other hand, finish bottom of the group with just one point.
The U.S. have already advanced further in the 2022 IIHF eWorld Championship than it did two years ago – despite missing its Xbox player.
A power outage prevented Joseph 'Jos' Olmstead from playing on Xbox on Sunday. With the agreement of all opponents, David 'JrPens' Roebuck, who was supposed to play only on PlayStation, was allowed to play all group matches.
The 2018 Gaming World Championship runner-up put on a perfect first round, opening by beating Switzerland's Sven 'OriginaL-SnuS' Julmi (8-1) and Mirco 'Tron1x90' Salvi (4-2).
Against Ukrainians Vladislav 'House Pro' Laktionov (8-0) and Vladyslav 'Vladyslav' Kryvchenkov (10-0), his defense also shone. 'JrPens' set off for offensive fireworks after beating Frenchman Antoine 'moltysanty' Billarant 8-2.
In his final group game on Xbox, Roebuck cruised to the highest win of the IIHF eWorld Championship so far. The 25-year-old defeated Dylan 'Razorgue' Lemonnier with a furious 20-2 victory.
With this triumph, the US team will advance to the quarter-finals. They missed out on this goal in 2020, when they lost out to Canada in the round of the last 16.
Switzerland secured the second place without too many problems. 'OriginaL-SnuS' defeated 'moltysanty' 3-1, 'Tron1x90' made it clearer with an 8-1 win against 'Razorgue'. Against the Ukrainians (7-2 and 5-3) six more points were scored.
'House Pro' and 'Vladyslav' could not get any positive results at the IIHF esports debut of Ukraine. They lost their games of the first round against the French 'moltysanty' and 'Razorgue' with 1-3 and 4-5.
Sweden and Czechia have successfully emerged from Group D, the Scandinavians won every single one of their group matches in regular time.
The presumed top duel took place at the start of group D on Saturday when Sweden and Czechia met. Sebastian 'SebbeLarsen86' Larsen against Adam 'Dzouvi' Mensik (3-1) and Henrik 'eken45jr' Eklund against Josef 'pepcastachurcik' Stachura (3-0) marked the dream start for Sweden.
At the same time, the debutants from Japan had to accept two heavy defeats: Shintaro 'virtil' Nagata lost 0-10 against Max 'Toneee9' Tonitz from Austria. Hiroki 'YOZA' Yoza even conceded 17 goals against Felix 'Feeeelix' Kiss.
However, the Japanese showed great morale and continued to give their best. They were rewarded with three goals in the games against the Kazakh Alexandr 'Fearix777' Kramar (1-5) and against 'Dzouvi' (1-8) and 'pepcastachurcik' (1-14).
Nevertheless, the Japanese finished last in Group D without a point. Kazakhstan finished the group stage in fourth place – 'Fearix777' (5-1) and Dias 'Diaso88' Imanshapikh (5-0) took all their six points against Japan.
The fight for second place was between Czechia and Austria, decided by a direct comparison: 'Dzouvi' defeated 'Toneee9' 4-3, 'pepcastachurcik' celebrated a 2-1 victory against 'Feeeelix'. These six points made the difference in the final table.
A perfect group stage was played by the Swedes. After the first two wins against Czechia, 'SebbeLarsen86' and 'eken45jr' also defeated Kazakhstan (10-0 and 6-0), Japan (9-0 and 18-0) and Austria (3-1 and 4-2) twice.