2019 NHL Gaming World Championship continues with play-in brackets

NEW YORK/TORONTO - With more than 150,000 matches completed during Online Qualifying play, an 812% increase year-over-year, the 2019 NHL Gaming World Championship™ continues this weekend as the top 128 players from each Region (European Union, Canada and U.S.) compete in single-elimination online bracket tournaments to determine who will advance to their respective Live Regional Final.

This past weekend, the top four players from the European Union for each of the Xbox and PS4 consoles - dominated by seven Finnish players - earned a trip to the Live European Regional on Saturday, May 18. These players will finish the bracket this Saturday, April 20, to determine seeding and then meet in-person on May 18 at Viasat Studio in Stockholm, Sweden, to compete for the chance to travel to Las Vegas for the 2019 NHL Gaming World Championship™ Final. The Champion will walk away with his/her share of the $100,000 cash prize pool, receive the championship trophy and be featured in the broadcast of the 2019 NHL Awards™ presented by Bridgestone.
Players are listed alphabetically by their Play-In Bracket Battlefy gamertag:

NHL GWC Gamertag (Console), Name, Hometown

ATRIVREPUS (Xbox), Joonas Virta, Vaasa, Finland
Dominointi (PS4), Risto Järvi, Tampere, Finland
Eilung (Xbox), Christoph Eilenberger, Kitzbühel, Austria
f0cus99 (Xbox), Hannes 'Hansulino' Kettunen^, Vantaa, Finland
kriketsi17 (PS4), Kristian Veijola, Oulu, Finland
Pleemaker (PS4), Paul Arontie^, Oulu, Finland
Sagee95 (PS4), Saku Bjarn, Lohja, Finland
Tilantekija (Xbox), Erik 'Eki' Tammenpää\, Espoo, Finland
* 2018 NHL Gaming World Champion
^ 2018 NHL GWC Regional finalist
For the first time, all Live Regional Final rounds and the 2019 NHL Gaming World Championship Final™ will be streamed live on Twitch with extensive community activation, including giveaways and promotions as well as community and lifestyle content created at the House of Chel*, an NHL esports activation that took place during the 2019 Honda NHL® All-Star Weekend.
Arda Ocal, who will serve as the play-by-play announcer for the 2019 NHL Gaming World Championship, also is guest writing a column for NHL.com throughout the tournament. Read his latest article, '
Ten Gamers to Watch
.'
Fans can follow the brackets in real-time by visiting
NHL.com/Gaming
, using social hashtag #NHLGWC and watching matches on the NHL's Twitch channel,
www.twitch.tv/nhl
.

Upcoming Tournament Dates

Saturday, April 20 - European Online Play-In Bracket Day 2 (seeding for top eight players)
Saturday, April 20 - Canadian Online Play-In Bracket Day 1
Saturday, April 27 - Canadian Online Play-In Bracket Day 2 (seeding for top eight players)
Saturday, April 27 - United States Online Play-In Bracket Day 1
Saturday, April 27 - European Regional Draft*
Saturday, May 4 - United States Online Play-In Bracket Day 2 (seeding for top eight players)
Saturday, May 4 - Canadian Regional Draft*
Saturday, May 11 - United States Regional Draft\
* More information on Regional Draft rules and regulations to follow in coming week*