Tkachuk wins high-spirited 'NHL 21' First Look Tournament

Brady Tkachuk isn't normally one to break out the razzle dazzle when he's on his XBOX, but he had just enough sauce to pull off a win in the NHL Gaming First Look Tournament on Saturday.

The event, which streamed on Twitch (
https://www.twitch.tv/nhl
), pit Tkachuk, Minnesota Wild forward J.T. Brown, gamers Leafy and OGKevinBacon, content creator THRASH, stickhandling specialist and trick shot artist Pavel Barber, journalist James Mirtle of The Athletic, and Los Angeles Kings reporter Carrlyn Bathe against each other in a bracket playoff using EA Sports "NHL 21" in its new HUT RUSH mode. The mode allows users to build a team and earn more points the more creative their goals are.
Arda Ocal, Nasher and NBC Sports correspondent Corey Robinson provided commentary for the tournament. A $7,500 donation will be made to the Boys & Girls Clubs on the winner's behalf to help build and support youth hockey and skating programming. A $2,500 donation will be made for the competitor who scored the most points.
"I usually just do the back door stuff and try to find glitches like that but they give you help on the top when you first start the game, so I tried out a couple things," Tkachuk said. "But usually I just go 2-on-1 or try to shoot and score."
Tkachuk defeated Bathe and OGKevinBacon before beating Leafy in a shootout, going back to the between-the-legs move many times, which drew some ribbing from the commentary crew.
"We even challenged him during the tournament," Ocal said. "Like you're doing this 100 times, see if you can do it end-to-end. Just take the puck behind your own net and just start skating to the blueline and throw it between the legs and see how far you'll go. Do you think you'll make it to the offensive goal line? It was just funny. He would do it on defense. To his credit, though, he did score few times between the legs."
Leafy, a University of Florida student from Scottsdale, Arizona, beat THRASH and Brown to get to the final with Tkachuk.
"Brady was much better than I was expecting, honestly," she said. "I suppose the extended Senators offseason gives him some extra time to hone his skills. But in all seriousness, he was a strong competitor and his win was well-deserved."
"At the end of the day, it was for a good cause," Tkachuk said. "I had fun, though, in the finals probably a bit more than the games before but it was fun. I had a good time and I was just happy to be there."
The gamers selected for the tournament were of various experience levels to show the mode could be enjoyed by anyone, and the scoring system encourages gamers to pull off complex goals to gain an advantage.
"I enjoyed drafting my team and playing HUT RUSH quite a bit," Leafy said. "The 3-on-3 games were rather chaotic, but I think that provided good content for the viewers. The purpose of the points system was a little bit confusing, but I could definitely see myself putting time into the mode once the game is released."
The mode makes for lighthearted competition, which Ocal said he and Nasher tried to emphasize throughout the tournament with jokes and off-the-wall interviews.
"If you put us in a room together, we will take every opportunity to make people laugh and just have a great time and create a nice fun party vibe," Ocal said. "So we definitely brought that energy to this event and it really showed, like you could tell at first maybe a couple of the players were getting really serious about the game play but then we would ask them ridiculous questions like, 'What do you think of Star Wars character] Jar Jar Binks? Like really oddball questions that would take them out of their comfort zone a little bit."
The event was set up to preview NHL 21 after the NHL Gaming World Championship in Las Vegas was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike the highly competitive GWC that has large prize pools on the line, the First Look Tournament offered a more relaxed feel that allowed Ocal and Nasher to interact with the gamers in real time, rather than just giving play-by-play and analysis.
"Honestly I really hope it continues," Ocal said. "There is room for there to be a straight up competition like GWC and people would care. But I also think, even at the team level, there's room to do content through gaming and make it a regular thing because I bet you that there would a lot of players that would be into that."
"NHL 21" will be released on Oct. 16 and can be preordered here:
[https://www.ea.com/games/nhl/nhl-21/buy