Can Switzerland upset defending champion Finland?

Top favourites Finland will meet Switzerland at the start of the knockout phase. Can the Swiss manage to topple the Finnish giants?

As expected, the Finns secured first place in group A and will thus meet the runner-up of group C in the quarter-finals: Switzerland.

The winner of the 2020 IIHF Esports Fan Championship had little trouble advancing to the knockout stage. With 23 points out of a possible 24, Finland dominated group A. Valtteri 'Vattuyy' Virtanen and 2020 MVP Erik 'ENCEKI' Tammenpää already seem to be in excellent shape.

'ENCEKI' warned after overtime

However, 'ENCEKI' has already received a small warning shot: The winner of the 2018 NHL Gaming World Championship had to go into overtime against Denmark's Martin 'xProAm69x' Vibholm Nielsen (2-1) in the last group game on Xbox.

Swiss Sven 'OriginaL-SnuS' Julmi and Mirco 'Tron1x90' Salvi will be aiming for similar surprises. They secured second place in Group C well ahead of the French, only the USA were stronger.

Exclamation mark from 'Tron1x90

Especially 'Tron1x90' presented himself competitive against the US-American David 'JrPens' Roebuck, the 2-4 defeat was quite close. The favoured Finns should not underestimate Switzerland at all.

The Fans can watch the first quarter-final of the 2022 IIHF eWorld Championship on the Twitch channel of the IIHF – from 15:45 UTC on Saturday. It will also be broadcasted in Finnish and German.

Main stream: https://www.twitch.tv/iihfhockey

Finnish stream: https://www.twitch.tv/sportsgamergg

German stream: https://www.twitch.tv/bl00dylp