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 thriller.

With 2020 MVP Erik 'ENCEKI' Tammenpää leading Finland once again, the group stage did not pose a challenge for the top favourite.

Already at the start the Finns made clear that they mean business: Valtteri 'Vattuyy' Virtanen beat German Luca 'Cpt_DirtyDangler' Knoll 6-0, 'ENCEKI' triumphed in parallel over Kevin 'Kevinator-373' Würterle (7-2).

Hungarians stumble in debut

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.

Without a chance were the Hungarians 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).

'ENCEKI' has to go into overtime

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 in overtime and 5-3) – the last round became a thriller.

'Kevinator-373' makes the comeback

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.