Autumn Open 2021 Awards
Without unnecessary warm-up, preparation, prefaces, opening words, solemn speeches, tiresome conversations… Ahem… EHL Autumn Open 2021 awards!
For a full overview of the tournament follow this link.
Awards for the previous tourney are here.
Best Goalkeeper
For the second tournament in a row, the main contenders for gold are DeadMouse and Howl, but this time the commission was unable to determine one of them in first place. Vitya aka Dead had a slightly more stable tournament in general, but Kirill, not really lagging behind his competitor, won a face-to-face meeting in the final, which pulled him into first place. Congratulations to both goalkeepers, and we wish them the same cool performance at the gates border in future tourneys!
Federico, after a relatively weak Rapid League for himself, again gave a chic performance. This time we can see Maxim again on the podium, which makes us understand that one cannot write him off. Congratulations on the bronze!
Worth mentioning: Stegen (Nordic Union), Unnamed, W (both – Lemons), SlenderMan (Candy Cane).
Stegen returned to the Nordics camp five years later, and immediately showed a good goalkeeper game. It will be interesting to watch him further – maybe he will get the gold in the next tournament?
Unnamed played some very strong games, showing himself as a stable and powerful goalie who can save a dead puck at the right time. But the distribution of places was affected by the fact that Limons did not reach the playoffs, and Unna himself did not play against The Oscars and Ice Creamers. Expect him to fight for gold next time!
W, to match his “mentor”, had a good regular season, once again making some incredible saves, but so far he is missing something. Perhaps the departure of the main competitor from the team will allow the Czech legionnaire to show all his skills and really break into the cohort of top goalkeepers.
SlenderMan gave a brilliant ending to the regular season in an uncharacteristic position for himself, helping out the team over and over again in dead situations. Unfortunately, this still did not help MoNsTeR's wards to get into the playoffs, but we cannot but mention Ilya.
Best Defender
The defeat in this nomination at the last tourney became a personal challenge for Jobson, and this time he easily takes the gold. An excellent game from A and to Z, there were no equals to him in strength at this tournament. Congratulations on the gold!
After returning back to the 4v4 format, it was quite hard for Vladimir to roll into the game in his native position of the “only one in the bottom”, which prevented him from taking the gold from Dima. In any case, a great game in the last row of the Oscars defense, as well as a great finale, where he literally destroyed most of IC's attacks, allowed him to outrun all his competitors. Everyone except for Alexey.
Ryan had a consistent championship, at the same time participating in a large proportion of his team's goals, but also staying behind more often than others, destroying opponents' attacks. Who knows where he would have ended up if Nordics had won their semifinals.
Congratulations to oree and ryan on silver!
Worth mentioning: Wolk (Alliance), Torres (Nordic Union).
Alliance started the tourney without David, but he came to the rescue of his team in time, when needed. In all games, he showed a fairly high level of hockey, but something was not enough for the best defender prize – maybe the semi-final, in which Alliance lost.
Torres did not get to play many games for Nordic Union. But in all where he participated, Daniil showed that he deserves to play in the best teams in the league.
Best All-round
- 1st place – vaiber (The Oscars);
- 2nd place – Lilipotto (Ice Creamers);
- 3-4th places – Zaripov#25 (Alliance), egorka (Nordic Union).
No questions or surprises – since Oleg's transition to The Oscars, few people can get close to the level of his game. Congratulations on the gold!
Stas showed that one should still not forget about him. An excellent tournament in every sense of the word, only victory was not enough. Congratulations on the long-awaited award and look forward to fighting for gold next season!
Alexander has been playing the last tournaments in a role that is not quite familiar to him, and the roster that changes every time does not contribute to the development of his result. But what cannot be taken away from Zaripov is his level of individual play. It's hard to imagine how the Alliance's performance would have been so high without him.
Egor showed that he is still capable of instilling fear in the opponents' defensive ranks – the highest percentage of successful passes in the tourney is the confirmation. Unfortunately, something was missing in the playoffs, but Egor's influence on the Nordics hockey cannot be canceled.
Worth mentioning: jERS (Ice Creamers).
Not to say that jERS got a lot of tournament practice, but in the final he showed class. Substituting at the most difficult moment, he helped his team to catch on to the fight and move the game into overtime, managing to score goals and successfully work out in defense. Expect him in the top three next season?
Best Forward
- 1st place – niko (The Oscars);
- 2nd place – Ricky (Ice Creamers);
- 3rd place – Panda (The Bandits).
Time passes, many things change, but Nikita is still the most productive player in the league. Even despite the introduction of mercy rule, the numbers he showed in this tournament were close to records. With an average of 5.94 goals per game and a 63% finishing rate, he is rightfully the best striker in the league. Congratulations on another gold and wish him not to slow down.
It's a little harder to stand out with a high scoring rate when you play on a team where everyone on the box can score and pass. 60 goals in 12 games and 51% of finishing helped Ricky justly gain a foothold in second place. Congratulations on the silver!
While the Bandits didn't make it far in the playoffs, don't write Mark off. 81% of participation in the goals of his team is no joke. Seasoning this fact with a 50% of finishing, Panda once again flies onto the podium, with which we congratulate him!
Worth mentioning: frisbi (Alliance), Tidge (O Block), Dkato (Nordic Union).
After a long absence, German has shown that he can play at a high level. Perhaps his potential will be revealed even better already in the new team.
Contrary to all expectations, the leader of O Block attacks was not 72snake, but Tidge. An excellent performance in the group, without which the team could not have made it to the playoffs, as well as a confident game on the cutting edge in the quarterfinals against Nordics.
Not the strongest championship for Daniil, but he still scored his goals, which helped the team reach the semifinals.
Best Player of the Tournament
Hardly anyone can argue with the first two places. After some problems, Nikita and Oleg had to completely rebuild Oscars attacking game (as evidenced by the drop in dribbling success rates, as well as an increase in the number of passes for both). This did not stop them from continuing their dominance on the playground and deservedly picking up the first two awards. Who will be able to impose a fight on them, and will this couple have enough motivation to continue to inspire fear in the rivals defence? We'll find out next season.
If there were no Oscars at this tournament, Stanislav would definitely take gold in this nomination. As we said, in every sense a great tourney for him, and only more to come!
Jobson has proven once again that he is one of the best defensemen in the league.
Ryan helped his team with the game in attack at the same time as concreted the defense.
Oree again shown that he is a real rock and is perfect for his role in The Oscars.
Howl and DeadMouse once again confirmed that they can be considered the most reliable goaltenders in the league.
One of the strongest scorer performances in the league for Ricky, but at the right moments his defensive and creative abilities were a little lacking.
Another tournament for Zaripov in a not quite familiar and changed roster did not allow him to show his full potential, but we all know what he is capable of.
Egorka once again proved that he is in the leading roles in the league, but in the decisive matches he was somewhere lacking.
Panda once again showed his scoring instinct, but it was not enough for anything more than a quarterfinal.
Not exactly the best tournament for Federico in terms of reliability, but who knows if Alliance could have made it to the semifinals without such a goalkeeper?
Finals MVP
Throughout the tourney, niko diligently played the role of team leader, managing the games and leading the Oscars. The final against IC was no exception – Nikita was charged from the very beginning and scored a lot of points without any visible problems, and with them the prize of the best player in the final. Congratulations!
At Autumn Open 2021, we saw a real full house – as many as 10 teams and 63 players at once. Thanks to everyone who took part, and we look forward to seeing everyone in the third season of the EHL!
All stats of the tourney for those who want more: bit.ly/ehl-autumn-open-stats.
EHL records and awards history: bit.ly/ehl-awards.
Our Discord server with only the latest news: bit.ly/ehl-discord-server.