The winner will advance to the Club Championship and join MassMutual NHL East Division Champion Justin 'Ez\Regs' Reguly, Scotia NHL North Division Champion Joshua 'joshfearless13' D'Eri and Discover NHL Central Division Champion Matthew 'Gren-35-' Grenier for a chance to take home the $25,000 USD grand prize. The NHL's annual gaming event features the best EA SPORTS™ NHL® 21 players in the world.
"One of the best storylines and toughest matchups will be the quarterfinal series between John Wayne (No. 5 seed) and Daddy Padre (No. 4 seed)," said GWC voice and ESPN personality Arda Ocal. "The Alaskan Ace (Wayne) is one of the most beloved faces in the GWC community and a former World Finalist, while Padre's story is one of hockey fairytales. In this year's tournament, Daddy\Padre is representing his hometown St. Louis Blues, where he also serves as emergency goaltender for the team and practices with them. Padre celebrated with the Blues during their Stanley Cup win in 2019 and has a good chance at becoming the Chel Champion off the ice if he advances in this Division Final."
The NHL's digital platforms will carry highlights of the GWC, with cut-down versions distributed by NHL global broadcast partners - NBC Sports in the U.S.; Sportsnet in Canada; and Viaplay, NENT Group, Sport1 and Premier Sports in Europe. Tournament rules, regulations, prize pools, schedules and results can be found
here
. Fans can follow the conversation using social hashtag #NHLGWC. The 2021 NHL GWC is being produced by DreamHack Sports Games (DHSG), a global leader in producing esports tournaments for traditional sports leagues and properties.