And now for something completely different.
The Devils announced yesterday that the inaugural NJ Devil Cup will be held on Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25. The tournament follows the release of EA Sports’ NHL 21 this Friday.
According to the press release put out by the Devils, the tournament will “feature eight NHL mascots and eight professional gamers in a best-of-three series.” The start times will be 11 AM on Saturday and 10 AM on Sunday.
The presser notes that “each mascot participating will team up with a professional gamer, who will play as the rest of the team.” (It is not mentioned, but I will assume the mascots will control the goalie, then.)
The press release goes on to mention the format: all three rounds of the tourney will be best-of-three and a mascot and a pro gamer will comprise a full team.
The teams will feature: the Colorado Avalanche represented by Bernie (mascot) and DekeSlayer (gamer); St. Louis Blues with Louie (mascot) and DaddyPadre (gamer); Florida Panthers’ Stanley (mascot) and FlaPanthersGaming (gamer); Columbus Blue Jacket’ Stinger (mascot) and TopShelfCookie (gamer); your New Jersey Devils with NJ Devil (mascot) and Henreek (gamer); the San Jose Sharks with SJ Sharkie (mascot) and NoSleeves (gamer); the Chicago Blackhawks featuring Tommy Hawk (mascot) and DontBeSaad20 (gamer); and, finally, the Anaheim Ducks featuring Wild Wing (mascot) and AnaheimDucksGaming (gamer).
The press release did give bios for each gamer and mascot. I’m not going to bore you with the other guys, but thought I’d scout our heroes (who will be designated Team 5) exclusively. “Henreek is an EA Game Changer Twitch Partner and Youtuber. He is one of the most consistent streamers and prides himself on streaming NHL 20 6 days a week. With 14.7k subscribers on Youtube, and just nearly 10k followers on Twitch, he has quite the following and influence in the world of gaming.”
As for good ol’ NJ: “The one and only, NJ Devil, is 7-feet tall and lives at the Rock, otherwise known as Prudential Center. NJ is non-stop entertainment both in and out of the arena. In arena, you can catch him playing his favorite instrument, the drum, or running through the aisles high fiving Devils fans. He loves to play and teach hockey, read, dance, throw t-shirts, and of course, pull pranks!”
Very enlightening stuff.
The event is presented in partnership “with Alpha Esports Inc., a multi-fold, vertically integrated esports company, to host and operate the inaugural NJ Devil Cup. The tournament will be hosted on the company’s online tournament platform.”
You can watch the tournament on NewJerseyDevils.com/NJDevilCup. Fans can also follow everything “across Devils social channels @NJDevils and @NJDevil and use the tag #NJDevilCup.”