The 2020 IIHF Esports Fan Championship continues on Tuesday and Wednesday with the quarter-finals according to the following schedule:

Tuesday:
Russia vs. Norway 18:00 CET / 19:00 MSK Stream in English / Russian
Finland vs. Germany 21:00 CET / 22:00 EET Stream in English / German

Wednesday:
Sweden vs. Czech Republic 18:00 CET Stream in English / Swedish
Canada vs. Slovakia 21:00 CET / 3pm ET / noon PT Stream in English

Click in the streams above to watch the games live and visit esports.iihf.com for more information and live scores.

Once again, two individual games will be played on NHL 20 on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The results of these four games will add up to the final score.

Check out our previews below:

Russia meets Norway

In the round of the last 16, the Russians beat their neighbours Kazakhstan with ease. Sergei 'Serg1vratar_vH' Filippov and Maksim 'mahoney88' Krinitsyn scored four individual victories for a clear final result of 24-8. The Kazakhs had little to challenge especially against 'mahoney88', with the 25-year-old conceding just two goals while notching 13 of his own. However, Russia will face a tough test in the quarter-finals with the Norwegians. The Scandinavians, for their part, beat Switzerland 18-10 and made the crowd sit up and take notice. Even though they have an experience e-sportsman in Sven 'OriginaL-SnuS' Julmi, Lars Petter 'Larsto50' Sto and Daniel 'Bacon' Baekken did their job professionally and swept the Swiss in four games. With Norway now looking like the tournament’s dark horse, predicting the outcome will be tough, but spectators can expect an exciting game.

Germany takes on Finland

The starting position before the duel between Finland and Germany is somewhat different. The reigning IIHF Ice Hockey World Champions have iced two pros for the digital version: Erik 'Tilantekija' Tammenpää, who won the NHL™ Gaming World Championship in 2018, and Joel 'rottadee' Myllymäki, who gave Great Britain no chance last Friday in a 27-6 blowout. The Germans are the underdogs, but with Tim 'Timasy' Hess they have a shot as the 21-year-old secured the eDEL CUP in March 2020. Together with Martin 'Venomenyce' Perenz, who won both his matches without conceding a goal, the Germans had the defensive strength needed to pose a challenge to the Finns. 

Czech want to defy Sweden

After two titles in a row, Sweden had to relinquish the throne of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in 2019 for its Nordic neighbour from Finland. After the cancellation of this year's edition, Sebastian 'SebbeLarsen86' Larsen (PlayStation 4) and Henrik 'eken45jr' Eklund (Xbox One) have at least a chance to give Sweden a virtual title at the IIHF Esports Fan Championship.

In the round of sixteen against Italy, the two 20-year-olds didn't miss the opportunity and secured a clear 28-10 with four individual victories. But opponent Czech Republic also has a strong duo to offer: Josef 'Pepcastachurcik1' Stachura has already scored 61 goals in the national qualifier on PlayStation, bringing his total to 73 after the round of 16 against Belarus (4-2 and 8-1). His Xbox colleague Jaroslav 'J4rincze' Rehor had a much harder time in the last round against 'NEFINOR', but with 3-1 and 4-5 scores he still secured the partial victory on his console.

Canada and Slovakia close quarter-finals

After the victory in the North American showdown against the USA, Canada enters the round of the last eight with a good portion of self-confidence. Joshua 'Joshfearless12' D'Eri (PS4) and Karl 'hswertha23' Caslib (Xbox) defeated their neighbour 17-12, but were defeated in two of the four individual matches.

Even more exciting was the Round of 16 for Slovakia: PlayStation player Anton 'Fenomen36363' Mesko and Xbox representative Sandra 'Lady Brunette' Demitrová won the thriller on the virtual ice with 16-15. 'Lady Brunette' ensured their progress with two individual wins. If the Slovak duo also wants to annoy the favourite from Canada, they will have to improve their performance again in the quarter-finals.