Welcome to Helsinki! It has already been more than 11 years since the last time, and we are thrilled to be able to host the international table hockey community once again.

Pre-registration

Online pre-registration is mandatory and it ends on Wednesday 11th of March. Lunch orders close on March 7, or earlier if the 40-person capacity is reached. Please register here: https://forms.gle/bSPbvrizAJk4y252A

The full list of pre-registered players can be found here

The Venue

The tournament will be held on Saturday 14th of March 2026 at Telakkaruokala Murtaja (Laivakatu 1, Helsinki) at the harbour area close to downtown of Helsinki.

Indoor shoes are not mandatory. However, we would like to keep our pucks clean from dirt, so please bring clean shoes or at least carefully wipe your outdoor shoes before entering to the game area.

Schedule

08:30 Doors open
09:30 Player check-in closes
10:00 1st stage
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 2nd stage
17:00 Playoffs (16)
21:00 Prize ceremony

The exact timing of lunch break and 2nd stage will depend on the number of players.

Fees

Juniors: 15 €
Others: 30 €
FTHA (SPJKL) members: 5 € discount

Payment method: Cash / MobilePay (Finnish players)

In case of cash payments, please bring the exact amount.

The tournament

Helsinki Open 2026 is a level 3 WTHT (World Table Hockey Tour) tournament. At the moment, the WTHT is open for everyone except for players from Russia and Belarus.

Most or all of the STIGA games used in the tournament are brand new and prepared with care.

In addition to Open category, there will be Ladies playoff for those ladies that did not proceed to the Open playoffs. The Ladies playoff bracket will be seeded according to the stages 1 and 2 of the Open tournament.

Top 3 juniors and veterans will be awarded with a plaque award. The winners of Division 1 and Division 2 receive a trophy.

Playing system

The tournament structure will follow the traditional system of having 4-6 basic groups, 2 final groups and divisions 1 and 2. Supported by an approval from the ITHF Executive Committee, we are introducing a modified point system in which all points (with some exceptions) from the basic group are carried over to the final groups.

The game schedule in the final groups is the usual one: you will play against every player in your group, even if you have met some of the players in the basic group. So, you will encounter some players 2 times during basic and final groups.

Your overall score is then calculated as basic group points + final group points and it will determine the playoff seeding as well as the final placings for the other players in the final groups. Tiebreakers are resolved based on final group standings in which basic group points are not considered.

The size of playoffs is 16 players.

In case of Divisions 1 and 2, no points are carried over. There will not be a Division 3, instead Divisions 1 and 2 will be split in groups A and B if necessary.

Please see a fully detailed description of the tournament structure, group sizes, seeding rules and the point system below in the end of this page.

Referees

The committee of referees in the tournament is:
– Ville Henttonen
– Anže Božič
– Simon Thomas

Substitutes:
– Kristaps Naglis
– Vesa Huotelin

Lunch at the venue

A simple lunch buffet (15 €) will be available at the venue: chicken with a selection of side dishes and salads. A vegetarian protein option is also available by pre-order. Lunch capacity at the venue is 40 players.

Note: If you plan to eat elsewhere, nearby restaurants and grocery stores are about a 5–15 minute walk from the venue (depending on where you go), so it’s worth checking options in advance.

Contact

helsinkiopen@gmail.com

Tournament structure

This guide explains how players are grouped, how points are counted, and how final rankings are decided.

Group sizes

Players	Basic groups	Final group size	Div. 1 size	Div. 2 size
69-71	4	18 + 18	16	17-19
72-80	4	18 + 18	20	16-24
81-84	5	20 + 20	20	21-24
85-89	5	20 + 20	25	20-24
90-102	6	21 + 21	18 + 18	12-24
103-108	6	21 + 21	18 + 18	(13-15) + (12-15)
109-119	7	21 + 21	21 + 21	(13-18) + (12-17)
120+	Will be	specified	if	necessary

Basic groups

Players are first placed into basic groups by their world ranking order. Some players might get manually up-seeded due to outdated world ranking position. After that, the groups are adjusted to keep nationalities as balanced as possible. The idea is to avoid one group having many players from one country while another group has very few. Swapping players is done using an algorithm and only between players with equivalent seed position.

Each group plays a round-robin schedule. The last round is arranged to avoid same-country pairings when possible.

Qualification to next stage

Players qualify from each group based on their group placement, which is determined using following priority:

Overall number of points
Number of points from mutual matches between players with the same number of points
Goal difference (number of goals for minus number of goals against) from mutual matches
Number of goals for from mutual matches
Number of wins from mutual matches
Overall goal difference (number of goals for minus number of goals against)
Overall number of goals for
Overall number of wins
An extra overtime match finishing with the 1st goal

From each group the same number of players qualify to a given stage. For example, if there are 4 basic groups, the final group size is 36 and Division 1 size is 20, the top 9 in each group will qualify to the final group, next 5 players to the Division 1 and rest to the Division 2.

Seeding to final groups and divisions

First, all qualified players are ranked using the same order rules:

Better placement in the basic group
Higher points per match (normalized points)
Better normalized goal difference (Goals For Average – Goals Against Average)
Better Goals For Average
An extra overtime match finishing with the 1st goal

After ranking, players are put into new groups in their ranked order. In case there are multiple same-stage groups, for example FinalA and FinalB or Div1A and Div1B, ”snake” seeding is applied (A, B, B, A, A, B, B, A, etc.).

Points carry system

Final groups:

All points (with some exceptions*) from basic group are added as starting points
Final group round-robin games are then played normally
Total points = carried points + final group points

* If different number of games were played in the groups, we look at the minimum number of games played and discard all games from the point carry that were played against positions lower than that number. For example, if the basic group sizes were 16, 16, 16 and 15, only points against top 15 in each group are carried to the final groups. Note that disqualified players (dq) are not counted in determining the group size.

Divisions:

No points are carried over.

Final group standings (for resolving tiebreakers)

Considering only games played in the final groups, players are ranked using the same criteria as in basic groups (see above) by first determining the group placement and then comparing results between players in different groups with same in-group placement. The resulted order of players is saved as a ”side table” that is used in resolving tiebreakers in the overall standings calculation.

Overall in-group placements (final groups)

The overall in-group placement of a player is determined using following priority

Total points (carried points + final group points)
Final group standing

Overall pre-playoff standings (final groups)

Before the playoffs, the overall pre-playoff standings are determined using following priority:

Overall in-group placement
Normalized Total points*
Final group standing

* In a rare case in which there is a disqualified player in one of the final groups, the number of played games is not the same between the groups. That’s why the Total points calculation has to be adjusted in this step to make comparisons fair for both groups.

Instead of using Total points (carried points + final group points) directly, we calculate:
Normalized Total points = carried points + (final group points per match)*(planned number of games)

For example, in final groups A and B, size of 18 and 18 one player in group B gets disqualified. The number of games played in those groups will then be 17 and 16. If a player in group B got 27 carried points and 22 final group points (49 in total), then:

Normalized Total points = 27 + 22/16*17 = 50.375

Seeding to playoffs (final groups)

Based on overall in-group placements in final groups, for playoffs size of 16, the starting match-ups are
A1-B8
B1-A8
A2-B7
B2-A7
and so on. The full (static) bracket structure can be seen here:
https://tulos.poytajaakiekko.fi/playoff-tree

The playoffs are best of seven, bronze match best of five. The player that has higher Overall pre-playoff standing has the right to choose the game.

Overall post-playoff standings (final groups)

After the playoffs, the overall post-playoff standings are determined using following priority:

Winner of the final or bronze match
Last round of playoffs played
Overall pre-playoff standing

Divisions 1 and 2 standings

Since points are not carried over to Division groups, the in-group placements and final standings after the games will be determined using the same logic and priority as in the basic groups.

Depending on the schedule and the size of Division groups, there might or might not be playoffs for Divisions. The playoffs are played best of three, and the seeding depends on the number of division groups (whether there is Div1A and Div1B or just Div1):

One group:
1-4
2-3
Two groups:
A1-B2
B1-A2

The final standings of a division are determined the same manner as in the final groups by first looking at the playoff results and then the round robin results.

Final tournament standings (Open series)

The final tournament placements are concatenated from final standings of different stages in this order:

Overall post-playoff standings (final groups)
Division 1 standings
Division 2 standings

Ladies playoffs

There will be Ladies playoff for those ladies that did not proceed to the Open playoffs. The Ladies playoff bracket will be seeded according to final tournament standings of Open series. The size and format will be determined at the venue.

We have trophies for best 3 ladies. The placements are concatenated in following order:

Participants of open series playoffs in their final open tournament standing order
Ladies playoff results