The inaugural IIHF Esport Fan Championship in 2020 saw Finnish duo of Erik 'Tilantekija' Tammenpaa and Joel 'Rottadee' Myllymaki beat Nordic rivals Sweden for the title.

"With the launch of the IIHF eWorld Championship, we are aiming for this to be the start of a new program of eSport offerings in the future," said IIHF President Luc Tardif.

Additionally, the IIHF has increased the number of competing nations from 16 to 22 to create more opportunities for ice hockey esports competitions.

The eWorld Championship will begin with the online qualification phase on June 16 to determine 44 national champions - 22 on PlayStation and 22 on Xbox.

The group stage is scheduled for early July after the national champions are confirmed.

The 22 nations will compete in two groups of five and two groups of six with the top two squads of each group progressing to the playoffs.

The playoffs is scheduled to start a week later with all group stage games and knockout fixtures set to be streamed live for ice hockey fans around the globe.

Those interested in taking part in the 2022 IIHF eWorld Championship can register here.

All interested players needs to hold the nationality of the participating nations, be at least 16 years old, own either an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 and should also have the game NHL™ 22.

If the correct version of the game is available, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S can also be used.