This year, the 16th Santa Claus Cup will kick off with the highest-level AAA tournament, which will be held in 2023 for the first time in a new venue, in Győr. The new venue will also bring a record number of teams: 25 teams from 5 countries will compete between 1-3 December 2023.

Eight of the winners from the last 15 years will be represented at this year's tournament – HOBA Bratislava, the only team to have participated in the Santa Claus Cup every year and to have won it three times, will be back in 2023 again. HC Kosice and HC Decín, who have won the cup twice, will also be there, while Piráti Chomutov and HC Ocelári Trinec will return to Hungary as one-time champions. The Dunaújváros Acélbikák team will return to the tournament as the only Hungarian winners, while Csíkszereda and last year's winners Banská Bystrica will also step on the ice.

In addition to the big returners, Lvi Breclav, and Hungarian DHK will be participating in the tournament for the first time this year.

The teams have been drawn into five groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the top ten. The teams will play a total of 12 matches over the three days. The matches will be 1x30 minutes, and you can read about the rules and the organization under the Rules menu item.

So it's quite a competition coming to Győr, here are the groups:

A group
1.HC Ocelári Trinec (CZE)
2.HC Košice (SVK)
3.Hoba Bratislava (SVK)
4.IOGJA Székesfehérvár (HUN)
5.KMH Budapest (HUN)

B group
1. Piráti Chomutov (CZE)
2.Barani Banská Bystrica (SVK)
3.HKMK Bled (SLO)
4.DHK Debrecen (HUN)
5.DAB Dunaujváros (HUN)

C group
1.HC Levi Breclav (CZE)
2. HKM Gladiator Trnava (SVK)
3. MAC Budapest (HUN)
4.ETO Győr (HUN)
5.Kárpáti Farkasok (HUN)

D group
1.Pilsen Wolves (CZE)
2.HC Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
3.Karpatský Sokol (SVK)
4.ISK Csíkszereda (ROU)
5.UTE Budapest (HUN)

E group
1.HC Dečin (CZE)
2.HK Nitra (SVK)
3.Sršne Kosice (SVK)
4.Vasas Budapest (HUN)
5.Szigeti Bikák (HUN)

The draw for the 150 matches is available here: