The Croatian city of Trogir welcomed the National team of Finland – the debutants of the HMB World Championship Battle of the Nations – in 2014. Teemu Laiho that year was a fighter in the team Finland 1. They had two male teams in 5vs5 and one female duelist. 

“The whole team was new, all of us had started the sport in January 2014, but this fact didn’t bother us! The decision to participate in BotN 2014 happened really close before the event. We all had to hurry up to get all our last armor parts and train as much as we could. Many were a bit nervous about all new things, fights, how to get there with armor etc, but we managed to get over all those obstacles after all”. 

Really memorable for Teemu was the teamplay with our Estonian friends. They helped a lot:  two Finnish fighters joined their bus and took a lot of Finnish armors with them. When the Finland team united in Trogir, they heard a lot of stories about the trip from Tallinn to Trogir, both from Finns and Estonians. 

The Battle of the Nations itself was very different for the Finnish debutants: every day it brought joy and sadness, new acquaintances and impressions. BotN 2014 was unforgettable for this team!

“The result in the end of the Battle of the Nations was much better than any of us could imagine, we had a lot of good fights, wins and losses, and eventually our road ended up in 5s by losing to Belarus 2 twice. Our fighting spirit was noticed and we were awarded Best Fighting Debut trophy, it was a really indescribable moment”, recalls Teemu. 

In one short period of time there were a lot of new experiences, new friends and getting to know the magical world of HMB. We are glad that Battle of the Nations 2014  was not the last in the history of Finland. Every year the team becomes stronger and bigger. Starting with one female fighter for a duel category, in 2019 there was already a women’s team for 5 vs 5 buhurts! And the last few years, Teemu – the permanent captain of the national team who leads his fighters to new victories!