In place of the world championship which got cancelled due to the pandemic, the IIHF organized a virtual vote, and Latvia won its sub-group by 20 points. In the beginning of the decisive rounds, the IIHF changed the voting order, but it did not prevent Latvia from showing again the devotion of the fans.
Latvia beat Finnish fans in the gold finals with a result of 8:5.
"Latvia is the first champion of the virtual world!" writes IIHF on its webpage.
The IIHF reports that 778 712 votes were received in 64 virtual games, on average 12 167 per game, roughly matching the number of seats in arena.