Kazakhstan will host the biggest IIHF event ever in the country when the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A kicks off in the capital of Nur-Sultan on Monday.

Nur-Sultan is the new name for the city formerly known as Astana after a recent renaming. “Nur” is a word in Kazakh languages coming from Arabic that means light, and that’s what the six teams will be looking for. The light at the end of the elevator to move up to the top level and play at the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Zurich and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only the best two teams will make it and last year has shown that the race is fully open. It can be centimetres and seconds that will decide about joy and frustration, about going up, staying or even going down.

For many years the line-up at the Division I Group A had roughly looked the same with the same two nations going up and down again – Austria and Slovenia in even years, Italy and Kazakhstan in odd years. This pattern was broken when Hungary (2015), Korea (2017) and Great Britain (2018) earned their rare spot in the top division and with Austria becoming the first promoted team since France in 2008 to survive in the top division last year.

Teams have become more competitive and no less than five of these six teams here have played in the top division during the past three seasons. Here’s a look at the six participants.

Belarus

The relegation of the Belarusian national team came as a shocker. Since 2005 the country was part of the top division for 14 years, made the quarter-finals four times (most recently in 2015). The country invested in ice rinks across the country, more kids play the sport and the results of the junior national teams have gone up – including a 5th-place finish at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Sweden.

Annoyed by the meagre return of invest, the country’s leadership didn’t hold back with criticism. The federation’s leadership changed as did many other positions including Andrei Sidorenko as new head coach. After five years with North American coaches, the coaching language is Russian again while players praise the improved atmosphere and attitude within the team.

Belarus came to Kazakhstan with the biggest international experience. The team beat Kazakhstan 5-4 in shootout in a pre-competition game but lost defenceman Kirill Gotovets in the game, who had to leave the team due to injury, same as Dmitri Korobov one day earlier.

The team is a mix of experienced players such as Yevgeni Kovyrshin and younger players such as 20-year-olds Yegor Sharangovich and Maxim Sushko. Although it was announced to focus more on domestically-grown players, Belarus still travelled with two North American-born, naturalized forwards to Kazakhstan: returnee Geoff Platt and Nick Bailen, who would play his first World Championship.

Korea

Korea came back to this competition after its biggest year in history. Not only did they play as hosts at the Olympic Winter Games, the Koreans were also promoted to the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. However, they had to leave the top level without a win.

The good news is that the end of the Olympic year was also the beginning of a new era. The Koreans don’t want 2018 to be a one-hit K-Pop wonder but want to capitalize on the Olympic spotlight and build a legacy by making ice hockey more popular in the country and find a deal to make the Gangneung Hockey Centre a home of for the Korea Ice Hockey Association.

That enthusiasm can also be seen on the roster. Seoul-born former NHLer Jim Paek is still the head coach and the import players of the Asia League teams mostly stayed in Korea although this roster includes less naturalized players than before. It’s time to rebuild for a new Olympic cycle and with more home-grown talent. Exceptions are Matt Dalton in the net and the two towering defencemen Matthew Plante and Eric Regan.

The Koreans have shown that they also have other players who can shine. One of them is team captain Sangwook Kim, who will join a try-out camp of Chinese KHL team Kunlun Red Star in summer hoping to become the first Korean to play in the KHL.

Kazakhstan

Hopes are high in Kazakhstan in a dynamic era. With long-time President Nursultan Nazarbayev leaving soon, the country’s capital with futuristic buildings including the gorgeous Barys Arena was renamed from Astana to Nur-Sultan. The first big sporting event of the new era will be the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A with high politicians of the country expected in attendance. Askar Mamin, the President of the Ice Hockey Federation of Kazakhstan, was two months ago named Prime Minister of the country.

It would be optimal timing for the Kazakh national team to send a strong message when it opens the tournament against Slovenia. The last test was optimistic as Kazakhstan beat Korea 3-0 in an exhibition game on Friday.

Hockey is loved in the city of KHL team Barys and the local crowd will recognize many players from their local club team. Both the club and the national team are coached by Andrei Skabelka. In recent years several players who came to Nur-Sultan as import players have become Kazakh citizens and joined the team as well after playing several seasons in the country. That included veteran goaltender Henrik Karlsson and the two forwards Brandon Bochenski and Martin St-Pierre from the starting unit. Dustin Boyd and Darren Dietz are two other North American players in the line-up. Despite being defenceman, Dietz was Barys’ scoring leader in the past KHL season.

Several other Kazakh top players like Nikita Mikhailis can be found on the team while veteran forward Roman Starchenko, last year’s tournament scoring leader, is missing due to injury he suffered in the playoffs. One year ago Barys missed the playoffs and Kazakhstan missed promotion to the top level during a dramatic five-team race on the last day of action. This year the euphoria is high after Barys made the playoffs and only lost to later Eastern Conference winner Avangard Omsk. Can the national team improve too?

Hungary

In 2009 Hungary played in the top division for the first time after 70 years. The next wait luckily took “only” seven years with the next appearance in 2016. Since then Hungary failed to earn promotion twice in a row including last year’s last-minute loss on home ice in Budapest against Great Britain.

The Hungarians arrived well and focused in Nur-Sultan on studying their opponents and working on their special teams. Among the star players are Istvan Bartalis and Vilmos Gallo, who play their club hockey in Germany and Sweden respectively while most other players joined from Hungarian club teams. The most veteran player is Janos Vas in his 15th senior World Championship while Daniel Szabo and Scott Macaulay will have their debuts soon.

Hockey is on a rise in Hungary and having club teams join the Slovak Extraliga helped raise the level. Will this make the tiny difference? After all no less than 18 players return from last year’s roster.

Hungary had to travel to Budapest without its head coach Jarmo Tolvanen. The Finn fell sick and wasn’t able to make the trip. He will be replaced by Gergely Majoross. Majoross has been close to the team and was the assistant coach for five years and as a player represented Hungary in 10 senior World Championship tournaments. His career with the national team ended in the top division in Switzerland in 2009 and he certainly wouldn’t mind to return to the country for the 2020 Worlds.

Slovenia

The Slovenes have been a classic “elevator nation” between the top-two levels of world hockey. Between 2010 and 2017 they went up and down again each year. With no exception until last year. But the Slovenes are motivated to make up for last year’s disappointment. They will want to experience next year’s top-level World Championship on the ice like in the past and not on TV.

The “Misija Budapest” was a failure for the lynx but for the “Misija Nur-Sultan” the level of motivation can be best described in seven letters: K-O-P-I-T-A-R

Slovenia’s most famous hockey player of all ages, Anze Kopitar, is back with his fellow countrymen for the first time in several years. King Kopitar, the franchise player of the Los Angeles Kings and only player to bring the Stanley Cup to the tiny nation between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea. There’s definitely a sense of optimism.

The Slovenian national team is a tight-knit group. Despite just 158 registered male adult players in the country, the small but proud Slovenian hockey family showed that it can work miracles including qualifying for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games and even reaching the quarter-finals there.

The team arrived in Nur-Sultan in the night to Saturday and you can expect many well-known faces from the past events on the roster. The biggest name missing will be Jan Mursak, the second Slovene to play in the NHL after Kopitar. He recently played an integral role in SC Bern’s championship campaign in Switzerland but had already decided earlier to end his career with the national team.

Lithuania

Lithuania is the team promoted to this level and the only participating team that has never played at the top level before. The Baltic nation will compete among the nations ranked 17-22 in the program – heights Lithuania has only reached once before in IIHF history when it was close to promotion in 2006 (19th overall).

With the history and seeding in mind, and the fact that veterans like Darius Kasparaitis and Mindaugas Kieras retired after winning the Division I Group B on home ice in Kaunas, it’s quite easy to call the Lithuanians the underdog of this tournament. But there are also arguments in Lithuania’s favour.

Promotion to this level is not co-incidence. The U20 national team managed to get wins against some of these nations in the last years and the men’s national team has risen to this level over the years and with consistency – including four Division IB bronze medals in a row before getting the gold last year.

Another retired player is back to help Lithuania. Long-time NHL veteran Dainius Zubrus decided to come again and help his country not only off the ice – he was elected president of the federation last year – but also on the ice. And then there are other players who played the tournament of their lives in the shadow of the Kasparaitis-Zubrus hype last year on home ice in Kaunas. Arnoldas Bosas became the tournament’s scoring leader, Mantas Armalis was excellent in the net and Nerijus Alisauskas is a KHL defenceman logging high minutes with Dinamo Riga.

Same like Great Britain one year ago, the Lithuanians want to show they’re not out of place. Whether it will be enough to repeat the British fairy tale of last year to go up two levels in two years, is to be seen.