Povazska Bystrica

Every conversation about MŠK Považská Bystrica passes through Tatran Prešov. The wait ended in the 2022/23 final series, decided 3-2, with the last match finishing 26:22. That result closed the gap opened after the club's earlier titles in 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2005/06 and gave the team, known to its own supporters as Monstrá, a fourth championship.

Head coach Václav Straka had been in charge since 2013 before that final, long enough to carry the group through the years when Prešov's dominance looked settled. The cup record has been steadier company: five wins, spread from 2001 through to 2025.

The team has stepped outside Slovakia twice for European competition, in the EHF Champions League in the mid-2000s and, more recently, the EHF European League in 2023/24, though it is the domestic contest with Prešov that shapes how the season is read at home. Home matches draw into a hall holding 1,400.

Whatever else changes in a given season, the measure stays the same.