Mogo

That is what happened when Riga-based lender Mogo Finance put together a roster in August 2014, entered it in the Latvian Hockey Higher League for the 2014–15 season, and saw the newly formed HK Mogo take the title.

Its fiercest rival has always been across town. HK Kurbads met Mogo in three straight Latvian Cup finals from 2016 to 2018, and Mogo won all three. The two sides still play out that rivalry today.

Elviss Želubovskis has been on the roster since that first year and still holds the club's records for goals and points in a season, outlasting sponsors, coaches and even the team's own name — Mogo spent time as Mogo/LSPA under a partnership with the Latvian Academy of Sport Education, then became Mogo/RSU in 2024 when Riga Stradiņš University took over that role. Krišjānis Rēdlihs, a three-time Olympian, joined in 2019 and brought a different kind of experience into a dressing room built largely from nothing.

The team still plays out of the Mogo Ice Hall, a 600-seat rink on Brīvības gatve that leaves little room for a visiting side to settle.