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Starstrucked Crowned ECL ’26: Spring – Pro Champions Starstrucked are the ECL ’26: Spring – Pro champions after completing a dominant playoff run with a 4–0 finals sweep against NOSTREETSPORTS. A Complete Championship Run Starstrucked’s road to the title started with a 4–1 series win against Brynäs IF Esport, followed by their toughest test of the playoffs against Reality Check HC, where they came through with a 4–2 victory. In the semifinals, they swept HC Lugano eSports 4–0 to reach the final with strong momentum. In the championship series, Starstrucked delivered their most dominant performance of the playoffs, sweeping NOSTREETSPORTS 4–0. They opened with convincing 8–1 and 9–0 wins, edged out a tight 1–0 victory in Game 3, and then sealed the title with a 5–2 comeback win in Game 4 after scoring four straight goals. Across the final, Starstrucked outscored NOSTREETSPORTS 23–3. Hassegamer_480 led the playoff run with 62 points in 19 games, including 8 game-winning goals, while wpaananen added 50 points and vilppijoona produced 42. From the back end, Miseee96 and Kibeeex contributed strong two-way play, and in net, Lakritsipiippu provided stability with 16 wins, an 84.88% save percentage, a 1.63 goals-against average and 4 shutouts. With a dominant final, elite offensive production and a solid defensive structure, Starstrucked proved themselves worthy ECL ’26: Spring – Pro champions.   The Winning Roster Starstrucked’s championship roster: @Wpaanane— Wade Paananen @vilppijoona  — Joona Havana @Hassegamer_480 — Johannes Häggqvist @Miseee96 — Mico Pulli @Kibeeex  — Tommi Lehtimäki @MajuriJamal — Jamal Jamal @Lakritsipiippu — Kristian Laakso In the playoffs, the core of Häggqvist, Paananen, Havana, Pulli, Lehtimäki and Laakso led the way as Starstrucked claimed the ECL ’26: Spring – Pro title.  

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Center Ice Ceremony ECL '26: Spring - Elite Champions 12–1 Parasite's playoff record 13 games, one loss The order nobody broke Parasite dominated the Elite division from start to finish, sweeping INCOACH 4–0 in the Finals and losing just one game across the entire playoffs. The rest of the division barely touched them. PS5 + XSX · Best of 7 27–2–1 Regular season +101 Skater plus/minus 3/3 Series won 1.85 Goalie playoff GAA Parasite entered the Elite spring campaign as the top team, and they never relinquished that status. They closed the regular season at 27–2–1, lost fewer games than anyone in the division, and posted a +101 plus/minus for their skaters. The playoffs were the only thing left to prove. 4–0 Quarterfinal · vs AFTERLIFE · 8th seed A scare, then a sweep Against eighth-seeded AFTERLIFE an easy series was expected. Game one nearly turned it into a nightmare for Parasite. AFTERLIFE was up 4–1, and the series could have taken a different tone. Instead came the comeback that set the rhythm for their whole post-season. Three goals in reply, the last an equalizer late in the third, then Perttu Kemppainen's overtime winner for a 5–4 final. From there Parasite played like the top seed they were. 5–1, then back-to-back shutouts, 2–0 and 2–0, goaltender Sebastian Remes keeping his net untouched in both. The series ended 4–0, but that first game was the one that told you everything. Trailing by three and still winning the game is the kind of thing that should worry the rest of the league. 4–1 Semifinal · vs MSK Esports · 4th seed The only crack in the run The semifinal against fourth-seeded MSK Esports brought the first thing to go wrong for Parasite in these playoffs: a loss. Game three ended 2–5, the only one of thirteen games they dropped. In the MSK net stood Dominik @Lazan31 Kovalík, the Slovak goaltender who authored the single moment when the favorite looked vulnerable. Yet this series belonged to Parasite too, and in a way that says plenty. The opener went to overtime, decided on the power play by defenseman Tuukka Röpelinen for a 5–4 win. Then 5–1, the 2–5 stumble, and two tight 2–1 closeouts that revealed the team's other face. When they couldn't bury opponents in goals, they won with defense. Series 4–1, into the final. 4–0 Final · vs INCOACH · 2nd seed Fall behind, then shut the door INCOACH had snagged their spot the harder way. They swept Ismon Valinta in the quarterfinals, then fell behind vNexs I 1–2 in the semifinal before clawing back with three straight wins to reach the final. They arrived as underdogs with a genuine comeback story. Then they ran into a different kind of problem. Game one was the only one with real suspense. Teemu @temppanen Karvonen scored twice inside the first three minutes to put INCOACH up 2–0, and for a moment it looked like the series might open with a jolt. Parasite answered methodically. Röpelinen pulled one back, Kemppainen leveled it, and Jere Laukka put them in front for the first time. Karvonen completed his hat trick to tie it again, but Luka Rönn scored the winner in the third and Laukka sealed it late for 6–4. From there, the final was a one-way affair. 7–1. 5–1. 4–1. Three games in which INCOACH never got room to breathe. Series 4–0, the title, and a full stop on a season Parasite played exactly the way they started it. As a team a tier above the rest, Parasite outclassed the field. The detail that says everything Four Parasite players finished among the top six scorers of the entire Elite playoffs. The only outsider near the top was Teemu Karvonen of INCOACH in second. Everything else belonged to one team. The lineup that won the league Every piece of the lineup held its role, and together they formed a machine that could not be stopped. Here are the six names that decided it. # Player Pos · Pts 1 jxrska Jere Laukka LW34 PTS 20 G + 14 A · 7 GWG @jxrska The leading scorer of the entire playoffs and the team's engine, with the physical edge to match. 78 hits across 13 games made him hard to play against in the tight moments, and his game-winner in the closing game sealed the championship. 2 Beniittto Perttu Kemppainen C32 PTS 8 G + 24 A @Beniittto The conductor. Twenty-four assists mean most of what Parasite scored in the playoffs ran through his stick. Sixteen points across the four Finals alone, with the overtime winner in the first quarterfinal that pointed the whole run in its direction. For Beniittto, it was a ninth Elite title. 3 KingOfApes_ Tuukka Röpelinen LD31 PTS 8 G + 23 A @KingOfApes_ A defenseman with a forward's output, who made his return to Parasite this spring after three years. Thirty-one points from the blue line wins series on its own, and the decisive overtime power-play goal against MSK was his. The win was his sixth in Elite. 4 xEasy33 Luka Rönn RW29 PTS 14 G + 15 A @xEasy33 At just 18 years old, the finisher of the group. Fourteen playoff goals and ten game-winners across the full season, easy to overlook right up until the puck is behind you. This spring brought his first Elite title. 5 Teemuyy Teemu Polttila RD17 PTS 4 G + 13 A @Teemuyy The second pillar of the defense. Alongside Röpelinen he formed a pair that scored and kept the zero behind them when the season called for it. The goaltender who came back to win it Remes is worth a paragraph of his own, because his road to this title is one of the better stories in the division. He spent four seasons winning at the very top, two Elite titles and a national championship with the Parasite franchise, before joining vNexs I last season. There he ran into the team he used to win with, knocked them out in a 4–3 semifinal, and carried vNexs I all the way to the Winter final, only to lose it in seven games. He had taken a team to the brink and come up one series short. So this spring he changed shirts again, joined Parasite, and finished the job. From a Game 7 defeat to a 12–1 playoff run and a title in a single season. In goal FINSeRe Sebastian Remes G12–1 1.85 GAA · 81.4 SV% · 2 SO @FINSeRe The wall behind the five skaters. His Finals save percentages tell the series in four numbers, 71.4, 92.3, 88.9, 85.7. Game one was a grind. The other three, all above 85, show how well he took control. And those whose season ended differently While the title was handed out at the top, survival was on the line at the bottom. TIKI TALK finished dead last and and was relegated straight down to Pro, no playoff to soften it, while Pro champions Starstrucked came the other way, promoted automatically. The three teams just above the drop got a lifeline, the Promotion/Relegation Battle, each paired off against a side climbing up from Pro and hungry to take its place. Facing the drop Chasing promotion Oxdog Esports 15th vs NOSTREETSPORTS Vizio 14th vs Golden Buffalos Umpikuja 13th vs HC Lugano eSports For a team risking falling out of Elite it's the last chance to stay. For a team that fought its way up from Pro to the Promotion Battle it's a door that opens only once a season. Winners keep or claim their Elite spot, losers play the next campaign a tier lower. There is no middle ground. The bar is set Spring Elite gave a clear answer to the question of who is the best. From the opening game to the final whistle, Parasite left no room for doubt. Thirty regular-season games, three losses. Thirteen in the playoffs, one more. A core that took the top of the stat sheet and left the rest of the division behind. The order held all spring, and nobody got close to breaking it. Congratulations to Parasite, champions of ECL '26: Spring - Elite.

The next EA SPORTS NHL Community Playtest is on the way, and SportsGamer is collaborating with EA SPORTS to help our users get access. This playtest is expected to be remote and available for players in Europe and North America on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Exact playtest dates are still pending, and players who receive access will get further instructions directly by email closer to the playtest. How to register To be included through the SportsGamer collaboration, players must complete all of the following steps: Create an EA PlayTest account on the EA Playtesting website, if you do not already have one. Register for the EA SPORTS NHL Playtest through the NHL Playtesting Sign-Up Survey on the EA Playtesting website. Fill out the SportsGamer form here: Submit your details to SportsGamer. The SportsGamer form is required to collect each interested player’s platform and gamertag or PSN ID, ensuring the correct player information is available throughout the playtest registration process. Players who complete all three steps above and submit accurate information are expected to be included for playtest access through this collaboration, provided they meet the applicable eligibility requirements. While access cannot be guaranteed in every individual case, SportsGamer will make every reasonable effort to assist users who have completed the process correctly and help resolve any issues that may arise. Spread the word Tell your teammates, club members, and friends. This is a great opportunity for the SportsGamer community to show its reach and help bring more active NHL players into the playtest process. The more eligible players we can connect through this collaboration, the better we can represent the size, passion, and activity of the community. Important confidentiality rules All participants must follow EA’s playtest confidentiality requirements. This means no recording, streaming, screenshots, public discussion, or sharing of playtest-related email content. Any violation of EA’s playtest rules may result in removal from current or future EA Community Playtesting opportunities.

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Connected Franchise, the mode players have wanted back for over a decade, waits for an August deep dive. And for once we’re not left guessing on the sore points: EA answered our questions on L2 abuse, glitch goals, and more. Launch is September 11 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with Deluxe Early Access starting September 4. When EA announced Macklin Celebrini as the cover athlete of NHL 27 earlier this week, that was only a fraction of what Lead Producer Andy Beaudoin and Senior Game Design Director Mike Inglehart showed us that day. Now we can finally share the rest. EA also took some time to answer our questions, the uncomfortable ones included: L2 abuse, glitch goals, X-Factors, spectator mode. Those answers close this piece. The ambition, as they put it to us, is that every team gets its own soul. All 32 NHL arenas have been rebuilt around what makes each building itself, and the crowd inside them is new outright: new models, far more variety in who’s sitting in the seats, and reactions driven by the game instead of canned loops, so a building tenses up when the home team protects a one-goal lead and erupts when momentum flips. The goal songs are each building’s own, hype tracks are licensed music, pregame introductions are new, and the lighting sells the rest: rigs follow the arena’s music beat for beat, while jumbotrons and ring boards now cast real light into the stands, so whatever plays on the screens washes over the whole bowl. Image: This Vegas Knights arena shot is probably our favorite screenshot from the game we've seen so far. The rebuild kept the buildings’ signatures. The showcase in the presentation was Vegas, whose castle-and-dragon pregame show becomes the game’s backdrop. When asked about arena updates during the press Q&A, EA listed the Kraken’s boat balcony in Seattle, the iconic organ in Buffalo, and ducks flying around Honda Center before puck drop, plus animation content pulled from the real venues onto the in-game jumbotrons. The staging around all of it is handled by a new system EA calls the cinematic orchestrator, which decides how moments are presented: how the atmosphere builds before a penalty shot, how a penalty call plays out, which replay you see, when the camera finds the crowd. The voices change too. John Buccigross and Darren Pang take over the booth, replacing James Cybulski, the series’ play-by-play voice since NHL 20, and Cheryl Pounder, its analyst for the past three editions. Buccigross has been at ESPN since 1996 and its hockey voice for most of that run; Pang is a former Blackhawks goalie with a long second career as a TV analyst, and the pairing is a reunion, since Pang sat at the analyst desk of Buccigross’s NHL 2Night two decades ago. They arrive inside a fully redone broadcast package with new graphics, new camera work, and more context before puck drop and between whistles. And this is no one-year rental; Pang confirmed on Leafs Morning Take that the agreement with EA runs multiple years. Image: The new presentation package pays homage to the roots of the EA Sports NHL series with brand new crisp high resolution overlays. On the ice, the headline change is where team behavior comes from. The series has run for years on three global playbooks shared by every club; NHL 27 replaces them with 32, one per team, built from the data provided by NHL EDGE, the league’s own puck and player tracking system. A playbook covers how a team breaks out, what it does in the neutral zone, how it forechecks, and how its special teams operate. This time, the game shows you all of it: new playbook screens map each team’s positioning phase by phase, while strategies are drawn on the ice, making the structure something you can see rather than guess at. The playbooks are yours across modes too: study one, equip another, experiment. The AI got work of its own, described to us as creating more cohesion between players so the playbooks hold up on the ice. The example given was dump-and-chase teams, which only work if the winger knows to hit the gas the moment the puck is launched into the corner, so that behavior went in. Teammates now react to each other in real time and hold structure instead of drifting, and teams read the scoreboard, pressing when they need a goal and tightening up when they protect a lead. Hockey Ultimate Team ties into the same idea with real NHL coaches, whose line-combination chemistry follows their actual coaching history. The biggest tease stays Connected Franchise. EA calls it one of the most requested features in franchise history, and the request has a name: GM Connected, the online league mode from NHL 13 and 14 that didn’t survive the series’ 2014 jump to PS4 and Xbox One, and which the community has been asking about ever since. The NHL 27 version lets a group create its own league and play a full online season with up to 32 human-controlled teams, on top of flexible scheduling, roster management, and commissioner tools; you can also sub in any offline team, European clubs included, which EA confirmed to us directly. GM Connected died mostly of slowness, with menus that crawled and reviews of the era clocking ten minutes just to simulate two weeks of a season, so it says something that EA frames the new one as “the first step in a mode built to grow with the community.” The specifics are being held for a dedicated deep dive in August. Image: GM Connected...ahem.. Connected Franchise is here! Play NHL 27 before launch Can’t wait for the August deep dive? SportsGamer is collaborating with EA to get our community into the next NHL Community Playtest — Connected Franchise included. Remote, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, for players in Europe and North America. Here’s how to sign up. World of Chel inherits most of the atmosphere work. The new broadcast graphics run across the mode, player focus wipes put your created skater front and center, indoor venues get the orchestrator’s camera work and the new crowd, and clubs can adopt any of the authentic NHL goal songs as their own from day one. What stays exclusive to the NHL venues: the beat-matched lighting, team-specific music, and the arena props themselves. We asked, EA answered Our questions are condensed; EA’s written answers are quoted in full. Have the long-abused exploits — L2 abuse and the red-line glitch goals — been addressed? “As we do every year, we spend time looking at issues with gameplay in an effort to make the on-ice quality as high as possible. Here are some of the key changes we have tackled throughout NHL 27: L2 Tuning changes - Tuned the player[’s] follow-through on the action [so players are] not able to override it midway through with stickhandling - Vision skating is slower at more extreme speed[s] and angles Hitting Tuning - Reverse hit relative size tuning - Hip check and general interference calls on players not near the puck - Balanced high end checking by adding more stumbles and fewer big hits Stick checking improvements - Easier to create a loose puck from poke checks - Stick lift targeting and effectiveness Goalie Improvements - Goalie improvements against the stride deke - Goalie improvements on shots from the neutral zone that were getting lobbed into the net” Anything happening with X-Factors? “Depending on the mode this is being asked from, there will be season meta tuning changing to the WOC live program season-to-season as we did last year. Gameplay wise we have not made many significant changes to the X-Factor system nor have we added any new X-Factors for NHL 27.” Will private matches get a spectator mode? “We do not have this feature for NHL 27 but we understand the value for players that have been asking for this and much like many of the changes we have made this year against community requests we will continue to look at ways to deliver more requests as the franchise moves ahead.” Image: The Buffalo Sabres skating through the illuminated swords is an example of the new additions to unique atmosphere of the NHL arenas. NHL 27 launches September 11 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; there is still no PC version. Pre-orders open today alongside the reveal trailer, and EA confirmed there will be no microtransactions in offline modes. Localization covers English, French, German, Finnish, Swedish, and Czech. NHL 27 at a glance PlatformsPlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S Standard EditionSeptember 11, $69.99 / €79.99 / £69.99 Deluxe EditionEarly Access from September 4, $99.99 / €109.99 / £99.99 Age ratingPEGI 12, ESRB E10+ Pre-order bonus (Standard)HUT NHL Player Pack, 500 NHL Points, 2x WOC Double XP Tokens Pre-order bonus (Deluxe)7 days of Early Access, Macklin Celebrini WOC Limited Loadout, HUT New Wave Celebrini Pack Included with Deluxe4,600 NHL Points, four HUT packs (Icon Choice, Heroes Choice, NHL Player, Fan Choice), 2x WOC Double XP Tokens Reveal trailerWatch on YouTube

HC Nelson are the ECL ’26: Spring – Neo champions after completing an incredible underdog playoff run and defeating Tigers Zlin 3–1 in the final series. A Complete Championship Run HC Nelson entered the playoffs as the 16th seed and had to do things the hard way on their road to the Neo title. Their run started with a dramatic 3–2 series win against Outlaws Hockey, before they stunned third-seeded Beer Bees with a 3–1 victory in Round 2. From there, HC Nelson only grew stronger. In the quarterfinals, they swept top-seeded eHockey Poland 3–0, sending a clear message to the rest of the bracket. They followed that up with another 3–0 sweep against second-seeded Nurnberg Nidhoggr in the semifinals to book their place in the Neo final. In the championship series, they faced Tigers Zlin, who had put together an impressive run of their own by eliminating Kemistit, Nordic Avengers, Crossover HC and Rotonto housut. But in the final, HC Nelson proved they had the clutch scoring, goaltending and momentum needed to finish the job. The final opened with one of the most dramatic games of the playoffs. HC Nelson trailed Tigers Zlin 5–2 in Game 1, but mounted a huge comeback led by a four-goal performance from KhalifaKush450, who tied the game at 5–5 and then completed the comeback with the game-winning goal at 59:54 to give HC Nelson a massive 6–5 win. Game 2 was another tight battle, with HC Nelson building an early lead before Tigers Zlin fought back. KHD HONZA CZ scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the third period, as HC Nelson held on for a 3–2 victory and a 2–0 series lead. Tigers Zlin kept the final alive with a 2–1 win in Game 3, but HC Nelson made sure there would be no full comeback. In Game 4, they delivered their most dominant performance of the final. KhalifaKush450 opened the scoring with what stood as the game-winning goal, before cajicek492, KHD HONZA CZ and KhalifaKush450 all added to the scoreline as HC Nelson closed the series with a commanding 6–0 win. Across the four final games, HC Nelson outscored Tigers Zlin 16–9. KhalifaKush450 led HC Nelson offensively throughout the playoffs with 65 points in 19 games, including 38 goals, 27 assists and 7 game-winning goals. cajicek492 was another major part of the championship run with 55 points, while KHD HONZA CZ added 42 points and several important goals in the final series. lukas_elis contributed 25 points and strong defensive play, while Denny469x added 15 points in 8 games. Luigare_ also played an important role, contributing 9 points and appearing in several key playoff games. In net, TonyBandita was HC Nelson’s backbone. He played all 19 playoff games, finishing with 15 wins, an 83.39% save percentage, a 2.68 goals-against average and 2 shutouts. With a 15–4 playoff record, wins against the 17th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd and 14th seeds, and a dominant finish in the final series, HC Nelson proved themselves worthy ECL ’26: Spring – Neo champions.   HC Nelson’s championship roster: @KhalifaKush450 @cajicek492 @KHD HONZA CZ @lukas_elis @Denny469x @Luigare_ @TonyBandita In the playoffs, the core of KhalifaKush450, cajicek492, KHD HONZA CZ, lukas_elis and TonyBandita led the way as HC Nelson claimed the ECL ’26: Spring – Neo title.

Cityboys are the ECL ’26: Spring – Lite champions after completing an impressive playoff run and defeating HC Punishers 4–2 in the finals. A Complete Championship Run Cityboys entered the playoffs as the second seed and had to battle through a demanding bracket on their way to the title. Their run started with a 4–1 series win against Bladerunners HC, before they survived back-to-back seven-game series against Sampo and Pasilan SKA, winning both 4–3. In the semifinals, Cityboys delivered one of their strongest series of the playoffs, defeating vNexs Vipers 4–1 to book their place in the Lite final. There, they faced top-seeded HC Punishers, who had reached the final after beating Hungry Bears, Hockeyholics, Refuse Too Lose and Supernatural. The final became a hard-fought battle, but Cityboys showed their resilience and ability to respond under pressure. Cityboys opened the series with 4–2 and 5–2 wins before HC Punishers answered with a 4–1 victory in Game 3. Cityboys took Game 4 by the same 4–2 score, but it was tighter than it looks: with the game tied 2–2, J0K1N3Nx scored twice in the final two minutes to cap a four-goal performance. Punishers then kept the series alive with a 2–1 overtime victory in Game 5. Game 6 became the defining moment of the final. HC Punishers led 3–1 in the third period, but Cityboys refused to fold. J0K1N3Nx brought them within one, before ttskede tied the game with less than a minute remaining. In overtime, ttskede struck again at 62:18, scoring the championship-winning goal and sealing a 4–3 OT victory. ttskede led Cityboys offensively throughout the playoffs with 79 points in 30 games, including 37 goals and 42 assists. J0K1N3Nx was another major force with 67 points, while Veljenpoika69 added 52 points from the blue line. ARUR88 contributed strong two-way play with 39 points, while xMaltseviii and Lolsell also played important roles during the run. In net, The-Tankki235 carried most of the workload, finishing the playoffs with 18 wins, an 80.43% save percentage, a 2.42 goals-against average and 4 shutouts. With two seven-game series wins, a victory over the top seed in the final and several clutch moments under pressure, Cityboys proved themselves worthy ECL ’26: Spring – Lite champions. Cityboys’ championship roster: @ttskede @J0K1N3Nx @Veljenpoika69 @ARUR88 @Maltseviii @lolsell @The-Tankki235 @joku_johonki In the playoffs, the core of ttskede, J0K1N3Nx, Veljenpoika69, ARUR88, xMaltseviii and The-Tankki235 led the way as Cityboys claimed the ECL ’26: Spring – Lite title.