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Hey NHL Gamers, First of all, congratulations to X Factor on winning ECL Season 3 in an amazing final effort against the Finnish Roosters! Tomorrow we will post a full season recap, so keep an eye on the news section. Many of you have been asking for ECL Season 4 registrations to open already, and today is the day! We are opening the floodgates for our first ECL Season in the new Divisions format. Not only do we think this is the start of the most exciting chapter in NHL gaming history, we also believe it points towards a very bright future for this community. During the last few days we have received many interesting comments from long time community members, suggesting ECL is undoubtedly heading into the right direction. At the same time, ECL is still as newcomer-friendly as ever - which will always be a top priority for us. Don't hesitate and spread the word on your own team channels, so we can mark another significant growth in participation with ECL Season 4. Many thanks for your continued support! ----- 'Divisions? Dude, what are you talking about?' In case you were hibernating during the last few weeks (it's freaking cold outside, we understand!), please read the latest update on ECL Divisions. ----- 'I see! What else do I need to know?' First of all, there are a few general rules that apply to our ECL branded tournaments: Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. The same rule applies for Russian players: Please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. ECL is a 6 vs. 6 tournament building upon the EASHL mode in the latest EA SPORTS NHL iteration, NHL 17. Each player needs to sign up with NHLGamer.com and create his personal Player Card. You can find a tutorial video right here in case you experience issues. Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. Default game days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Registrations are open until 23:59 CET on February 10th / 00:59 EET on February 11th. The tournament will start approximately one week after registrations are closed. ----- 'What about the other tournament & gameplay rules?' The final ruleset will be released shortly ahead of the tournament start. ----- 'How do I register my team?' (PS4 ONLY, see below for Xbox One) If you qualified for ECL Elite during Season 3, please read the 'Signing up for ECL Elite' paragraph below. If you are a new team or did not qualify for ECL Elite during Season 3, you need to decide whether you would like to join ECL Pro or ECL Lite. ECL Pro will accomodate 2x16 teams, while ECL Lite does not have a limit. In case we exceed ECL Pro capacities, we will look at each individual ECL Pro registration and determine, whether you qualify according to several criteria (Players on the team, team history, stats from previous seasons if available, EASHL 6vs6 ranking and stats) compared to the other teams. By signing up for ECL Pro you accept to be moved to ECL Lite in case it is required according to our decision. You are also allowed to sign up for ECL Lite right away. If you wish to participate in ECL Pro, please read the 'Signing up for ECL Pro' paragraph below. If you wish to participate in ECL Lite, please read the 'Signing up for ECL Lite' paragraph below. ----- Signing up for ECL Elite Applies to the following teams only: Aapon Taikasauva, Dynasty, Fat Cats, Finnish Roosters, Laser HT, MUKIMIEHET, Nordic Lightning, Nordic Nightmare, Northern Ascedancy, Northern Stars, Refuse To Lose (to replace Nordic Blizzard), SIKA, Synergy Hockey, TIKI TALK, Written In The Stars, X FACTOR Go to the ECL Elite registration thread and use the registration template below to confirm your participation or withdrawal! Withdrawal posts are final - you immediately give us the permission to nominate another team from Season 3 to fill your spot. Signing up for ECL Pro Go to the ECL Pro registration thread and use the registration template below to sign up. Signing up for ECL Lite Go to the ECL Lite registration thread and use the registration template below to sign up. ----- Registration template Team name: Team Abbreviation: Team Captains (PSN IDs): Captain 1, Assistant Captain 1, Assistant Captain 2 Team Roster (PSN IDs): Player 1 Player 2 Player 3 Player 4 Player 5 Player 6 Player 7 Player 8 ... (Optional: Add a team logo if this is the first time your team participates in a tournament on NHLGamer.com, or if you simply wish to change it.) ----- 'How do I participate with my Xbox One team?' At this time, there will be no division format on Xbox for ECL Season 4. However, Xbox players are very welcome to start their NHLGamer career in a regular tournament, and you can sign up in this thread. Please use the registration template above and add your Xbox Live IDs instead of PSN IDs. ----- For now, that's all you need to know. Get those sign-ups in, and in case of any questions, please use the comments below! NHLGamer.com

Hello NHLGamers Today we bring you a preview of the ECL 3 Finals or as Gandalf would put it: "So, we come to it at last... The great battle of our time". The featured teams in this spectacular finish to our longest season yet will be Finnish Roosters and X-Factor - two teams that have lived up to their hype before the season and navigated their way through some of the toughest teams in the world to reach this point. But enough hype, let us move on to the show: [Research (statistics) and matchup analysis by Ranksu] [Additional text, player interviews and editing by The_Alpha_Furyan] [Art by OxtreeLAT] X- FACTOR Projected lineup Vilupoika - Penatski - KingOfApes_ nylanderi - F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ Danielcadabra Statistics (Forwards): Vilupoika Regular season: 44 GP [55G + 55A] 110 P / +127 / 8 PPG / 2 SHG / 148 HITS Playoffs: 23 GP [17G + 17A] 34 P / +14 / 2 PPG / 0 SHG / 87 HITS Penatski Regular season: 46 GP [70G + 95A] 165 P / +134 / 9 PPG / 1 SHG / 129 HITS Playoffs: 20 GP [17G + 21A] 38 P / +18 / 3 PPG / 0 SHG / 49 HITS KingOfApes_ Regular season: 46 GP [48G + 63A] 111 P / +134 / 9 PPG / 0 SHG / 135 HITS Playoffs: 23 GP [13G + 17A] 30 P / +14 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 97 HITS Statistics (Defenders): nylanderi Regular season: 40 GP [14G + 38A] 53 P / +87 / 3 PPG / 1 SHG / 38 HITS Playoffs: 23 GP [3G + 12A] 15 P / +14 / 1 PPG / 1 SHG / 19 HITS F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ Regular season: 8GP [4G + 10A] 14 P / +19 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 40 HITS Playoffs: 22GP [2G + 17A] 19 P / +14 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 59 HITS Statistics (Goaltender): Danielcadabra Regular season: 28GP / 18 W / 6 L / 4 OTL / 79.38% / 1.67 GAA / 5 SO Playoffs: 23GP / 16W / 5 L / 2 OTL / 78.67% / 1.95 GAA / 5 SO How did they get here? X-Factor reached to finals by defeating the top-notch team Aapon Taikasauva in Game 7 in the 3rd round. This is X-Factors first appearance in the ECL Finals. X-Factor and Finnish Rooster faced each other in the regular season with the following results: 1-3 to FR and 0-4 to XF. How will they win? X-Factor signed F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ at the ECL Trade Deadline which was in my book easily the best acquire at TDL. "Andy" is well known for playoff performances and is considered a "big games player". He's going to face the FR top scoring forward PleeMaker, who had yet another outstanding regular season and an even better post-season. If "Andy" can win that match up, that would be huge for X-Factor. Finally, I believe they will win if Penatski can break down Finnish Roosters redline trap and find the holes for it. How will they lose? X-Factor can sometimes be too reckless offensively which will put their D pairing in awkward positions - knowing the fast break game Finnish Roosters will execute. We saw it in game 6 against Aapon Taikasauva (1-5 to Aapo). It will be hard for X-Factor if they don't keep up nylanderi's game philosophy and trust his gameplan. X-Factor will lose this series if they can't find a way to deal with FR's hard blueline trap and can't find a way to shut down PleeMaker. You could say this set-up is almost the same like against Aapo were they needed to shutdown Joukki13 and they did. However, this time they are facing more defensively oriented 5-man team who will heavily lean on offensive mistakes and lurk around for fast breakaways. * * * FINNISH ROOSTERS Projected lineup PleeMaker - tbnantti - johtaja699 JParola - ktewjh FinKonna Statistics (Forwards): PleeMaker Regular season: 46 GP [83G + 56A] 139 P / +137 / 10 PPG / 2 SHG / 251 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [29G + 11A] 40 P / +24 / 8 PPG / 1 SHG / 125 HITS tbnantti Regular season: 46 GP [68G + 84A] 152 P / +137 / 7 PPG / 6 SHG / 11 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [17G + 20A] 37 P / +24 / 4 PPG / 0 SHG / 22 HITS johtaja699 Regular season: 44 GP [39G + 42A] 81 P / +118 / 9 PPG / 0 SHG / 81 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [5G + 13A] 18 P / +24 / 1 PPG / 0 SHG / 44 HITS Statistics (Defenders): JParola Regular season: 36 GP [5G + 60A] 65 P / +87 / 3 PPG / 0 SHG / 67 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [1G + 23A] 24 P / +24 / 0 PPG / 0 SHG / 36 HITS ktewjh Regular season: 46 GP [8G + 40A] 48 P / +137 / 2 PPG / 1 SHG / 104 HITS Playoffs: 19 GP [2G + 11A] 13 P / +24 / 0 PPG / 1 SHG / 46 HITS Statistics (Goaltender): FinKonna Regular season: 52 GP / 43 W / 8 L / 1 OTL / 80.88% / 1.82 GAA / 10 SO Playoffs: 19 GP / 16 W / 2 L / 1 OTL / 83.78% / 1.57 GAA / 3 SO How did they get here? The Roosters reached the finals by first beating Alliance HT, only to enter a tough battle with Nordic Blizzard. After narrowly defeating the Blizzard in an entertaining Game 7 they moved on to Written In The Stars - a team many thought would go far in the playoffs. However, Written were missing some of their players and the Roosters played a great series to win 4-0. After such a morale booster, they went on to dethrone championship favorites Laser HT in 4 straight games. How will they win? The Roosters will win by unleashing their offense while maintaining their tight team defense. The key is for johtaja699 to keep doing the terrific two-way work he has been doing together with defenders JParola and ktewjh and for Plee and tbnantti to work their offensive magic on a somtimes reckless X Factor squad. FinKonna also needs to be his usual talented self. How will they lose? The Roosters will lose if they can't get that offense going and also if they underestimate the X Factor offense which at times can be really dangerous. If FinKonna should falter or have a bad series, this could also spell doom for the Roosters because even if they have a truly impressive offense, their defense and goaltending is what has gotten them this far. * * * 5 things to look for, in general: 1. Both teams have 1-2 punch, Penatski - Ape and tbnantti - Plee. 2. Both teams have a guy who can change the series in Plee vs. Ape. 3. FinKonna vs. Danielcadabra - who will step up and who will melt down? 4. Finnish Rooster has the best powerplay % from regular season 35.4%, compared to X-Factors 21.6% 5. tbnantti has the most SHG in regular season by 6 goals - look out! * * * 5 Questions with X-Factor Captain nylanderi and Finnish Roosters Assistant Captain PleeMaker Give us a few words on your opponent! Nylanderi (X Factor): Roosters is a great team with good mixture of offense and defense. They got forwards who can score and defenders who work really well together. With FinKonna being one of the top goalies in the game, it is certainly going to be really hard to score against these guys. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): XF is a great defensive team with a lot of individual skill. They have two top quality defensemen and a great goalie. And they also have three really high skilled forwards - Penatski is a top center and the wingers Vilupoika and Kingofapes_ can score goals thanks to their great talent and stick handling. Who would you consider to be the toughest player to defend on the opposing squad? Nylanderi (X Factor): Tough question! PleeMaker and tbnantti are both really dangerous, and it is going to be really hard to keep that tag team from scoring. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): Penatski is, in my opinion, the best player of XF so I would consider him the toughest opponent to defend. I would say he is one of the best playmakers in this game with maybe the best hands out there. Tell us a little bit of your playoff run so far Nylanderi (X Factor): I did expect us to go pretty far, especially since our game has developed a lot throughout this tournament. We had our fair share of problems, but I am still really happy with our performance in this ECL. I feel like we could have maybe done even better (considering a couple of our series went to game7) but since we have made the Finals I can’t really complain, can I? Haha. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): Our goal was champion so it's not surprise to me that we are playing finals. Our first round opponent was Alliance HT and I think it was kind of a warm up round for us, but they are actually the best Russian team that I have ever seen so, well played. The 2nd round against NBz - that was close. I will tell you more about them in the next question! Then the 3rd round against Written In The Stars. That was… well, much easier than I was expecting before the games. After Adetikki and Flyerkungen left for the army, they have started to play with a "weird" style. Lot of shots and always trying to go for rebounds. But anyway, well played SKY. As for the semi-finals against Laser HT - 4 tight games against them. They have lot of skill but team defense was their weakness in that series. So 4 tight wins to us (I think it was 2 OT wins?) and we managed to get our spot in the finals. Which series gave you the most amount of trouble? Nylanderi (X Factor): I would have to say… either Aapon Taikasauva or Dynasty. To be honest, those were two totally different kind of teams and especially Dynastys defense was one of the best I have ever seen in this game. On the other hand, Aapos offense was really hard to defend. Really hard to decide actually, but in my opinion Dynasty was the tougher series. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): Nordic Blizzard was the toughest opponent for us in this tournament so far. Great team defense and truly a dangerous offense. If you have players like Gendlik and Hooneli, your opponent will always give you a hard series. It was actually close that NBz beat us, when the 3rd period of Game 7 started NBz was leading 1-3 but we managed to get momentum with a 2-3 goal and then it was our game after that… Well played NBz and it is a shame that it seems you can't get a team to next season. What key factors should the community be on the lookout for in this series? Nylanderi (X Factor): Both teams have rock solid defensive strategies, so I think that will certainly be one of the deciding factors in this series. Also, in my opinion, tbnantti and Penatski are both Top-3 centers overall in this game so it will be nice to see who can put on the greatest performance and lead their team to victory. PleeMaker (Finnish Roosters): I think the key factor in finals will be which team can break their opponents great team defense! I think the finals has the two best defensive teams in the ECL so I acutally think that we won’t see so many goals this series. Anyway, good luck in the finals XF and good luck to next season everyone! * * * The series goes live at 20 CET/21 FIN tonight so be sure to check it out! For NHLGamer.com, The_Alpha_Furyan