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To be honest I think we as a community should avoid buy-in type of leagues (we don't want the main product ECL to turn meaningless) and rather be patient and wait for sponsors to take interest in the league. I think the upcoming 6vs6 eSM will be a valuable opportunity to show how much more interesting 6vs6 live tournament is to the viewers. The first prize pool should be by sponsors and it doesn't even have to be that big tbh. Big enough to interest MVPena should do just fine and if everything goes well the SPONSORED prize pool will grow with time.

Hello NHLgamers. After 2 seasons with Evolution Im decided to move on. So... 22yo, Experienced C/RW/LW (both handed)looking team for NHL 19, Elite/Pro. If you are interested, drop me a msg and lets choose the day to tryout.

Money league and buy ins? 90% of Finnish players would need more allowance from their parents and the remaining 10% of unemployed drunks would need more social wellfare to even afford the buy in. Somebody just win that vegas shit and donate the money to Kenumeister.

⚔️Please make the buy in at least 1000€ So you have a good reason to be home playing this fucking game instead of going out clubibg and throwing away those money. Plus you dont have to cry like a baby in the sofa the day after feeling like a new pooped turd 🤕 #IHATESUNDAYS

Kind of wild idea came to mine mind also. If NHLGamer wants so badly to stick it with those Divisions and they are not going to create any separate Buy-In League, how about adding optional Buy-In chance to every team in Elite? For example; In registration thread there should be chance to say "Yes" or "No" for Buy-In when you are registering your team to the upcoming Elite season. To be more understandable, with this I mean there would still be those 16 teams in Elite, no matter if you are paying or not, but those Elite teams who have said "No" to Buy-In, will not have a chance to win any prizes. No matter if they win Elite or not. If team who have not paid Buy-In and wins something, then the prize will go to NHLGamer for example. I know it sounds kinda funny, mixed Elite League with teams who have paid and teams who have not. It's ok to me if there is few teams playing same League with me and they will not take a part to the Prizepool system. At the same time I'm pretty trusting there would be something 10 out of 16 teams in Elite who are ready to pay. If there is only 5 teams who are paying and other 11 are not, then I'm not sure can it be wise idea anymore. But as I said, I trust, interest is huge and there is more than five teams. Is it? As the opening post said, there is people who have already played three NHL games and six ECLs, without prizes. Getting bored and wanting something new is not disrespectful. We need to start from somewhere. Human kind is different and I'm fine with that. This thing needs flexibility from anyone and that's why I would be ready to play that kind of Buy-In League what I explained above. We can forgot these Buy-In things when this thing is really "Professional" and there is sponsors and everything behind the prizes.

Yeah maybe every team is able to decide are they going to take part of it or just play regular league without prize pools. Allthough there were plenty of teams willing to attend this kind of league on leaguegaming's site a while ago so I guess this is what majority of Elite teams want already. Wouldn't this be only win - win situation, if every party gets what they want?

Monarchs will play ECL 7 in Elite and we are looking for a defenseman. Message chavelski by private message if interested.

Really well written in there. I understand the urge to get money involved for some. It would naturally be great to get money from somethung you like to do, do a lot and being really good at it. It would not be a problem for me to chip in for prize pool, even if Rusty isnt counted for a championship challenger. But I would mind seeing this whole nhlgamer falling for too hasty movements. Staff has been working their asses for this thing we have right now. But is it too dragile still to just hastely try stuff like throwing buy-ins to ECL? Would buy-in league throw ECL's prestige down? I would love to see some sponsorship money being thrown in as a prize pool. But how realistic it would be to see some major sponsorship for this small community? Not really too realistic. Not yet! This is growing rapidly right now. Wven small thigs line commentatory in these playoffs are pushing this to the right direction. Money is coming the way thigs are going, im pretty sure of it. But forcing it by threats of leaving to play somewhere else is not cool, not smart or not the way to get it done. Its kinda really disrepectful for the guys who have done so much for this community without getting any from it. At this point I myself see any buy-in stuff to be wise if it somehow it is connected to ECL, but not by forcing ECL spot to be something you buy. Maeby some cup like tournament where pairings has somethibg to do how well the last ECL was played? How to get smaller teams to get chip in? Only one game to decide who goes forward. Anything can happen in one game. Maeby even refunding 50% of the fee for the teams that drop off in the first round, dunno. Just a quickly scraped idea there that I believe many does find it to be a bad one. 😆 Everything good comes when you have patience and work hard. Remember to be active in social media about what we are doing. Get people to know about this more. Even the people who does not play, but would like to follow the games and leagues. Just my 2cents.

FILADELPHIA IN: Lagezickarno From Monte Carlo  

First of all, thank you for opening up this discussion. It's always more productive to have an honest discussion than to make assumptions or go by rumours. I will do my best to cover my thoughts below and explain why we operate in the way we do. That is not to say that I think we are doing everything 100% correctly and there isn't room for improvement. Strap in and enjoy(?) the ride - wall of text incoming. Perspective Let me start off by saying that there is a large amount of different perspectives on the topics of how we should approach NHL as an esport, how quickly things have developed and how patient one should be. Our past experiences shape our minds and our ways of thinking and depending on your past, you might think my ideas and views are completely wrong, if they don't resonate with what you believe. If you know my history, heard my interview on the radio, or read about it in our recent article, you might know that I have been in the NHL gaming scene for roughly 18 years now. I've played hockey games since the 8-bit Nintendo, but what I mean about being in the scene, is that I've been in close contact with a lot of people committed to NHL-gaming lifestyle, seen the way the NHL-series producers have interacted with the community and where feedback has and hasn't been listened to. Why do I bring this up? Certainly not to brag about my age - I would much rather prefer to be a kid again - but to offer some perspective on from where we are building this. In the 18 years I've been active in the NHL community, this is easily the closest we've been to seeing the NHL video game as an actual esport. But why hasn't it happen before? Is it because people didn't want to? Is it because the people didn't put in the work? In my opinion, no - it's because the time wasn't right. I'm sure more than a few companies threw a bunch of money on a wall, but it didn't quite stick. Against this background, when looking at what NHLGamer has achieved in less than three years, I can proudly say we (the community) have created something wonderful together, something that can, and will, actually stick. From day one, I have wanted to offer paid leagues, but in my opinion the community wasn't ready for it. Now it is. When thinking about how much can be achieved in a set amount of time, one must also think about how much time can actually be allocated to the task. I worked a very demanding job throughout most of the development of NHLGamer and the ECL, so when I would come home from work, I would spend most of my free time - and often the hours I should've used for sleeping - on working on this website. The same thing applies to the other staff members, who I respect and appreciate immensely for helping out after a long day or week. This is also the reason why most people overestimate the amount of work they're able to chip in with. That's why we've seen a big change in staff over the years. It's time consuming and demanding. Roughly a year ago I decided to quit my job in Malta. It was a good job, good pay, but it was getting between my passion and me. So I quit. In order for NHLGamer to be able to operate, I have - for the past few months - been focusing all of my time and energy on giving NHLGamer and the NHL video game a chance as an esport and there's no turning back for me. If I go back to a regular day job, there is no way I can keep doing what I've been doing recently. Why am I telling you this awfully long story? Because I want you to understand my background and that I really do share the enthusiasm to want to introduce money to NHLGamer and NHL as an esport just as much as many of you do. I've put my heart and soul into the NHL community for 18 years now and NHL gaming is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves. There is no way we're stopping now. Vision Max (@gzell60) explained above quite well what we want to achieve. And before I go into that, let me point out that Max and I (and the rest of the team) don't agree about everything. No, it doesn't mean that we argue and fight - it simply means that we have different views on how certain things should go. So we discuss them together, as a team and eventually it forms a product. Why did I bring this up? Well, for example Max doesn't like the idea of buy-in's as much as I do and I agree with him, that it is easily an approach that creates a closed community and shuts people and teams out. Not everyone wants it. This is why I'm happy to do buy-ins, but it shouldn't be the only thing driving our leagues, as I think it's a quite short-sighted attempt at happiness. You don't need season previews, interviews, stats, streams or any of that to run a buy-in league. But to produce a product that is interesting and approachable to a crowd that isn't necessarily even playing the game themselves - that's where content and the love that we have for the ECL comes in handy. We don't have to fake it, we don't have to do magic tricks. We do however, have to work hard and I know we have in the recent months. We are extremely proud to have signed a two year contract on the Finnish Championship license - called eSM - for NHL and FIFA. We just announced it tonight and you can read our story here: This is an amazing thing for our community and our plans to keep developing the sport and teaching the world about 6vs6. I want to to underline here that the focus is not off ECL. On the contrary, we are talking to potential partners for ECL 7 and about introducing prizes and live finals. So please don't think that we are only planning to cater for the Finnish community. We realize that sadly, not everyone can take part in the Finnish championships, but we are continuously working on different initiatives that will either be something for everybody, or for example for Sweden and other countries, who might feel left out. Keep in mind, our staff is from Finland, Sweden, Germany, Latvia, Britain and France. There's plenty of people internally who want to see things happen in their home country, so rest assured this is an international mission. With eSM 2018 for FIFA taking place already in the summer, it makes sense to talk about it now. Similarly, you will see a lot of Summer Cup communication in the upcoming weeks and months. The communication moving from the ECL to another subject in no way reflects on our work ethic, passion and drive to set up an amazing ECL 7 for NHL 19, but we are also extremely proud of the Summer Cup and the eSM license and they will take the spotlight from time to time, as they should. "But do you realize how annoying it is to not know what is going to happen? Why don't you just tell us everything?" When I think about it, yes. Sometimes it's hard to remember that the community doesn't know what we're up to. Most of the time, actually. So why do I or we do it? Why don't we just tell you every detail about our plans? Well, there's several reasons, but from a customer service perspective and as a general rule in life, I have the mentality of "under-promise, over-deliver" which is a good recipe for pleasant surprises. I've not always been good at this, but that's beyond the point. I don't want to tell you something that I don't know is going to happen. I don't want to promise you something and then have to let you down. That is also why donations weren't introduced to the site early on, even when people suggested it; I wanted to prove that we are worthy of it. Another big reason for being secretive or quiet about things is that until documents are signed and things are made official, negotiations are simply negotiations. It doesn't really matter how close we were to the biggest successful event ever, if it doesn't actually happen. We would rather surprise you positively, than to get your hopes up and then deliver half of what we expected to. Not to mention that it would be super unprofessional to give out information before it's been agreed to, between all parties. In some cases, if you disclose information you were not allowed to and you've signed an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), you could have to pay a large amount for a breach of contract. Not to mention that they would never work with you again. All of the above being said, I do understand getting impatient and worried when nothing is communicated. We will do our best to improve on communication and the ability to share at least something. Feel free to reach out and ask, if that feeling sneaks in. "Umm.. yeah, great, but what about those of us who don't want to play for money?" There's plenty of people that want to play just for fun and don't want to stress over money and we understand that very well. Worry not. We plan to always offer free to play leagues and tournaments. "What about legal issues?" We plan to do everything by the book and follow the law. It is very short-sighted to plan anything else but a legitimate and legal way to handle the money. Taxes will be paid. Remember, this is simply a stepping stone towards professionalism - not a quick cash-grab. Questions from me to you So, the beauty of this community is that we have a lot of great minds with a shared passion for the game. We agree on many things and we have other opinions on other things. Let's use this thread to discuss your hopes, dreams and expectations. I'll start off with a few questions off the top of my head, based on the discussion above. For the sake of the clarity, I will use the term buy-in league, indicating that the teams or players were to pay for entry. NOTE: The below are hypothetical questions and the questions in themselves are in no way a statement to what we will or won't do in the future. Would you join a buy-in league? How much would you be ready to pay for being part of a buy-in league? Would you expect to win this league and regain the money or the full prize? What sort of sum would be acceptable as the prize in the first season of the buy-in league? How would you expect the prize pool to be split between the teams in the league? How long of a season would you expect in a buy-in league? How often would you participate in a buy-in league? If the league was separate from the ECL, would you then prioritize it over the ECL? Do you think ECL should be a buy-in league? Do you think certain divisions should be buy-in, such as ECL Elite? Hypothetically, say ECL Elite and Pro had buy-ins - what would stop an Elite caliber team for signing up for Pro in order to get "an easy" tournament win and prize money? If you are against buy-ins or on the fence about the topic - what would be a small enough amount for you to join and still be able to have fun? That's just a few questions that come to mind around the subject. Feel free to come up with more. If you had the energy to read through the whole thing - thank you! I will return the favor. TL;DR: Money leagues are coming, but we are also not forgetting about members who don't want to play for money. Please discuss your expectations, so we can do our best to exceed them. Together we are strong. ⚔️

FILADELPHIA IN: PleeMaker From Gotham Knights

White Trash We looking for players for next ECL season (ELITE) We need: C RD (previous elite experience) If you are interested.. msg me here pm or in ps for tryouts - ZipPlayer WT's el capitano

Name: K A R H U T Wants: Goalie (guaranteed starter in ECL) + good and active forward Other Info: We are looking for a few players so we could get 6vs6 games more reliably. We will take part in the ECL tournament. We are all-Finnish team, so mostly looking for Finnish players, but we can make exceptions (especially for goalie). Some experience from 6-player games is required and the ability to play at least 2 different positions would be nice. Contact by PSN-message to Jorma or jii1984