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ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Salute, gamers! Riddle me this: I am partly Scandinavian, Nordic and Western European while not actually being any of them entirely. I'm old but young, well respected but not the most liked one, very successful but still slightly underrated. What I am? The lads in Northern Ascendancy got to stamp another finale performance on their resume as they fought their way to the ECL 6 finals last spring. After a strong regular season (19-5-6) NOR showed why they've been at the top for so many seasons now. On the first round of the playoffs they faced the hungry Elite debutants in Unlucky Boys. UB led the series a few times as they won the first two games, and after couple more games they were so close beating NOR as UB had the matchball in Game 6. However, "Because it's the Cup" - MukiMaisteri scored the game winning goal 38 seconds before overtime and the game ended 1-0 for NOR. He didn't stop there as the veteran winger scored four goals in Game 7 and NOR went ahead to the second round to face the big bad regular season champions, Written in the Stars. Four one goal games, three overtimes, 37,5 minutes time on attack for the losing side and 25,5 minutes for the winning team. NOR surprised most of the community by beating "Written" 4-1 in games. There's some Ascendance for you. In the ECL 6 finals NOR faced Carlsberg HC and couldn't repeat their trick, as CAR dominated the finals with a game result of 4-1. We saw three tight one goal games and only 14 goals combined in the whole series so hats off for both teams - it wasn't walk in the park to win the championship even though the numbers might tell a different story. IN s_a_k_i_s95 <-- Break from NHL OUT MukiMaisteri --> Dynasty Current roster: Forwards Anrh17 @anrh17 MartindalexC (C) @MartindalexC Foppatofflan (A) @Foppatofflan s_a_k_i_s95 @jeppiz18 x27ScottieN27x @ScottieN27 Defensemen eyebiz @eyebiz Haldeem @Haldeem Goaltenders Poliskontroll @poliskontroll The one and only British captain of our NHL gaming scene continues in his role as he leads his ship towards the ECL Elite finals once again. What does the Englishman @MartindalexC think about his team & their future? With another season and long a playoff run behind - how does life and the new game taste for Northern Ascendancy? To me it looks like you guys have continued with your usual strategy - being annoyingly good in two way hockey. Hmm, where should I start? I suppose the game is probably a good one to tackle first. Especially since, well, truth be told we think the game is pretty much complete and utter garbage, although that hasn’t exactly been a secret of ours. Just the way that games can easily be decided on random drops that evade a bunch of people really rubs us the wrong way. Regarding strategy though we’re still rolling with old faithful so to speak, although compared to years past we are seeing more time on attack which is something we’re not exactly accustomed to shall we say? So, we’ll just have to see how that dynamic plays out. As a veteran member of our NHL gaming scene, how do you see "the new era" after playing tons of games in the old gen era? Licenses are being paid, new teams and players are becoming more familiar to the scene - you know, lots of stuff has changed and evolved - what do you think about all this? Honestly, I’m mostly ambivalent to it all. I suppose the idea of making money off of playing this game is exceptionally enticing to some people but for the most part I play this game because I like it, despite all of its faults, plus lord knows I’ve got nothing else to do :joy:. In addition to this, you could say I have a pretty pessimistic view of this game ever becoming an ‘esport’ (see here for evidence #204505317: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVRZxEhBJFg) and that kind of feeds into my ambivalence, or even vice versa. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to support Kenu and the site as best I can but I’m not gonna push the boat out so to speak. By the way, where did Martindale's career start from? It's been a joyfyl ride for sure! I'm a little fuzzy on the precise date but I think it was the very start of NHL 13 when NOR was 'founded' officially under that banner. Before that me, Poliskontroll, Juizki and Tacklecontrol played mostly 4s in NHL 12 under a different team name, and prior to that it was just me and Polis in NHL 11 under, yet again, a different name. In terms of tournaments I've played in 8 across both NHLGamer and Consolehockey under NOR, with 1 season where the team was named Unknown (but the franchise underneath remained the same I guess). What kind of checklist did you set for this summer? Is there any new fresh blood in NOR, or was there any lazy employees so to speak to get rid of in order to make your team an even scarier cup contender for ECL7? Is it corny to say that we wanted to get better (who doesn’t after all)? As for acquisitions, the team is practically the same except for -Mukimaisteri, although hopefully there’s a decent chance we’ll be adding someone to the roster, perhaps before this article even comes out. Regarding making the team an “even scarier cup contender” I believe that self-reflection is more important than blind faith, and I personally feel that we went to the finals last year because a couple key players amped up their game at critical times, for instance Poliskontroll really exhibited how good of a goalie he is when we played Written and Carlsberg, meanwhile Eyebiz played nigh on flawlessly when he came in mid-way through the Unlucky Boys series. Having players that can elevate their game is perhaps a consistent element that all winning teams have in their repertoire, however getting hot at the right time does not mean you can replicate it without fail, so we’ve been trying to get back to our basics and strengthen them, so that we don’t have to rely on players getting ‘hot’ to win. What Elite teams have been the most fun to face so far - and the word "fun" here can mean anything between easy to hard - you decide! I suppose Dynasty have been involved in some of the more entertaining games that we’ve played but apart from that I’m not sure. Our games against Written have been a tad underwhelming but it’s ‘fun’ playing a team with an abundance of skill since you know you’ll truly be tested, I know for instance that Flyerkungen has completely decimated me in faceoffs every time I’ve gone against him. I'd like to ask the same question that NOS was asked in their 16 in 16 - How much do you guys have left in the tank? For example, one of the best players of all time, Foppatofflan, is surely not getting any younger! I think, like most things, it’s a matter of perception and how you approach things. It’s easy to dismiss others skill as luck, or their emergence as your downfall. Me personally? I feel I can be better and perhaps that I should be since if we (NOR) want to win we’ll need a full team playing well, as I don’t think it’s possible nowadays for a player to ‘hard carry’ a team like you could on old gen. Besides, at the end of the day it’s not like I’m 50 years old, I’m maybe not going to pick things up as quickly or as easily as I could 7 years ago but as far as I’m concerned it should barely be a discernible difference since your brain doesn’t just start degrading once you’re past 20, 30, or even 40 years of age. In summary though, if we keep putting in hours each and every game and learn from any mistakes, then I feel (barring anything major) that there’s no real reason to expect a rapid decrease in skill. Huge thanks for your extensive answers, MartindalexC! See you on the ice and good luck on another long playoff push to NOR! ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. _______________ 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty We've got only five teams left to pick from for the next article.. Who would you think is going to finish 5th?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Today we're taking a look at a team that has the skill, has the grit and has the vision to take it all home, they just haven't had the luck so far. The team that's next in line has found the way to stay at the top and be continuously successful, but despite that they haven't managed to win anything yet. You could say they've built a Dynasty around core players like@jumalpeku, @Snapster, @Tehh and @Sandr0hh. Might have given it away already, but yeah.. we'll be checking out Dynasty. Personally, I've been in the scene for a far shorter time than many of you other guys around, but I've always found Dynasty to be an annoyingly good opponent. Be it unorthodox breakout plays by @DieCutterMC or seeing the game ten steps ahead of the opposition like the tactician Ahola - they've always been one of the toughest teams to beat. They're not only really skilled players, but also seem like a great group of guys. I managed to get a hold of captain jumalpeku for an interview, which you can read at the end of this article. IN MukiMaisteri <-- Northern Ascendancy OriginalPumaz <-- SJK eSports Leksa94 <-- SJK eSports OUT Lukkolinho --> Break from NHL Puantso --> Symphony Current Roster: Forwards jumalpeku (C) @jumalpeku MukiMaisteri @hpkfani Filariou @Filariou Leksa94 @Leksa94 TehhAhola @Tehh Defensemen DieCutterMC @DieCutterMC Snapu48 (A) @Snapster JParola @Jorma Parola Goaltenders Sandr0hhh (A) @Sandr0hh OriginalPumaz @Hiiruh Dynasty has been a difficult opponent based on some occasional games played against you guys on the offseason. How did the guys spend the summer and what kind of reception has the new game had among the Dynasty boys? Your mind must be playing tricks on you! I'd say we're possibly the worst offseason team in all of Elite. I don't think we've had a single night where we've won two or more games in a row. Most of our guys pretty much took the summer off from NHLGaming. Other teams might have kept practicing hard all summer, our guys were out chasing tail and gassing beers. The new game has taken some getting used to. Feels like we've had to adjust our game a bit after every update as things we used to do didn't work all of a sudden. I think it's quite well known that we like to spend time in the penalty box and ath least that hasn't changed for the better with the new game. However, I think we all agree that NHL19 is a better version than the previous iteration. You guys acquired notorious goal-scorer MukiMaisteri early on, did you guys make any other moves during the summer? Our youngster @Buantso made a deal with @indi969 at his confirmation camp last summer, so we decided to honor their contract and ended up letting Puantso go. MukiMaisteri was acquired to fill the gap left by Puantso and I believe we hit the jackpot on this one. Luukkonen is probably the best goal scorer in the game, he's also a very competitive and vocal teammate. Exactly what we needed. Other acquisitions we made were @Leksa94 and OriginalPumaz @Hiiruh. Leksa is an excellent all-rounder in the offensive end of the ice, he will certainly see some ECL time if he can hop off Fortnite every once in a while. @Lukkoukko(Lukkolinho) decided to take a step back so we needed another goaltender. That's where OriginalPumaz stepped in and we're happy to have such an experienced and trustworthy guy behind our defenders. I think we still have the best goalie tandem in the league. How do you guys feel about the ECL Elite license? Of course we're happy about it. To start off, we were wondering if we're going to be active enough for it to pay off for us. However, I think this might have been the incentive needed for us to start taking it more seriously and get excited again. The license fee isn't bad and the return is decent, I'd surely like to have that in my wallet. We're moving in the right direction and props to @Kenu & the rest of the staff for that. Several sources have mentioned ECL Elite being tougher than ever this season. Which teams have been your toughest opponents and who do you think has potential for a surprise? SIKA is probably the only team we haven't managed to win in the preseason so I'd call them our toughest opponent. It's no joke, the SIKA roster right now seems so much better than before. I think they could also provide one of the potential upsets this season. Finally, are there any players in the league you would like to highlight for the upcoming season? Not on our team, that's for sure. I'd say keep your eyes on @vSilenttio. Thanks jumalpeku! Good luck for Dynasty with the upcoming season. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty The options are running out! Who do you think is number four?

In this first part we'll be diving in to captaincy itself and analyzing the captains of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League. In the second part we will be focusing on the Eastern Conference and captaincy in virtual hockey. The NHL season recently kicked off, so far we've had around 50 games played, over 200 goals scored and a bunch of NHL firsts. Be it first points, first goals or first games. We're living an exciting time of year and it's simply wonderful that the greatest league in sports is back with some action. The term captain derives from the Greek word katepánō, which roughly translates to ” placed at the top”. That defines a captain rather well, a captain is the Top-Dog, the Alpha-male, the one who steers the ship. Your ship could be the fastest, biggest or the most expensive in the world, but it's useless without a good captain. The same very much goes for ice hockey teams. Without a proper captain, your ship sails where the current takes it. You need a captain with the passion, vision, fire and will to win - then you can even sail against the wind. A hockey match is a battle where questioning your choices might very well mean defeat. That’s where the captain comes into play. He makes sure that everybody goes by the plan and that everybody does their part on the ice. That is what differentiates a good captain from the average or bad ones. A good captain gets the whole team to stand by him no matter what and if the plan needs to be changed he can communicate it to the team and he will lead by example. Let’s take a closer look at all NHL-teams and their captains. I'll give you my opinion and analysis about them. Western conference: Pacific Division: Anaheim Ducks – Ryan Getzlaf Getzlaf is the best player in his team season after another. Point production and playing intensity can vary depending on the mood of Ryan, but even on the off nights he is a force to be reckoned with. When he is in the zone, nothing can stop him. He is a big player with a good shot, but prefers assisting. Getzy also defends well and has no real weaknesses to his game. Has also won a Cup with the Ducks in '07. Truly a franchise player. One of the most underrated players in the NHL. Arizona Coyotes – Oliver Ekman-Larsson OEL claimed the captaincy out in the desert this summer. Arizona has been adrift for quite some years and the hockey culture in over in the Phoenix-Glendale area has suffered immensely, partly due to the lack of success. The Swede is turning into the face of the franchise very much needed after the era of Shane Doan has passed. We'll have to wait and see what kind of captain OEL will turn out to be, in a recent interview he stated that he will let his play do the talking and let his assistants be more vocal in the locker room. Calgary Flames – Mark Giordano Solid defender with a flame in his heart. Has always represented Calgary at the NHL level and I think he will stay there till the end of his career. No major achievements in his career and that is the biggest problem. I think a good captain needs to have that winning mentality and culture, which sorry to say - Mark simply doesn't possess. I doubt the Flames will make a cup run with Giordano as captain. There is no big flaws in his game but on the other side there aren’t any superb ups in his game either. History won’t remember him as a great leader, but history will remember him as a loyal and solid Flames defenseman. Edmonton Oilers – Connor McDavid Does this player even need an introduction or any explanation on why he is the captain? Best player of the NHL right now. McDavid as captain was set in stone from the moment he was drafted. I believe he will turn the franchise around and do good things with them. Los Angeles Kings – Anze Kopitar Anze is going into his third season as a captain. His first captaincy season was his worst in the NHL. He had to prove that he can be a leader both on and off the ice and that he did in the 17/18 season as he put up an amazing tally of 92 points. Has two cups already, so he knows what it takes to be the top dog and communicate it to the team, boosting others to make the whole team better. Will the high flying of this Slovenian magician carry on and will rest of the team catch some air time too? It all remains to be seen, but I wouldn't count them out as contenders in 18/19. San Jose Sharks – Joe Pavelski ”Captain America” or ”Big Joe” took the Sharks leadership after another great in leader Joe Thornton. I recall some minor controversy when the captaincy was transferred to the younger Joe. However, the passing of the torch went well and Pavelski has led the San Jose team efficiently. They even went head to head with the Penguins for the cup in 15/16 but ended up on the losing side. Even though Pavelski has proven himself as playmaker, passer and scorer he still need to prove himself as winner. His only notable win outside of juniors is an Olympic silver medal and with that you won’t go down in history as a great captain. Vancouver Canucks – Vacant The age after the Sedins begin. Vancouver is in a huge crisis right now. Their defense is mediocre, goalies are mediocre and offense is mediocre. No captain and basically no playoff expectations. They really need to start building their team for the long term in hopes of making the playoffs in the next 5 years. The Canucks have some young assets in Elias Petterson(who's been looking like a stud in his first strides on the NHL ice!) and Brock Boeser, who went almost a point-per-game in his first full NHL season. Vegas Golden Knights - vacant As you know, the Golden Knights are team who has done tremendously well without a captain. I think that this is a unique situation in the history of the NHL. There is some kind of a magical atmosphere within the team and everybody does their best to chip in. I think that stems from the fact that all players were starting from 0 in a new team that has no burdens of history. I certainly thought they'd have to pick a captain for this season as the ”honey moon” is over and some of the first season magic will fade. Central Division: Chicago Blackhawks – Jonathan Toews No drawback found here. Toews is an all-round package in a playing field with some of the best hockey senses ever both on defense and offense. It's a huge reason why the Blackhawks have won three titles during his tenure. He has also won two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup. This guy really knows how to win and every team in NHL would be lucky to have such a great leader in their team. Colorado Avalanche – Gabriel Landeskog Had a bad season in 16/17 and had a lot prove in 17/18. Gabriel ended up delivering an excellent effort along Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon. Solid overall player who is leading by example both on the ice and in the dressing room. Still young at the age of 25 and really excellent choice for a captain albeit the criticism that has earlier surrounded him. Can be the leader for coming years and is a good piece to start slowly building a true Cup contender team. Also notable that he has been the team captain for almost 6 years already. Dallas Stars – Jamie Benn Still relatively young at age 29 and he has been a captain since 13/14. Has proven himself as goal scorer and a true offensive threat. He is a natural winner and has a U20 gold medal, a WHL championship and an Olympic Gold medal to back that up. In my opinion, Dallas as a team doesn't currently have what it takes to win a cup, but if they can improve some areas such as goaltending I predict that Benn has the qualities to lead the Stars to a Cup. Minnesota Wild – Mikko Koivu Koivu has had a bit too big of a hill to climb when has been the sole leader of Minnesota. Since the acquisition of Eric Staal in 16/17 they have a second big leader in the dressing room and Minnesota has bounced back nicely. Also notable is that Mikko's older brother Saku was the captain of the Montreal Canadiens for 10 years so the leadership gene sure runs in the family. Both have also been captains of team Finland and both are gold medalists in the IIHF World Championships, however neither one has won Stanley Cup. Still remains to be seen if the Koivu family will get a taste of the Cup. Nashville Predators – Roman Josi Roman Josi has had a great start to his captaincy. Nashville lost to a strong Winnipeg team after a struggle the Playoffs last year, mostly simply due to how good their opposition was. The Preds defense backstopped by "Betoni-Pekka" Rinne is one of the best in league. Josi himself is a superb defender who is never in a rush whether it’s in the attacking zone or in front of the own net. His team can rely on him every night and even if there is a hiccup Mr. Rinne will handle the rest. I'd be surprised if Josi wouldn't lead his team to at least a legitimate cup run in the next three seasons. St. Louis Blues – Alex Pietrangelo Reliable. That is the term that defines Pietrangelo. He won’t be the top scorer or top passer, but you can bet on him to be on the ice when the game is in its closing moments and it's time to play the hard minutes. Chasing the 3-gold club as he has an Olympic gold and World Cup gold. Still needs a Stanley Cup and has at least 6-7 seasons left to get it. He knows how to win and what makes a winning team. Now he just needs the material around him to be good enough and he will lead them to glory. Winnipeg Jets – Blake Wheeler Blake Wheeler is a machine of a human being. Huge presence on the ice. He is big, he is fast and has the scoring and passing ability. The epitome of a power forward who can be on the ice on powerplays and on the PK. Wheeler doesn't have any big team achievements or major personal trophies in his career so far. The argument could be made: does he have enough passion and fire for winning to achieve greatness as the Jets captain? Winnipeg has a good group of guys put together and it remains to be seen if Wheeler is the locomotive that can haul the rest of the team all the way to a Cup. Inked a fresh five year deal, I predict at least a Cup final run within these five years. What are your thoughts so far? Who is you favorite captain in the West? Who should be named captain to take one of the vacant spots? Let me know in the comments and stay tuned for the second part in which we'll take a look at the Eastern conference and dive in to what captaincy means in virtual hockey.

Hey NHLGamers, A new NHL 19 Tuner carrying the version number 1.0.2 has been released. Before we jump into the tuner notes, let's have a little talk. If you are active on social media and the NHL community, you know that there has been a lot of harsh feedback about NHL 19 and there's been claims such as: They ruined the game - it was already perfect during the beta! The patch/tuner turned the game back into NHL 18! The skating was perfect, but now I feel like a tank again! Let's take a moment to think about this. Could some of this backlash also be a community overreaction? I mean, we're having the same discussions annually. People that are familiar with marketing surely know that word of mouth works in a snowball effect, maybe that's a part of what's happening here? Understandably everyone can't like the changes but have they actually been as dramatic as the community has made it seem? I myself usually love playing the game in the first weeks it comes out - sure, it feels the same in many ways, but it's still fresh and people don't know how to play exactly and how to score in the most efficient ways. Fast-forward a few weeks: The game isn't as easy as it was on the week of the release. Your competition has also got in some game hours and has learned a trick or two. The bliss of having a new, amazing product has faded and you've become familiarized with the grind it takes to stay at a competitive level in the game. So a new patch or tuner comes out and someone tells you "this and that is completely ruined". You start focusing on it more. You notice new things that perhaps aren't actually new things, just things you didn't pay attention to before. But surely it's real - everybody is talking about it! Do I think the game is perfect? Far from it. I have spent countless hours giving constructive feedback about it this year alone. But constructive is the key word. If you want something to be actually improved, you can't expect it to improve if your feedback is at the level of "This is trash! Fix your game!". I know there are many members in our community that actually put in the time and effort to provide valuable and well constructed feedback. I believe we could all benefit from taking a look at our approach to feedback, whether it is at a Burger King or a web forum. Honestly, I have been too busy with working on the website and broadcasts to get in as many game hours as I would like to and because of that, I know that many of you are better qualified to actually discuss the pokechecks, stick lifts and skating. So please do discuss it in the comments, using words, videos and graphs or whatever you need. Let's just drill into the specifics of the issues and look at why things work or don't work the way we expect them to. It's also worth keeping in mind that if you release a patch that aims to fix everything in one go, it's could to be really hard to say what change caused an unexpected change to the game balance. NHL 19 Tuner 1.0.2 - Change log Ok, so on to the important stuff of what's new in this tuner. The tuner is now available, but I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. There are several parts that at least on paper sound like they issue many of my main complaints so far: You should not be able to smash that stick lift irresponsibly without getting called for penatlies. It should be easier to pull off some dekes with any player type now (I've felt it's too hard to get successful dekes even when the player isn't pressured) It's felt like it's been a bit too easy to knock the puck lose just by the opponent trying to hit you, but in the process their stick has touched the puck, often through your body. This should be improved now. I've often been confused with whether or not I've been able to pick up the puck or not and I don't know if I should leave the situation or not. Hopefully now the outcome will be more obvious and make reading the game a bit easier. Earlier broken sticks were removed (from competitive play) and now the dropped sticks. While I liked it as a thing that happens in real hockey, let's face it - it was very random and thus unfair. I've actually been quite happy with the goalies this year, but I imagine these tweaks are to hinder some glitch. What do you think about the new tuner? What is your main gripe with NHL 19? Let us know in the comments.