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In my opinion, the ECL with it's promotions and relegations needs a breather to stay fresh and interesting for the audience. I understand the will to hit the ECL ice over and over again, but rushing these things isn't a good idea in my opinion. Due to making the schedule work there was practically no down-time between ECL 7 and ECL 8 and we're not even done with the 8th season yet. In order for the ECL to be able to grow, we need the time to do that properly. That being said, there will be plenty of club action before the Summer Cup, where you can join with your ECL team and we'll talk about that more a bit later. I know some of you would like to play season after season after season of ECL non-stop and rest assured your feedback is being taken into consideration. Feel free to send me your thoughts and ideas, but let's keep this comment section about welcoming the guys and gals from North America. (If you would like to discuss the future EU tournaments/leagues, you can take it here: you can take it here)

Ah, yes, wise words. I'll open up my thought process a little to hopefully explain things a bit better (while still vague enough to frustrate some of you 😅) When I say needs a breather and talk about future plans in this case, I'm speaking short term. What in my opinion is the right decision right now. Some criteria that I have to take into account: We've been playing ECL pretty much 5 months straight. I completely agree with what you say about how the pauses should be. The pause before season 8 was much shorter than ideal due to the big steps we were able to take with partnerships and to be able to make the live final. While ECL is our baby and will continue to be the most important of our franchises (along with the NACL that we just announced), we also want to consider other avenues that make the NHLGamer experience fresh and speak to an audience that we're not fully talking to yet. We have to consider our staff's availability and energy levels when making decisions. We have a lot of people listed as ECL staff, but in reality there are a few diamonds that take care of most of the work while a lot of the people are contributing a little or none (which is totally fine as long as the communication is solid). It's hard to explain how much work there really is to make this thing work as well as it is (even with all of its flaws). And in the end I'm the only one working on this full time (currently for free) and it often comes down to me if nobody else is available. 14h+ days are no stranger to me. Not to make things about me, but this then comes down to having to measure my own energy levels. It's no use to the community if I drive myself into a hole and don't have the energy to continue. An example of my esports related projects since the release of NHL 19: IS Cup 3: NHL 19 6vs6 eSM 2018 - Online qualifiers + Live finals in Helsinki IS Cup 3: FIFA 19 1vs1 eSM 2018 - Online qualifiers + Live finals in Seinäjoki IS Cup 3: NHL 19 1vs1 eSM 2018 - Online qualifiers + Local qualifiers in Helsinki + Live finals in Helsinki ECL 7 FIFA 19 Finnish Championship -tournament for Palloliitto - Online qualifiers + Head Admin for finals in Helsinki FIFA 19 Nordics Invitational -tournament for Palloliitto - Head Admin for finals in Helsinki ECL 8 - Online + Live finals in Tampere 1st of March 2019 NACL GCL 3, RCL 3 & RCL 4 (these guys do a very solid job and I don't have to help them too much outside of start of season and playoffs) All of these projects and others not mentioned demand planning, meetings and and preparing before the actual seasons take place. On top of these, time is needed to plan ahead and look at the big picture and develop future plans and partnerships. Not all of our concepts make it to the public eye. We need to think about what the high-end players want vs what the lower end players want vs what the audience wants vs what the partners want vs what a sponsor might want and make a decision that makes the most sense from all points of view. Sometimes one of these groups might get a bigger weight than at others, but it's important to understand that if we want to grow and succeed, we need to take all of these into account and sometimes that might feel like an odd decision if you're only considering your own position as a team or player. What is the right decision today might not be the right one tomorrow, and vice versa. So just because we have done something in one way in the past doesn't mean we can't add or remove from the experience in the future. One thing that some people might find annoying is the lack of information about things well ahead of time. Some thoughts on that: Yes, first off, we want to communicate things as early as possible and are aware that we can do a better job. However, here's some thoughts on why we do things the way we do: I don't like to promise things that I can't keep. Plans change and we need to adapt quickly. But I'd rather have that be internal than announcing something on a time-period that was previously announced as a safe time to take a vacation etc. In some cases, like for example ahead of ECL 8, some of the info wasn't available and wasn't allowed to be released until it would be communicated by us and our partners. Point being: I'd rather communicate something with the correct information from the start than to for example have people expect a higher prize pool and then have to go back on that. Let's say, hypothetically, that I said previously that the ECL 8 prize pool will probably be 10k and then it turned out to be 5k or 7,5k. It would still have been a great thing and an improvement to the past, but it would have been a disappointment as we set the expectations higher ourselves. Just because we don't comment on something or say something, doesn't mean we're not thinking it or not doing it. 😊 I hope that explains a bit better what our/my process of thinking is. We love your feedback and ideas, so keep them coming.

ECL8 ends officially on 2nd of March 2019. If NHLGamer has decided to go the old way, the next ECL starts on mid-October so there would be about 225 days between ECL8 and ECL9. Pretty sure it's not like that this year but if it is, not smart. I understand two major tournaments in a year if the game is been played by hundred thousands of people. This scene is not there yet where you can just sit back and wait for the certain month to come, only because that's how it's been done before. But during NHL19, NHLGamer has taken some big steps so I'm waiting only positive stuff for this change too. I'd say it's possible to organize something smarter than one Summer Cup in that time period. Which has to be updated somehow by the way.

Creating a thread where people can share ideas for what NHLgamer should do in the coming months after ECL 8. Share ideas and visions. I also wanna raise the question about the fact that ECL currently runs two major tournaments every year. What do you think about that? I do believe that two major ECL tournaments is to few, especially since we have 3 divisions. A new lite team that is formed today will at best be able to play in the elite division in the first season of NHL 2021. With the 3 division system I do believe that more ECL:s is crucial for the european scene. Then again, I'm not the one that has the organize all this so it's easy to complain. Anyways. Share your opinions

Do we get ecl9 before summer?

The swedish community needs more national 6v6 tournaments for sure. There is huge potential here and I do believe NHLGAMER can find good partners to team up with. But the answer to the void for our community as a whole during spring cannot be a swedish tournament for a select few. No thank your for reaching out to the community about the future. This topic is definitely something that people are talking a lot about. I'm sure you have something brilliant coming up and I do believe that you should go with your own vision and not listen too much on the community. However, I do not agree with your argument about ECL needing a breathing period to feel fresh from a audience perspective. Summer is the breather period, rest of the year should try to be full on hectic competetive gameplay. The peak of ECL should be late spring if posible. The interest in hockey is at it's peak and players are at their peak at this time. f you only want two sessions of ECL every year then it's much better to have a longer winter brake and fill those months with other tournament formats. Important to end the season with a bang IMO.

Yeah we need a Cup before summer. Why we dont have one is so strange tbh. But with regular teams imo

Looking for a club for offseason and so on LD/RD Pro/elite 🌚

While the Summer Cup isn't our next thing, please feel free to discuss how you would like to see that develop. Also, for those of you who didn't read my reply in the NACL news comments - this is what sparked the discussion: In my opinion, the ECL with it's promotions and relegations needs a breather to stay fresh and interesting for the audience. I understand the will to hit the ECL ice over and over again, but rushing these things isn't a good idea in my opinion. Due to making the schedule work there was practically no down-time between ECL 7 and ECL 8 and we're not even done with the 8th season yet. In order for the ECL to be able to grow, we need the time to do that properly. That being said, there will be plenty of club action before the Summer Cup, where you can join with your ECL team and we'll talk about that more a bit later. I know some of you would like to play season after season after season of ECL non-stop and rest assured your feedback is being taken into consideration. Feel free to send me your thoughts and ideas, but let's keep this comment section about welcoming the guys and gals from North America. Thanks for opening this discussion @Jesus.

I think 2 ECL tournaments is a fair amount. It doesnt prohibit us from creating tournaments outside the ECL-system. Perhaps we can arrange a swedish championship league for the spring?

The ECL 8 Finals between FILADELPHIA (#2) and Written In The Stars (#1) will be played on Friday 1st of March at LanTrek, Tampere, Finland. Who will win this BO7 series and 7 000 € out of the 10 000 € prize pool? Show your support or opinion by voting on the poll! Votes are not public, so you don't have to worry about your friendships when voting. 😅

An English football's ''FA cup'' type tournament could be interesting. Put all participating teams in a home-away 2-game series knockout bracket and last one standing wins. Potential for some crazy upsets and storylines.

This is just an idea for a small tournament that would last maybe 3-4 weeks. but over on LG they have something called CanAm (Canadians vs Americans). they play a Best of 25 series. 30 players in each roster (5G 10D 15FW) Maybe something we can do but Sweden vs Finland instead. 2-3 team captains for each country & they select the team rosters through trials etc.

Hi and welcome to the NACL on PS4. We are currently looking at how much interest there is for a PS4 NACL. Please sign up to show your interest If you didn't read what the league is about already, please head over here: Please use the template below to sign up your team! Playing in NACL Pro is free. The minimum player amount is 8 players.

Yeah, do we really need more salt in this community? 😎

English Cups don't do "home-away 2-game series" unless it's semis', in FA Cup you also do if you draw but that doesn't matter. I guess if you do consider some sort of a knockout bracket in NHL scene, a some sort of a system of byes should be involved that will ensure clubs of Pro and Elite enter the competition at later stages which also means that there won't be no seeding, the match-ups in each round would be determined by a random draw. Not too sure about how exactly the match-ups could be played out. Could be a simple BO3... there is no such thing as BO2 unless you want to introduce aggregate like in CHL which will allow draws. 😆 Bit nutty but not a bad concept imo.

Yeah but having a Swedish league does not mean the other nationalities can’t have their leagues. You already have a german league and a russian league, I think? Im sure Finland can come up with a league too. That leaves Connor and Billy, but Im sure they could play in one of the national leagues Or some other type of league like an international like suggested in this thread. My point is that there is no restriction to how many tournaments one can participate in...but the question should rather be how many tournaments are mandatory to play in order to keep your ECL-spot?

ECL Autum, ECL Winter and ecl Spring. Giving shorter autum and winter tournaments the role of "warmup" and division sorting out before the main event at Spring tournament. No new teams could go straight to pro nor Elite after Autum tournament regardless of their roster. Giving Lite and Pro more weight as open slots from disposed teams to be filled only with ones that have paricipated and ranked in earlier tournamet. So only Spring tournament would have the championship status per year. Summer cup as the fourth non official ecl tournament. Or fill the calendar with tournamet after tournament as many as peoble want, year after year. Just make the desission what way this concept is heading. Many tournaments with the same value, or one main event for every nhl version. I don't have strong opinion, just been reading how different thing's people want. And some kind of desission should be done.

"NaCl" love the appropriate name for a North American league 😂

"Someone" said it will come a finnish 6vs6 tournament before summer. Make ECL 9 happen instead.

Hello gamers! 33 years old Finnish goalie looking for a new home off season & next ecl. I have played last 4 seasons Freddie Mercury Institute. Looking for a Elite team. Contact me here or PSN: hulkamaania https://nhlgamer.com/player.php?playerID=1236

Hey Everyone, In this thread you can announce your availability to join a team. Below are some examples of things that you could potentially tell about yourself: PSN ID Position you want to play Age Where are you from What level of play are you looking for Where have you played before/achievements Discord Good luck!

Roster Goaltenders DobbyTheJoker_ LazyFinnen67 Provokacija Defencemen Strumpan87 David_ovic Forwards Tauri64- Volano97 BlizzakDevine

Like that idea. Could also go with groups of 16 if we want to extend the fun a little bit. One elite team in each group, two pro teams and fill the rest with lite and new teams. Will probably be 16 groups with around six teams in every group. Top two in every group goes to the round of 32. Might not be that much fun for Elite teams in the begining lol. But oh well. It's a good expierence for most at least.

SIKA Welcome back home: vSilenttio from Symphony imosi1 from Old Farts 🐷😍

This % poll is cool idea!

Butterfly Effect 🦋 In: Vilupoika from Team Frosty 😍 Out: joukki13 -> 🤷🏽‍♂️ Crisu_rottis -> Free Agent

Use this thread to find players for your PS4 team. Some of the things you may want to include: Club name: Looking for: Other Info: Good luck!

I think some World Championship with as many different countries as possible would be nice. Not sure how many teams we could get but still.

Love being the underdog! - Saucer Hockey

Looking for team for the off-season and next ECL. Position Lw/C/Ld/G. Last three seasons I have been playing on different positions. ECL6 and Summer cup as LD, ECL7 as C and ECL8 as LW. https://nhlgamer.com/player.php?playerID=834 Contact me here or on PSN.

Looking for a club LD can play occasionally RD Division doesnt matter aslong as the team has good sense of humour and bad jokes Contact me here or at psn Crisu_rottis

Free LW/C Looking for a new long-term team: Good player on both sides of the ice (offense and defense) Fast-paced passing with the ability to score Mainly interested in Finnish teams playing in pro division Contact me here or psn: Molotiira

Nordic Stars is looking for active players (F, D, G) for EASHL games and upcoming tournaments Feel free to contact here or PSN: @Seahyena

Free LW looking for a new team. I can also try to play as Center but I prefer to play as LW. My main language is swedish but I can also speak english. You can contact me here or on psn: Tacterz

Style (Pro) is searching for swedish players who can bring that little extra to our game. Actitivity and a mature attitude is required. Game time is up for grabs, the better you play, the more you will play. What we are looking for: 1 Forward who can produce points and create opportunities 1 Goaltender who knows how to hold short side and play simple (Defenders can also send a request, but mainly searching for a fwd and a goalie) We have some big plans in the making and we hope that you would join us on this journey. Please let me know here or on PSN (Panarinz) if you're interested.

Bockens eHockey Currently searching for: Starting W Starting D Backup G (Guaranteed plenty of ECL and training ice-time) Backup all-round players (ECL time if you perform in training) You are an active player that wants to win games with the team. All communication is in Swedish, meaning only Swedish players are welcome for try-outs. Bockens eHockey will sign up for any upcoming NHLGamer tournaments after ECL8.