Leaderboard

Welcome to the North American Championship League - NACL! The North American Championship league is making its long-awaited return and It's time to find out who's the best 6v6 team in North America. There is plenty of reason to get excited for this season of NACL as the same principles seem to apply with NACL as on our European endeavors - great broadcasts, prize pools and the fiercest of competition! We are also excited about our new playoff format, which was well received by the community. Below you will find all the information you need before the tournament. Game mode: 6v6 Console: Xbox One Rules: Download here NACL License: In order to play, the team must purchase the NACL License at $200. Buy the NACL license here. Prize pool: The NACL prize pool will amount to a minimum of $4000*. 1. $2,400 2. $1,200 3-4. $200 *Prize pool is guaranteed at 10+ registered NACL license owners. With the exception of PayPal fees, all of the NACL license costs will be going towards the prize pool. NHLGamer does not take a cut. Schedule & Gamedays: Our schedule will consist of Tuesday and Sunday evenings with our main times being 9-11 pm, however, the "Featured Games" for casting purposes will be from 8-10 pm. Teams will also have the freedom to reschedule games within reason. Every team will face each other in a two-game series alternating home and away. Weekly Broadcasts: One thing NHLGamer takes pride in is our top-notch broadcasts and we aim to have the same standards in the NACL as we do in our European casts. We are looking forward to working with the players to make this possible. The NACL will have a featured stream each week, cast by @Tougie24 and @Cyn. More information to follow. Meet our staff: @APsychicTaco (Support) @DirtyJerrz (Support) @HowtoChel (Support) @Kenu (Admin) @MartindalexC (Writer) @Oohwayy (Support) @TheCreasePolice (League Lead) @WingelsDGC (Writer, Support) *roles are simplified for convenience and aren't limited to the above title Support: While it's totally ok to ask for help on Discord and you might get a quicker reply from fellow community members to some of the simpler questions, when you actually want to get help with an issue from our staff, please contact support. While sending PM's to staff members may be tempting, using our ticketing system is the best way to go. The tentative schedule for what's coming: The sign-ups for the NACL will kick off now and end on March 3rd. The sign-ups are followed by a media week, where everything is set up and we look forward to learning about your team. The season starts on March 10th. The regular season is estimated at 4-6 weeks, followed by BO7 playoffs. The NACL season will begin on March 10th and registrations kick off effective immediately, so please CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP RIGHT NOW! Discord: Our communication with the teams is done through articles on the website and through our Discord server. You can join the NHLGamer Discord server by clicking here. In the NHLGamer Discord, add the NACL Elite role as well as the role for your team to help with league communication. This can be done in the #role-commands-entry channel (see #role-commands-guide for instructions). Last but not least, a very warm welcome to the community! About NHLGamer NHLGamer.com first saw the light of day over a decade ago, somewhere around 2004. What started as a website platform for friends to arrange NHL leagues against each other has since grown exponentially into what is today the largest community for NHL gamers in Europe. In late 2015, NHLGamer launched a new platform for a larger audience by introducing the first-ever European Championship League (ECL) - a league where all the best European NHL gamers create teams and compete against each other in the game mode EASHL (6vs6) for the title of Best EASHL Team in Europe. We took another big step forward by launching the NACL and welcoming North American teams into a league hosted on our site. This launch was also a monumental step in bringing together all the best NHL gamers on one platform. Our new found venture into the North American NHL gaming scene is looking to follow in the footsteps of what we have done with the ECL. While proud of our achievements and the success we've had in creating and maintaining such a great community of talented gamers, we are not done yet. Our long-term goals include growing the community, hosting larger leagues with larger prize pools and working together with organizations at the cutting edge of gaming and esports. Remember to stay up to speed with all our leagues by following our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can find our broadcasts on our Twitch channel.

NHLGamers, We've at this point already turned our looks towards coming things and put the past ECL 9 season in our rearview mirror, but let me just hold you up for a second for this recap at how great the ninth iteration of the most prestigious division in Europe actually was. First and foremost, let me extend a thank you to all of our gamers who once again, as before - have proven their skill and passion to make all of this possible. We kicked off in mid-November, shortly after an exciting IS Cup 4 had started the competitive season for us NHL gamers. It was an interesting season in the sense that we saw some new blood and old acquaintances at the top level, whereas a number of teams also changed colours even mid-season as the result of contract negotiations with various organisations coming to a close. Some of the new teams we were able to welcome were eSHL participants Linkoping HC, Farjestad BK, Lulea Hockey and Leksands IF but we also saw other organisations such as Roots and HAVU Gaming taking their first strides on the ECL ice. Regular season Indications before the season were that the usual suspects, HAVU Gaming and Linkoping HC (previously FILADELPHIA) would be the duo to keep an eye on for another iteration of virtual hockey. Based on recent showings in the IS Cup 4, also Butterfly Effect was in great form ahead of ECL 9 and were expected to show up to play come puck drop. Well, as the season progressed it quickly became rather clear as these three juggernauts quickly set sail for an excursion of their own and gathered point after point in a pace of their own. Especially Linkoping and HAVU Gaming set themselves apart from the competition with a suffocating offensive pressure that leaves no space for the opposition to generate viable offense of their own. Both teams finished the regular season with impressive goal differentials and extremely low goals against averages. Butterfly Effect carried on their strong performances to the ECL and proved that they were serious contenders this season, as a result they followed close behind the power duo of LHC and HAVU. Apart from the three top teams, Roots, Lulea Hockey and Unlucky Boys HC managed to crack the playoffs with some margin to the teams behind. These teams performed somewhere along the lines of what was expected from them, putting forth some very balanced efforts throughout the season and in that way justifying a playoff spot for themselves - a feat that must feel especially good for Unlucky Boys, who have been competing at the highest level for quite some time, but missed the playoffs narrowly for the past two seasons. Moving on to the middle of the pack, we see some of the tightest competition within the division is quite some time. Positions 7-13 are all within a four point range of each other meaning that just a win or loss in any direction could have drastically changed the outlook of the playoff picture. Consistent performer Symphony had a surprisingly hard time and making the playoffs was actually out of their hands - losing five straight wasn't the ideal way to cap off the regular season. Luckily for them, the Notes had some help along the way and their competition didn't manage to overtake them. The final two playoff teams by an extremely narrow margin were Miracle and Symphony. The bottom three teams held some surprises to be fair and managed to amass the biggest point totals for bottom teams since the introduction of the divisions framework. The final order was Almost Famous at 14th with a point total of 26, the previous seasons surprise playoff team BRAYCE Phantoms at 15th with 23 points and finally Leksands IF, who managed to avoid relegation in ECL 8, at 19 points. Eventually all teams in the relegation zone lost their relegation matchups, which infuses the division with a great amount of fresh skill for ECL 10. Playoffs As usual, the playoff contention in the ECL consists out of the eight best teams in the European scene - no exceptions on that part this season either. Going into the quarterfinals, some rather clear favourites existed for most of the series, barring the one between 4th seed Roots and 5th seed Lulea Hockey. This series finally ended up being the only one in which the lower seeded team managed to grab the win, with that also the only series of such variety for the duration of the playoffs. Roots did not play up to their potential and have since addressed their underlying issues with some personnel changes in the offseason. Linköping HC 4 Symphony 2 HAVU Gaming 4 Miracle 0 Butterfly Effect 4 Unlucky Boys HC 1 Roots 2 Lulea Hockey 4 Moving on to the semifinal stages, we were left with the absolute elite - three teams who have been very familiar with each other, battling at this stage of the tournament against one another in a bunch of various tournaments. Then we had Lulea, who managed to overpower Roots in their quarterfinal matchup and were looking to possibly cause an upset against heavy favourite Linkoping HC. The series finally didn't go Luleas way, as the score was kept close in some games, but there was really no doubt about the better team. Linkoping put forth an impressive effort and punched their ticket to the finals. The other series between dear rivals HAVU Gaming and Butterfly Effect was an exciting one indeed. Some time earlier, these two had went at it in the IS Cup 4 semifinals for the entire seven game series and this was going to be the one in which FLY comes back for redemption. Well, game seven it was once again, but no change in the end result as Butterfly Effect suffered a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals for the third time in the past year - all of these losses against HAVU. The tragedy has put captain @jergelii's faith to a test and the future of the team is currently unknown. Linköping HC 4 Lulea Hockey 0 HAVU Gaming 4 Butterfly Effect 3 Eventually there can be only one, and that's what we're determining each iteration in the finals. For the second time straight on ECL ice, the matchup was between the two giants Linkoping HC and HAVU Gaming. A great battle was expected and that was surely what these two teams provided. The finals were divided into two gamedays, where the first three games were played on the first day and the rest would be played on the second gameday. HAVU quickly took control by winning the first two games in the series, but luckily for Linkoping, they manage to snag a victory to end the first gameday, putting the series at 2-1 for the pause. One of the turning points of the series was seen with a mere 2 seconds left in game 3, where LHC was ahead by a goal and HAVU managed to generate an almost certain scoring chance, but @ICappeI in net shuts them down with potentially the biggest save of the season. See the save and games 1-3 of the finals below: (save sequence starts at around 1:45:00) As the series continue on the second gameday, HAVU is the more eager team to win as they grab the win in game 4, putting the series at a stranglehold. However, Linkoping quickly shows that they simply do not recognise the concept of giving up. The white lions mount a comeback for the ages consisting of three straight one goal games, including an overtime victory in game 6. All in all, it can be stated with certainty that this series solidifies this matchup as a definite classic within NHL gaming. Linkoping secures the championship and regains the title! Linköping HC 4 HAVU Gaming 3 🏆 AWARDS Playoff MVP: @Eki, Linkoping HC Most Points: @Eki, Linkoping HC, 44 Goals, 71 Assists, 115 Points in 47 games Most Goals: @Vilupoika, Butterfly Effect, 58 Goals, 29 Assists, 87 Points in 42 games Most Assists: @Eki, Linkoping HC, 44 Goals, 71 Assists, 115 Points in 47 games Most Hits by a Forward: @hpkfani, Lulea Hockey, 243 Hits in 40 games Best +/-: @PleeMaker , Linkoping HC, +75 in 47 games Most Points by a Defenseman: @xDoumi, Butterfly Effect, 2 Goals, 45 Assists, 47 Points in 42 games Most Goals by a Defenseman: @willekunq, HAVU Gaming, 10 Goals, 32 Assists, 42 Points in 46 games Most Assists by a Defenseman: @xDoumi, Butterfly Effect, 2 Goals, 45 Assists, 47 Points in 42 games Most Hits by a Defenseman: @FakiiR1, Miracle, 278 Hits in 34 games Best goaltender (SV%): @Hansulinho, HAVU Gaming, 247 saves on 288 shots, SV% 85.76% in 34 games Thank you all for yet another successful ECL season, we'll be back with more in the near future! In the mean time you can keep up with one of the ongoing leagues, such as eSHL, RCL or GCL. See you on the ice!