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The NHL community loves to do top 10 rankings at each position. These are fun discussion starters for the community, but no one seems to be talking about the best 6’s teams out there. NHL 6v6 is all about chemistry and teamplay, but there isn’t any distinction to the best 6’s teams out there. It’s probably because teams rosters/teams change dramatically after a long event or a crushing defeat. With NHL 6v6 on the rise, and with more and more organizations/sponsors stepping into the space, let this be a PSA to try and maintain a roster for longer than a month. There will be good teams who won’t be ranked here, and that will simply be because they did not maintain a majority roster (3/6 starters) so their previous results cannot be pinned to an individual, and more so to the now-defunct roster. If you are switching your roster that drastically, you would assume they haven’t had success and probably shouldn’t be considered top 10 at this time. This post will contain the top 10 North American teams from the past couple of events in NHL 20. Here are the criteria: 1. Tournament/Event Results will be heavily considered here. Events are long and hard to come by these days, and teams change so much that we will only cover LG S12 and Caps Gaming in this list, as they are the most relevant and most recent. Going too far back leads to too much roster shuffling, but also the meta changing from yearly installments. So we’ll only use those 2 tournaments I mentioned. I’m using a points system, similar to ATP rankings in tennis, or how ESL ranks CSGO teams. Caps Gaming is ranked slightly more (about 5% higher) than LG due to recency. You can learn about these systems here: ATP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_Rankings ESL CSGO: https://pro.eslgaming.com/worldranking/csgo/rules/ 2. Opponents played/beat is also an important factor in these rankings. With both of the tournaments above being used, the quality of opponents can vary depending on scheduling/the format in general. In other words, some people may have an easier road than others, and best of 1’s versus best of 3’s+ are also a factor. Each team ranked here will have their notable wins in each category shown to get a grasp of the quality of opponent + placing. Best of 1’s (BO1) will only be a single game, while best of 3, 5 and 7’s (BO3, BO5, BO7) will be a series of wins over the same opponent, making them more noteworthy than a best of 1, where a bad or lucky bounce could change the tide of the game. Best of 7’s is the format of the NHL playoffs, where the first to win 4 games will ultimately win the series. 10. BBB LG Championship S12 - Top 16 Caps Gaming Showcase - Top 16 Bo3: Prophecy Bo1: Resilience, Composure x2 BBB was dominant in NHL 19, winning multiple 6s Championships. Unfortunately, it’s been too long since those events, and BBB hasn’t been able to replicate that same success in NHL 20. They bring back Flowmaster Joe, who was a key player in their previous success and will look to get that old BBB chemistry back and flowing. While they have been consistent in their placements, they’ll need to step it up in upcoming matches to jump in the rankings. 9. Dahlia LG Championship Season 12 - T24 (from Royalty) Caps Gaming Showcase - T8 Bo3: Prophecy, Phantoms, Entourage Bo1: Resilience, Vertigo The Dahlia Type Beat was in full force during the Caps Gaming Showcase and rolled through most of the regular season without a series loss. They play a tight defensive game and can play any team no matter how much offense to close games. They changed @TheGreatMP7 with @KingClutch, who is a proven PSN player in his own right and should be a solid addition to the squad. They’re proving that the gap between Xbox and Playstation players is smaller than people think, and will look to build off their previous campaigns. 8. Vertigo LG Championship Season 12 - T4 (From Legacy) Caps Gaming Showcase - N/A Bo7: Prophecy Bo1: Hidden Potential, Composure, Entourage, Dahlia, Underdogs Vertigo is a recently formed roster, filled with plenty of veterans from the 6’s scene. The majority of this roster comes from Legacy, who had solid 6’s results prior to the switch, but ultimately dropped out of Caps Gaming. They added the Turning Point duo of @Soy los 19 and @SamDelisle9, who you could argue were the two most impactful players on their roster. They then top it off with @Kernsy, @CaLL Me Jakoo, and @DDW4, who have been a part of very solid rosters in the past and are skilled players in their own right. This team has the potential to move up spots in these rankings in the near future, and the only reason they aren’t is because of the DNF in the Caps Tournament. 7. Prophecy LG Championship Season 12 - T8 Caps Gaming Showcase - T16 Bo3: N/A Bo1: Dahlia, Entourage, Vertigo, Phantoms, BBB The long-running brand of Prophecy has had a decent amount of consistency in terms of placing, but nothing too high or noteworthy. They recently went through a rehaul of their roster, bringing in @McLxvinn, @Po1andsFinest and @Sorokin x 90. All three of these guys bring pedigree and experience to the team and look to make a deeper run in future events. 6. Phantoms LG Championship Season 12 - T16 Caps Gaming Showcase - 4th Bo3: Entourage Bo1: Vertigo, Dahlia, Composure, BBB, Entourage Phantoms have been a pleasant surprise of the 6’s scene recently, being a newer roster/brand formed in NHL 20. The French squad surprised plenty in the early going, but then topped it off with a dark horse run in the Caps Gaming Showcase, making it to top 4 and the LAN experience. These guys can’t be considered dark horses anymore and will look to continue their consistent success. 5. Underdogs LG Championship Season 12 - T4 Caps Gaming Showcase - T8 Bo3: Composure, Dahlia Bo1: Dahlia, Composure, Entourage, Prophecy, BBB, Phantoms This French squad is by no means an underdog at this point, as they have been consistently a solid contender in all the events they play in. The Underdogs like to play a high powered offense and have the skill to match any top team goal for goal. They had a tough run in the Caps Gaming tournament, as they had forfeit wins and forfeit losses all over the place, which messed up their swiss ranking and eventually their seeding for playoffs. They have however been one of the more consistent teams in placings, and look to make a run in an upcoming tournament to jump in the rankings. 4. Composure LG Championship Season 12 - 1st Caps Gaming Showcase - T32 Bo7: Phantoms, Underdogs, Resilience Bo3: Resilience, Prophecy Bo1: Prophecy, Dahlia, Hidden Potential, Phantoms, Underdogs Composure is one of the few rosters that’s stuck together for a significant period of time. While they have had success in the past that aren’t mentioned here, the results look a bit hot and cold for the squad. I don’t think that the top 32 placement in Caps doesn’t tell the full story here, as they came up against another top 5 team in Underdogs. They have had wins in all series formats, and with an event win under their belt this year, they know how to get it done in NHL 20. 3. Hidden Potential LG Championship Season 12 - T8 Caps Gaming Showcase - 2nd Bo7: BBB (LG) Bo3: Composure, Dahlia, Prophecy, Underdogs, Phantoms Bo1: Prophecy, Underdogs, Dahlia, Phantoms, Entourage, Vertigo Hidden Potential is a relatively new team, but has made waves in NHL 20. They started off with solid placements and results early on in NHL 20, beating a lot of top 10 teams, and then followed it up with a 1st place regular season in Caps Gaming, and a 2nd place overall finish. They have depth in all positions, adding players like @rickchel, @YungGren, @Remi l9l and IHuskie to round out the utility positions. The next step for this team is an event win. 2. Entourage LG Championship Season 12 - T16 Caps Gaming Showcase - 1st Bo5: Hidden Potential Bo3: Composure, Resilience Bo1: Phantoms, BBB, Resilience, Dahlia, Composure The most recent champion, Entourage looked significantly more prepared for the LAN environment than the other attendees. This showed in their results, as they didn’t drop a single game on their run. Their event win is plagued by their slow start in the beginnings of NHL 20, but their ranking is nothing to discredit. This team is solid top to bottom, have the firepower to run up the score or play a tight 1 goal game. The addition of @Regs84 has proven beneficial in spades, as he brings a puck-moving side to the right defense spot not seen from too many other teams. 1. Resilience LG Championship Season 12 - 2nd Caps Gaming Showcase - 3rd Bo7: Hidden Potential, Vertigo Bo3: BBB, Phantoms, Underdogs Bo1: Underdogs x2, Phantoms, Hidden Potential, Composure, Vertigo, Prophecy, BBB, Phantoms As much as people may feel it’s strange to have a team that hasn’t won an event at number 1, it’s tough to not put Resilience at the top spot. They have been the most consistent, being the only team to get at least top 4 in both events. They also have the best track record in terms of beating top 10 teams, which comes from those deep playoff runs. The Resilience boys have bounced around with different wingers from time to time, but they brought back Stifmeister x7 and @Thibodd, who are arguably 2 top 5 wingers right now. They have one of the most well-rounded rosters and have done everything except win a big event. It feels like the only thing left for this team is to get that coveted trophy. Unfortunately, this team has spread itself out for NACL, joining various top 10 teams to bolster other rosters, so they will not be looking to raise the NACL trophy as a squad. Do you agree with our ranking? Let us know your TOP 10 in the comments below.

NHLGamers, The French Ligue Magnus team Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups has launched their own e-sport team and will be the first French traditional sports team to join the ECL in its 10th iteration. The birth of Grenoble BDL Esport is the result of a common desire to create an esports movement in France on the fringes of the the country's main league. Grenoble will thus be engaged in ECL for the next three editions. The French team Illusion migrates to the all new Grenoble BDL Esport roster. Here's the roster of Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups for ECL 10: Goaltender Matthieu @Trollstivegen Péan - Trollstivegen Skaters Maximilien @Tromi13 Tromeur - Tromi13 Raphaël @Raphalsky69 Merle - Raphalsky69 Thomas @Thomas Cosnier Crosnier - ThomC15 (C) Alexandre @Coco Lavigne - x--CoCo76--x Julien @julien-meudon Peltier - Julien-peltier Adrien Frinkelin - @Adri1_SCP - Adri1_SCP Jacques Reboh, chairman of Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups “The Brûleurs de Loups club is an enterprising club that wanted to seek new initiative. This is a new modern, innovative project in which I have a lot of faith and in which we want to bring the whole BDL Nation family together. It’s an opportunity to showcase our club internationally. We will work hard to be able to perform on the esports scene. I hope that other French hockey clubs will join us in this new adventure.” Kenneth Lehtinen, NHLGamer founder “We're incredibly excited to have our first French traditional sports team entering NHL esports. The sport has grown tremendously in the past year and months through some of the projects that we've been able to work with. We have appreciated our small but passionate community in France and we believe that the step taken by Grenoble BDL Esport will be one of many towards growing the sport also in the French market.” Thomas Crosnier, aka ThomC15, Grenoble BDL Esport team captain “It is a real pride to be able to take up this challenge and achieve a great first in France. We will wear the colors of a great French club, it is up to us all to rise to the challenge by carrying the standard of the Brûleurs de Loups. The players are all very excited and ready for puck drop. We hope on the sidelines of this project to be able to initiate a movement throughout the country so that one day the eMagnus championship can be born as it already exists in Sweden in particular."

NHLGamers, Your inaugural eSHL champions have been crowned! Twelve eSHL teams entered, eight progressed to the playoffs, and eventually, we were left with a somewhat familiar-looking matchup in Linköping HC vs. Malmö Redhawks. Both teams are no strangers to winning, with LHC featuring their exact same roster from their most recent ECL Elite victory, and Malmö boasting two players from HAVU as well as four from the Vesa Pompa HC team who won the SCL last Spring. Despite the final series resulting in a BO5 sweep, two of the three games were decided by one goal, and each game felt like it was on a knife's edge. Once the dust had settled LHC emerged as your eSHL champions, continuing their impressive form over the past few tournaments they have competed in. Your new eSHL Champions - Linköping HC / Photo credit: Elias Gammelgård Linköping HC 🏆 Group stage record: 21-1-0 (1st) Round 1: vs HV71 (8) 3-0 Semifinals: vs Leksands IF (4) 3-1 Finals: vs Malmö Redhawks (2) 3-0 GOALIES #72 C. Lundgren @ICappeI DEFENSEMEN #27 A. Loimuvirta @loimmu #40 J. Torro @jtorro1233 #88 J. Virta @SUPERVIRTA FORWARDS #23 N. Tukiainen @NikkeDangles #25 E. Tammenpaa @Eki #44 P. Arontie @PleeMaker #86 J. Paatiala @Juunas After the games were played and Linköping HC had emerged as the champions, our editor-in-chief @jahajaha93 had a chance to talk to @Eki and asked him some questions: You've now managed to secure two titles within a short span of time, what do you have to say about your run as of late? "Obviously a championship always feels great, Cappe did an amazing job setting this up for us so it feels especially great to be able to play for him." Malmo was your expected final opponent for quite some time, did you prepare for that ahead of time? "We expected to meet Malmö in an eventual final. They have a very strong roster and we know their players well, so we didn't actually prepare too much per se since we've obviously met them before and had time to think things over." The eSHL differs quite heavily in character from the ECL for example, what did you think were the biggest differences? "Well, there's quite many but especially the heavily varying level of competition is different. Some clubs went with local talent and it's respectable, but they didn't fare too well in the end. It's obviously a bit of a different mindset going into the game when you're meeting a contender like Malmo versus when you're going up against a team you know you will beat with ease." Finally, how did you like representing Linköping HC in this tournament and what does the future hold for you? "It's been absolutely awesome and the support has been second to none. Linköping is a first-class organization that has really taken care of us players and seen to it that we can perform at our highest level. About the future - our contract term is for the remainder of NHL 20, no talks about extensions have been had yet so that's something that remains to be seen." Eki and all of Linköping HC were all smiles all weekend / Photo credit: Elias Gammelgård NHLGamer would like to congratulate Linköping HC for their championship and thank all of the teams, players and organizations for an amazing first season of the eSHL! Stay tuned for a more detailed season recap later this week.