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NHLGamers, As expected, the teams predicted to finish at the top of the standings got off to a good start. Well, most of them anyway. Reigning champions Linköping HC (4-0-0) began their ECL 10 journey with a bit of a scare as their initial opponent, German powerhouse Brayce Phantoms, came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game and nearly took home the opening game in overtime. However, LHC’s designated goalscorer Paul @PleeMaker Arontie stepped up and made sure to secure the win. Lifted by the opening win, the team came out and secured a second one as well. Momentum is certainly a thing in hockey and judging by how LHC leveraged their opening wins into their second matchup versus one of their top competitors, it seems to be a thing in its virtual counterpart as well. Consensus top-4 team hReds didn’t know what hit them until it was too late as LHC, for lack of a better word, crushed the recent Pro champion to the tune of 7-0 and 5-1 wins. With 16 points each through the opening four games, PleeMaker (9+7) and partner-in-crime Erik @Eki Tammenpää (7+9) are right at the top of the leaderboards for player statistics. Sitting just above the LHC forwards, notorious HAVU duo Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha with 23 points (11+12) and Risto @Dominointi Järvi with 18 points (6+12). With stats like that, it’s no surprise really to learn HAVU Gaming also opened their season with a perfect record at 6-0-0. The foes vanquished were Vesa Pompa, Almost Famous and Unlucky Boys and the opening week included dominant wins of 8-0 (vs. aF) and 7-1 (vs. UB). Only three teams remain undefeated in the league (not counting Färjestad BK who have yet to open their season) with the third outside of LHC and HAVU being new esport signee JYP Jyvaskyla (4-0-0). Led by powerful left winger Kristian @kriketski17 Veijola and his 12 points (7+5), the team has defeated Unlucky Boys HC twice in overtime and GHETTO FIREBIRDS twice – one win coming in overtime. Even if the wins haven’t come with the dominance or flair one might have expected from JYP, opening the season with a perfect record can never be anything less than a good start. The fourth team among the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, hReds, hasn’t come out of the gates roaring like the other three. Disappointing losses to LHC aside, the team suffered overtime losses to SJ Gaming (3-4) and KOVA Esports (0-1) and have gone 2-2-2 to open their inaugural season in ECL Elite. Coincidentally, SJ Gaming (4-2-0) and KOVA Esports (3-1-0) are two of the teams to have the best openings beyond the unbeaten trio. Albeit early, Checkmate (2-0-2) also deserves a mention here as the points they collected was enough to put them in 6th with the first week completed. At the bottom of the standings we find Färjestad BK (yet to play), Luleå Hockey (0-1-1), Unlucky Boys (0-2-2) and Vesa Pompa HC (1-3-0). PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK In Thursdays matchup between Linköping HC and hREDS, @PleeMaker delivered this outstanding goal, which we name the performance of thew week. FORWARD OF THE WEEK Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha, HAVU Gaming With 11 goals, 12 assist and 23 points in just six games and a five-point lead clear of the second best skater, how could this go to anyone other than the captain of HAVU Gaming? FlyerKungen continues to cement his status as the premiere point-producer in EASHL 6v6 competition right now. Honorable mentions: Risto @Dominointi Järvi (HAVU), Erik @Eki Tammenpää (LHC), Paul @PleeMaker Arontie (LHC), Kristian @kriketski17 Veijola (JYP). DEFENDER OF THE WEEK Aleksi @loimmu Loimuvirta, Linköping HC No other defender has scored more than one goal thus far this season, whereas loimmu has already lit the lamp three times. Add five assists to that and you get a phenomenal start for a defender with 8 points (3+5) through 4 games. Honorable mentions: Wille @willekunq Juntunen (HAVU), Eemil @Eemil Koski (HAVU). GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK Alex @MonkeyHeadAF Falck, KOVA Esports Making his ECL Elite debut, MonkeyHeadAF hasn’t looked out of place at all. In fact, he’s been one of KOVA’s top performers as the team got off to a solid start (3-1-0) this season. With two shutouts, a save percentage of 87,5 % and 1,25 goals allowed per game, MonkeyHeadAF has certainly made his mark on the young season. Honorable mentions: Oskari @sibeelius Grönroos (JYP), Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen (HAVU).

NHLGamers, We asked ten team captains or alternates to tell us about their roster and ambitions for this second iteration of ECL Neo. In order to guarantee maximum objectivity we specify that these ten teams were chosen randomly, even Cancun Pirates, it’s promised ;). In a Neo division of 84 teams spread across 9 groups, we wanted to give the word to the teams in order to present themselves. This very succinct presentation will be followed, in a few weeks, to a more in-depth approach once the first games have delivered their verdict. Varissuon Toverit with @Kimiz1993 How did you compose your team? “We have known each other for a long time and have played a lot of games together - now we are here.” What is your game philosophy? “Just play and don’t complain.” What is your main strength? “Our main strength is MO-DO - Gema Tanzen, it’s a song” What is your main weakness? “Our mental strength after losing a game.” What are your ambitions for this season? “We want to proceed to the playoffs.” Redlight Jokers with @Steve How did you compose your team? “After the GCL season, we had a little break. Some guys decided to join other teams, so we had to look for new members. At first, it wasn't easy but at least we can say that we found some great players with a good personality and who can play more positions. We first thought that we didn’t have enough defensemen, but managed to sort out the situation. Our goalie @Christoph Kugler decided to go to Puck Panthers, but luckily he returned to us before the season. We think that we can be competitive for the new season.” What is your game philosophy? “We are Jokers, we want to have fun on the ice and to break some bones by laying heavy hits, LOL. Well seriously, attack wins games but defense wins championships, so we will stay good at D, take our chances on attack in different ways, not only with the same scheme. We are good for some strange and crazy action on the ice. We are not afraid to play against great opponents, because we want to develop our game, step by step. We just want fair games and to have fun.”” What is your main strength? “Our team spirit, we will never give up even if there is a big difference on the scoreboard. We have some talented players who can make a difference, goalscorers, playmakers and some weapons on the ice. All of us have a good mentality, that can push the other player in case of a bad situation. We are so glad that Kuglach is back in the net, because he performed incredibly during the GCL season. One Joker for all, all for one Joker!” What is your main weakness? “If we get a powerplay situation, we are too hectic and we do not play enough to move the opponent in the slot to find the free spaces. On breakaways we look for nice goals too often. A simple goal is too easy for a Joker LOL. In some situations, we play too slow or have too much of a big space between the attacker and defender. But mistakes are a part of the game and we will fight us back. If we have a big lead, our concentration can be lost.” What are your ambitions for this season? “First of all, we want to have a good start for the season, with great games and no troubles. Our goal is to qualify for the playoffs. We have a good team and we think we have a good chance to punch that ticket. We must fight/play as a team. Our second goal is staying tight on defense, which was our big problem in the past. Finally, we wish all teams good and fair games, but as Jokers we have always a trick in our pocket, LOL.” Cancun Pirates with @IsaaDePo How did you compose your team? “To be honest, it started as a joke because we were not supposed to join this ECL and finally with the quarantine, it became something serious. Our team is mainly composed of guys that played for Cancun Pirates during ECL 6 and we added some new faces, two of them will play their very first ECL.” What is your game philosophy? “Tripping penalties and shooting straight on the opponents goalie, mainly. To be serious, we only focus on having fun together, between a bunch of good and long time friends.” What is your main strength? “Having a member of NHLGamer’s staff on our team… And also the great atmosphere that prevails in our group. We really don’t care about winning or losing, except @Steve Yzerman, our captain…” What is your main weakness? “We have so many weaknesses, if not we would play in Elite like our good friends GHETTO FIREBIRDS who were in the same group as us during ECL 6. Well, to be honest we can lose our concentration very fast and very often.” What are your ambitions for this season? “Nothing but having fun, about the results and standings - we don’t care at all. And we will cheer for our buddies Hawks Olympique HC and Grenoble BDL Esport, the two other French teams in ECL 10.” Masiina with @joujami How did you compose your team? “We are all friends IRL.” What is your game philosophy? “We focus on icing a good defense and striking hard on offense.” What is your main strength? “Our defense, definitely.” What is your main weakness? “We need to be better at converting on our scoring opportunities.” What are your ambitions for this season? “We want to qualify for the playoffs.” Black Ice Guards with @miitu87 How did you compose your team? “Voiko nää kysymykset saada suomeksi LOL” What is your game philosophy? “We try to make the guys better players for solo and team play, while having fun, keeping a good atmosphere and helping those of us who never played in the ECL.” What is your main strength? “Our team as group, mainly. I’m so proud of all the guys in my team.” What is your main fault? “Well, my weakness is that I have no idea of what I have to do as a team captain and to handle the whole tournament things, LOL.” (check out this post for advice!) What are your ambitions for this season? “Making my team a friendly and lovely family, and if possible, join the playoffs.” Good Fellas with @Nemli-SVK How did you compose your team? “I had problems with my previous team so I decided to put some good guys together and I’m happy with this new team.” What is your game philosophy? “Be smarter than our opponent.” What is your main strength? “We always try our best to have fun together.” What is your main weakness? “Mainly letting out focus slip and also some bad days sometimes.” What are your ambitions for this season? “We want to be smart and win against rival teams.” Maximum Effect with @feertiiga How did you compose your team? “I just decided to create a team and a lot of my friends wanted to join in.” What is your game philosophy? “To just have fun while playing and keeping a good mood.” What is your main asset? “We have fun while playing and we also have fun while losing.” What is your main weakness? “We are not good at keeping a good overview of the game.” What are your ambitions for this season? “We wan’t to be as high as possible in the standings.” Bauer Rangers GmbH with @SirScheissa1ot How did you compose your team? “We wanted to rebuild something with some good friends.” What is your game philosophy? “Stay strong at defense and work hard at the offense, LOL” What is your main strength? “As a new team, we had very successful times, we reached the playoffs in the ECL9 Neo and the GCL5 Div2. We‘re working hard, playing a lot together and trying to keep improving.” What is your main weakness? “When we are challenged like what happened for us in the GCL, we‘re sometimes playing low-skill hockey.” What are your ambitions for this season? “Our ambitions should be to reach the maximum of ourselves. But the ECL can be very tricky because of the new teams joining. We are one of them, but we‘re thinking the playoffs can be possible.” Fearless Knights with @CzE Toni & @Zimowski95 How did you compose your team? “We have carefully considered and put our team together. So that our boys personalities mesh well in the locker room, but we also need to be a team where you can play at a very high level.” What is your game philosophy? “Forcing our opponents on our playing style and then punishing their mistakes mercilessly.” What is your main strength? "Our team is extremely strong in character and fights to the end. Therefore, it is possible for us to overturn even a high goal differential." What is your main weakness? “Our main weakness is that we don't have one.” What are your ambitions for this season? “Take it game by game and get into the playoffs. From the playoffs everything is possible.” NHL4You Gaming with @Hohner How did you compose your team? “When @Tornado.hr and me met one evening at the party to play we had the idea to build a team together. The name was also quickly found "NHL4you Gaming" NHL4you is our 1vs1 league and under their name we will start our journey. We asked some players from our old clubs as well as some friends and so we put our team together.” What is your game philosophy? “Never give up and keep on fighting.” What is your main strength? “Our main strength is that nobody knows us.” What is your main fault? “We are a new team and not yet so well established - it will take some time.” What are your ambitions for this season? “We want to reach the semi-finals of ECL Neo with this squad of experienced Lite and Pro players.” There you go! We wanted to give the reigns of this article to the captains themselves and hopefully you have now become a bit more acquainted with some of the teams that are battling through our Neo division this season. Remember guys, play hard - have fun!

NHLGamers, The first few gamedays of ECL 10 Elite are in the rearview and boy, have we been treated to some exciting action already! There's lots more to come and the same goes for out preview series, in which we overviewed "Contenders, Swedes and Newcomers" last time around. In the third and last part, we'll discuss the remaining teams, which consist of: Brayce Phantoms and Almost Famous both saw disappointing results in ECL 9 by finishing 15th and 14th – both relegation spots. To make matters worse, both teams were defeated by hungry Pro teams in the promotion/relegation series; Brayce by Vesa as mentioned in our previous article and Almost Famous by Gotham Knights. But these teams weren’t going down without a fight. With the situation unclear for a number of teams going into ECL 10 Elite, two eventually decided they wouldn’t participate in the season due to disbandment: PARRU and Butterfly Effect. This led to a scramble to fill the two spots – resulting in the ECL 10 Elite Qualification Series. Brayce Phantoms, Almost Famous, TIKI TALK, Leksand IF, Växjö Lakers, Reality Check, Black Horse and Kaupallinen Yhteistyo were all given another chance to prove they belonged in Elite. Brayce, Almost Famous, Kaupallinen Yhteistyo and Reality Check qualified from the group stage which led to the matchups: Brayce vs. Kaupallinen, and Almost vs. Reality. Here the former Elite teams really stepped up and won their series 4-1 and 4-0, respectively – displaying an impressive amount of psychological strength after being “down and out” for such a long time. As for the teams’ rosters, much of Brayces gameplay still revolves around playmaking genius Simon @PlaymakerSJ Junker at center, but the recent addition of Stephan @Krinke Krinke at LW could prove to be an interesting one as the man has proven to be a dependable goal-scorer in recent times. For Almost Famous, the players behind its revival are primarily assistant captains Janne @jahajaha93 Tarvonen and Joni @Tzon93 Tuovila whereas captain Aaro @Ikavalko Ikävalko will be spending the rest of the year serving in the Finnish military. Not only are they both skilled and capable players on the ice, their contributions off the ice should not be underestimated. Jahajaha93 brought the team back from death’s door through sheer force of will after a turbulent offseason. The team with new recruits tzon93, Samu @Ojamoska Ojamo, Eemil @Sokkelo__ Soikkeli and Lassi @Lazzio Hirvonen battled through the ECL 10 Elite Qualification Series with the energetic winger tzon93 instantly taking a supportive leadership role and bringing additional fire to the team. Brayce Phantoms and Almost Famous have been in playoff mode for the past months already – could that help them in ECL 10? It wasn’t just hReds and JYP Jyvaskyla who entered the NHL 6v6 scene ahead of ECL 10 Elite. ECL 9 teams Miracle and POGGERS each secured contracts with Finnish esports organizations; Miracle became KOVA Esports and POGGERS turned into SJ Gaming – both well-known and respected franchises in the Finnish esports scene. For KOVA, the team will look to build on their playoff finish last season while captain Kimi @Zip player Nordberg will be eager to prove that the mid-season additions of Mattias @iSvamp Björck and Amadeus @amadee21 Carlsson in ECL 9 wasn’t the driving factor behind the teams resurgence in the back half of that season. Miracle represented another esport organization, Swedish SHL club Djurgården Hockey, during eSHL but when a split occurred between the Finnish and the Swedish parts of the roster – eSvamp and amadee21 took on the Djurgården name whereas ZipPlayer quickly got to work securing a deal with the prestigious KOVA organization. SJ Gaming finished 12th last season in Elite but missed the playoffs by a mere two points, suggesting they are close to being a playoff contender. Captain Tero @Terodee Dahlström had a very impressive run in ECL 9 Elite, scoring 26 points in 26 games and finishing third overall among defenders in total points. This season he will look to build on that performance and lead his team to the playoffs. Unlucky Boys HC, Roots and Checkmate are returning to Elite after all performing well last season. Roots made the playoffs as the 4th seed, Unlucky Boys as the 6th and Checkmate just barely missed the playoffs, finishing 9th with the same point total as 8th seed Symphony. Being teams of supremely high ambitions, all three have made key changes to their rosters to take the next step in their evolution. Unlucky Boys have made two significant changes to their roster from ECL 9. Goaltenders Rami @ramseyy2 Rissanen and Janne @Jann3_67_ Saari were brought in to replace Ville @Viltzup Poutiainen, while Brayce Phantoms forward Tim @Timasy Hess joined as the primary RW with Veeti @Wenger Paloneva moving down to assume the RD position. For Roots, goalscoring legend Lauri @Lamsa Lämsä left the team and Timi @Rimpe Rimpeläinen joined. Jim @SadaPoika Leskinen was placed on “inactive status” due to joining the Finnish military services, leading Miko @Migo_boo Nurmi (who just came back after fulfilling that very same commitment) to assume the role of main center after acting as the teams backup for more than a year. The loss of Lamsa is a significant one as he had been the team’s leading goal scorer every single season Roots (Rusty Blades) has participated in ECL competition, but with captain Juhani @Tanski87 Tanskanen leading the team in a more balanced direction – having every player contribute equally on the offense – the team looks just as strong as last season, where they finished an impressive 4th during the regular season. Finally, Checkmate also made some key additions as “the Nikkinen brothers” (captain Jonne @TackleControl Nikkinen and assistant captain Juuso @Juizki Nikkinen) signed Markus @Makeaxl Lahti from Symphony and Ville-Petteri @vviljo Särmä from Butterfly Effect, both highly sought after, to act as the teams main defensive pairing. As 1v1 star Roni @MrNipsuli Kajan continues to ascend the rankings of “Elite 6v6 forwards”, Checkmate looks poised to build on last season and make the Elite playoffs. With this final preview part, we've taken a look at all 16 of the ECL 10 Elite teams to some extent - some more than others. The intent of this preview has not been to rank the teams in any way, but to create an understanding for the various situations that each of these teams are in. As we've stated numerous times before, we're extremely excited to get this season started! ECL 10 Elite continues tomorrow, Monday 13th of April with two matchups at www.twitch.tv/nhlgamer. SJ Gaming will go up against Almost Famous and Checkmate in our featured matchups.