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NHLGamers, Approximately two months ago we started the ECL 10 Lite season with 64 teams in four groups. After the regular season we had a strong vision of teams that were going to fight for the promotion and final spots this season. The playoffs were as exciting as they always are and several teams had the quality to compete for the cup this time. In the end there were two teams that no one could stop. Now they will go head-to-head in the ECL 10 Lite finals! Here are the finalists of ECL 10 Lite: Sack Brothers (1) Road to the finals Regular season: (28-1-1) 1st in group 4 Round 1: vs HockeyProfessorn HC (32) 4-1 Round 2: vs Tic Tac Toes (25) 4-2 Round 3: vs GENESIS (18) 4-1 Round 4: vs HUIPPUPASSI (10) 4-2 LW: @snippystatue (22GP: 22+31=55 pts) C: @luosttin (22GP: 18+37=55 pts, FOW: 48,9%) RW: @Datupeijooni (Datzonee) (22GP: 26+21=47 pts) LD: @Kucherov86 (22GP: 9+22=31 pts) RD: @Persusta95 (22GP: 4+11=15 pts) G: @mikeruud (22GP: 234svs, 47GA= 83,27 SV%) Ducktales BK (7) Road to the finals Regular season: (21-4-5) 2nd in group 2 Round 1: vs Remparts de Tours Esport (26) 4-2 Round 2: vs ECDC Memmingen eSports (11) 4-3 Round 3: vs HV71 eSHL (3) 4-1 Round 4: vs Angry Cats (5) 4-3 LW: @Zidso (21GP: 17+22=39 pts) C: @cHIIMEERa (23GP: 21+20=41 pts, FOW: 49,8%) RW: @Craig (oskuldsfull) (23GP: 11+20=31 pts) LD: @J-Foppa (23GP: 5+17=22 pts) RD: @tokFan (ItokFanI) (23GP: 1+5=6 pts) G: @Rymaan (23GP: 200svs, 34GA= 85,47 SV%) To spice things up we decided to contact the teams to ask them couple of questions before the the games and had the pleasure to interview @Rymaan from Ducktales BK and @snippystatue from Sack Brothers: How does it feel to be in the finals? Was the finals your goal right from the beginning or where were the expectations set before the season started? @snippystatue ‘’Of course it feels great! The ECL finals are the best that the season can offer and as the captain told us in the beginning of the season, our minimum goal is to win the title after last seasons disappointment.’’ @Rymaan ‘’Feels great! Our main goal for the season was to get that Pro-spot. Achieving that, of course our next goal is to win the tournament.‘’ What is your teams strengths and the reason for success? Why are you in the finals instead of your playoffs opponents? What makes you the champions of ECL 10 Lite? @snippystatue ‘’Counter-attacks, tight team defense and good chemistry. We have practiced with the same players from the beginning of the off-season and the level of play has stayed good the whole time. The reason we are in the finals is that we have been able to minimize our opponents scoring opportunities with solid defending and the attacking has been working in every series. The reason we will be the champions is that we believe in our own playing. Even if we were losing with 4 goals we never give up and the atmosphere stays positive the whole time’’ @Rymaan ‘’Structure, defense, experience and a will to win. We had a game plan for every series and followed it well enough to be victorious. All opponents we played so far have been a challenge and played well, but we don’t want to comment other teams shortcomings. Beating us in 4 games takes great teamplay, individual skill and a solid defense. We've seen 2 out of 3 in Sack Brothers.’’ How well do you know your opponent in the finals? Have you faced them in the club games or earlier seasons? Done any scouting through the streams etc? @snippystatue ‘’We don’t know them very well. Of course we noticed that they were playing really well already in the regular season but we haven’t faced them in club games. We haven’t done any special kind of scouting from the streams but we have seen couple of playoff games from them’’ @Rymaan ‘’Played them a lot during NHL20 (not with Ducktales though) and to be honest they have evolved a lot. They had a fantastic season so far, obliterating their opponents on the way. We scout every opponent in playoffs to learn their tricks.’’ What do you think is your opponents strengths? Will you adjust your own gamestyle to make their playing harder or will you continue the way you have done so far and trust that it will bring you the desiredresult? @snippystatue ‘’We believe their strengths are especially in the defense but it’s hard to say yet since we haven’t faced them before. We will trust our own style of play since it has worked so well but of course we are ready for adjustments if the game isn’t working’’ @Rymaan ‘’They play a fast game and they are deadly when they get to scoring opportunities. We are confident in our style of play but will make adjustments if needed.’’ What will be the score of the series in the end? @snippystatue ‘’It’s going to be tight but I’ll say 4-3 to Sack Brothers’’ @Rymaan ‘’Ducktales wins in 7.’’ The confidence is high in both camps. As the interview tells us, both teams will trust their own style of playing and that’s exactly what they should do. Watching back the opponents that both of these teams have been able to beat it’s obvious that they have done everything right so far. Both teams are also prepared for a tough battle and it’s easy to join their predictions that the champions will be decided in a game seven. As the stats tell, Sack Brothers have been really effective in the offensive zone which has been their theme through whole season, while Ducktales BK have been the team that is extremely hard to score against. It’s going to be really interesting to see how well Ducktales BK are able to shut down Sack Brothers attacks. I believe it’s also a new kind of challenge for Sack Brothers to play against team that is really disciplined at their defense. There may be a possibility that Ducktales BK could make their opponents frustrated which would most likely turn the series in favour of Ducktales BK. But as @snippystatue stated in the interview, the mental side shouldn’t be a problem for his team. While Sack Brothers are figuring out how to get through Ducktales BK they can’t give any leeway in their own defense. Even though Ducktales BK are known having the special quality at their team defense they are also to score if the chances are given to them. Prediction: There is no doubt that the two best teams of the season are facing in the finals. This will be a battle of two different gamestyles and only the matches will tell us which approach will be the right one. If I was asked at the start of the playoffs which team was going to win from these two, I would have said Sack Brothers 4-1. I’m glad no-one asked because watching Ducktales BK journey through the playoffs I would have made a clown of myself. However I still believe Sack Brothers have the quality to break Ducktales BKs defense and captain @Datupeijooni will lift the cup at the end of the day. Sack Brothers will win the series with score 4-3. What a great season we have had and now it’s coming to an end. It will be a season to remember for both of these teams but only one can be crowned as champions. Play hard and fair, respect your opponents and enjoy the finals! How to watch? The ECL 10 Lite finals will be streamed at www.twitch.tv/nhlgamer. Thursday, June 11th 20:00 CEST Games 1-3 Sack Brothers vs Ducktales BK Sunday, June 14th 20:30 CEST Games 4-7 Sack Brothers vs Ducktales BK

NHLGamers, With Saturday night and game seven of the finals still in fresh memory, what a way it was to end the season. The past ECL was a wild run with a diverse selection of storylines all around the league, perhaps more so than usually. As customary, we'll be taking you through the events of the past in this snapshot into ECL 10 Elite. First of all, on behalf of NHLGamer, I'd like to extend a thank you to our sponsors Prisma Gaming and IS Esports, without whom none of this would have been possible. It was a record-setting season and we're proud to have hosted a league with the biggest prize pool yet. We're at a good place as a community - a strong foundation is built and the trend is looking great! Naturally, we also want to thank the players who are at the very core of all that we do, for putting on such a show over the course of the season. Last but not least, thank you also to each and every one of you who have tuned in for a stream, given a like on social media or shared the notion of our league with a friend - your input to growing the community is invaluable. To differ from the usual, the season had a fair bit of uncertainty at the start. Live-events were put on hold due to the still ongoing COVID-19 situation which naturally didn't effect the online side of things but let's be frank - all of us love that live action. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances out of our control we couldn't deliver on that front this time, but as things slowly get back to normal we're looking forward to providing the next live-event soon enough. Regular season With the eSHL jumpstarting things, we saw a great influx of new organisations into the scene before ECL 10, which naturally is greatly appreciated. Some of these new teams included JYP Jyvaskyla, hREDS, KOVA Esports and SJ Gaming, who joined competition at the Elite level. Out of the new orgs, JYP and hREDS immediately signed up for title contention and put up a warning for HAVU and Linköping - a duo that had been reigning supreme for quite some time already. As seen in the final standings of the regular season, competition was tough. JYP came in hot right out of the gate and didn't let up, managing to close out the competition and secure a regular season win, whereas LHC and HAVU performed along the expected level. On the other hand, hREDS came in fourth but due to a less ideal start to the season, the talented bunch didn't quite keep up in pace with the other three big names. None of the four top teams made large adjustments over the course of the season, as hREDS were the only team to really have rotation in their lineup when founding member Tuukka @Tuukka.R Röpelinen stepped in for a few games here and there. The top four was a collective according to expectations, whereas the rest of the playoff-bound teams could have been a multitude of teams from the wide selection of remaining competitors. After a tough start, Unlucky Boys HC managed to pull it together by acquiring familiar face Ville @Viltzup Poutiainen and finished the season in 5th place with one of the hottest streaks in the league. Close behind came German powerhouse BRAYCE Phantoms, who have been causing waves in the community for a long time due to their impressive skill level, but also due to being the only Elite team from outside the Nordic countries. This has come with some downside for BRAYCE, since they have had trouble finding adequate practice games - an issue which evidently hasn't had too much of an effect on their play in the end. In seventh place, we find Roots who played a very balanced season. The team consists of some of the more experienced gamers in the scene, which was evident in their play throughout the season. While the team dropped points in some unfortunate matchups, they also managed to steal some important games against the likes of JYP and hREDS. Closing out the segment of playoff-bound teams is Farjestad BK, who were a somewhat unexpected addition to the playoff race with a high player turnover in the offseason. Both wingers were new faces, a new defenseman joined the squad and even the starting goaltender was acquired before the season. Despite being so new to each other, FBK managed to stay around .500 throughout the season and eventually edged out Checkmate for a spot among the top eight teams. Moving on to the bottom half of the standings, we have four teams within a points margin of each other - possibly a mere point away from making it into the postseason. Checkmate, KOVA Esports, Vesa Pompa HC and GHETTO FIREBIRDS all put forth very solid efforts but ended up coming just short this time around. Out of these teams Vesa Pompa and GHETTO were making their first run in the Elite division and immediately managed to make an impact around the league. Vesa Pompa had a difficult start but started improving after acquiring legendary scoring machine Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen, who naturally finished with the highest points/game average in the team - by far. GHETTO FIREBIRDS came in with a bang and made questionable ECL Elite history right out of the gate. The team took a whole 12(!) games to overtime throughout the season and managed to win the extra point in only one of these contests. With eight victories, the newcomers pushed to 12th place only a point away from tying 8th place (by points). The unfortunate part about sports is that someone always has to lose, and that's what the bottom four teams did a lot of this season. SJ Gaming had a solid start but drifted in the wrong direction rather quickly, dropping down to 13th which puts them in a relegation battle against HanaaHC (2-1 for SJ currently). Lulea Hockey has been in a somewhat turbulent state for the past few months with a disappointment in the eSHL and now not being able to produce as expected in the ECL either. The team faced off against Reality Check in a relegation battle and retained their Elite spot with four straight wins. Gotham Knights came in 15th place in their return to the Elite level, not the kind of performance the team would have hoped for, but one of the most long-lived teams in the scene now has a chance to redeem themselves against Pro runner-up Enigma in a relegation battle. The last team and therefore facing direct relegation was Almost Famous, who made a brave attempt at coming back from losing almost their entire roster in the offseason, but the struggle was in vain this time. Playoffs I'm going to start off by using one of the most overused hockey clichés known to man - the playoffs are a different beast. That's the reality that Farjestad BK force fed JYP with in the quarterfinals, running over the #1 seed in five games with their unorthodox stretch passing and excellent play by goaltender Johan @Rundqviiist Rundqvist. Linkoping HC made quick work of Roots whereas HAVU Gaming provided the same treatment for BRAYCE Phantoms, who weren't a match for the #3 seed this time. One of the most exciting quarterfinal series in a while was seen between hREDS and Unlucky Boys HC. The series was taken all the way to a game 7, where Unlucky Boys looked like a certain winner with around 30 seconds to spare in the third period of game seven. UB were awarded a powerplay when Teemu @Xteemuz Polttila headed to the box for hooking at 59:34. After that - mayhem ensues. Joakim @Joukki Nyholm takes of directly from the faceoff, splits the defense and ties the game up shorthanded with 20 seconds to spare in the game. The teams headed into overtime and it was evident that UB had the wind knocked right out of them, as hREDS had the control for most of the 15 minutes until Niklas @NikkeDangles Tukiainen put the nail in the coffin and sent hREDS to the semifinals. Farjestad BK providing one of the greatest upsets in ECL playoff history certainly shuffled the playoff picture around a bit, but that did not stop the inevitable from happening. Both Linkoping HC and HAVU Gaming were set on making it back to the finals and getting their shot at the title. With 4-1 victories in both series, there was really no question about who we were going to se fight it our for the ultimate prize. The finals The ECL 10 Elite Finals were a two-day event, this time online due to the COVID-19 pandemic putting plans on hold when it comes to live-events. Both Linkoping HC and HAVU Gaming had been at this stage multiple times before, in fact three straight times in the ECL between the two of them. Going into the first three games on Friday, tensions were high as the stakes were higher than ever before. Eventually we saw some exciting and low-scoring hockey for three games straight, all ending in a 2-1 result in favor of HAVU Gaming who were set on reclaiming the throne. Going into Saturdays games with a 3-0 chokehold on the series almost set the stage for an early finish but that was not what LHC had on their mind. The reigning champions completed an impressive comeback from a 3-1 series deficit in ECL 9 and looked to do even better this time when they came back step by step eventually tying the series at 3-3 and pushing the finals into a game seven that was one for the ages - a phrase that seems to be repeated opver and over again when it comes to battles between Linkoping and HAVU. Once again, the seventh game of the series was an intense back and forth battle that wasn't finished until overtime with who better to close out the season than HAVU Gaming captain Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha, who managed to find an open opportunity head-to-head with LHC goaltender Casper @ICappeI Lundgren. Here's the madness that ensued: 🏆 AWARDS Playoff MVP: Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen, HAVU Gaming Most Points: Paul @PleeMaker Arontie, Linkoping HC, 78 Goals, 44 Assists, 122 Points in 46 games Most Goals: Paul @PleeMaker Arontie, Linkoping HC, 78 Goals, 44 Assists, 122 Points in 46 games Most Assists: Erik @Eki Tammenpää, Linkoping HC, 42 Goals, 75 Assists, 117 Points in 46 games Most Hits by a Forward: Kristian @kriketski17 Veijola, JYP Jyvaskyla, 409 Hits in 35 games Best +/-: Joel @jtorro1233 Tourunen, Linkoping HC, +91 in 46 games Most Points by a Defenseman: Aleksi @loimmu Loimuvirta, Linkoping HC, 13 Goals, 43 Assists, 60 Points in 46 games Most Goals by a Defenseman: Wille @willekunq Juntunen, HAVU Gaming, 14 Goals, 27 Assists, 41 Points in 46 games Most Assists by a Defenseman: Aleksi @loimmu Loimuvirta, Linkoping HC, 13 Goals, 43 Assists, 60 Points in 46 games Most Hits by a Defenseman: Saku @Sakkem Saaranluoma, GHETTO FIREBIRDS, 245 Hits in 30 games Best goaltender (SV%):Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen, HAVU Gaming, 340 saves on 403 shots, SV% 84,37 in 46 games