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NHLGamers, The ECL 11 Lite season is on it's way to the Grand Final stage and with that, Bjorkloven Esport and Exerceo are the two best teams in the Lite division this season. In the finals, these two are playing a best-of-7 series expected to be full of excitement, tension and hard hitting hockey but most of all top tier goal scoring, passing and incredible gamesavers. Here is the full playoff schedule for ECL 11 Lite: (1) Bjorkloven Esport Regular season record: 22-2-2 Top scorer (Playoffs): @olgaaa71 26 GP, 34+22=56 Goaltender(s) (Playoffs): @Kallmanius 14 GP, 85.09 SV%, 1.21 GAA, 5 SO - @Mrantonn 12 GP, 80.21 SV%, 1.58 GAA, 3 SO Road to final: Round 1: Baby Goons 4-1 Round 2: Taavetin Starat 4-1 Round 3: Golden Nights 4-1 Quarterfinals: Oton Letkutemppu 4-0 Semifinals: Hotbox 4-3 (8) Exerceo Regular season record: 20-3-3 Top scorer (Playoffs): @Limbe65 23GP, 26+36=62 Goaltender(s) (Playoffs): @Pettersson12 12 GP, 84.06 SV%, 1.83 GAA, 1 SO - @Jjmakkeli 11 GP, 81.37 SV%, 1.73 GAA, 2 SO Road to final: Round 1: Handu Pumpulla 4-1 Round 2: Grilli Tulille 4-0 Round 3: Beast Hockey 4-2 Quarterfinals: BoxinElite 4-0 Semifinals: Grenoble BDL Esport 4-0 Bjorkloven has advanced with great stability to the finals after a consistent season throughout. They are a very balanced team in all the areas of the game and are currently in good form from having faced their toughest opposition of the season yet in the semifinals. Exerceo is also a very strong team and cannot be underestimated as they have convincingly mowed down opponent after opponent throughout the playoffs. The area that might be crucial and decisive in this final series is goaltending and I'd state that Bjorkloven has a slight advantage in that area. Whereas both teams are able to run a great goalie tandem, @Kallmanius has at times proven to be a wall for his Bjorkloven and has the ability to give the edge needed for his team. Now as the pressure is higher than ever, the team needs that strong backbone and therefore it is beneficial for both squads to have two capable netminders. As stated, minor edge for Bjorkloven in that department. Both squads have the offensive firepower to blow each other out of the water if a game starts going that way and despite playoff and high-stakes games usually being low-scoring battles I can see some games in this series being unusually high in scoring too. The first few games should be a feeling out process but after that we can expect the teams to relax a bit and let the play flow. On the other hand, teams of this caliber know how to defend and enforce that shutdown strategy when required so it certainly won't be easy to get those high quality chances. Bjorkloven has been dominant throughout the playoffs but were recently put to the test by Hotbox. Exerceo has been equally dominant and haven't yet been in that much trouble, so you could argue they haven't yet been properly tested. The comeback story that Bjorkloven pulled from a 1-2 deficit against Hotbox is a true show of mental strength and awards some points that way too. Prediction: Series score 4-2 - Bjorkloven Esports will be the ECL 11 Champion Make sure to tune in to games 1-3 of the ECL 11 Lite Finals tonight at 20:00 CET @ www.twitch.tv/NHLGamer!

NHLGamers, It is with great joy that we announce today the latest addition to our variety of regional leagues, the Western European Championship League. Besides being our official league for the countries of France, Spain and the UK, the WECL is for us the opportunity to cover a lot more countries under the NHLGamer umbrella and allow them to compete on the excellent standards of our leagues. In the WECL, we also invite a multitude of other smaller European virtual hockey markets and allow them to grow in our league framework. Without further delay, we will start going over a few important details on when and how the inaugural season will happen, and we encourage all the players that want to take part to review our specific rulebook. SIGN UP FOR THE WECL HERE! Season start At the moment of this announcement, our newly-created sub-forum has also gone live, you can find this on the community page where all the leagues are already represented. This also opens the sign-ups period, that will be open until the 17th of February at 23:59 CET. After this, the teams will be grouped and posted for a regular season scheduled to start on Monday, February 22nd. As a league that hopefully sees new teams that have not competed in the ECL before, we wanted to make sure not to overwhelm anyone with the pace of gamedays, and maintained a similar pace to the one in ECL Neo - two matchups per week for each team. The league will be concluding mid-April, naturally depending on how far your team progresses. Top Team status For competitive reasons, Grenoble BDL Esport and Remparts de Tours Esport have been granted top team status as the highest ranked teams in the ECL structure eligible for participation, and they will be drawn into separate groups to start the season if the number of teams allows for a two group format. This of course, should they choose to sign up. Regional scope of the WECL As a regional league, the WECL has three officially recognized countries (ES, FR and UK). However, teams based in countries that are not already represented in the current (ongoing or not) NHLGamer regional leagues (CSCL, GCL, RCL, FCL and SCL) are also eligible to take part. Teams from the following countries are eligible for the WECL and their players don’t count against the foreign player cap: Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Denmark Estonia France Georgia Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Kosovo Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania San Marino Serbia Slovenia Spain Turkey Ukraine UK Vatican City Teams from the following countries are already eligible for another regional league and cannot sign teams up, players will also count against the foreign player cap: Czech Republic Slovakia Germany Austria Switzerland Russia Finland Sweden Players from these countries are counted against a limit of 2 foreign players on the roster. English is considered the only official language of the WECL and all communications sent out regarding the Championship, or exchanged with the LA will be in this language. Users are free, however, to use English, French or Spanish in the league’s own sub-forum. Skill cap As stated, teams are allowed 2 foreign players in the roster. This is to help teams that are possibly struggling to find enough players to complete their roster otherwise. In addition to that, we will also add a skill cap for the foreign players, meaning that any player counting against the foreign player cap cannot have played in either ECL Elite or Pro within the past two competitive seasons. (Ex. A player that has played in ECL Pro in season 10, but in Lite in season 11 is not eligible, whereas if they would have player in Pro in season 9 and in Lite in season 10 and 11, they would be eligible for participation.) To make it short: up to two foreign players having played in Neo, Lite or no divisions of the ECL over the past two seasons are eligible to be registered. Exceptions Teams can be granted an exceptional status for example if half of their roster is from a foreign country by nature and it is clear that the team has competed in the same formation for an extended period of time. For example a team that is half French and half Swiss could apply for such an exception if they can prove that they have stuck with the formation in question for a longer time. An exception can be handed out in such situation if explained properly to the LA beforehand. Additionally, teams from regions not covered can also contact the LA for an exception (IE, teams from North Africa). We will not be shy about granting exceptions to teams unable to compete in other regional leagues, so please reach out to our support if you might have any questions. As stated in the beginning, please familiarize yourself with our rulebook as the above fragments are only a tiny part of the entire ruleset. Hoping for an enjoyable tournament for everyone involved, I invite you to participate in the inaugural season of the WECL! Many thanks and see you on the ice!