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NHLGamers, After a sensational victory in the finals we witnessed captain @Nieppii lifting the cup over his shoulders as Enigma were crowned as the champions of ECL 11 Pro. Enigma was down in the series 2-1 after gameday one but the team showed real character on Wednesday in gameday two and completed the comeback with a 3-4 series win. The trophy will now join Enigma’s players in the sauna where the team can also leave last season’s disappointments behind and start the preparations for the next season in ECL Elite. Enigma's road to the championship: Group stage: 20-9-1 Round 1: Company of Geeks 4-0 Quarterfinals: Vaxjo Lakers 4-1 Semifinals: Tunnel Vision 4-2 Finals: GOONS 4-3 The winning roster: GOALTENDERS #32 @Jaakkomusta #89 @Pirtsa89 DEFENSEMEN #4 @Makeaxl #24 @Tappu A #85 @zNico FORWARDS #38 @Nieppii C #64 @laitineen64 #97 @sannteri A Playoff MVP: #97 @sannteri - Enigma (22 GP, 22+14=36) Congratulations to the champions on behalf of the entire community, and a warm thank you to all participants! If you missed the broadcast, you can rewatch it here:

Hey everyone, LA have concluded our investigation, finding one infraction – performed multiple times, however. The perpetrator of this infraction was rasite-_- / (aka hapee-_- and community user Leftinkarlssoni) who, over the course of a season, manipulated and doctored the stats of his own team, in order to put himself and his teammate nagneigel in a better light. Furthermore, when confronted with our suspicions that their team had engaged in illegal activities, rasite-_- / Leftinkarlssoni did not immediately come forward and confirm our suspicions, they did however when pressured in a follow-up message by LA. As such, these actions are in breach of rules: 4.2 (Rule circumvention): LAs time is stretched thin at the best of times, therefore if we come to you saying that we have suspicions that your team may have engaged in the breaking of rules, then replying, and playing coy, will be regarded at though you are purposefully obstructing our investigation. We do not exist to simply punish people, and would much rather deal with straightforward cases where people are open with us, as opposed to cases where we have to dedicate hours of our time to collate info on something that could have been finalised in a quick confirmatory opening message. 6.1 (General): Due to the failure to comply with rules 4.2, and 12.3. 12.3 (Stats Accuracy): Due to the inaccuracy of the game reports, and the systematic nature in which the captain of Goosebumps added points to himself, and nagneigel. Furthermore, an allegation was made by JOONAJOHIS that stated that a player from another team had played for GOOSEBUMPS on a second account in some capacity. If this was true, then the player in question would have been found to have broken rule 2.4 (as seen below). That said, we were unable to validate JOONAJOHIS's claim, and as such will not be penalising the player in question. Additionally, JOONAJOHIS has been warned about making jokes of this nature again. In conclusion, LA has decided to suspend rasite-_- / Leftinkarlssoni for the duration of this ECL season (i.e. the Neo Finals), as well as ECL 12. In addition to this, rasite-_- / Leftinkarlssoni will also receive a captaincy ban for ECL 12, and ECL 13. We would also like to take a moment to remind players that whilst we do allow the change of PSN account used in-game, it is strongly advised that you flag it up to LA before playing with the account, so that we are fully informed. Furthermore, we would like to reiterate the seriousness of rule 12.3. The accuracy of stats is singularly one of the most integral parts of our platform, and the integrity of the scene itself. As such, breaking this rule is one of the most heinous of infractions that one can commit on NHLGamer, and with it come extremely harsh penalties. Kind regards, LA

NHLGamers, It's been a long road and at the end of it, one team stands supreme, having conquered all challenges they've faced throughout the season. The ECL 11 Lite Finals were an emotional rollercoaster for both players and fans, as we witnessed Bjorkloven Esport fight back from a 3-1 deficit to clinch the championship and eventually hoist the trophy! Bjorkloven Esports' road to the championship: Group stage: 22-2-2 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 Finals: Exerceo 4-3 The winning roster: GOALTENDERS #32 @Kallmanius #59 @Mrantonn DEFENSEMEN #4 @MaciPapi #57 @LegendenKurtz_(AG_Jarl) FORWARDS #14 @BlizzakDevine #16 @Tacterz #93 @olgaaa71 #96 @Kumbik Playoff MVP: #93 @olgaaa71 - Bjorkloven Esport (33 GP, 41+27=68) Congratulations to the champions on behalf of the entire community, and a warm thank you to all participants! If you missed the broadcast, you can rewatch it here:

NHLGamers, Two months ago we started the ECL 11 Pro season with 32 teams and over 260 players. Along the way we saw great games, beautiful goals and some surprises. In the end it’s fair to say that the favorites didn’t disappoint us this season. GOONS and Enigma are the best two teams of the season and they’ve deserved the spotlight of the ECL 11 Pro finals. One of these teams will win the cup and earn the direct promotion to the ECL Elite. Without further ado let’s take a look at our finalists. The ECL 11 Pro Finals will be played tonight, on Monday, 8th of February at 20:00 CET and on Wednesday, 10th of February at 19:45 CET. (1) GOONS Road to finals Regular season: 1st in Group 1 (25-4-1) Playoffs round 1: 4-0 vs Sack Brothers Quarterfinals: 4-0 vs RCTIC Semifinals: 4-2 vs ZSC Esports Predicted starting roster and playoffs stats LW: @pikkuroger: 14GP (23+34=57p) C: @xKeskitalo: 14GP (17+26=43p) RW: @kriketski17: 14GP (21+26=47p) LD: @viba2008: 14GP (3+8=11p) RD: @Miika: 14GP (1+14=15p) G: @SanteriAK47: 14GP (80,56%, 2 GAA, 1SO) Backup players: @McSEPPO @yolonaattori69 (profiilipakki) @Aitis GOONS have had an almost perfect run to the finals. They were the best team in the regular season and in the playoffs the team have crushed their opponents game after game. The team was still without a loss in the playoffs before the semifinal series against ZSC Esports, but the Swiss Lions fought bravely and managed to beat GOONS twice. Despite GOONS being clear winners of the series, ZSC Esports exposed the mortality of their opponents and proved there are some vulnerabilities in GOONS' playing as well. This sends an encouraging message to their final opponents but also helps GOONS to keep their feet grounded. (6) Enigma Road to finals Regular season: 3rd in Group 1 (20-9-1) Playoffs round 1: 4-0 vs Company of Geeks Quarterfinals: 4-1 vs Vaxjo Lakers Semifinals: 4-2 vs Tunnel Vision Predicted starting roster and playoffs stats LW: @Nieppii: 15GP (10+24=34p) C: @laitineen64: 15GP (14+20=34p) RW: @sannteri : 15GP (17+8=25p) LD: @Makeaxl: 15GP (2+11=13p) RD: @zNico: 15GP (1+9=10p) G: @Pirtsa89 : 15GP (79,28%, 1,53 GAA, 1SO) Backup players: @Tappu @Torpantienkovalchuk (JumalanTuhnu) @Jaakkomusta Enigma had a rough start for the season but they managed to improve the further the competition progressed. Especially the last two series wins against Vaxjo Lakers and Tunnel Vision proved that the team has left all their worries behind and are playing with their full potential. The team has been able to turn really close games to their favor and I like to believe they want to continue the same trend in the finals as well. This is the second time in a row that Enigma is playing in the Pro finals so the experience is on their side. However their opponent won’t get any easier than last time against Black Horse. NHLGamer decided to contact the captains of both teams for a short interview. Both teams answered the same questions and they haven’t seen their opponents answers: 1. Your team managed to secure the Pro finals spot in an impressive way. What do you think is the key factor behind the success? Were you convinced already at the start of the season that the finals and possible championship are realistic goals for your team? Before the season started, when I decided to establish GOONS, our aim was to become one of the top teams in the league and to make it even close to the realistic target we needed to sign top players. I introduced the project to @kriketski17 who became excited and started working on gathering a competitive team for the season. I already knew the potential of @pikkuroger and @viba2008, and Kriketski signed the rest of the players to the team. The last piece in the puzzle was when Kriketsi and his team at that time JYP Jyvaskyla made an agreement of the player himself moving to our team. After adding Kriketsi I personally became certain that it would require a really great team to beat GOONS in a seven game series and since then our only goal has been winning the Pro championship. - @Aitis I would say the reasons are the same as in the previous season - individual talent, experience and trusting your own doing. Our team spirit is really good and we are constantly looking for ways to improve our game and willing to hear new advice from each other. As last seasons finalists we were hungry for winning the championship this time but we started the season really poorly. However after we decided to sign young prodigy @laitineen64 to our team, things started to work out and we have had a strong belief in our team again. The main goal was to reach the Elite relegation series but of course we are working towards championship and hopefully we will be able to win it. - @Nieppii 2. What do you think are your biggest strengths in the finals compared to your opponents? We will just play our own game and enjoy. It should be enough to win the cup. - @viba2008 Our strength is in teamplay. We have a great chemistry and everything new we plan to do seems to work out. For example in the Tunnel Vision series we managed to win one of the games following a faceoff set play that we were working on in practice mode. Above all we also have strength between the pipes. @Pirtsa89 has been playing very well and he has saved many almost certain goals. - @sannteri 3. How will the final series end? The final series will end 4-1 in GOONS' favor. Enigma has been able to improve their game during the season and the games will be really tight, but GOONS will bring the cup home. - @Aitis The final series will certainly be tight and small things will make a difference. I would say our sauna is ready for the cup after a 4-2 series win. - @Nieppii As you can see from the answers, both teams are very confident to see the cup in their own sauna after the finals. Especially GOONS are very certain that they don’t need to change a thing in their playing and that’s something we all can really agree on. Enigma has found the winning patterns during the season which they believe will lead them to become the champions. There is also a little mind games in the answers as Enigma would like to pile the pressure on GOONS side. However they are not settling for underdogs status and have a lot of faith in their changes. Interesting points to follow: Former JYP Jyvaskyla teammates right winger @kriketski17 and left defender @Makeaxl will go head to head in opposite teams. There are two players from last seasons champions Black Horse. Enigma center @laitineen64 and GOONS defender @Miika. Which of the players will be able to secure the back to back Pro championship? GOONS and Enigma played against each other in the regular season. GOONS was able to win both games (3-2 and 2-5) but this happened before Enigma signed their key player @laitineen64. Both centermen have pretty similar numbers in faceoff stats (49,7% vs 50,4%) so every faceoff will be decisive. GOONS forwards have over 40% average shooting percentage and they all have scored over 40 points each in the playoffs. Enigma needs to keep these numbers in check if they want to win. Prediction: It’s really hard to pick the favorites for the finals especially after Enigma’s great display against Tunnel Vision who plays with quite similar strengths as compared to GOONS. As captain Nieppi said in the interview, the playoff experience is on Enigma’s side but on the other hand inexperience on the GOONS side hasn't shown in any way this season. The series will be extremely tight and the games will end with minimal goal margins. I believe Enigma will benefit from their excellent form and previous seasons experience ultimately lifting the trophy after a game seven win. Enigma will win the series 4-3. What does the community think? Even though Enigma is now predicted to win the cup, I would still keep the sauna warm in the GOONS camp as well. GOONS has been absolutely outstanding this season but Enigma has once again plowed through adversity to the finals. As always we wish you enjoy the series and cheer for your favorite team. You don’t want to miss this!

It’s been an exciting summer for NHL and 6v6 competition, as the 32 best North American 6v6 teams out of 90+ teams that played in the qualifiers faced off against each other in the regular season of the Northern Arena Cup, presented by NHLGamer. These teams played 15 regular season games, and have gone through multiple best of 5 series’ against the best of the best, and we are now down to the final teams left fighting for the $6000 prize for first place, and the $10,000 total prize pool. Let’s talk about the finalists! New York Underdogs - Eastern Conference Champions Record: 13-1-1 GF/GM: 4.47 GA/GM: 1.73 PP%: 41.18 PK%: 41.67 Road To The Finals: Quarterfinals: Defeated Long Island 6th Sense in 5 games. Semifinals: Defeated Philadelphia Problematic in 3 games. Conference Finals: Defeated Tampa Bay Vertigo in 3 games. The Underdogs have not felt like underdogs in recent times, feeling more like the top of the class with their performances. Going into the regular season they did have fairly high expectations, but they managed to blow them out of the water amassing a 13-1-1 record and top seed in a top-heavy eastern conference. They haven’t looked back since, with a slight scare in the opening round, before sweeping their next 2 opponents to make it to the finals. To add to the already impressive feats, their series against Vertigo went to overtime in all 3 games, with them tying the game to send it to overtime in game 3 with 1 second remaining. It also happened to be Team Captain @Karmuh x 86 scoring all 3 game-winning goals, who also leads the playoffs with 4 GWG. Seattle Entourage - Western Conference Champions Record: 12-1-2 GF/GM: 3.33 GA/GM: 1.73 PP%: 52.17 PK%: 86.36 Road To The Finals: Quarterfinals: Defeated Arizona Mars in 4 games. Semifinals: Defeated Anaheim Ducks Gaming in 5 games. Conference Finals: Defeated San Jose Chilltown in 5 games. The top seed in the west comes into the finals looking for their second title of the season, with their lone win being in the Caps Gaming Showcase in January. They have had a very successful run in every event, however, with multiple top 4 finishes since, but still looking for that elusive title. @hxndry currently leads the playoffs in scoring with 28 points in 14 games, 4 points ahead of @McFleury, whom he will be up against, and his teammate in @x Fisher 81, both with 24. You also have to talk about @Scheckel29 when you talk about Entourage, and he has certainly carried his load, facing the most shots out of any goalie in the playoffs with 138, while still posting a 1.79 GAA (4th) and an 84.66 SV% (3rd) Series Prediction: While it’s certainly going to go the distance between these two teams, I think the New York Underdogs are going to take the series in 5 games. They impressed by beating arguably the number one team in Tampa Bay Vertigo in only 3 games, not to mention they are coming off of a disappointing but solid 2nd place finish in the CBJ Summer Cup. Everyone on each team will need to be playing at their best in order to take home the title. X Factors for each team: Seattle Entourage: @Regs84 (0g 16a 16p in 14 GP) New York Underdogs: Karmuh x 86 (11g 8a 19p in 11 GP) 3rd Place Match Predictions: San Jose Chilltown vs Tampa Bay Vertigo 10-4-1 Record 12-2-1 3.13 GF/GM 4.73 2.20 GA/GM 2.47 24.24 PP% 26.32 85.29 PK% 83.33 It’s always a tough heartbreak losing so close to the finals and so close to the trophy, but both of these teams are very solid squads and certainly deserve some credit here. They have a chance at taking $1,000 home though in the 3rd place match, so there is still something to be played for. Prediction: Tampa Bay Vertigo in 4. Thanks for reading! Good luck to the remaining teams! Be sure to check out the streams and support everyone involved!

The European Championship League is currently running its 9th iteration of competition. In order to get a snapshot of the perspective of the person behind it all, Slapshot Magazine reached out to Kenneth @Kenu Lehtinen, founder of NHLGamer.com. Interview by Yann @Virtual_Saku Maillet, Nov. 30th 2019. Here is the English internet version of the interview: Kenneth, can you introduce the origin of the NHLGamer project to our readers? NHLGamer.com originally saw the light of day over a decade ago, somewhere around 2004. What started as a website platform for friends to arrange NHL leagues together 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. Ever since we started, we've been providing a community experience and competitive action for gamers who enjoy the EA Sports NHL series. We've grown exponentially into one of the biggest communities worldwide and in launching the European Championship League (ECL) in 2015 was a groundbreaking step in our history. The ECL is a league where all the best European teams compete in a 6vs6 setting for titles in various divisions based on skill level. We also launched the North American counterpart in early 2019. On top of this, we host national leagues for Sweden, Finland, Russia and Germany. At its core, NHLGamer is a community of passionate gamers who strive to push our beloved sport onward. We've come a long way but are still just getting started. While we're proud of our achievements, we're continuously striving to find new ways to grow our community, host bigger tournaments with bigger prize pools and find new partners at the very cutting edge of gaming and esports. How many tournaments are you running today and how are you organizing for the whole thing to work? The main ecosystem of NHLGamer consists of two main leagues, accompanied by the national leagues for four countries. The main leagues are the European ECL and the North American NACL, while the national leagues consist of the FCL (Finland), GCL (Germany), RCL (Russia) and SCL (Sweden). We also do some other leagues and tournaments that are less about the competitiveness and more about the community aspect. In addition to our own products, we’ve co-operated with organizations like Ilta-Sanomat to create their IS Cup tournaments and a handful of other projects. How do we do it? Hard work. NHLGamer is fortunate to have not only the most passionate and devoted gamers, but also staff members possessing these same qualities. I have been doing this full-time since 2017. What is your economic model? Currently, our economy is driven by our staff (myself included) working pro-bono and all of the proceeds from the projects being reinvested into our expenses and prize pools. We are consistently growing and constantly talking to new potential partners and sponsors and that is a key step in the right direction of longevity and scalability. « Parallels between traditional sports and esports » What answer do you give to those who believe that esports isn't comparable to traditional sports? Does it really matter? Do we really care if someone thinks it is or isn’t a sport? That’s all about labels and beyond the point of what esports is about. Playing video games competitively at the top level requires several important skills. Some of these skills required of top players can be reflexes, strategy, teamwork and being able to perform under pressure. Being in good physical condition can definitely help with some of these things, such as reflexes, keeping your pulse steady under longer periods of stressful playing, staying concentrated and so on. From that perspective, you can draw many parallels between sports and esports. Many of our most successful players are active and successful in traditional sports and I definitely see it as a benefit in esports. Traditional sports teams such as Düsseldorf, Växjö and more recently Zurich, Luleå and Färjerstad have launched their official esports teams, is this a turning point? Do you know what motivates these clubs to take on the challenge? It’s no secret that esports is taking the world by storm and more and more companies are getting involved. It can be kind of hard and expensive to get involved with some of the more established games in esports at this point, whereas for NHL esports, this is the perfect time to come in as it is at the stage of maturing and growing season after season. There is starting to be an overall demand for businesses and especially sports organizations to get involved in esports, but not everyone feels like these massively famous games that revolve around violence and shooting are something that they want their brand to represent. For hockey organizations, getting involved in video game hockey seems like the most natural step. Having been introduced to what we do, combined with the passion, talent and devotion of the players in our community and an affordable entry-level cost - the interest towards our leagues has been big and you can expect a lot more organizations getting on board in the near future. The Washington Capitals have just done the same, should we expect an eNHL soon? It was only a matter of time before the first NHL organization got involved and we’re excited to welcome the Capitals into the scene. The NHL itself has, of course, produced their own NHL GWC for two years now in the 1v1 format and I’m surprised if they don’t join in on the 6v6 action within 2020-2021. Did you have any discussions with the IIHF about an official competition? I have not, but I am happy to talk to them and anyone else who is interested in entering this market. « Esports is the future of entertainment » Do you think that the general public will find this product appealing? Absolutely. The benefit of this game and sports titles, in general, is that if you’re at least remotely familiar with the sport, you can easily start watching our broadcasts and understand what’s happening on the screen. Something that gets me excited is how the general public engages with us during our live events; Seeing passer-by’s take out their phones to take photos, groups of people discussing what they’re seeing and people from all kinds of backgrounds finding their way to fill the seats in the audience. At the end of the day, it's really up to us as an organizer, EA SPORTS as the game developer and our community to create immersive leagues and tournaments with high production value in order to make it fun and enjoyable to watch for both the hardcore fans and the more casual crowd. How do you see the future of esports in general? There have been some talks about virtual Olympics, do you believe in it? Esports is the future of entertainment. I do believe the bubble will eventually burst with some of the most astronomical prize pools we see for some games. However, I don’t see that happening for a while or overall harming the great thing that esports already is today. Regarding the Olympics - there’s a common question I hear from time to time: Does esports need the Olympics, or is it the Olympics that need esports? Whatever the opinion, I do believe that it is the direction we are heading in - just last week the Finnish Esports Federation was approved as a member of the Finnish Olympic Committee. There are numerous bugs on NHL 20 and several glitches are still possible, are they a challenge to the development of your business and eHockey? I wouldn’t say that bugs and glitches are a big problem for the development of our business and the virtual hockey. I am a member of the EA SPORTS GameChanger program and actively provide them with information about any bugs that either I or the community stumble upon and I believe that it is a valuable line of communication to have in order for EA to keep improving their product for competitive play. The bigger concern that I have voiced to the producers and developers is that from our perspective there is a large demand for better broadcasting options, such as a spectator mode where the broadcaster would have control of the camera angles. Many people are indignant at the disparities of connection across the continent. For this reason, do you think that one day a multi-day LAN competition could bring the community together in a central place or country? Absolutely. That is definitely one of our goals and it is just a matter of time and cooperating with the right partners. Which team, and player, do you enjoy watching most? Our community is filled with a huge amount of talented and passionate players and teams. Some players shine with their incredible puck-handling skills and fancy goals, while others blow you away with ice-in-their-veins kind of calm and collected plays under the pressure in a game 7. Every season we get treated with both great defensive battles and offensive shootouts and while I do enjoy watching the best of the best - watching two even teams play in the lower divisions can be very entertaining as well. This article was published in Slaphot Magazine #99 – December 2019. It is released on NHLGamer.com with the kind authorization of Asphalt Rink Editions. Any copy of this text is strictly forbidden.