We know they work hard for little or no pay. We appreciate it and therefore so many have stayed since ECL1 Actually because of the hard work of @Kenu everyone at Consolehockey moved to NHLGamer in the first place.
But sometimes people make bad decisions, and in this case the timing issue is caused by their own actions. They decided to make the change mid-season. If they had just waited a few weeks, they would have until October/November to figure out the format for coming tournaments.
AND bonus: keep the ECL fair. Which means; not forcing teams to wait months and allowing teams to recruit players, or even allowing new teams who did not participate in ECL11 regular season to qualify.
Now they may argue that a change was needed because of the increase in players and teams. Fair enough. But ECL has increased with every season if I’m correct? This had to be foreseeable and expected. They just had to make the change in between seasons.
I welcome anyone to argue ECL11 + qualification is a fair competition.
Don’t wait to fix this. Do it now.