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NHLGamers, we are back with another article in our "Player Spotlight" series. There are many talented and highly skilled players in the German community that are worthy to take closer look at. In our second article we are proud to present you Kevin @Keuschemisch Berg, assistant captain of noRex Gaming and member of the NHLGamer writing staff. 1. When and why did you start playing EASHL in NHL? I started playing EASHL in NHL09 with friends from school. In the beginning we used to play with 3 or 4 players and the remaining positions were filled by bots. At some point in time Patrick @RPH_31 Braun messaged me if I was interested in joining his club. And so I joined my first 6v6 club, the so called "German Bulls" where Stefan @Toews19 Schoierer (BarriosLucas18) and Mario @Laurentius Schneeweis (Larphox) played, too. Since then BarriosLucas18 and Larphox were part of every team I played in. 2. What are your highlights in your EASHL career so far? One of my first highlights was making the playoffs with the "Eisbaeren Regensburg" in GCL 4. Especially since the team was fighting in the relegation zone of the league before it was a great accomplishment to make the playoffs and participate in the quarterfinals after winning our series in the pre-playoffs. On the international virtual ice it is the promotion to ECL Pro twice. After losing the quarterfinal series in ECL 10 Lite against HUIPPUPASSI (now Goons; 3:4) it eventually was enough to secure a spot in ECL 11 Pro. And obviously our silver medal in ECL 12 Lite and gaining promotion straight back into the second highest league on European level. Individually one of my strongest seasons was ECL 10 Lite where I was able to secure a place among the leagues top 10 scorers in the regular season (30GP: 33G + 53A = 86P) and playoffs (16GP: 22G + 23A = 45P). On top of that I was able to secure the top scoring title in RCL 8 Pro for EHC Traktor Chelyabinsk (22GP: 36G + 35A = 71P). In 1v1 I secured the 2nd place in the eDEL (official German Championship of the German Hockey League DEL) where I felt short to @Timasy in the finals. In the Gaming World Championship 2021 I managed to get into the Top 64 on PS4 in Europe. 3. What are your personal goals and long term objectives in 6v6? Personally I want to develop my playing style in 1v1 and be more consistent. In the next eDEL and GWC I would like to confirm this years performances and get into the finals respectively Top 64. My main focus is on 6s with noRex Gaming. After our promotion back to ECL Pro we want to establish ourselves in the league and prove ourselves that we belong to Europes Top 48. We have a young, talented and highly motivated roster that is always keen on learning and developing which is one of our biggest strengths. Staying in the league and denying the qualifier tournament will be our main goal in ECL 13. 4. What is your favourite dish? Himmel un Äd (translated: heaven and earth; typical dish from Cologne: mashed potatoes, apple sauce and black pudding). 5. If you could create two teams, one for the ECL (only non German players) and one for the GCL, what starting six would you put together? You can only choose one player from your own team. ECL Team: LW @FlyerKungen - C @Beniittto - RW @Eki LD @Lehmannens - RD @loimmu G @ICappeI In the offense we have three of the most dangerous and individually skilled attackers in ECL Elite. @FlyerKungen normally plays on the right wing but considering his skill and experience I can imagine him performing on the same level on the left wing. You do not need any explanation why I put @Beniittto and @Eki in my offensive lineup after the last seasons. @Lehmannens is extremely fun to watch and his scoring touch would improve any team in the scene. Especially his 1v1 abilities are one of the reasons why I like his style of play. With @loimmu we probably find the best RD of ECL Elite in my team. As well as the best netminder of the world: @ICappeI. GCL Team: LW @IDangledYouOut - C @PlaymakerSJ - RW @Timasy LD @Franky__2768 - RD @Toneee9 G @Fightlocke3 In the offense we find the three most skilled players in the community. @Toneee9 is naturally a LD but I would really like to see the combination of him and @Franky__2768 - especially offensively. @Fightlocke3 took a great development in the last two seasons. It is worth to mention that he started playing NHL in the summer of 2020 and already is on a very good level. Surely one of the rising goalie stars in the German 6s scene. 6. Have you ever played hockey in real life? I never played icehockey but I always played street- and rollerhockey with friends. In contrast to virtual hockey you won't find me on the right wing but between the pipes. 7. Would you rather be an average hockeyplayer or the best EA Sports NHL player? I'd rather be the best player in EA Sports NHL. 8. What is your favourite memory in real hockey? I have two moments stuck in my mind: My favourite team in real life are the Kölner Haie (Cologne Sharks). My first game in the Kölnarena was a 7:1 victory over the Hamburg Freezers in 2004. As well as the overtime win in the playoffs 2008 against the Adler Mannheim. Philip Gogulla scored the OT GWG after 168 minutes. The longest game in the German league to date. 9. What are your hobbies and what are you doing in your free time? If there was not a global pandemic right now I like to follow the matches of my favorite football team FC Cologne. On top of that I connect two passions: football and travelling, the so called "Groundhopping". I try to visit as many stadiums of different clubs in as many different countries as possible (I watched over 650 games in almost 300 stadiums in 24 countries). 10. Pizza with or without pineapple? Obviously without. 11. If you could listen to only one song for a whole day while playing NHL, which song would it be? Wasted Penguinz - Wide Awake (special shoutout to @esdor) 12. What's the story behind your PSN ID? It is the village where I grew up in local dialect. 13. Who is the best ECL (non German) and GCL player? ECL: Erik @Eki Tammenpää GCL: Tim @Timasy Hess 14. How do you spend your vacation? As mentioned in the answer to question 9: travelling to different countries and visiting different cities and stadiums. 15. High-scoring game or OT drama? Definitely OT drama (with the better end for my team). 16. Do you have any rituals before league games? Our goalie Christian @Fightlocke3 Schubert, LD Christian @GERxVillain Ungeheuer and me always hit the practice rink and take some shots, breakaways and simple passes to warmup and prepare for the matchup. 17. What's your conclusion about ECL 12 and how do you compensate the departure of IDangledYouOut? I am extremely proud of what we accomplished in ECL 12 Lite. We failed in the Pro qualifier just by a small margin so we were very determined to earn instant promotion back to ECL Pro. The way how we managed to win our group and dominated in our playoff run until the finals is really something we can be proud of. This season helped our young team a lot and we can take a good development from that and mature as a whole team. IDangledYouOuts experience and individual class helped us massively in reaching our goals. But I am very confident that we find an adequate player who will fit perfectly into our team. I think that nearly any player in the world can be replaced by good chemistry within a team. 18. What are your goals for ECL 13 and GCL 8? As mentioned earlier before we want to maintain our spot in ECL Pro and prove that we belong to the Top 48 in Europe. It will be our second season on Pro level and everyone of us matured a lot. On top of that every player improved individually which makes us a way better team compared to ECL 11 Pro when we had to pay tuition in many situations. For GCL 8 we want to confirm our semifinal appearances from the last seasons. Maybe we will be able to take the next step and get into the finals for the first time.

NHL 22 - New gameplay trailer EA Sports just released a new NHL 22 gameplay trailer, showcasing some of the new features of the highly anticipated next iteration. As announced, the move from Ignite to the new Frostbite engine will greatly improve the game visually, but there will also be some other areas where the transition might have helped. Stick physics is going to be one of the improved areas in NHL 22, meaning that movement along the boards and penalty calls will be more accurate, and puck battles will be more skill-based. Also, a multitude of new animations and skill moves will look and feel better than ever thanks to Frostbite. An interesting detail that has been added is the use of Augmented Reality visuals in the game broadcast. This means integration of stats directly to the game through overlays and graphics on game surfaces, leading to players getting more out of the action and the game having a better flow in between whistles. Of particular note to EASHL players I’m sure are the new X-factor superstar abilities. From this deep dive we can learn that these abilities are split into six categories: Shooting, Skating, Passing, Hockey IQ, Defence, and Goaltending. They span all positions, and game-modes, as well as give rise to what EA is calling “class-based strategy”. Does this mean that they are locking certain abilities behind player types? It’s possible. Indeed, it would be a little game breaking if say a grinder with barely anything in passing could suddenly start flinging auto saucers because they had an ability like Tape-to-Tape or Third Eye. This is further compounded when considering that we are going back to the class / attribute system of NHL 09-15 again, where the lines could be blurred a little when comparing two different builds of varying class. Additionally, on the topic of the ‘systems’ of EASHL. From what it seems, X-factor superstar abilities could be split into two distinct types; zone abilities are the current specialities (i.e., only one can be active at a time), whereas superstar abilities are the current traits (i.e., more than one can be active). It remains to be seen whether this means that it will be a straight one-for-one where the current system is simply renamed. That said however, I personally would not say it’s a wild guess to make that the zone abilities are simply superstar abilities, but elevated. In other words, making a specific ability a “zone” one would boost the, well… boost it has on your player – although this is purely speculation at this stage as I’m sure that EA will release information directly pertaining to EASHL shortly, perhaps even when they announce when the closed beta will be playable. What is refreshing to see is the way that stick-on-body contact seems to be handled now. Instead of your stick being akin to a lightsabre, passing through whatever you want it to, regardless of speed or power behind the swing, instead it will now have a much more ‘solid’ feeling behind it. Sticks seemingly can get caught on things and even blocked on purpose. This could mean for instance, that it is harder to get tripped if you are in proper body position, and in turn harder for pokes to connect with your stick / the puck. They even go as far to make mention of the fact that protect the puck is supposed to be working as intended now, offering a weapon for forwards to use when trying to counter any potential poke spam they may receive en route to the net. In terms of pure gameplay and the speed of it, it does admittedly seem quite similar to NHL 21, although this is sort of to be expected given the shift to a new console, and a new engine, whilst trying to maintain playability on the old one(s). As for the UI mid-game, it does seem to be quite intrusive. We will have to see just how much of an impact this has on game durations, as whilst UI packages like the one in the video are nice as a novel addition, players will inevitably start mashing A / X to skip past them once they’ve seen them a few times. On this front, EA does not have a great track record with bloat like this, for instance if anyone can remember when they added the end of period highlight reel it took ages for games to end due to them not being skippable at first. All abilities mentioned Wheels Make It Snappy (Exceptional power and accuracy when taking snap shots while skating) Shock And Awe (Elite shooting out of dekes) Crease Crasher Yoink Send It Quick Pick (Defensive interceptions) Beauty Backhand It’s Tricky Contortionist (Goaltending) Third Eye (Increased pass assist with advanced ability to auto saucer pass out of a player’s field of vision) Shnipe (Outstanding skill to settle pucks with advanced wrist shot accuracy off settled pucks) One Tee (Advanced power and accuracy on one timer. Increased ability to one timers from less than ideal passes) Seeing Eye (Great shot through screens) Tape to Tape (Great passing with vision) Puck on a string (Great stick handling) Shutdown (Defensive skill increase?) NHL 22 will be available on Oct. 15th, 2021 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For more information on EA Sports NHL, visit www.easports.com/NHL. Related articles: