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Roots Gaming returns to competitive virtual hockey after a short break. The goal of the organization is to provide its players with great opportunities to focus on gaming and things around it that make the gaming itself a better experience. After a break of around half a year, Roots Gaming makes a comeback to the virtual ice. Their first time around, they played in Elite with no changes in their core roster. Back then Roots had three top 8 placements at the highest level of NHL 6v6 gaming.   The new team that’s going to compete under the Roots Gaming organization is former BoxinElite. Next ECL season they will play in the Pro division. We asked from the team captain Santeri @xleksa35(xleksa_) Levänen how it all got started with this lineup: “The dea of an own team got started in May 2020 when we used to play the 1v1 game mode on Xbox. In spring 2020 we decided to move to Playstation with Linus @Limu95 Christiansson, Samuli @ssampee37 Mäntylä and a couple other of our friends. In that year’s autumn we participated in our first tournament and after that we have had quite favorable results in tournaments with small roster moves. Last Pro season we proved that we belong among the top teams but now it’s time to take the next step.”   The captain says that the biggest strengths in their team consists of team spirit and the fact that every player has a big role: “Our team has a couple experienced guys and the rest of the group are hungry young talents. Every team member has an important role on achieving our future goals as a team."    Roots Gaming ry is from Kerava and was founded in 2019. They are a non-profit esport organization with a goal to develop the Finnish esports and culture in Kerava. They also want to provide a safe and modern environment for children to practice and improve themselves in esports. Roots Gaming also offers coaching activities. Their objective is to change certain attitudes towards esports and that’s why physical activity, healthy eating habits and understanding rest are important things for them along with the core operation of gaming.   Esports director of Roots Gaming Väinö @vSilenttioPietilä was playing for Roots Gaming when they made their first appearance in the scene. We asked him to share some thoughts about the past and what things he’s excited about in future with BoxinElite: “Our first one and a half years in NHL taught us a lot of good things on and off the ice. We realized during that time as an organization that like many other esports games also NHL 6v6 playing consists of many other things besides just individual skills on the ice. That’s why we think that NHL as a team sport is made for us.” ”When we stepped aside from the scene in May 2021, we already knew that we would come back and now after we have looked into different teams, NHLGamer and the whole scene, we are ready to come back to our beloved esport. BoxinElite was one of the first teams that were under our radar for a long time and was actually the first team who we were in touch with about a possible cooperation. The team has done some good long-term work in all silence, even though they have only played a couple of tournaments together where they have got some good results. I see a lot of great things with the team and their team play, and with those things it’s easy to get started with our mutual journey”, Pietilä continues. Boxinelite is also really excited about their future with Roots Gaming: ”A little while ago, Väinö contacted us and told that Roots would be coming back to NHL esports and they would want us to join the project. We were humbled by that and realized in a short time that Boxinelite and Roots had similar ambitions and the desire to push things forward. Our cooperation with Roots Gaming is kind of a reward to us for our hard work but also it is a good motivator for the future!", states captain @xleksa35. Sonja Ahtiainen, Vice Chairman of Roots Gaming wants to emphasize some major points from their organization’s values and their future objectives: “We have experienced with our CS:GO team as also with our former NHL team that participating in everyday life with them has a comprehensive effect. Improvement of performance and team skills in a team sport and at the individual level are clearly noticeable. As an organization we want to be a part of our team’s actions and we want to improve it as a whole instead of only bringing basic things to them and after that leaving responsibility to the players. Our player’s wellbeing is at the center of our actions and our main target is to reform people’s thoughts about esports. The fact that Finnish esports culture has grown little by little in past years doesn’t mean that we could sit there and watch what happens next. It’s time to talk less and really turn the work mode on!”

Gamers, the time has come to step into the future. Today, we invite you to join us for “A Song of Winter and Spring” as we introduce the next step in the evolution of ECL. We’ll also walk you through some incoming improvements to the website and the overall EASHL team experience here at NHLGamer. You’ll find all the details below but before we get to the grand reveal, I’d like to take a moment to address the community directly. Introducing something new in the world of gaming comes with a certain responsibility. Especially when presenting it to a group of loyal, passionate consumers. Like you, our 14,000+ members here at NHLGamer.com. How the invention itself is received can be difficult to predict, but for better or for worse the launch itself is often memorable. Who can forget the celebrated Cyberpunk 2077 presentation at E3 2019 when Keanu Reeves set the internet ablaze by shouting “You’re breathtaking!” to the crowd? Memorable, for the right reasons. But like Cyberpunk proved, the introduction itself is nothing without a solid product launch. Today, we aim to deliver on both fronts as we write yet another new chapter in the already storied history of the European Championship League. And, just like when we introduced our Divisional system in ECL 4 or when we hosted our first LAN event in ECL 8 or even when we re-imagined the divisional framework for ECL 12, we welcome your thoughts, opinions and above all – your passion. After all, that is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Now, let’s get to it. INTRODUCING… ECL WINTER & ECL SPRING Moving forward, our ECL leagues will no longer carry the numerical distinctions next to them as before. Instead, NHLGamer will be hosting two annual ECL seasons: ECL Winter and ECL Spring. What’s more, we’ll be crowning an annual ECL Grand Champion – exclusive to the Elite division. The combined prize pools for ECL Winter, ECL Spring and the ECL Grand Finals will be larger than anything seen before here at NHLGamer. Furthermore, the divisional framework as presented in ECL 12 will remain, but we are happy to announce we’ll be adding a license and prize pool for our second-tier division; ECL Pro – and voluntary licenses and prize pools for ECL Lite and Core. Here’s how it will work. ECL Winter ECL Winter takes the place of ECL 13, as it were, and will be played from January through March 2022. This will be the tentatively scheduled slot for ECL Winter in the future as well, but we are open to starting the Winter edition even as early as November – depending on feedback from the community. Knowing ahead of time when the seasons are set to start allows our players and teams to plan ahead in a way that was previously difficult. ECL Spring ECL Spring replaces ECL 14 and will be played from April through June 2022. Just like ECL Winter, Spring will be tentatively scheduled for the same slot next year. Having ECL Spring finish before midsummer allows our players and teams to take the summer off from playing ECL games, as per requests from the community. Annual ECL Champion Come June, we’ll be hosting an ECL Grand Final – with an additional prize pool – to crown the annual ECL Champion. This much-anticipated best-of-seven event will feature the ECL Elite teams who won ECL Winter and ECL Spring, respectively. Should the same team win both seasons, that team will be crowned the ECL Grand Champion in conjunction with the ECL Spring Finals. INTRODUCING… PRIZE POOLS FOR ECL PRO, LITE AND CORE ECL Elite remains the pinnacle of virtual hockey gaming in Europe and will feature our biggest prize pool yet - a total of 33 000 EUR! As our community continues to grow and the competition becomes increasingly tougher, playing in ECL Pro, Lite and Core is more prestigious than ever before. Now, for the first time ever, we are set to further elevate the status of these divisions by introducing the concept of prize pools. ECL Pro will feature a mandatory license fee and prize pool. All the money from the team licenses goes into the prize pool. The top sixteen (16) out of the divisions’ 32 teams will be awarded a share of the prize pool. ECL Lite and Core will feature a voluntary license fee and a prize pool for the teams who choose to acquire a license. The top 16 teams that choose to acquire a license in ECL Lite (64 teams) will be awarded a share of the prize pool. The top 32 teams that choose to acquire a license in ECL Core (128 teams) will be awarded a share of the prize pool. ECL Neo will continue as our division for new teams who want to get accustomed to league play on a relaxed schedule. There will be no license or prizing for ECL Neo. INTRODUCING… NEW WEBSITE FEATURES As a community, you’ve been asking us for upgrades to the website infrastructure. You’ve given us feedback; you’ve outlined what you want to see in terms of a competitive esports platform. And we thank you for it. We continue to listen – and ask for – your thoughts and feedback when it comes to the long-term development of the platform. Here’s an outline of what we’re doing to improve the website experience in the short term. We’ll be improving and expanding the admin tools with a singular focus on streamlining the support process. As the community grows, the need for a quick and efficient support system has never been greater – and this is something we’ve put a lot of work into. We’ll be improving and expanding the amount of stats from the EA SPORTS NHL game we’re able to track. As you might have seen in the Player Summary screen, several new statistical columns have been introduced and we’ll be introducing them to our website. The stats in question will be available retroactively for the previous ECL seasons where they were available in-game. We’ll be introducing a social sharing tool for the teams and organizations that make up our user base. No longer will teams need to grab a screenshot of a game report on NHLGamer or an in-game screen grab of a result for posting on social media. Instead, you’ll be able to share results and stats conveniently to social platforms directly from our website. We’ll be eradicating the website bugs that exist today, while also improving our general response time when it comes to fixing them. Above all, we introduce a pledge that this is just the opening salvo in what will be a renewed focus to further develop the platform thousands of you choose to visit on a daily basis. INTRODUCING… SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS AND ADDED TEAM VISIBILITY More and more esport organizations continue to join the ECL ecosystem and here at NHLGamer, that is something we take great pride in. In order to take further steps towards professionalism and allow all our teams – not just the ones signed to an organization – to attract sponsors and develop their franchise in terms of visibility and competitive efforts, we are introducing the concept of sponsorship programs. We will build and share free of charge sponsorship packages which will include high-class sales presentations, best practices, and other supporting materials for teams to elevate their commercial efforts. We will also set up a sponsorship pool for the community which will be allocated by competition rankings and other community incentives. We will continue to broadcast Elite games with the same passion and intensity as before, while also adding a weekly broadcast dedicated to our second-tier division, Pro. We’ll be introducing the opportunity for added sponsorship visibility during our broadcasts. As an example, an Elite team could be given the chance to have one sponsor visible at a designated area during our wide-reaching league broadcasts. I want to take this moment to thank you all for being on this journey together, we are very excited for the upcoming year and looking forward to share more with you in the near future. So without futher ado, welcome to ECL '22! READ MORE ABOUT THE ECL '22 WINTER SEASON HERE PS: We would love for you to follow our social channels, as they are an integral part of the ECL season. Discord Instagram Facebook Twitch Twitter