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SportsGamers, The sun is shining, and the snow is melting. As your traditional hockey seasons might be pushing towards the postseason, on the virtual side of things, we're just about to witness the Elite Finale tonight! We're very excited for what the games ahead will hold, but we're also turning our heads towards the ECL '22 Spring season and launching registrations for all divisions. For the ECL '22 Winter season, we brought in licenses to our lower divisions for the first time. We received huge support from the community and will continue with the same formula for the ECL '22 Spring season. We're always in the process of developing further, so all feedback will be welcomed with open arms. During the ECL '22 Winter season, you probably also noticed our rebrand, which brought a new name, a refreshed website, and some other added features. Most importantly, this allows for us to operate vertically across all sports games in the esports market. The community is certainly also interested to know on which console the ECL Spring will be played? We’ve decided that the ECL '22 Spring season will be played on the PlayStation 4 version and we’ll move to the PlayStation 5 version in the next ECL. However, this does not exclude playing other tournaments on the PlayStation 5 version already in the summer. Without further ado, let's go into it. The ECL is the pinnacle of European NHL esports - a league where all the best European NHL gamers create teams and compete against each other in the game mode EASHL (6v6) for the title of Best EASHL Team in Europe. The league currently features five divisions, so action is guaranteed for everyone regardless of skill level and experience! Basic information/requirements of ECL: Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however, we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. A European server will always be used. In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. Russian-owned organization's participation is currently prohibited indefinitely. The ban affects organizations, meaning that Russian players and their private created teams will be able to participate, but cannot be affiliated to a Russian-owned organization. 6v6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL Challenge Club game mode in NHL 22. Individual requirements: Each player needs to have an account at NHLGamer.com and create their personal player card. Roster requirements: Teams in ECL Elite need to have at least 7 players to sign up. Teams in ECL Pro, ECL Lite, ECL Core and ECL Neo need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. ECL licenses: Teams in ECL Elite & ECL Pro will be require their respective ECL '22 Spring license in order to play. Optional licenses are available for the ECL Lite and Core levels. More details below. Rules: The ECL '22 Spring ruleset will follow the same foundation as in ECL '22 Winter season. Wildcard Battle: 5.-10.3. ⚠️ ECL Lite Qualifier: 5.-13.3. ⚠️ ECL Pro Qualifier: 5.-13.3. ⚠️ ECL Neo: 5.3.-1.4. ECL Core: 5.3.-1.4. ECL Lite: 5.-20.3. ECL Pro: 5.-20.3. ECL Elite: 5.-20.3. * Sign-ups will close 23:59 CET on the last day mentioned unless otherwise specified. Additionally, players qualifying for the Wildcard spot must be on the team roster by the time the sign-ups close. Below you'll find the condensed version of what's new this year in the ECL. For a longer look, please read our article about the new era of ECL. ECL Winter & Spring ECL seasons will no longer carry the same numerical distinctions next to them as before. Instead, NHLGamer will be hosting two annual ECL seasons: ECL Winter and ECL Spring. The combined prize pools for ECL Winter, ECL Spring and the ECL Grand Finals will be larger than anything seen before in NHL esports! 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. Prize pools for ECL Pro, Lite and Core ECL Elite remains the pinnacle of virtual hockey gaming in Europe but 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. 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. 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. See more about licenses in our Licenses section. The divisions framework for the ECL '22 Spring will follow the same logic as for the previous season. We will have a total of five divisions with the following team allocation: Elite 16 teams, Pro 32 teams, Lite 64 teams, Core 128 teams and Neo 32+ teams. Please use the below links for more detailed info about each division and which teams are eligible to sign up: Wildcard Battle information (for ECL Lite and Pro Qualifiers) ECL Lite & Pro Qualifiers information ECL Neo Season Information ECL Core Season Information ECL Lite Season Information ECL Pro Season Information ECL Elite Season Information *If you're an existing team that wants to change names, simply sign up with the old name and contact support for the name change. If you're having issues with signing up overall, please contact support. Don't have a team yet? Team looking for additions to your roster? If you are a free agent looking to be picked up, please head over here. If you are representing a team looking for players, please head over here. Did your team sign with an organization that is represented in the game and needs in-game unlocks? Fill in this form. (Only if your organization has unlockables available in NHL 22) Social media Here's an update to the social media instructions. Our sponsors this season are Kouvolan Lakritsi, Wilhelm & St Hockey. Twitter: When posting tweets of your lineups, matchups, recaps, clips, articles - or any other content you might want to create - please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: @SportsGamerGG #ECL22Spring #NHL22 #esports #kouvolanlakritsi #MukanaWilhelm Instagram: When posting on Instagram, please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: @SportsGamerGG #ECL22Spring #NHL22 #esports #kouvolanlakritsi #MukanaWilhelm Note: It is super helpful and critical for us to succeed in getting our partners tagged, so they get the necessary mentions and interaction to validate their participation in the future. That being said, it is understandable that there may be circumstances due to your other partners where you are unable to tag competition etc. Your support is appreciated. As there are quite a few hashtags by now, especially from a Twitter perspective with limited characters, we recommend using at least #ECL22Winter in the text part of the tweet and leave the sponsor tags for the end. If you need to cut out tags, remove #esports and #NHL22. For Instagram this shouldn't be an issue. 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 This post has been promoted to an article

NHLGamers, The ECL '22 Winter Elite season is now capped off and while the Finals were over almost as fast as they started, history was made this weekend. Frölunda did everything in their power to challenge the big, bad REDS but this time it just wasn't enough. By hoisting this cup, hREDS have etched their names in the history books by being the first back-to-back ECL Champions ever. hREDS wingers Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen and Niklas @NikkeDangles Tukiainen were on fire in the finals and produced a majority of their teams offense, while centerman Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen locked down the back-end in cohesion with defensemen Aaro @xDoumi Ruuhinen and Tuukka @Tuukka.R Röpelinen (KingOfApes_). Goaltender Filip @Faze91- Azri claimed his second title in only his fourth competitive ECL season - what an effort! We caught up with the captain @Beniittto in the midst of the celebrations: You're now going down in history as the first ever team to win back-to-back ECL Championships, what is it that makes you so great and how much do you appreciate doing it with these guys? First off, it feels great. We've got a good group of guys and all of us are capable players, which makes it all possible. Also, the chemistry both on and off the ice can't be overstated. Playoff series, no matter how tightly matched, have had a tendency to be over in rather quick fashion lately. What do you think is the reason behind that? Our game is simply put very complete, which makes us a tough team to beat in any given game. If we have one off-game, we're able to bounce back real quick, consistency is key. You took on a defensive role in the Finals, was that a conscious decision that your wingers will do the scoring and you shut down the opposition? Yeah we definitely talked a bit about that. We didn't want to give up any soft goals and decided to most importantly focus on shutting down their offense. Our wingers definitely got the job done with the scoring, which sealed the Championship for us. It looked like Frölunda HC caught you off guard a bit in game 4, was it difficult to regain your composure for the second gameday when being in such a dominant position? We didn't really change anything in our preparations and came into the games with a good mindset. We weren't able to set up any warmup games, which I think did us in for that one. How are you going to celebrate the Championship tonight? Naturally, a couple of drinks with the boys, and we'll see where the night will take us after that. hREDS' road to the championship: #1 seed with the record 22-5-3 Quarterfinals: vs GOONS (8) 4-0 Semifinals: vs Granit Gaming (7) 4-1 Finals: vs Frölunda HC (3) 4-1 The winning roster: GOALTENDERS #91 Filip @Faze91- Azri DEFENSEMEN #27 Aaro @xDoumi Ruuhinen #94 Tuukka @Tuukka.R Röpelinen (KingOfApes_) (A) FORWARDS #23 Niklas @NikkeDangles Tukiainen (A) #89 Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen #96 Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen (C) If you happened to miss the broadcast, you can rewatch the action from Saturday here. Thanks for tuning in and congrats to the champions!

After a couple of months we have finally arrived at terminus of the Winter season - only two teams remain. This season has again offered us some big surprises and exciting moments. It's been a grind throughout, but we're now seeing the new ECL El Clasico get a Finals trilogy, when hREDS and Frölunda HC will clash for the third time in a row. We will see what the future holds for us, but it's also interesting that the winner of this series will be the first one to claim their ticket to the June Grand Finals. If one team manages to win both the ECL Winter and Spring seasons, they will automatically be crowned the Grand Champions. Tune in for the ECL '22 Winter Elite Finals this weekend! The broadcast will start at 19:30 CET on both Friday and Thursday. You'll find us at www.twitch.tv/SportsGamerGG with Cody "Tougie" Tougas and Paul "Cyn" Anderson in the booth to call the action! hREDS (1) vs Frölunda HC (3) TOP SCORER Niklas @NikkeDangles Tukiainen 9 GP, 7+10=17 vs Paul @PleeMaker Arontie 9 GP, 7+8=15 GOALTENDER Filip @Faze91- Azri 9 GP, 8W, 80,28 SV%, 1.56 GAA, 2 SO vs Casper @ICappeI Lundgren 9 GP, 8W, 83,33 SV%, 1.22 GAA, 1 SO REGULAR SEASON RECORD 25-2-3 vs 22-5-3 REGULAR SEASON SERIES 0-1, 4-5OT After winning the regular season and dominating all player statistics, the red beasts are looking for their second consecutive ECL Elite title, this time not YET crowning them the European Champions, but earning them a spot in the Grand Finals, awaiting in June. In the semifinals, hREDS were able to stop Granit Gamings dream for their first final spot in the highest league of Europe by besting the Swedish group 4-1. Like the whole season also in those games every guy from red and black jerseys had their shining moments and proved that there are no missing pieces to the puzzle that is this team. hREDS made their Elite debut in ECL 10, and since then, every season they have managed to get into the semifinals. This season, hREDS got to start with the same lineup as last season. The main changes they made after the ECL 11 season were on the left side where they got Aaro @xDoumi Ruuhinen and Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen to boost their squad. Especially the latter one of these two has been able to find a new level to his game in hREDS. There's also some history of player movement betwee the two finalist teams, as Teemu @Teemuyy Polttila played for hREDS in ECL 10 and 11, but left for Frölunda HC after his tenure there. Last season, he made his debut in the new jersey and he's had time to make both good and bad memories in this squad - first losing to his old team in the ECL 12 Finals, after which they made up for that with a FCL 2021 Finals win in the rematch. This regular season was the most difficult in a long time - if not ever - for Frölunda HC. Despite that, the multiple European champion was able to secure the third seed and go into the playoffs just behind SAWO ESPORTS and their final rivals hREDS. By the numbers, it looks like the playoffs have been a cakewalk for Frölunda, but especially the sweep against HAVU Gaming looked like a way tighter series than the result would suggest. Their semifinals opponent Färjestad BK was familiar for the Indians because it was actually the third time in four seasons those teams went head-to-head in the semifinals. The record from those games is a miserable story for Färjestad BK as Frölunda has a 12-2 stranglehold on that rivalry series. Frölunda has been a dynasty over the last few years and there's no denying that. Since ECL 7, they have three ECL titles and they've appeared in the finals every season. However, even this group hasn't been able to get two championships in a row. Their offensive trio has stuck together throughout the years, which definitely gives them the edge of superior chemistry, and it's easier to trust the guy next to you when having all that experience together. Defensively, they've seen some changes like mentioned earlier, but Aleksi @loimmu Loimuvirta has been a lock down low since ECL 7, with one season of absence in ECL 8. @loimmu centerman Joonas @PatzlafPaatiala also have some memories together with a few hREDS players way back from the days with Carlsberg HC. All ECL seasons combined, Frölunda and hREDS have clashed eight times in the regular season. The record is 6-2 in favor of Frölunda including this seasons wins in both games in the season series. A strange coincidence between these two is that both ECL Finals and the FCL finals have ended in a sweep in either way. Every one of these series have been expected to be really tight but it seems that in every series the first win has started a snowball effect and the winner has gained the momentum. We will see which way this series starts to go but maybe now it's time for us to see a longer series than four games. Two very skilled teams are going up against each other again but right now it feels like hREDS has a slight advantage on their side. Prediction: hREDS will become the first team to win back-to-back ECL Elite champion titles with a 4-2 series win. Read more: ECL '22 Winter Elite Finals: "You haven't seen the best of us yet" - with Paul @PleeMaker Arontie from Frölunda HC Read more: ECL '22 Winter Elite Finals: "We have some aces up our sleeves" - with Tuukka @Tuukka.R Röpelinen (KingOfApes_) from hREDS