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The fourth season of the SHL's virtual counterpart, the eSHL is kicking off tonight! This season, all 14 SHL clubs will participate for the first time ever. Brynäs IF will participate for their first time ever, and HV71 returns after a season of absence to fill out the full team lineup. The eSHL has established itself as one of the prime 6v6 events of the year and with the prize pool of 100 000 SEK, there's some big cash on the line too! It all kicks off tonight at 19:00 CET with full force and all 14 SHL clubs in participation. SportsGamerGG enters season 4 as the official stats partner, and with that all league statistics and the full schedule can be found at the league page. In difference to previous seasons, this year all games will be available as streams on official eSHL Twitch-channels labeled eSHLse 2-7, and the main channel being www.twitch.tv/eSHLse. All main broadcasts will also be available in Sweden at C More and TV4 Play. The season opener will be played between Luleå Hockey and the defending Champions Växjö Lakers HC, after which Färjestad BK and HV71 will take the ice in the broadcast. Official gamedays this season will be on Monday and Wednesday, with the main broadcast going live at 19:00 CET and the rest of the games starting an hour later at 20:00 CET. This season, Marcus "McMaggan" Magnusson is returning as the studio host and he's joined by both Adam @esdor Ericson and Johan @Lehmannens Lehmann as commentators. It'll be enormously exciting to watch the fourth season, now with the full SHL team lineup participating. The SHL clubs have been eager to get on board and all of them have managed to find highly competitive rosters to represent them. This iteration of the eSHL will without a doubt be the most competitive year yet. Your usual suspects Frölunda HC, Färjestad BK, and the defending champion Växjö Lakers HC are definitely some of the hottest squads to be on the lookout for, but a new challenger that emerges will be Rögle BK, who recently secured the services of ECL Elite top team Tunnel Vision. Malmö Redhawks is also looking like a top 6 team at the very least with their highly experienced roster. Luleå Hockey, Örebro Hockey, Leksands IF, IK Oskarshamn and HV71 should be able to challenge the contenders. Brynäs IF have signed a highly experienced roster that has struggled in the ECL this season, but they should be able to slot in as "the best of the rest". Linköping HC, Skellefteå AIK and Timrå IK will be the ones chasing down the rest of the pack. Format The eSHL includes all 14 SHL clubs, which will be playing out a full regular season with one gameday against each opponent. Every gameday entails a double-header against the assigned opponent. At the end of the regular season, the top six teams will reach the Quarterfinals, whereas the teams placing 7-10 will enter a Play-in round for the two last spots in the Quarterfinals. The Playoffs are played as best-of-three series throughout, with the Finals being hosted live at SPACE in Stockholm on March 10th, 2023. Schedule Regular season: 16.1.2023-17.2.2023 Play-in round: 20.2.2023 Quarterfinals: 22.2.2023 & 27.2.2023 Semifinals: 1.3.2023 Finals: 10.3.2023 @ SPACE in Stockholm Find more information about the eSHL and all relevant links for past and the upcoming seasons at the eSHL homepage!

SportsGamers, With only three days left of the ECL '23 Winter Elite regular season, most teams are left with only a few games remaining in their campaign, while Reality Check HC were the first ones to finish already on Thursday last week. The team in their first Elite season managed to secure a Playoff spot with relative ease and are now resting up and getting ready to make an impact in the Playoffs, quite likely against the Swiss ZSC Esports if the Lions are able to keep up their current form, which is excellent with a nine game winning streak, by the way. This is a great performance by Reality Check for a team consisting of quite a few Elite rookies. The defending Champions hREDS uncharacteristically dropped points in two matchups last week, losing both games against Färjestad BK and dropping one game against GOONS. This is something we haven't seen the team do in quite some time and the REDS, who are so known for their consistency could be heading towards their worst regular season record since ECL 11, when they were the third wheel chasing the dominant HAVU Gaming and FILADELPHIA. Despite their difficult past week, for which the reasons are unknown, the REDS are still on track to finish in the top 3 and should be on track for another Championship push. However, Tunnel Vision are looking to be strong candidates to clinch that regular season win. The young squad lead by Arttu @laitineen64 Laitinen up front is on a 16-game win streak at the moment and with their main competition already out of the way, the rest of their schedule is looking rather favourable. If they manage to keep their streak going, they'll also end up reaching the Elite regular season point record set by FILADELPHIA back in ECL 12 with 58 points and a 28-0-2 record. Outside of the very top, it's looking exciting near the Playoff line, where Roots Gaming, GOONS and JYP Jyväskylä are in the main fight for that last spot. JYP still has four full matchups to go, while GOONS only have three each, so all of these teams still have a lot of points left on the table. It's tough to call which way it'll end up going at the moment, but GOONS seem to be the hottest team out of them all at the moment, with wins against hREDS, Luleå Hockey and Färjestad BK in the past week. For the badgers, Teemu @tkantola Kantola has managed to prove the naysayers wrong and shown that he is able to compete and produce at the Elite level. Highly experienced goaltender Mika @FinKonna Paasikontu also put forth a heroic effort in their win against hREDS with 23 saves and a SV% of 92%. At the bottom of the pack, the struggle is real for Luleå Hockey, Växjö Lakers and Unlucky Boys. Unlucky Boys especially are without a doubt the coldest team in the league and it really seems like their season took a disastrous turn after the halfway point. They are currently on a seven game losing streak with a massive game against Luleå Hockey still in to come. After a long season of tough times, we're glad to see that Falun Coal Miners and Färjestad BK have managed to claw their way out from the bottom of the pack and the latter still has five entire matchups left to play in the last few days of the regular season. They could even end up sneaking into the Playoffs if they go on a tear, but we're expecting the Karlstad team to at least claw their way out of the relegation zone. Standings - Week 5 1. hREDS (+3) 21-4-1 2. Tunnel Vision (+2) 20-0-2 3. Reality Check (-1) 18-8-4 4. Frölunda HC (-3) 18-3-3 5. Nordic Stars (+3) 14-9-3 6. JANO (-1) 12-7-7 7. ZSC Esports (-) 15-9-0 8. ISO Esports (+1) 9-10-9 9. GOONS (+3) 11-9-4 10. JYP Jyvaskyla (-4) 11-8-3 11. Roots Gaming (-) 11-10-3 12. Falun Coal Miners (+1) 9-11-4 13. Unlucky Boys HC (-3) 8-13-3 14. Färjestad BK (+2) 8-9-3 15. Växjö Lakers (-) 7-14-5 16. Luleå Hockey (-2) 4-13-5 Tonight, ECL '23 Winter Elite returns for some important matchups with big points on the line. Unlucky Boys takes on Nordic Stars, whereas Tunnel Vision are taken on by Färjestad BK, who have slowly found their form in the later matchup. Join us for all the action at 19:45 CET as usual. See you at www.twitch.tv/SportsGamerGG!

This report is written based on the status before the games on Sunday, January 8th. The ECL '23 Winter Pro season is already leading towards it's end, but we're still coming at you with a slightly delayed Mid-season report! Let's check in on how these teams have progressed throughout the season, and which one's have surprised us the most, whether it is for the good or the bad. Both groups are looking very evenly matched, with a couple of teams pulling away with the lead in group 1, but in group 2 it's looking like an all out free-for-all between five or six teams for the top seed. At this point, not that many teams have mathematically secured their spots in the Playoffs, and neither have any of them been mathematically eliminated. For some, that is looking like a long shot though. Quite surprisingly, HanaaHC and RCTIC who participated in the Elite Qualifier ahead of the season haven't managed to own up to the level of play expected. While both are currently in Playoff position, our season preview forecasted these two together with Renascor to top their respective groups. At the moment, though, only Renascor has managed to perform. Group 1 In this group, the fight for the top spot will most likely come down to three teams, as Örebro Hockey, Be a Bro and Luleå Hockey are all looking like they're on good pace to grab that crown. Most of the games between these three top dogs have already been played, so it'll now come down to how they can stack up against the rest of the competition in the group. Örebro are currently topping the tables with a few games in hand on the other two, which means Be a Bro and Luleå hold the advantage in that sense, and could end up making an overtake down the main stretch. Timi @Rimpe Rimpeläinen has once again made a successful comeback to the ECL ice after one season of absence. Last time we've seen the experienced allrounder, he spent the ECL '22 Winter season on defense for YMCA Esports in Elite, and now he's leading the league in scoring from his familiar left winger spot for Örebro Hockey. Leksand IF's Linus @Bror1326 Nidalen is closest in pursuit, but still eight points behind. In addition to a strong leading scorer, Leksand IF have also managed to string together a great campaign this season. They've got great offense, but also one of the best in the league in net with Jesper @I-Lillebror-I Nidalen in net. The young goaltender has kept his head cool throughout the season with an impressive 88,08 SV% and 9/12 breakaways saved. He's also currently in the 4 shutout club alongside only Djurgården's Matthias @Tizjeflen Johansson, Arkham's Juuso @TheSpeedo Sirkola and Nemesis' Joel @JaxonRules93 Jackson. A pleasant surprise in Group 1 has definitely been Ace Hockey and their highly efficient offensive play with Wiktor @Dehliiin Dehlin as their top dog as usual. The Swedish team is also boasting an impressive 45,5% powerplay percentage, which is contrasted by a lackluster penalty kill at only 63,64%. Currently, this squad is sitting just outside the Playoff picture and their form does not indicate good things. If they'll find a way to turn things around down the main stretch, they could be one of the last teams squeaking in. In somewhat similar position we've got Tohtorit, who have established themselves as rather consistent performers at the Pro level. They had a catastrophic start to their season, but have definitely managed to course-correct, now running with a five win streak, hoping to continue on that past and push them into the Playoffs.  The most obvious letdowns in the first group are Mora IK and Frölunda HC Academy, without a doubt. These teams have struggled in almost every department and especially Mora IK can't seem to even buy a goal with a measly 1.3 goals for average. Frölunda HC Adademy, on the other hand are also struggling heavily with their defense, being the worst in the league at 4.94 goals against per game. Group 2 At the moment, it's looking like things might come down to the wire between five or six different teams to clutch up for that top spot. Nemesis are the provisional holders of that #1 seed at the moment, but with teams like VISU Gaming, IK Oskarshamn, Memento and Renascor chasing them down, it'll remain to be seen how long lived that joy will be. For Nemesis, the good thing is that they are seemingly all set for the Playoffs already with several highly competitive matchups in their back pocket already. They're not a team that will outgun their opponents, but they have honed their skills and evolved into a group that can win those low-scoring battles and turn games in their favor with the little things they do. IK Oskarshamn were one of the teams that caught some flack in our season preview, but they've definitely shown us wrong. Henri @Chevikov (Hikoilija_) Heikkilä is a rookie winger, who has taken the step to being their heart-and-soul player and is currently leading the team from the front on an impressive run with the league's best special teams number at 133,91. Oskarshamn is currently fighting for the top spot, but should end up in a favorable spot for the Playoffs at the minimum. Some of the more experienced squads including Central European juggernauts Deadly Phantoms and Inter Iceland, have surprisingly found themselves performing below expectations. DPH have several GCL championships and plenty of Elite experience in their back pockets, but they haven't managed to find their way back into the European top 16 just yet, and lost superstar winger Tim @Timasy Hess in a transfer to Elite squad Falun Coal Miners earlier this season, which will trip up their campaign a bit. The Phantoms will be looking to fight their way into the Playoffs, where they'll be able to employ their tough style of play and wear down their opponents in long seven game series. Inter Iceland, on the other hand, also feature some high scoring skill in the form of both Stef(ph)ans @Stefan_397(ViSiOnZ97_) Hämmerle and @Krinke Krinke, who for one reason or another just haven't hit their stride this season. The team is in a tough spot and look like they'll be in a relegation spot with high probability.  Björklöven Esport is another team who have managed to establish themselves in the Pro division, but are struggling to find a footing this season. They had some heavy roster turnover in the offseason and seemingly haven't found a way to click just yet. With 10 games still left in the season, there's time for this roster to find a way into the Playoffs, but they'll need to start improving drastically if they wish to do so.  There's still plenty of virtual hockey left to play in the last week of the regular season, and a lot is on the line for all teams involved. This Tuesday, you'll be able to follow along once again in our weekly ECL '23 Winter Pro broadcast with some big games in the showcase!