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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!

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!