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SportsGamers, With the new iteration of EA Sports NHL having dropped a couple weeks back, the time is right for us to launch registrations for the biggest and best league around. Another massive competitive season will kick off with the ECL '24 Winter season, starting officially on November 1st with the Lite & Pro Qualifiers. Whether you are an experienced gamer looking to take the next step, or are just starting out your career, one of our five divisions will be sure to offer you a challenge suitable for your skill level. After the intense fights we saw go down at the finish lines of all five divisions last season, the ECL '24 Winter season will have lots to live up to, but with the skill level constantly increasing and the superstar talent across the league intent on bringing their top game on a nightly basis, we're confident that this will be an even better year! The total prize pool of the ECL '24 Winter season will be 23 420 EUR. If you're itching to get things started already, remember to sign up for the ECL '24 Pre-season tournament here! Signups will close at 12:00 CEST, on October 19th, 2023. <- TOMORROW! ⚠️ The ECL is the pinnacle of European NHL esports. The abbreviation stands for the European Championship League and it features NHL 6v6 esports in five divisions aimed at various skill levels. Every player, including the goalies, is controlled by a human. League games are played in the EASHL mode and the platform is PlayStation and Xbox. ECL has been played since 2015, so the upcoming season is already the 17th. The latest addition to the ECL product family is a 1v1 tournament, where Europe's best solo players fight for the championship. ECL 1v1 has been played since the ECL '23 Winter season. Basic information/requirements of ECL: Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however, we do not necessarily exclude players located in North America or Asia. A European server will always be used. We reserve the right to exclude teams or players in case of severe connection issues. Platform: PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S Individual requirements: Each player needs to have an account at SportsGamer.GG and create their personal player card. ECL licenses: Teams in ECL Elite & ECL Pro, ECL Lite, and ECL Core will require their respective ECL ‘24 Winter team licenses in order to play. In addition, every player in the above-mentioned divisions needs to have a valid ECL ‘24 Winter Player License before taking the ice. Purchase your license in the Store. Rules: The ECL '24 rulebook will be published closer to the season, but you can check out last season's rules here. For a more extensive overview of the ECL as a whole, check out our “What is the ECL?” news story released a few weeks back. For a thorough look at the entire competitive year and event calendar, please refer to our ECL '24 Season Presentation. Wildcard teams: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Lite Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Pro Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Neo: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ⚠️ ECL Core: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ⚠️ ECL Lite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ECL Pro: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ECL Elite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 *Signups will close at 23:59 CET on the last day mentioned unless otherwise specified. Schedule Pre-season tournament: 23.10.-6.11.2023 Qualifiers: 1.11-> (Pro, Lite) 7.11-> (Elite) Regular Season duration: 19.11.-21.12.2023 (Neo, Core, Lite) 20.11.-21.12.2023 (Pro, Elite) PLEASE NOTE: ECL '24 WINTER 1V1 SIGNUPS WILL LAUNCH LATER THIS YEAR Rule Changes & Community Opinion Reminder: We would like to raise two items up for a community vote and open up the floor for discussion. So far the topics have not attracted a lot of conversation, but there's still time to make your voices heard. The 3-point system vs 2-point system For the longest time, the ECL has used the 2-point system, where the winner gets 2 points, whether in regular time or overtime, and 1 point for a loss in overtime. We’ve heard some wishes for a change and the time has come to re-evaluate whether we should instead opt for the 3-point system instead. In the past, the polls have been pretty close to 50/50 on this topic, but it’s time to discuss this topic properly and if the discussion suggests a need for a poll, that can be implemented. You can already discuss the point-system here. Zone & Superstar Abilities - Yay or nay? For the ECL ‘23: Spring season we made the decision to ban a selection of Zone & Superstar Abilities. As NHL 24 is a new release, our initial instinct is to start with a clean slate and not ban any abilities until the community gets to know the new game and has a chance to make up its mind about whether the abilities are working or not. While we have preliminarily set our minds on not banning any abilities for the first season, we welcome the discussion and would love to hear your opinion. You can discuss player abilities here. Are there some rule-related changes we’ve missed? Now is your chance to discuss and suggest what type of changes you would like to see in the rulebook. 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.

Welcome to the ECL ‘24 season and the NHL 24 competitive year! The ‘23 season was certainly one for the history books as most notably, we managed to pull off the first-ever 6v6 eHockey World Finals in a successful manner. With the continuous growth of the community supporting us, we are confident in our ability to make similar moves in the future and focus on the development of the sport from the ground up. This post marks the starting point of a new, great season with new, great Champions - will this be your time to shine? The prize pool for the ECL ‘24 Winter season will be 23 420 EUR! Before we go any further, if you’re reading this and find yourself wondering “What is the ECL?”, or you're looking for a blast from the past listing of all ECL Champions so far you can find an article about that here. One of the more frequent requests from our community through the years has been transparency in terms of upcoming plans. The benefits are clear, as it will help teams with preparation, strategizing, and assembling rosters, and of course, help players plan their holidays, trips, or other activities without sacrificing the opportunity to partake in the eHockey season to the fullest. So, without further ado, here is what the NHL 24 competitive year looks like for Europe. Please keep in mind there are still lots of details being put into place, but we want to provide as good of an overview on the timing of the ECL ‘24 Winter and Spring seasons, as well as the National Championships, that are played in between the ECL seasons. ECL '24 Competitive Year The ECL ‘24 Pre-season tournament will kick off on October 16th, giving teams the ability to get right into action, get familiar with NHL 24, and test their line-ups against teams of equal skill levels. The Pre-season will consist of the following groups: Elite & Pro Lite & Core Neo & Newcomers The ECL ‘24: Winter - Lite & Pro Qualifiers will kick off on November 1st. For this reason, we suggest that teams participating in the qualifiers skip the Pre-season tournament. The ECL ‘24: Winter - Regular Season will start on November 19th and be completed just in time to wind down for Christmas and the New Year. The last round of games before the holiday break will be played on December 21st. The ECL ‘24: Winter - Playoffs will start after the holidays, on January 3rd. Most of the ECL ‘24: Winter divisions will be completed by the end of January, whereas the date for the Elite Finals is still TBA at this stage, and could be as late as the last week of February. After the end of the ECL ‘24: Winter season, it’s time to battle in the National Leagues, such as the CSCL, eHockey SM, GCL, SCL & WECL. Many of the details are still work-in-process, but rest assured weeks 6-14 are reserved for National League play. The ECL ‘24: Spring season will commence with the Lite and Pro Qualifiers in weeks 13-15. The regular season will be played weeks 16-20, and the playoffs will be played weeks 22-26, with most divisions done before midsummer and the Lite Champions being decided just after. Early Bird Offer on Player and Team Licenses Below you’ll find the pricing of the team and player licenses for ECL ‘24. Starting today and for the next two weeks (until September 14th), you can pick up the ECL ‘24 Winter Team license and the ECL ‘24 Player License (Winter + Spring) for the Early Bird pricing listed below. After that, standard pricing will be in effect. PURCHASE YOUR ECL '24 LICENSES HERE For those of you participating in the qualifiers and unsure which division your team will play in for the ECL ‘24: Winter season, you can still take advantage of this offer; Purchase the Early Bird license for the division you are qualifying for and if your team is unsuccessful in the mission, we will refund you the difference to the Early Bird price for the division your team ends up in. For example, if you enter the qualifiers for the Lite division, purchase the Early Bird Lite license. If your team doesn’t qualify for the Lite division, you will play in the Core division and we will refund you the difference - in this example: 100 EUR. The ECL Neo division will remain free of cost. Please refer to this ECL Ranking in order to understand which teams are eligible to sign up for each division. New and refreshed ECL 1v1 With ECL ‘23 we launched the first-ever ECL 1v1 seasons and while they were a blast and we saw some great games and worthy champions (1, 2) crowned, we have gathered the feedback and data and aim to improve the experience for players of all levels for the ECL ‘24 season. We’ll save some details for later, but what we can tell you is that there will be a TOP 4 selected from both the Winter and Spring seasons, that will then face each other at the end of the ECL ‘24 year to crown one ECL ‘24: 1v1 Champion. Rule Changes & Community Opinion We would like to raise two items up for a community vote and open up the floor for discussion. The 3-point system vs 2-point system For the longest time, the ECL has used the 2-point system, where the winner gets 2 points, whether in regular time or overtime, and 1 point for a loss in overtime. We’ve heard some wishes for a change and the time has come to re-evaluate whether we should instead opt for the 3-point system instead. In the past, the polls have been pretty close to 50/50 on this topic, but it’s time to discuss this topic properly and if the discussion suggests a need for a poll, that can be implemented. You can already discuss the point-system here. Zone & Superstar Abilities - Yay or nay? For the ECL ‘23: Spring season we made the decision to ban a selection of Zone & Superstar Abilities. As NHL 24 is a new release, our initial instinct is to start with a clean slate and not ban any abilities until the community gets to know the new game and has a chance to make up its mind about whether the abilities are working or not. While we have preliminarily set our minds on not banning any abilities for the first season, we welcome the discussion and would love to hear your opinion. You can discuss player abilities here. Are there some rule-related changes we’ve missed? Now is your chance to discuss and suggest what type of changes you would like to see in the rulebook. Stay tuned for the official kick-off of the ECL ’24 Winter Signups, launching mid-September.