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ECL ’25: Spring Sign-Ups Are Open – Welcome to Season 20 and the League’s 10-Year Anniversary! Can you believe it’s been 10 years since we kicked off the ECL? Now, as we enter Season 20, what started as a one-division journey with around 50 teams has grown into a 200+ team, five-division experience. It’s incredible to see so many players who have been with us since the beginning—there’s been a lot of eHockey played over the years! You can browse some of these legendary player profiles on the SportsGamer All-time Stats page. I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the players who have joined us on this journey and continue to compete in the league we all live and breathe. Since its inception in 2015, the European Championship League (ECL) has established itself as the pinnacle of eHockey. It’s where the best players from across the continent face off in a 6v6 format that leaves no margin for error. Every position on the ice—forward, defense, and goalie—is controlled by a human player, creating a uniquely competitive and authentic environment. With divisions ranging from the elite to entry-level, the ECL provides a platform for players of all skill levels to make their mark. With a total prize pool of 24 000 EUR on the line—spread across both 6v6 and 1v1 formats—the stage is set for yet another amazing competitive season in European NHL esports. 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. 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 ‘25: Spring team licenses in order to play. In addition, every player in the above-mentioned divisions needs to have a valid ECL ‘25: Player License or ECL ‘25: Spring Player License before taking the ice. Players in ECL Neo require only an ECL '25: Spring Neo Player License. For a more extensive overview of the ECL as a whole, check out our “What is the ECL?” news story. Please note that the sign-up window for the Pro Wild Card Battle, the Pro Qualifier and the Pro and Elite divisions is quite short, so don't miss out and please don't hesitate to reach out to support if you have any questions. The sign-ups close on the below-mentioned dates: Pro Wildcard Battle: 18.3.2025 ⚠️ ECL Pro Qualifier: 21.3.2025 ⚠️ ECL Neo: 4.4.2025 ECL Core: 4.4.2025 ECL Lite: 4.4.2025 ECL Pro: 21.3.2025 ⚠️ ECL Elite: 21.3.2025 ⚠️ * Signups will close at 23:59 CET on the day mentioned unless otherwise specified. For more detailed information on the different divisions and their schedules, see this article. Qualifiers: The schedule for the qualifiers will be tight - as usual, to allow the maximum time for sign-ups - so please prepare to play quite intensely during the qualifiers stage. Pro Wildcard Battle: 19.-20.3 (if necessary) Pro Qualifier starts 23.3 Elite Qualifier start: 30.3 (if necessary) The exact details will be shared once the number of teams is known. Regular Season duration: 7.4-8.5.2025 Estimated finals dates: Below are estimated dates for the Finals to be approximately played. We reserve the right to changes in schedule. ECL Neo Finals 29.6 ECL Core Finals 25.6. - 26.6 ECL Lite Finals 23.6. - 24.6 ECL Pro Finals 16.6. - 17.6 ECL Elite Finals 14.6 Free Agents & Teams Looking for Players 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. Need more help, check out the below article! Early Bird Offer on Team Licenses Below you’ll find the pricing of the team for ECL ‘25: Spring. You can pick up the ECL ‘25: Spring Team license for the Super Early Bird and Early Bird pricing listed below. After that, we will offer a slightly elevated regular pricing from March 27th onward. PURCHASE YOUR ECL '25 LICENSES HERE For those of you participating in the qualifiers and unsure which division your team will play in for the ECL ‘25: Spring season, you can still take advantage of this offer; Purchase the Super 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 Super Early Bird price for the division your team ends up in. For example, if you enter the qualifiers for the Pro division, purchase the Super Early Bird Pro license. If your team doesn’t qualify for the Pro division, you will play in the Lite division and we will refund you the difference - in this example: 100 EUR. The ECL Neo division does not require a team license, however, you do need the ECL Neo Player license at the cost of 10 EUR per season. Please refer to this ECL Ranking in order to understand which teams are eligible to sign up for each division. Rule Changes: Ability Bans All Gold abilities and the silver abilities Truculence, Big Tipper, and Stick 'Em Up are banned for the ECL '25: Spring season. Read the full League Administration statement here. The full updated ECL '25 rulebook will be published closer to the season, you can check out last season's rules here.

Hello, all members of the ECL Community! We have had a long ongoing discussion about the X-Factors and Abilities and whether they should be allowed in a competitive environment or not. It has been enlightening to see and hear all the different opinions on this matter on the public forums, party chats, and private messages. We thank you all for taking part in this discussion! Looking closely at the situation, all the abilities have a way to make or break the game - in one way or another - and those effects can go both ways, whether you are or aren't allowed to use them. Abilities allow you to do things that you wouldn't or perhaps even shouldn't be able to do in certain situations, but they also reward you for making good plays, good passes, and timing your actions correctly. Playing without abilities can take away a lot of those rewards and may leave you frustrated because of that. One of the big concerns about banning all the abilities is that it could lead to a much more passive playstyle on defense. Of course, you are still able to score in many different ways, but it is a fact that some things in this game are built around the abilities and the animations they allow you to trigger. Abilities at their best can create these "wow!" moments for both the players and the viewers. It's worth mentioning that the discussion has mostly been around the gameplay experience, but we also want to take the viewers into account, even though currently most of them are you, the players. It is also to be stated that we want to keep the same ruleset for all the ECL divisions. While we see that the opinions are heavily divided between the players from different skill levels, the structure has always aimed to make it possible for teams to climb the division ladder all the way from the bottom to the top. Different rulesets could create a huge barrier between the divisions, which would be against our core values. We don't think either end of the extremes would necessarily result in a bad gameplay experience, but there are a lot of players on each side of the conversation and a compromise between the main two parties feels like the best way to go forward. Based on the community feedback and after an internal discussion we have decided on the following ability restrictions for the ECL '25: Spring season: All Gold X-Factors will be banned for both skaters and goaltenders Activating the Gold X-Factors doesn't require you to spend any XP points for certain traits and it allows you to have the abilities of a superstar even if your actual ability stats e.g. on a shooting skill would say otherwise. This change also brings the number of usable abilities down from 3 to 2. When you need the skill points to use the Superstar abilities, it will require you to carefully think about where to place those scarcely available skill points, and whether you want to focus on offense, defense, or somewhere between. With the removal of the Gold X-Factors, the balance between offense, defense, and goaltending should also stay similar to what we're already used to. The following X-Factors and Superstar abilities will be completely banned The following X-Factors are deemed too powerful even in their silver state and will be banned completely. Big Tipper This ability helps players in front of the net to deflect pucks with ultimate precision. This is the one ability almost everyone seems to agree doesn't belong in a competitive environment, due to the usage requiring little to no skill and being so efficient. Truculence This ability gives you exceptional stability and assists on shoulder checks and greatly increases the chance of knocking over the opponent and sapping their energy. Truculence breaks the game in a few different ways. It slows down the game due to the energy loss and long animations to get back up. It enables you to hit from too far away and from impossible angles, no matter which size player build is being used. You can still hit without truculence but without it, a better understanding of when a hit should be made will be required. Stick 'em up This ability gives you phenomenal defensive stick speed and exceptional accuracy when poke-checking against momentum or at speed while also lowering the chance of a penalty. The game already has a very strong auto-aim built into poke-checking whether you use this ability or not. The ability allows you to spam the stick check without much worry of getting penalized for it. It also allows you to reach the puck from too far away and from impossible angles. Why are the Regional Leagues played without abilities? There was a large group of players who made their voices heard with the so-called "#BanThemAll" messages that were going around after the announcement of the ability bans for the ECL '25: Winter season. As there was no conversation indicating a change in opinion around this subject, we wanted to give the players a chance to try it out in a competitive environment the regional tournaments that were next on the schedule felt like the be the best place to do that. We understand that the timing of this "test period" was far from ideal, especially with the biggest league FCL starting later than we were originally aiming for. We decided to have the same ruleset for all the Regional Leagues, because we wanted all teams and regions to have an equal chance to experience the gameplay without abilities and prepare for the upcoming ECL Season. Our communication of this should have been clearer, but ultimately it was a timing issue with the leagues running at different times. Why was there no community vote? While we understand that there is a big argument to have a vote for this decision, we believe in practice it would not be the best way to go. If we look at some of the unofficial polling results that have been circulating, they show that most people voting were against any kind of change compared to the ECL '25: Winter season. In one specific poll around 130-140 players out of around 650 people on the server voted, even though the server could be considered to consist of some of the most active members in the community. The ongoing public discussions have been very "top-heavy" regarding what division the players play in and this was also reflected in the polling. The higher up you go in divisions, the players tend to be more active and we expect that would also be reflected in a community vote. To actually reach the whole community would be a huge task on its own, and there would still be a big majority of players that the possible vote would not reach, especially given the often narrow time frame. The flip side of the coin is, that even if we would reach all players and have them vote anonymously, we have no way to verify if they have actually looked into all the intricacies of the matter or if they're just casting their vote based on what someone else told them to vote for. This is why we prefer to have an open and constructive dialogue where we collaboratively try to get into the details and thoughts behind the opinions and experiences within our community. What to expect from future decisions? We understand from the feedback that we've been lacking in communication regarding this issue. Communication is our main goal to improve along with reacting quicker to possible changes and make the process smoother overall. Whether it is at the start of the game cycle when something has radically changed, or in the middle of the year when some issue has been raised, we want to react quicker and give the players enough time to adjust for the tournaments. We're very thankful for all the feedback we've received and we warmly welcome any future feedback or suggestions! Best regards, League Administration

SportGamers, Our community is growing with new members every year. From time to time we are asked for tips on how to find a team or how to find players for your team. In this post, we have put together a few links to our forum where you can either search for a team or sign up as a free agent. You'll also find some tips at the end, that might be just what you need to connect with that new group of potential teammates. This post is mainly intended for the European audience that is interested in playing in the European Championship League. Free Agents EU - PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S In this forum section, you can register as a free agent or search for new players for your team. You will find a "reply to topic" section under the last message on the page where you can post your own free agent message. In this message, you can briefly tell us about yourself, what position you are looking to play, and how to best reach you. Please note that a community account is required in order to post a message. Please also note that this forum section is only for free agent messages. Free Agency Team feature Last season we tested a feature to have the free agency status appear on the player card of free agents. We got some good feedback, so we'll continue running this. If you wish to participate, send a private message to @SG Free Agent Admin with your PSN ID/Gamertag. You will receive an invitation to the Free Agent team on SportsGamer and by accepting it, this will give you the status visible on your player card. Please note that the invitation is usually not immediate and can take some time. Also, note that whatever positions and favorite position you have selected on your player card when accepting the invitation is what will appear in your free agency profile. You can browse the Free Agent team here. Once you find a new team you can join it right away and send a message to @SG Free Agent Admin (who is the captain of the Free Agent team), and you will be removed from the free agency. While this new approach will help list free agents and offer an additional way to be seen, for the best result in finding a team we still recommend following the other tips in this news story! EU Clubs looking for players - PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S In this section of the forum, you can let everyone know when your team is looking for players, which means free agents can find teams by browsing this thread. You will find a "reply to topic" section under the last message on the page. Here you can write your "club looking for players" post where you tell us about the club and what kind of player you are looking for. You can look for good tips for your post in the numerous posts written by other clubs. Please note that both of these above-mentioned forum threads are meant only for writing the "ads". When you see something you're interested in, please use private messaging (e.g. SportGamer, Discord, PSN or Xbox Live) to contact them. Usually, the writer of the post will let you know how to best get in touch. So here is your reminder: whenever you post, remember to mention how to best get in touch with you. Useful tips In addition to these previous tools, we recommend you to be active and try to play as much as possible. On our Discord server, you will find a section called "free for tonight" In this section, you can sign up for free play and of course, if you're lucky you might find some people that want to play with you in the future. Another good tip that works is to add "FA" or "Free Agent" to your player's name in the game so that your teammates and opponents can see during the game that you are looking for a team. There you have it! We hope you find these tips useful. Feel free to share your advice in the comments. Good luck finding the perfect match!

Med halva gruppspelet spelat börjar tabellen ta form, även om den fortfarande är ojämn med vissa lag som spelat fler matcher än andra. Toppen domineras av Carolus Icemen och Spartan Family, medan flera lag kämpar för att hålla sig kvar i topp åtta och säkra en slutspelsplats. Här är en genomgång av lagens prestationer så här långt. Tabelltoppens Järngrepp Carolus Icemen har varit nästintill ostoppbara med nio segrar på tio matcher. Med en imponerande målskillnad på +20 och en offensiv som leds av poängligaledaren I-@Bror1326-I (20+12), har de satt sig i en stark position inför slutspelet. Spartan Family är dock hack i häl och har visat sig svårslagna med en perfekt svit på åtta raka vinster och en stark defensiv (endast 16 insläppta mål), där målvakten @Axelsson therozz94 varit felfri med åtta raka vinster och en räddningsprocent på 84,47%. Bland poängtopparna syns även @Willander97 Paisleyjr (9+17) och @mj_slam (7+16) från Carolus Icemen, samt @dippen04 (15+8) från Spartan Family, som båda bidragit stort till lagens framgångar. Nordic Nosebleed har spelat fler matcher än de flesta andra lag och har samlat ihop 21 poäng på 12 matcher. Laget har haft en blandad form (5-3-2 senaste tio) och behöver vara mer effektiva i avsluten för att hänga med i toppstriden. Poängmässigt sticker @Jcarlton89 (7+16) och @Sayatu14 (10+11) ut, medan målvakten @Jean-Claes har gjort en stabil insats med flera viktiga räddningar och en räddningsprocent på 79,87%, trots att laget har släppt in en del mål. Mittenskiktet – Hårda Strider om Slutspelsplatserna VBO STARS och The Solution ligger båda på 20 poäng och har starka powerplay-statistik, vilket kan bli avgörande i de jämna matcherna framöver. VBO STARS kan dessutom luta sig mot @Molander13 , som gjort hela 20 mål på tio matcher, och @Nilsson04_ (10+14), medan målvakten @Larsson_500 har en stabil GAA på 2.4 och en räddningsprocent på 85,71%. The Solution har också sin starka duo i @Disctrasan- (11+12) och @TheDisneytime (8+12), medan målvakten @saaggssy varit en trygg sista utpost med 82,91% i räddningar. TROJANS har haft en mer ojämn resa med fyra vinster och fem förluster, men deras starka tekningseffektivitet (59,05%) och en skicklig playmaker i @JaikenK-- (9+16) kan hjälpa dem att stabilisera spelet. Trots detta har målvakten @Robin974 haft det tufft med en räddningsprocent på 75,81% och 3 insläppta mål per match. Prowlers och Tactics ligger precis på gränsen till slutspel, men behöver hitta jämnare spel om de vill hålla sig kvar i topp åtta. Tactics har haft en tuff period (2-5-1 senaste åtta) men kan ta sig tillbaka om de utnyttjar sitt powerplay bättre, där @LOSTinaFishbowl Pasq86uale (13+3) varit lagets vassaste målskytt. Prowlers har en något svagare offensiv med endast 16 gjorda mål på åtta matcher, men målvakten @Mrantonn har hållit laget med i matcherna med en räddningsprocent på 82,71%. Bottenlagen – Slutspelsdrömmen Håller på att Slockna Fladie Faxes, Aberraticus Hockey och Surte Sisu HC har haft det tufft, med endast fyra, tre respektive två inspelade poäng. Fladie Faxes har svårt att stänga ner defensivt och ligger på en svag penalty kill (46,67%), samtidigt som lagets bästa poängplockare @Dan9105 (7+9) inte fått mycket hjälp offensivt. Målvakten @Mesimaki94 har haft en kämpig säsong med en GAA på 3.67. Surte Sisu HC har förlorat sex raka och har den sämsta målskillnaden i ligan (-17), medan Aberraticus Hockeys @Joe NHL Gremlingswe har haft en tuff uppgift i målet, då laget släppt in många mål, men han har ändå hållit en respektabel räddningsprocent på 78,95% och gjort flera viktiga räddningar. Han kan knappast klandras för lagets svaga försvarsspel, och om försvaret tätas kan han bli en nyckelspelare i jakten på en vändning. En av de stora överraskningarna är dock att Sunne IK Esport, som inför säsongen var en av förhandsfavoriterna, ännu inte spelat en enda match. Lagets frånvaro har lämnat en lucka i tabellen och det återstår att se om och när de kliver in i turneringen för att leva upp till de höga förväntningarna. Slutsats – Slutspelsracet Blir Intensivt Med flera lag i en jämn kamp om de sista slutspelsplatserna och toppstriden fortfarande öppen ser vi fram emot en spännande avslutning på gruppspelet. Kan Spartan Family behålla sin perfekta svit? Kommer Carolus Icemen att fortsätta dominera? Och vilka lag lyckas knipa de sista slutspelsbiljetterna? De kommande matcherna blir avgörande.

SportsGamers, This news story is intended to help understand the ECL Ranking for teams at the end of the ECL '25: Winter season. This ranking determines the eligibility for teams entering various divisions this upcoming ECL '25: Spring season.  Below you will find a list of teams that have secured a division spot at the Elite, Pro, or Lite league level. If you didn't find your team on the list, don't worry! You can apply for a wildcard spot for your team in the Pro qualifiers or participate in the Lite qualifiers, which are open to everyone. Please note that the Qualifiers will be starting very soon and the registration time will be short, so start mentally and psychologically preparing for them as we look to release the ECL '25: Spring registrations later this week.   Elite 1 Elite 🏆 Parasite 2 Elite 🥈 Mustaa Kultaa 3 Elite 3 Tohtorit 4 Elite 4 Voittamaton 5 Elite 5 Mythix 6 Elite 6 The Black Jacks 7 Elite 7 EXEN 8 Elite 8 GOONS 9 Elite 9 Polski Boys 10 Elite 10 TIKI TALK 11 Elite 11 Vesa Pompa 12 Elite 12 Heimo 13 ▶ Elite 14 Renascor 14 ▲ Pro 🥇 Blackbirds 15 ▲ Pro 🥈 SSK ESPORTS 16 ▲ Pro 4 NOVA     Elite Qualifiers (if needed) 1 ▼ Elite 13 Roots Gaming 2 ▼ Elite 15 Falun Coal Miners 3 ▼ Elite 16 Unwanted 4 Pro 3 Otukset 5 Pro 5 POGGERS 6 Pro 6 RYHTIC 7 Pro 7 Ismon Valinta 8 Pro 8 Herlev Eagles   Pro 1 ▼ Elite 13 Roots Gaming 2 ▼ Elite 15 Falun Coal Miners 3 ▼ Elite 16 Unwanted 4 Pro 3 Otukset 5 Pro 5 POGGERS 6 Pro 6 RYHTIC 7 Pro 7 Ismon Valinta 8 Pro 8 Herlev Eagles 9 Pro 9 NOSTREETSPORTS 10 Pro 10 DILAC 11 Pro 11 Zenegeim 12 Pro 12 Gotham Knights 13 Pro 13 HC Lugano eSports 14 Pro 14 Aspyre 15 Pro 15 Bjorkloven Esport 16 Pro 16 The Oldtimers 17 Pro 17 Owned Hexa 18 Pro 18 Finnish Roosters 19 Pro 19 Vizio 20 Pro 20 Sawolanche 21 Pro 21 Serpentes 22 Pro 22 Golden Sticks 23 ▲ Lite 🥇 Sunne IK Esport 24 ▲ Lite 🥈 Setelikerho 25 ▲ Lite 🥉 Project X     Pro Qualifier Wildcard requirements Three former Elite starters or four former Pro starters A starter is defined as having played 16 or more games in the ECL '25: Winter season, or 16 or more games in the ECL '24: Spring season If there are more players from the same team that were relegated out of the division Pro (in the same season) in the team applying for a wildcard, they may be counted as one player. The League Administration reserves the right to interpretations of this depending on the specific circumstances of the situation.   What if all Pro Qualifier positions are not filled? Teams will not be promoted straight and all open spots will be filled through qualifiers (excluding automatically relegated/promoted teams). If there happens to be more open spots than anticipated (e.g. from teams disbanding which would have been invited to play in the qualifier) spots are filled as follows: Pro relegated teams Wildcard teams Lite #17-32 Pro Qualifiers 1 Pro 23 Devilz 2 Pro 24 Nurnberg IceTigers eSport 3 Pro 25 Mights 4 Pro 26 Cheeky Grinders 5 Pro 27 Nordic Stars 6 Pro 28 Red Bull Munich eSports 7 Lite 4 Farmalaget 8 Lite 5 Kertoimia Vastaan 9 Lite 6 Six Sticks Misfits 10 Lite 7 Seinajoki Noms 11 Lite 8 Including Me 12 Lite 9 Puck Over Glass 13 Lite 10 Kikkakirja 14 Lite 11 MoDo Hockey 15 Lite 12 Ruuti 16 Lite 13 SSK Prospects 17 Lite 14 HC Pustertal eSports 18 Lite 15 HC VADELMA 19 Lite 16 Kolikot Esports 20 Wildcard   21 Wildcard   22 Wildcard   23 Wildcard   24 Wildcard     Lite 1 ▼ Pro 29 AFTERLIFE 2 ▼ Pro 30 Deadly Phantoms 3 ▼ Pro 31 Refuse Too Lose 4 ▼ Pro 32 Kymmenelta Clubille 5 Lite 17 Toukokuu 6 Lite 18 Hopfensmoothie HC 7 Lite 19 ACEsquad 8 Lite 20 Hockeyholics 9 Lite 21 Macho HC 10 Lite 22 Wida 11 Lite 23 Eisbaeren Lauf Gaming 12 Lite 24 VitosVitja 13 Lite 25 VBO STARS 14 Lite 26 DEG eSports 15 Lite 27 UnderRated 16 Lite 28 SCB eSports 17 Lite 29 Technical Disaster 18 Lite 30 Saucer Hockey 19 Lite 31 German Ice Gladiators 20 Lite 32 Coup de Grace 21 Lite 33 Darra Stars 22 Lite 34 Jurricanes 23 Lite 35 KohKae Esports 24 Lite 36 Black Sharks 25 Lite 37 Pata Hellalla 26 Lite 38 Carolus Icemen 27 Lite 39 Woodhands 28 Lite 40 Gleumes Hockey Krefeld 29 Lite 41 Calippo HC 30 Lite 42 BOOMERS 31 Lite 43 Team Infernus 32 Lite 44 Moscow Capitals 33 Lite 45 Taisto 34 Lite 46 Trojans 35 Lite 47 SSK Academy 36 Lite 48 Game Over Esports 37 Lite 49 Iserlohn Roosters eSports 38 Lite 50 Belissimo 39 ▲ Core🥇 Silver Sword Griffins 40 ▲ Core 🥈 KOST Wolves 41 ▲ Core 🥉 Rusty X 42 ▲ Core 4 Lutunilkat 43 ▲ Core 5 Tikitaka 44 ▲ Core 6 Turun Gasellit 45 ▲ Core 7 Karmadillos 46 ▲ Core 8 HC Last Resort All teams without an Elite, Pro, or Lite league spot can participate and choose to apply for ECL Lite without restrictions. There will be no ECL Lite qualifier for ECL '25: Spring, but a maximum of 64 teams can participate in the season, so signing up on time is encouraged. Spots will be filled in the order of registration. As always, League Administration will monitor sign-ups and reserve the right to step in to make sure teams don't sign up too high or low compared to their perceived skill level.