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NHLGamers, Starting today, Thursday, April 15th we are starting the qualifiers ahead of the ECL 12 season to determine recipients of the final open spots in each of the divisions. This article gathers all the base information required to carry out the qualifiers. Roster Lock As we've already received some questions about player movement during and around the ECL Qualifiers, we need to remind parties concerned about the soft roster lock rule applied to all teams and players participating in ECL Qualifiers (including Wildcard battle participants): Upon further reflection we have realised that this piece of information may not have received enough attention as it was embedded in the main body of text from the article detailing the overhaul of our promotion system. As such, we would like to take this opportunity to outline the rationale behind this rule, as well as better illustrate this for the players that it may impact in the current ongoing qualifiers. The rationale behind this rule was to heavily discourage players from ‘helping out’ other teams in the qualifiers, just to change team afterwards. That said, we originally quoted weeks as the duration of the ‘locks’ and realise that this can be a little confusing at a glance. Therefore, for Elite players, if they wish to join a team and help them out in the qualifiers, then they are locked to playing within that division (where the qualifying team ends up) for the entirety of the season. As for Pro players, if they wish to do the same, and play for a team in Lite, then they will have to stay within the Lite division until the 27th May, at which point they will be allowed to transfer into Pro or Elite teams. For next season this rule will be reviewed. As in previous seasons, players are only allowed one transfer per ECL. This includes the Qualifiers. Note regarding feedback on structure and qualifiers We hear and appreciate the passionate feedback received about the qualifying and promotion process. As stated, the promotions have occurred as defined in our first communications and we intend to keep it as such for ECL 12. We will take all feedback into consideration and aim to improve based on that for upcoming seasons. In the mean time however, the Pro and Lite Qualifiers are underway, and in the event that any more teams decide to not take part, their qualifier spot will remain empty. Additionally, a Pro team has decided to drop-out from taking part in ECL 12, normally this would mean that we would grant automatic promotion to a team from Lite, however as we were only made aware of this at this point, so far into the qualifier process, we will instead be allocating an extra spot that will be up for grabs through the qualifier structure. This means that the teams ranked #4 in the 2nd stage of the Pro Qualifiers both will be promoted rather than having to play a BO5 series. Pro Qualifiers Groups Schedule (all dates in April) Round 1: Thursday 15th, Sunday 18th, Monday 19th, Wednesday 21st Round 2: Sunday 25th, Monday 26th, Wednesday 28th BO5 series (where needed): Thursday 29th Lite Qualifiers Groups Schedule (all dates in April) Group Play: Thursday 15th, Sunday 18th, Monday 19th, Wednesday 21st, Thursday 22nd. All games to be played by Sunday 25th. BO5 series (where needed): Wednesday 28th NOTE: The team seeded #2 opted out after the groups were formed. This lead to an even 40 teams in 8 groups, meaning all teams will fit the top 5 and will after the group stage either be promoted directly (TOP 2 per group) to ECL Lite, or play a BO5 series in order to secure a spot. Seed 41, Wildcard team Unwanted is now in Group 2.

NHLGamers, We're here to officially kick off the ECL 12 regular season with the start of our Neo division, which will be happening as announced on Sunday, the 25th of April. Our Neo division is the entry level of competitive virtual hockey and with that holds a vast amount of undiscovered and unpolished talent, in fact 90 registered teams worth of that. Now due to preserving the original intention of having ECL Neo be the true entry level, we have decided to place a total of 25 teams that originally applied for ECL 12 Neo into the ECL 12 Core division - please see a full list of those teams below: After placing those teams up a level, we end up with a total of 65 teams in the Neo division. These teams have been seeded and divided into six groups, holding 10-11 teams each. The five best teams out of each group will reach the playoffs along with the two best 6th placing teams across the division (based on PPG). All groups and league info can be found on the league page. The default gamedays for ECL 12 Neo will be Sunday & Wednesday at 20:00 CEST and teams are required to contact each other prior to the scheduled date as per ECL rules. The full rulebook will be available for access through the league page and will be released on Sunday, 25th of April. Notable dates for the ECL 12 Neo season: Regular season: 25.4-26.5 Transfer deadline: 13.5. 23:59 CEST Playoffs Round 1: 30.5-2.6 (BO5) Playoffs Round 2: 6.6-9.6 (BO5) Quarterfinals: 13.6-16.6 Semifinals: 20.6-23.6 Finals: 4.7 The remaining ECL 12 divisions will be starting as announced in the ECL 12 Season Information-article back in mid-March. With that, we wish all participating ECL 12 Neo teams good luck and hope to see as much of your action as possible through your own streaming and social media channels. Remember to use the hashtags #NHLGamer, #ECL12 and #NHL21 for other community members to find your posts!