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100% agree. We were finding smaller teams and North American teams like 10x in a row last night. I have given EA this feedback as has many of the other Game Changers. That being said, the power is in the numbers, so if you agree with a feedback that has already been sent, feel free to like or post a comment to show your support to a certain opinion!

If Leksand deserves the spot in Elite, they'll win the qualifiers, surely.

I heard somewhere that long posts are good regardless of the arguments, so I'm back. Also I'm unfortunately still a defender so don't try to think I'm a goal hungry forward. Sounds pretty fucking OP to me. Would even perfectly explain the ridiculousness of the saves goalies have been making in NHL 26. Right now there is a huge problem of goal scoring opportunities being really inconsistent or even consistent in being saved by goalies regardless how they're playing the situations. For example, you have a two on one attack, pass for a one timer in the slot, thats going in maybe 20% time even if the goalie is sucking his own thumb in the net. Personally I think that if there is plenty of open net it should be a goal almost every time. So even Finsere said it, increasing skill ceiling is what an aspiring competitive game should do. In regard of attributes, in HUT in a similar situation, you can green time that one timer with blue 1T trait with 90 shooting abilities and goalies without traits make that save more than they should. So it definitely is possible in CHEL if you actually make the save. Also personally I think if goalies are able to save everything if positioned well, thats game breaking. So you should be able to straight up challenge the goalie from a good scoring positions with pretty high percentages. Especially you should be able to score almost everytime when the goalie is out of position. Means that bad defending is punished more -> it is rewarding to try and build good chances. Right now it really isn't rewarding at all to make 5 instant passes leading to an open net chance just to be saved by a goalie looking at someone beautiful in the crowd. -> Just shoot or just force passes and let luck take the wheel bingbangboom 1-0 letsgo fun game. Also because Sere threw out some numbers without any thought, red sponge gives you +75% controlled save ability. And if three traits active at the same time you could get more than +50% reaction time, +25% save accuracy, +25% save ability. And these numbers are actually available now, not like his 50% reaction reduction which nobody uses because it still isn't in the game in CHEL. Everybody is now using 15% reduction. And he is using elite sponge instead of using elite post to post, what I guess he has by the level of his CHEL dude and his words in the other post. This one might the furthest reach I have seen in a while. So just because on average there are more goals per game -> there are less undeserved saves. I'm not saying you are wrong, I didnt play at the start of NHL 24 and was still trying to open up my monitor during spring 24. But this argument just makes no sense. For example, more goals could mean that defenses are playing worse -> more chances -> more undeserved saves. Or did you look at the shot totals, shooting percentages. From what I have been talking, 100% of people have agreed with me that in 26 there are more bullshit saves than in 25. Maybe its just me and lack #luck. I like these bans and like the fact that you are making decisions on your own without trying to please everyone. Personally I don't have anything against the demographic way on these but also think that's not going to lead to the best results. My only question is after all these bans, what is the reason to not ban everything. What do the remaining traits give that makes them good for the game. There aren't that many of them so we can go one by one. Second wind: wtf even is this, nobody has ever even entertained such an absurd idea. "So okay what if we make it that when you have no stamina you actually have stamina even full stamina"... I want what that guy is having. Is next a teleport for defenders so if a forward gets a breakaway you can teleport to save the situation. Warrior: Probably going to be on many builds. Makes you harder to hit in a game where it is really easy dodge hits and bumps already if you are playing with your thumbs and not your feet. You stand up after a hit really fast, dont lose any energy. Quick pick: Helps once in while if you are positioning yourself like a blind donkey, if you are actually playing where you should be, activates once every other night so just useless and really random. Stick em up: Everybody and their mothers are crying about pokes with or without it, usually because they are too good but now because they are too bad. My personal free advice to this is L2P. (just a joke, even if I'm the most arrogant guy around.) But seriously its the same as last year, it helps a bit but you can just play without it and you'll be completely fine. Born leader: … Just a cool idea but actually absolutely nothing in real competitive gameplay where there aren't shots and hits flying everywhere. Shooting traits: Personally I like these just keep these (but only golden, more belove), more ways to punish actual bad defending and not just score by throwing the puck on the net, towards the net, in front of the net, play some pinball, bingbongbang and LETSGO 1-0(just repeat the same joke until it's funny). I understand this is never going to happen because the level of defending in this scene already causes 10 goals a game but if you wanted a competitive game, this is the way. Maybe the level of defending would even go up cause mistakes would actually be punished. just trust me bro Ankle breaker: Touch right stick, defender maybe falls. I think this sounds good. Said nobody ever. Passing traits: There are so many automatic saucers that if you want to pass the puck, there's no way you are going to use these. Just adds randomness without any reasonable benefits. Goalie traits: Already went through this in the first paragraphs. So maybe it's time for #banthemall, I would say at least ban all elite(red) traits and maybe even the blue(all-star) ones. For example red beauty backhand gives you 100% power and accuracy which is just hilariously OP. For me just allowing golden shooting traits (or even blue ones)would lead to most competitive and rewarding game. You couldnt score any ridiculous goals with just them but if the defense is breaking you can actually punish it without goalie traits saving everything. You could say this is bullshit for goalies but it's even more bullshit for goalies to work your ass off to make great saves and keep up with the play and position well, just to see opponents goalie listening to payphone playing with a blindfold saving everything. As for gamer, I think you guys should try to be more active about messaging elite teams to try and test out different ways of doing things. Like this week #banthemall, next week just golden traits or without the red ones. So we would actually have some real info of how the game feels with different "settings". We could do it ourselves but I might not be the most liked guy around for good reasons so I just can't bother because I think elite teams are too lazy to test stuff out by themselves.

+1. This has been going on for a while now - I honestly can't remember the last time SG actually followed their own rules. Imagine giving teams just three days to secure the super early bird price, while those same teams have been waiting nine months to receive their prize money instead of the promised 90 days. At this point, it's pretty obvious that SG is using new entry fees to cover overdue prize money from previous seasons. We've been pretty lenient about this, but yeah... the "give & go" cycle with licenses and prize money is crystal clear. That said, I'm happy to stand corrected if there's any factual explanation that proves otherwise - this is just my take based on my own experience. We've consistently been a top 4 team (prize placement) and the same thing keeps happening over and over again. Of course, I've had some private discussions with SG and have some understanding of the situation. But what really interests me is how you plan to improve this process moving forward so this doesn't keep happening? Wouldn't it make sense to either revise or remove the 90-day payout rule if it's not something you can realistically commit to? And for clarify, This isn't a hate message or an attack - I’m just a tired, disappointed and concerned customer. Looking forward to an answer. SINCERELY Tuukka

Thanks, great compromise that should somewhat satisfy everyone! Also great that the decision is coming so early not one week before. 💪

And now you are just talking shit only thing i said to "some of the Leksand guys" (which was one btw) was that i think it's kind of shit to rctic to not be here also, but in the same time there is only a week to play this so Gamer had to make decisions. "No offence Be a Bro." And then you come and cry to me like a little bitch. Best team will win qualies anyway🤷‍♂️ Us not taking part last minute ain't gonna give Leksand a free spot at this point.😂

Is there options to have just 6vs6 license? You cant just raise Prices if teams/players not want to play 1vs1 or 4vs4

Since multiple series were played prior to when this was posted, here's an updated look at the odds for each team, as well as some of the things that changed since the original article. NOTABLE CHANGES: - EXEN have virtually locked up a playoff spot, and have also increased their chances of finishing Top 4 by 13% after its sweep of Mustaa Kultaa on Sunday. - Mustaa Kultaa's odds at a Top 4 finish dipped from over 95% to 72.98%. The was due to collecting 0 points against EXEN. - Last Dance now have a 92.5% chance to clinch the #1 seed. - Mythix (47.2%) and Parasite (33.8%) are the favorites to finish 2nd. Mustaa Kultaa still has a 12.4% chance and EXEN holds a 1.3% chance, though this is unlikely. - Heimo's playoff chances improved the most on Sunday, going from over 61% to 88.61% due to earning 6 points against Vapor. - vNexs' playoff chances increased by roughly 15% despite not playing on Sunday. - SSK ESPORTS' playoff chances have increased to over 85% after earning 3 points against Mythix. A few more wins should likely lock them in. - Tohtorit's playoff chances saw the biggest drop, going from 67.68% to 5.25% after not collecting a point in their series vs Last Dance. - GOONS are officially eliminated from playoff contention after collecting 0 points in its last four games of the season. They are also virtually a lock to play a relegation playoff series barring a collapse from one of teams behind them in the standings. - Blackbirds are virtually eliminated from playoff contention. Though they are still mathematically alive, it will take winning out along with many favorable results to end the season. The projections have them likely to play in a relegation playoff series. - NOVA's playoff chances have slightly increased due to results around them. Their chances of being automatically relegated have also decreased to nearly 0%. They did not play on Sunday and still have 14 games to play. - Vapor and ONSE Esports are likely the only teams remaining who can still be automatically relegated. Vapor collected 2 points in its four games played, while ONSE did not play on Sunday.

Well maybe then use this huge letdown as a fuel to win Lite or something and you’ll get mentioned, if validation from others is what you desire.

We need the search opponents according to team size and region back. Has been hard to to play full 6v6 with low ping. That is what this whole scene is about.

Nice one! Love the random facts!

Hello Sportsgamer! It seems a bit stressful to close the registration already on March 21st? Further. It also seems in combination of “Super early bird” and “early bird” to be a quick way to get license money to cover the payout of old won prize money? I heard through one person that Tunnel Vision who won ECL Spring in NHL 24 was promised to get their prize money for that tournament on April 14th. And it's nice to be promised something that you have rightfully earned. But aren't you breaking your own rules in connection with this? In your rulebook it says the following (see attached picture): Winnings will be paid within 90 days. Since this is in a rulebook, how do you handle such a thing that there are still missing payments (according to rumors) from a tournament that was settled in NHL 24. And with that said, is the money on the way even for those who won ECL Winter this year? I'm just curious how you handle such matters, and why it became so stressful with a very short sign-up period? Looking forward to an answer. SINCERELY Mattias

Thx for some motivation boost, veli))

Community vote would've been the best way to decide these right?

Your schedule for these tournaments are absurd, what is the point in these? People have other life than this game, 70% of these ”wildcard” teams are playing also FCL and have no time to play games. Add some time to FCL since there is nothing to play for so people can play their games without giving walkovers

This is something a 9 year old would cheat about in street hockey. C'mon now. :DDD Top 1 dumbest ways to recieve a multi tournament ban. Regarding the recent LA decisions and suspensions as of late, great job LA! Fuck around and find out is a real thing.

Finally Janikka got his justice, now he can go to sleep at night without having to think about those who doubted him! "Never give up when you know you are right. Believe in yourself and you will reach your full potential" #JusticeForJani

Mee ny svamppi vaan sinne eläkkeelle takas. No offence. 😉

Hi everyone, and thank you for raising these valid concerns. For some additional context—especially for those of you newer to SportsGamer (formerly NHLGamer)—we’ve proudly paid out over 300 000 € in prize money since 2015, either directly or through our partners. Taking care of our commitments to the community is something we’ve always taken seriously. That said, we fully acknowledge that in recent times, some payments have been delayed, and in a few cases, significantly longer than we would ever want. We’ve communicated directly with the impacted individuals regarding timelines, but we understand this affects trust across the board. For that, we apologize. Why are payments delayed? The biggest factor relates to discussions with tax authorities regarding the correct license tax rate during the last three years. Here’s the practical impact: Players have been billed at 10%, but tax authorities have collected 24%, and now 25,5% (the VAT was raised in Finland from 24 -> 25,5% in September 2024). This discrepancy has resulted in a significant shortfall in our budget for prize payments and operations. On top of this, the global financial climate has made sponsorships and partnerships harder to secure, adding additional strain on our timelines. What are we doing about it? This situation is not acceptable, and we’re taking steps internally to address it: We’re working towards clearing the backlog of delayed payments. We’re reassessing processes to prevent this from happening again. We’re committed to open communication—even when the news isn’t ideal. It’s important to stress: Every winner will be paid. We’ve never left payments unpaid, and that will not change. We want to be transparent: while we are working hard to resolve the current issues, some delays may continue in the short term. However, it’s important to emphasize that we have always honored our prize commitments, and every player who has earned prize money will be paid—no exceptions. That’s a promise we stand by. On the 90-day rule I hear the suggestion to remove or revise the 90-day payout rule. You’re right—we haven’t consistently met that target recently. But the 90-day commitment remains our goal, and we include it in our rulebook to hold ourselves accountable. Removing it might make things easier for us, but we believe it would only weaken your position as our community. On registration deadlines The Super Early Bird (SEB), Early Bird (EB), and Regular registration phases serve a few key purposes, including: Encourage teams to engage earlier, which helps us plan the season better/earlier. Offer teams better value for committing early. Give our staff time to process registrations and licenses more evenly, rather than scrambling at the last minute. We understand that early deadlines can feel stressful. Our goal is to balance accessibility with sustainability, so the league can continue to grow and provide opportunities for everyone. In closing, we appreciate everyone who has raised concerns—whether here or in private conversations. These discussions help us improve. We ask for your continued patience as we navigate this situation, and we promise to keep communicating openly along the way. Kind regards, Kenneth

I have really enjoyed the all ability ban in fcl and would have hoped for it in the ECL as well, but this is still good progress toward balanced and better gameplay, good job !

The gameplay is actually best in years, it's not all about hustle anymore. Ofc there are always some tweaking, but the biggest problems right now are on the matchmaking side and extremely slow menus. They should fix these as priority. - Removing the room size: exact is the dumbest decision they've made since they completely removed eashl from nhl 15 back in the days. - Servers are messed up? Finnish vs Finnish team plays on the Swedish server? Happens all the time. - Grudge is a bit meh and it is very broken, it is always the center at least for us :D. - Timed onetees are very overpowered. - Stick lift need some adjustment, you can spam it quite a bit. - Inconsistent penalties as mentioned before. - Weird animations at the wrong time. We get a penalty and the replay shows the last goal. All in all it's impossible to give more feedback as searching for an opponent is a nightmare at the moment. We spend much more time in the menus than in-game.

This some good shit. I enjoyed reading it! Two absolute legends of the scene who have both been all class in every interaction I have had with them. Enjoy whatever comes your way next, fellas.

Thank you very much, @Kenu and the other SportsGamer admins as well as everyone else who helped find a quick solution to this problem. A shout-out to @FlyerKungen and @pakjiz who both also have DNA, are affected by this problem, and were active in bringing it to people's attention (FlyerKungen even made DNA and EA aware of it). Also thank you to everyone who participated in the relevant threads and polls as you all helped keep this issue on the front burner. Sorry for the corny acceptance speech there, I'm just really happy we got a quick ruling to work around this problem before the season started. I know there are dozens of players like me who can now start their season without having to worry about playing some of their games with packet loss. Here's hoping EA can fix it as soon as possible so the Finnish and Russian players can play their home games with the lowest ping.

I was forced because I couldnt catch a beach-ball, maybe I can hit some bodies at least instead 🤷🏻‍♂️

ban all 🫴

Ban them all, make a shitty game even a little bit better. - Variety on making builds (or at least they wont look the same as they have for the past 4 years). --> cant rock with 70ish wrist shot and quick release if you want to score - Eliminates some of the most ridiculous types of animations that help you retrieve the puck or get in a better position caused by traits, which cant be expected by the opposition --> game becomes less "rng" (more competitive), more realistic - there aint 6 superhumans running around the ice playing their own game --> team game, playing together matters, again more realistic For sure, this will result in a few "ea goals" as you have to find new ways to score instead of trusting the old traits which names have just been changed. Well they are bound to happen each year, as so many things before even getting to a scoring opportunity are caused by some random code (puck pickups, pass receptions...). One would most likely state that banning all traits will cause all teams to collapse in front of the net, well what changes? Teams are already doing that. As much of I hope ban them all which actually made those domestic leagues the most enjoyable part of the year, at least ban the warrior trait. Game loses all meaning when you hit skater having it, and they actually recover from the ground faster than you do from that animation -> breaks the game

Everything I have previously said about the Xfactors in EASHL still stand: they don’t work as intended in EASHL. They were added to the game to differentiate superstar players in other game modes. Having them in competitive 6v6 makes absolutely zero sense.

where is goalie ability bans? 🤔

Wait if all these are banned, how aren't second wind and ankle breaker? 🤔 They seem pretty broken to me, not even saying they're too good but they lead to very inconsistent situations...

Updated odds after Monday's games: NOTABLE CHANGES: - Polski Boys were the biggest winners on Monday, as they saw their playoff odds jump from 18.74% to 69.79%. They collected 10 out of a possible 12 points in their series against The Black Jacks and Blackbirds - vNexs saw their playoff odds decrease from a comfortable 87.85% to 54.98% after Monday's results, the biggest drop of any team in the hunt. This was due to earning just 1 point in their series with EXEN, while Polski Boys earned 10 and now own an 8-point advantage in the standings. Though vNexs still have 8 games to play, having matchups with Last Dance, Mythix and SSK ESPORTS likely didn't help their cause in the simulations. - EXEN's odds to finish Top 4 increased from 17% to 64.2%. This was due EXEN earning 5 out of 6 points vs vNexs, combined with Mustaa Kultaa collecting none. - Mustaa Kultaa's odds of a Top 4 finish dropped from 72.98% to 31.90% after earning 0 points vs Parasite. They also are effectively out of the running to finish any better than 4th. To do so they would have to collect all 12 possible points while either Mythix goes pointless or Parasite collects no more than 2 points in their remaining games. - Last Dance now have a 97.96% chance to clinch the #1 seed due to Mythix collecting just 3 points in their series vs The Black Jacks. - Tohtorit's playoff hopes increased despite not playing on Monday, going from 5.25% to 21.24%. This was mainly due to losses from vNexs and NOVA . - Mythix and Parasite have full control of the battle for the #2 seed (assuming that the #1 seed holds on), with Mythix holding a 52.24% chance and Parasite having a 45% chance. These two still have a series to play, which could very well decide who ends up with that seed. Mythix has a 4 point advantage, while Parasite has 2 games in hand. - NOVA's playoff hopes declined after Monday's results, going from 13.28% to 4.56%. Though their already slim playoff hopes now seem to be hanging on by a thread, they still look likely to avoid a relegation playoff with a 79.68% of finishing 9th-12th in the standings. - Blackbirds' odds at avoiding a relegation playoff increased after Monday, jumping from 26.11% to 44.20% This was mainly due to multiple losses from The Black Jacks and NOVA. Blackbirds earned 1 point on Monday vs Polski Boys and have one series remaining against Last Dance. - Vapor was a big winner on Monday, as their odds of being automatically relegated decreased from a near certain 95.71%, to a more hopeful 67.19%. This was due to ONSE Esports collecting 0 points in its series vs NOVA on Monday. The two teams are separated by 2 points and each have 4 games remaining. ONSE Esports' chances of automatic relegation increased from 4.24% to 22.63% due to their two regulation losses against NOVA.

you're starting to be a joke, first cancel the pro qualifications, then put random teams, Bern went up to the light because there weren't enough teams, now in the pro qualifiers after the wonderful season in the light, company of geeks relegated for dnf in CORE and now pro qualifiers, rode esports wonderful season in CORE and pro qualifiers, ask the teams you like the most between core and lite, what would be the criteria? It almost seems like you lack the money for the licenses but all this lacks compared to all the lite and core teams, this is too much!!! you are not credible! what a pro qualifier, why not a neo team? will be nice lol

Wouldn't it make more sense to ban taking Timeouts when the Pressure is ON? Because this is the only situation when the bug occurs as far as I know. You can still take a timeout right before the Pressure activates without the risk of the occurance of any bug?

Also We have banned like 70% of skater abilites, still the goalie abilities are untouched Goalies are apparently more protected than the president of the united states i guess

Ban all abilities 6s aint designed to be played with abilities, only hut is

Now 5 days and gaming nights later when ability bans were published, i truly agree like Warrior ability needs to be banned. Its so unrealistic like you are not able to make normal hard hits most of the time. Atm your player is mainly slipping away from opponent when you are trying to hit because of Warrior avoiding hit stat. That was good ability when truculence was allowed but now when trucu is banned there is need to ban Warrior too because it breaks "normal" hitting mechanics in game. Is there coming some kind of vote or decision from your side about this @SportsGamer? Many people are thinking same way here about Warrior.

I have a suggestion worth thinking about. Articles like the week 1&2 recap (maybe even this article) get old in a day or so and kind of lose their purpose. Is it really worth the time and effort it takes to write just for all of it to fade in the dust? We also have the wraparound episodes that have many overlaps with articles such as this one. But if this is the way the seasons are to be covered, the wraparounds and articles should be more in support of each other. Maybe it would be better to just fully focus on the preview and season recap + playoffs to get deeper coverage of all the teams. I remember a time when every team had at least a couple of paragraphs written about themselves in a preview. Those articles were always such a pleasure to read. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate the time and effort these articles take from its writers, but with a couple of fixes they could offer us so much more.

I would love to join Janikkas defending school.

GHETTO FIREBIRDS mentioned. Torille!

@IDangledYouOut will be back on the Wing! It was just a short adventure for the GCL 🐸

That goalie abilities have not been banned is absolutely ridiculous, but i guess thats what happens when goalies cry about how unfair life is every game, even tho they experience biggest handicap out there.. It is easy to point out everytime a close quarter or one tee glitches through the goalie, but no one bats an eye when a goalie is completely on the other side of the net but still saves the puck, we mark it down as "wow great save" i think that is ridiculous. I played without abilities last year for like a month against other teams without it and goalscoring went up, cause bad goalies got punished And dont come at me with this bs "close quarters goes through the goalie" "and you cant claim that those saves are because of abilities" Nah i cant but you cant prove to me that the shot wasnt just a lucky bounce and was impossible to go in without close quarters cause you dont have a time machine to go back in time take of the ability and shoot in that exact same spot with exact same timing. Goalies have biggest handicap in this game and get treated like spoiled kids Would be happy to discuss this topic with adults and not crybaby goalies trying to be funny or are just pissed off Come with valid points and we can discuss

Agree, after these bans which are totally fine to me, bigger builds are maybe going to be new meta because of higher speed and balance + power so why there needs to be perk which help avoiding bigger "normal" hits. And if the meaning after these bans was make people to use different style of builds, now its going to be like everyone is using elite warrior. That should be banned including gold, blue and elite versions.

Moderator note: The below has been translated with ChatGPT to make it available to more readers. You can find the original text in Finnish in the Spoiler section below. It’s too complicated to explain properly in English, so I’ll just explain it in Finnish terms. But here’s how I’ve understood goalie perks, and what’s been tested in the “Between the Pipes” server (the world’s largest goalie server with about 2,250 members): there are 3 out of 5 perks that activate on every save — Sponge, Dialed In, and Recharge. Since only one perk can visually appear on the screen at a time, what you see is the goalie’s highest currently active perk. In practice, that’s usually either the red Sponge or Dialed In, since most goalies have one of those unlocked. If a goalie has both active, Sponge has priority to be displayed on screen, but Dialed In also activates in the background. The same goes for blue and gold goalie perks — they activate in the background even if they don’t show on screen, especially Recharge. Because there are so few red perks available for goalies, practically every goalie uses either red Dialed In or Sponge. But that’s just because there aren’t many options — not because those perks are necessarily overpowered. Most players haven’t grinded the season pass far enough to unlock red Post to Post, which is considered meta in North America and gives a significant boost to lateral saves. So even though those perks activate on every save, it doesn’t mean the save happened because of that perk. When Sponge activates, it just indicates that the save was a “controlled” one — meaning the goalie covered the puck quickly or handled the rebound well. When Dialed In activates, it simply means the game has temporarily boosted the goalie’s save ability by 6%. The same logic applies to skaters: even if you score with a wrist shot and Quick Release activates, that doesn’t mean the perk caused the goal — it just means it triggered. You could shoot into an empty net and Quick Release would still activate, but the goal obviously wasn’t because of it. In other words, banning Sponge alone wouldn’t eliminate those “undeserved” saves — it would just lead to more of EA’s nonsense goals. Sponge isn’t even close to the best goalie perk in HUT, in my opinion. The current Sponge is the same as in NHL 24 and 25, just slightly stronger. And as I calculated earlier, NHL 26 is nothing compared to NHL 24, where goalies were making completely undeserved saves left and right — which is clearly reflected in the goals-per-game average. Even though there were fewer of those undeserved saves in NHL 25, they still happened all the time, and it’s never been about perks — it’s the game engine. If there really were a magic fix for it, believe me, I’d be all in. But I think people will be disappointed if they expect that banning red Sponge will suddenly stop those undeserved saves.

I have a few words regarding the schedule and how quickly games start after the ECL information release. This is not an ideal situation, especially for teams playing in other Sportsgamer leagues at the same time. We are not the only ones with many games already scheduled for this week. Now, we have to find room for several important ECL qualifier games on the same game days as FCL. It’s still unclear how many more games might be added. I hope everyone can play their qualifiers without issues, but I know many teams will struggle to align their schedules with such short notice. Just feels wrong timing to start ECL with few days notice and while FCL group stage is still running hot.

" still active top players and know how the game works." A player who “understands” how a game works cannot possibly need golden abilities. And we have seen that in FCL, where it is obviously possible for the best players to score goals anyway. This is not about “understanding” but is obviously only about what you think is FUN and how you WANT it to be. I think everyone is fairly familiar with how the game works, you don't have to be the “best” to have that ability. There is no logic in such a claim. If you're the best at something, it's just a sign that you're the best at managing HOW things work. Everyone understands how to kick a ball forward, but everyone is differently good at putting it into practice. Then that sportsgamer did not take into account the vote on the draft server where the top players had to vote on it - this, on the other hand, perhaps sportsgamer should respond to. Especially for the 2 highest divisions. This will of course create a larger skill gap, which should be exactly what the top teams should want. Just like the good teams now dominate in the FCL.

Well done! Good communication. Hopefully the conversation about this next time isnt so childish to start with

Sorry but now i have to criticize a little.. Not trying to be rude. What you wrote about our team (Panic On Ice) are completely wrong Teme and Flaazi are not even part of the team anymore, maybe little fact and roster check before writing this article especially if you dont know a thing about Core division.

I think a great feature on this website would be a list of free agents where a player can add their own xbox/psn id. Add a couple of required multi-choice questions like division / position / language / role (starter/backup), a single-choice like closest server, and a long free text field for additional information like availability and contact details. On top of that, show the divisions the player has played in the last few seasons from your own database. And while you're at it, create the same feature for teams looking for players too Heck, even add an 'Alert Me' setting when a team/player matches with your filters 💆 And ohhh baby when a free agent is signed, have it has a system-assisted process which automatically creates a forum post of a signing so we can all cheer on that! I think this would greatly reduce the time teams spend to find suitable players and vice versa. It would also give new players a better chance of being signed when their 'post' is displayed similar to the community legends.

Salary?

Not allowing to take a timeout at all just makes zero sense. A well timed timeout just before full bar (for example goalie gets the puck and freezes it) is just as good of a tactic as taking it on full bar and has no bug involved🤷‍♂️ oh well, let's hope they somehow fix it tomorrow (lol)