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I've been reading this conversation—if you can call it that—for a while and have been thinking about writing, so now's the time. There have been some good arguments for both sides and some really uneducated ones that I want to comment on. If you're only going to read the TL;DR and get mad, please also read the paragraph about it before losing your marbles. TL;DR: BS goals close to the net happen with or without close quarters, and defenses should be punished for allowing someone to shoot from that close. It is easy to defend one-tees if you're playing actively and not just standing in front of the net. Goalies will make saves they shouldn’t, with or without traits on the shooter or the goalie. The game auto-aims poke checks ridiculously well, with or without stick 'em up, though stick 'em up does improve aim slightly especially from awkward positions. Truculence makes the "rhino" playstyle too effective, and you can't counter hit after making a play. Banning everything would make passive defending more effective than aggressive defending. -> Let's just stand in front of the net and counter attack, yay free points. A large portion of goals already come from counter attacks, and it's much harder to score in 5v5 offensive zone situations than it is to defend them. Banning traits would only enforce this more. Golden one-tee and golden close quarters don't cause goals against well-structured defenses—they just punish defensive mistakes. Poor communication on SportsGamer's behalf is a major issue in this situation as well. A lot of people have claimed that close quarters (CC) causes BS goals. It's true that you can score BS goals close to the net with or without CC, and it probably happens slightly more often with it. However, it's also a fact that goalies can absolutely rob you, even when sliding away from the shot and exposing an open net—something that, in my experience, happens more often than CC goals. Since CC only activates at close range, I don’t see how it’s unfair for those shots to sometimes go through the goalie. If you allow someone to take a shot from that close, they should have a higher chance of scoring. It's even realistic that shots from close range occasionally trickle through the goalie, and in my opinion, it's a good thing for the game that these shots are rewarded. For the one-tee (1T) trait, I have similar thoughts. As a defender, it's incredibly easy to position yourself in the passing lane and prevent your man from getting 1T shot off. The 1T trait only makes a difference if you're standing right next to the attacker—then golden 1T might allow a shot that otherwise wouldn’t happen. More importantly, it's fun and rewarding to play active defense rather than just standing in front of the net, especially when there’s a risk-reward balance in benefit of playing aggressively. Yes, golden 1T allows for some unrealistic shots, but without the 1T threat, defenses tend to clog the middle of the zone, making offensive play more dull and predictable. When scoring becomes too difficult, defenders have no reason to spread out and/or take risks, leading to a game based more on luck than skill, for example, when forcing the puck towards the goal with passes or outside shots. There's also been a lot of discussion about stick 'em up (SEU). I think poke checks in this game are already unrealistically good, even without SEU. For example, if you press R1 while an opponent is mid-deke, the game automatically aims at the puck, regardless of whether you have SEU equipped. With SEU, poke checks can connect slightly better espcially from worse positions, even behind your back, and the manual poke moves a bit faster. I’ve played with both elite and casual players, and I’ve heard complaints about SEU from both—often from players who skated straight into a poke check. That’s why I think SEU is too often used as a scapegoat for own mistakes. Personally, I don’t care whether it’s banned or not, since it doesn’t drastically alter gameplay like banning 1T would. Some people have said they’ve seen even elite defenders struggle without SEU, but if you’ve used a trait for nearly six months, it makes sense that it would take time to adjust even if the change is small. Another hot topic this year has been truculence. Personally, I’ve always preferred gameplay without it. Without trucu, you can still land hits when it's realistic—and even when it's not realistic. But with trucu, you can too often hit someone just by making contact, even if they’re skating at full speed past you or you're trailing behind them at the same speed. I don’t think it’s overpowered or game breaking, but it does make the rhino playstyle too effective. As for counter hitting, sometimes it works against trucu, and sometimes it doesn’t—but in many situations, counter hitting isn’t the best move anyway. Often it's smarter to take a hit to make a play rather than trying to counter hit. Also you get penalised too rarely from boarding, charging or interferences after touching the puck so running aroung hitting people with trucu is not my preference of gameplay. I think the biggest issue in all of this is the skill gap, which affects how gameplay feels across different leagues. I’m speaking from an elite perspective (I'm not above anyone. I'm not the best, nor am I even close, just a nerd about this stuff), where defensive mistakes—like allowing a wide-open 1T shot or letting someone walk in front of the net—should be rare. When these mistakes do happen, they should be punished. I don't really know how the gameplay is in lite or core division so I can't really speak on that but for me defensive mistakes should always be punished. The challenge is that elite and pro divisions need to have the same rules, and ideally, every division should follow the same ruleset. One reason elite players are "whining" about this situation is the unbelievably poor communication surrounding these bans. When the first national leagues started, it was easy to predict that traits would also be banned in FCL, and it was likely decided early on—but why wasn't there an announcement as soon as the decision was made? And if the decision was made at the last second, why wait that long? This could have been decided right after the elite finals, giving players at least two and a half weeks of notice. Communication has always been a huge problem here and I don't understand how it still is after many many years. Banning everything would make passive defending more effective than aggressive defending, leading to fewer quality scoring chances and more skating and passing around the corners. Large part of goals already come from counter-attacks, and it's much harder to score in a structured 5v5 offensive situation than it is to defend one. If scoring becomes even harder, it will lead to more goals from lucky bounces. BS goals will always happen, with or without traits, so banning everything for that reason alone is shortsighted. The one exception in scoring traits, in my opinion, is tipper. Golden tipper can create a meta where players just fire pucks on net from anywhere, making it the most effective strategy. I don’t see why we should ban all golden traits just for the sake of gameplay balance. Doing so would shift the game toward a more passive playstyle, as silver 1T is significantly worse than its golden counterpart. Even with banning golden traits, traits would still be used as scapegoats, and people would still complain and gameplay would swift towards a more passive one—so no one would actually be happy. That’s how compromises work, though, so I understand it. That said, golden 1T and golden CC aren’t causing goals against well-structured defenses—they’re just punishing defensive mistakes.

Last ECL I dont remember games when i have seen team losing with lot more scoring chances. Games have been very fair and most of the time better team wins because this game is very rewarding when you get scoring chances. What if abilitys get banned? I think it will automaticly make this game more RNG and you can lose games with many more scoring chances than your opponent have. We will see more of those games where worse team will just park the bus in the front of the net and try to win by counter attacks. Atm that park the bus and counter attack meta just dont work because you are getting rewarded from good offensive plays with 1T CQ, etc. In competitive gaming you should get rewarded almost every time when creating scoring chance with a lot of room in net, without certain shooting abilities you still have to hope your shot goes in even if your team has done everything 100% right Why people would want to see more RNG gameplay? Just doesnt make sense to me.

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I agree with this, gameplay without abilities also seems to decrease overall tempo of the game since there is not as much threats😅 Also, one thing I want to mention that I have seen more passes and weak shots straight to logo go in in two days than the whole year combined, no one wants to see those🙄 Lets keep ECL like it was in this winter season when almost no one was complaining about garbage goals for the first time in many years🙏

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After practicing few days without abilities, i feel like this is exactly what its doing. So much more boring gameplay imo. +1, For me last seasons ECL had maybe one of the most fun 6s meta ever. No need to change anything

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Only Big tipper ban! Gameplay is good atm no need to change anything!

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No need to change anything. Only Big Tipper Ban!!!

The gamplay without traits is so nice! No gold truc for people who can't hit on a regular basis, less Ovechkins on the ice, and less bs close quarters goals, sist men inte minst, less golden stick em up bs aswell. You actually get rewarded for great defense now, haven't enjoyed 6s gameplay in a while, but this is so smooth and nice. Huge W!

I get your point and I understand it can be sometimes frustrating to feel you can’t save some shot, but I still think that it is not about any individuals getting rewarded, it is about team getting rewarded. If your team defends poorly and leaves one timer wide open, it should go in at least something like 80% of the time (and what I have tested, without any traits it is way belov that). There is still a chance for goalie to save it, it is just a tough task as it should be and of course can’t save them all. in the game there are also things like suicide passes where the recieving player is going to lose the puck almost every time and can’t do anything about it, and there are shots which are given by defence and which goalies are going to allow almost every time, it is just how a competitive team play should work. I have seen plenty of great saves throughout the year on one timers and well played situations, it just doesn’t happen too often with shooting traits. If we think about how to make this game as competitive as possible, creating great chances as a team should get rewarded. And still, most of the shots are not imposible to save, it creates wider skill gap among goalies as well (and I’m certainly not meaning that you are bad or anything, I have seen you making those great saves also 😊). As a skater, I don’t want to see my shots going through goalies, I just want them to go in when there is clearly a lot of room in the net. That is why I think gameplay without any shooting traits is not the way to go in competitive gaming. But that is of course my own opinion and I respect every other opinion as well and I have seen plenty of great comments here from every aspect, keep them coming 😊

Why change something that works? Like honestly all of this hassle is so useless, the gameplay is fine as is and banning all perks is the worst option.

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First of all, we need more than a couple of days to draw any conclusions whether the xf ban was good or not. We need a whole tournament of actual competitive gameplay which we're gonna get plenty of in the regional leagues 👏 First impressions though: -XF abilities clearly didn't boost the player stats only, they opened multiple animations & auto-rewarding nonsense. Meaning not only more accurate shots or faster pokes, but also accurate shots from weird-ass positions and R1-tap pokes towards your blind spots just like that -The gameplay feels more consistent. Less rng and unrealistic plays (like the shot animations) - just like we anticipated months ago. Whether it's actually a positive or negative thing, we'll see. -Goalies still float -Shots in tight don't go in nearly as often if the goalie is well positioned Personally I'm excited how the regional leagues will turn out. I'm also impressed how @Kenu & the folks made a bold move by banning 'em all. That's what the majority of the community wanted to test. Let's see where things will go from here

Without X-factors thats feels like a crap. If you want ban something to ECL, ban golden abilities and keep silver open. 1/10 1T goes in now -> you can just play passive def. Idk and don't care about it but can't understand who feel that's " fair " or "good" gameplay now. Only nice part of the gameplay is the hitting so....

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Cant really get what all beef is about. It seems so clear to me that community consists of many people and they should all obey the same law which cant suit everyone. And SGG wants to test trait bans on smaller tourneys so we all can get a feedback (there were a lot of people wanting it to be tested which is true) - no need to crusade on each other cause there are always different views on one matter. In the end there will be a decision and everyone will decide if it works for them just fine or they can just switch to ripmoti mode or go play other shitty game. Its that easy. From the Goalie perspective i can add that i personally dont give a f about what percs are used and what are not. In real hockey you cant be sure you save a shot even if you square to it and set yourself just fine. So if it trickles in - its just bad luck. There is other side of this luck - you can save crazy shots when you shouldnt do that. So why even talk about that. Perks help this mechanics to work. Goalie is not only about one person heroics its about him setting up his defence in front. (ofc Tipper is BS cause you just cant tip a slap shot from under the bar like that all the time xD) So to underline - ban everything is really a strange decision, but gives different approach to the game for sure. More suitable thing is imo leaving only silver perks i guess. But i would leave it be as it was (still think golden stickemup is bs, esp if we remember that someone on ping 1 and someone on 50.)

The thing i enjoy the most when i´ve played without x-factors is the fact that there is no tuculence or stick em up.. Especially golden stick em up feels too automatic at times and the skill in using it isn´t there.. Yes there are bullshit pokes with it also, but the best way to use the golden stick is to just press r1 and that feels too automatic. Without abilities i´ve seen some elite defenders really struggle now, because just auto aiming with the r1 isn´t there anymore. You actually have to defend by having a good body position or having a really good active stick. Two things that require skill and iq. I actually dont´t hate this as it doesn´t make defending too automatic and still rewards offensive plays more than now. We haven´t had yet a problem scoring without abilities and adding the silvers wouldn´t change much. We have been scoring one timers too from further out with minimum slap shot stats😮 Also a thing mentioned here before. Spamming shots close to the net when the goalie is well positioned doesn´t work anymore and you actually have to find a better angle rather than just shooting it close to the net without even thinking anything else. Conclusion: I would enjoy the game most without abilities or not having defensive boosts. Atleast not having golden stick em up or/and truculence would make my experience better🙂

Why ban something without correct poll? Only ban Big tipper and this game is best in years.

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I find it hilarious, that the vast majority of the player base ( at least publicly) complaining about the removal of xFactors are from Pro and Elite. They already know the game mechanics throughout and are obviously skilled enough to adjust accordingly, so i fail to see the issue here. Nor do i care to be honest. Now you need to actually put at least SOME thought into your build and playstyle, although i highly doubt it considering most teams would shoot from the neutral zone with their backhand, if it were the meta. So yeah, teams might go into just forcing the play, but ask yourself, who's fault is that really? Just because you are a better player, doesn't make your opinion somehow more important. If anything, good players only benefit from this. Adapt and quit whining, it's (at the moment) only ONE tournament.

Oh yeah, one more thing about the draft channel vote(s) that get shared here from time to time. As we can see in this thread, going against the grain / top top players’ opinion can lead to some pretty nasty stuff being said to you & getting all kinds of reactions (& DMs…) Now combine that with an open, public vote where everyone can see what you voted for. See the problem? Not saying that the results would necessarily be any different, but imo there’s a realistic threat of some people not daring to vote in fear of getting blacklisted, or even straight up receiving hate. This community has a lot of relatively young people, and standing up against something isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Surrendering to herd mentality without much thought, on the other hand… So, without going too tin foil hat, my point is that a proper poll is an anonymous one, and I know SG has the tools for that. Other polls can have some value as conversation starters for example, but decisions shouldn’t be made based on those. In real elections, voter secrecy excists for a reason.

I know reading comprehension levels worsen year by year in the society, but holy hell For my confused finnish bretheren, I recommend googling some information about ”vertauskuva” or ”satiiri”, for example. Oh yeah, we were talking about NHL traits and I’m totally making it a society-wide issue again, sorry (😢). Let me start with a small reminder of what Kenu himself said: As I’ve tried to point out earlier as well, simply posting ”ban x but not y because everything is good right now” copy&pasted 5 times in a row is not constructive nor well-reasoned. Just write something in any language you feel you can get your point across with, and then you’ll have an actual chance to affect something. Spelling doesn’t matter, the content of your message does. The things you’re actually trying to say. Anyways, that’s enough about that for now. I have personally found the game a lot more fun with the abilities banned, not being able to poke behind your back & teleport a few meters into a 1T animation. It has felt like you actually need to use your brain more in regards to how you position yourself and so on, as a few others have said here. That being said, I somewhat get the point about 1T forcing teams to defend more aggressively. Banning only the golden abilities could be a fine compromise like some have suggested here. Still, I’d first like to see some actual competitive games to really see the effects, as we now will with these national leagues. I know I’ll get misunderstood more or less intentionally by some, but let me cap this tirade off with another Kenu quote: From what I’ve gathered (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), a good portion of the top players currently (still) refuse to practice (or at least play drafts) without abilities, even though they have registered for FCL. I know you have probably tried a few games here and there & have a lot of expectations and ideas about what the gameplay will be, but come on now. Give it a proper try, and then come back here with your informed opinion. Every time the meta changes, playstyles take a little while to evolve. Just think about the beginning of every NHL that has seen a noticeable change in gameplay. Finally & lastly, posting screenshots where the opponent is clearly fooling around is useless, get some real gameplay from proper games and then make your case – or don’t. Writing this has once again been way too time consuming for the amount of care I have for whether there are any bans or not – all options are tolerable, even though I do currently enjoy the bans the most.

To be fair (and I think it is always important to be exactly that when arguing different viewpoints) there were pages upon pages of people writing in "BanThemAll +1" before the last ECL. We're talking up to almost 100 different posts of people saying exactly that. That was easily the most vocal group at the time and the group that were the most organized in getting their opinion across. Go back and check somewhere around Page 6 to like Page 10. This was something that was definitely requested by a lot of people. And this is coming from someone who was initially against banning all traits. Let's be fair, let's stick to facts and let's try to engage with the opposing parties best argument, not their worst ( = Swedes bad, no Finns bad, no Swedes bad etc.).

Very arrogant way to look at things! Just because someone doesnt share your opinion in something doesnt mean it is trolling I want all abilities ban! I enjoy the gameplay more that way! But calling people stupid for enjoying something that you yourself dont enjoy is a very arrogant way at looking at things in both life and in this case I accept the players who think abilities is fine! That is your opinion, but dont call me or anyone else who enjoys something else stupid, cause that has been the case in this discussion! That way people dont dare stand up for what they believe in cause if they write what they actually think they just get the best players in the scene hounding them calling them "shit" "skill issue" stuff like that

Ban big tipper only

+1🤗🤗🤗

Having played 10+ games of no abilities gameplay I think there's some upsides, but one major downside with the change. I think the gameplay itself is pretty good now, especially because of no golden stick em ups. But that said, I think the core gameplay was already very good, even with abilities. For me the BIG issue now is the lack of one timer threats. I do see how gold one tee can be considered OP, but the fact that defensive teams had to always defend for it, opened up the offensive gameplay. This I think is a huge L for the gameplay in general, because it makes passing plays for one timers less rewarding while driving people to force plays to the net (which they were already doing even with those one tee options) I personally now believe the best of both worlds would be achieved by banning only Gold x-factors. Silver abilities don't feel at all gamebreaking, and for example silver one tee would bring back that passing threat when currently it isn't really there...

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This game version has been built around those x-factors/traits and thats why playing without those is so silly and boring to play and as a viewer even more boring to watch and it makes like shots, hits etc so useless. Lets imagine like people are playing Counter Strike but then you should just use weapons without any scopes, magazines etc. Its just not working that way. Those weapon attachments belongs to that game like x-factors/traits belongs to this NHL version. Hopefully someones got my point.

I don’t know how many polls we need to arrange to come to the conclusion that the majority (of the top two leagues at least) are in favor of keeping things as they are with only Big Tipper being banned. Or are we voting until we come to a conclusion that satisfies SG by banning them all? That’s what it feels like. I’m in favor of keeping things untouched from the previous ECL, for reasons mentioned in my previous post. The gameplay is more open with X-Factors.

This new gameplay without abilities is so boring and it makes game so slow atm. Now nearly everyone is just shooting puck from blueline and make force passes like in older versions. Now when there is no fear about onetimers without traits, defending is mainly looking like this...

Silver abilities only and game on! 😇

We are talking about NHL traits…..

Maybe? i dont know i dont believe so But this arrogant way of looking at things is not the way to go. Come with arguments for why you like abilities without putting other people down and calling them bots

U are maybe correct? The problem with this is If u enjoy abilities there is always gonna be a problem with some goals going in because of it! Nothing in this game is completely well done and thought through correctly. With every 7 gold one tees that go in cleanly like they should there will be 3-4 that go through the goalie But on the other hand is if you enjoy no abilities is that gameplay is not gonna be perfect either With every 7 one tee u score cleanly without any abilities u will miss 3-4 open nets on them aswell that should go in The game is far from perfect nothing we are gonna get through this discussion will lead to "perfection" u just simply have to state what you find the most reasonable and what you prefer.

Just gonna make one observation about this topic: the confirmation bias on both sides is like insane 😂 It seems like the people who are for banning all abilities have a blindspot for anything negative with the change, while the opposite is true for anyone against the change. (Examples: anyone who thinks "this will make the gameplay just forces and tips" is going to have that experience, because this is what they look for and go for all the time - even though the change isn't quite that radical. Anyone who thinks "this gameplay will be awesome" will just completely ignore the obvious fact that shots, especially one timers, are now COMICALLY bad. I think I've seen like 2 or 3 one timer goals in 10+ games from further out) The more I think about it, the more I think the right solution is probably somewhere in the middle (only silver abilities for ECL Spring...?)

Yes, you are absolutely right. I can take an example from my own life. I have worked in the Swedish Armed Forces for more years than many in here are old. Every damn year we are forced to train with soldiers from Finland. And yes, they have a rather low level of skill and training compared to many other countries in Northern Europe. The exercises are always boring, and their solutions to problems are very different from ours both tactically and strategically. But now it is the case that NATO has decided that Finland is our forward operating area for the Swedish forces. Then it would be incredibly stupid to piss on your Finnish colleagues, when they do not share our values and our view of how things should be solved strategically. Because it is with these Finnish soldiers that we will die together when the shit hits the fan. I have to accept that the Finnish soldiers also have an opinion, and a right to think. If I don't, I am absolutely convinced that the Finnish soldiers will shoot me before the Russians do. What you are doing now in here is fucking sick. You sit and call people bad just because they do not share your opinion. Do you really think that the players in Core and NEO dare to write an opinion in here just because you are a bunch of arrogant little kids? Even Finns who have never won anything in here sit and call people bad. Come on, step up. And those who have won, they work with the same method. And it's almost more fucking pathetic.

Ban big tipper then gameplay is good!

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My thoughts after the GCL Regular Season. The way teams play has not changed much, at least not yet. Fast players are still the key factor. Maybe nothing will change that meta ever. What has changed for me is the feeling of what happens in the game. Events feels to have more natural and skill based reason for why it happens. It can be a mistake or a good play that leads to a goal or something else on the ice. Of course, these things have always been there, but with X-Factor abilities, it often felt like something happened because of that special ability. There were many different types of goals in these games, both earned and lucky. One-timer is still an effective way to score. Those are just a bit more rare than with x-factors, in a good way. Overall, the game feels much more natural in a positive way.

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