Leaderboard

tldr but people has to remember Matti is a winner

See you in Lite boys!

No abilities is fine My problem is the powerforward and dfd meta, makes no sense and dont know why ea did it this way for this nhl but a 183 88kg winger has 97 speed while a 183 72,5kg defender has 96 speed and cant skate faster than them? NA has banned these builds and i agree with the reasoning behind and why the have done it, it makes it more fun and enjoyable to play. Atm feels like everyone has truc when we are playing games and that for me is no fun.

So, we have now lack of creativity because we dont have abilities? Abilities mysteriously grow our hockey iq from Mackinnon (low) level to Mcdavid (very high) level? Pretty clear someones are going to pretend that this is something new that almost every team is playing with same builds. Then there is that turtle defence thing. Last ~10 years about 95% of teams have played that turtle defence all the time.

Nice comments but never forget Matti is a winner too like Foppatofflan and Patzlaf. And you only remember winners. Never losers.

I appreciate your belief in me Alex but calling us top tier Elite players in 2026 might be a tad generous. I will absolutely take all the credit for those 4 shutouts in the final though, Knight, Komir and Cal couldn't have done it without our moral support. GGs though!

Would it not be prudent to let the current ruleset - e.g. no traits - settle for a few weeks and see how things shake out before calling for additional changes or the reversal of previously made changes? Personally, I was fine with the previously banned set of abilities. I am fine with the current edition of no abilities. I'd be fine with just gold abilities. It's just: we're about one week removed from this decision. If we call for the reversal of any decision made within one week based on how a couple sessions for a few teams went in the span of that week, nothing will ever stick. We already saw this with the rollback of a previous decision made by LA with the banning and unbanning of the new traits. I'm not saying everyone should just swallow any and all decisions made here. But the #BanThemAll-movement has been ongoing for at least a year (or more?) now. And now that the decision has been made, we're immediately back to "Well, acktually...". I mean, hell... there are probably multiple teams out there across all divisions who haven't even TRIED this new ruleset yet because they've been on post-ECL breaks 😅

Possibility to climb to lite where you can compete with teams signing last season elite players.

TLDR; Game is shit and stupid

Lol its only 2 players good work on wining title - well deserved. this team worked their way up there. and their goalie and defense looks realy solid.

You do have an excellent point, but the problem is the animations. You can only unlock certain animations with abilities, and you cannot do anything about it even if you have a sniper with over 90 wrist shots. It wasn't like that in NHL 25, for example if I remember right. It has been 8 days now and I've been playing quite much. The meta has clearly changed and it's boring. Think it this way.. let's say for an example like CS2 when certain weapons or movement or headshot mechanics are gated behind skins. Just like in CS2, where some players feel restricted because they don’t have the “right” loadout or gear, in NHL 26 you’re limited by abilities, not skill. Like Savi said, there are plenty of people who thought the previously banned set of abilities was just fine, even in the Elite Division. Almost everyone I've been talking to are saying something different and would be just fine even with only golden abilities. I know that the elite players especially wanted to get rid of the elite sponge but for the rest I really don't know. So I’m really curious..who are these people or this “majority”? It makes absolutely no sense.

Yeah game is "playable" but not that fun anymore because of the lack of creativity and horrible shots. No matter how much points you are adding your build shots, they are just bad because shots are also builded around abilities. I personally do care much about abilities, at least gold ones. There has been many good points from people who i have talked with. Game tempo has went down a lot and many teams are just playing that famous turtle defence because its the most effective way to play defence atm without abilities because there is not any threat from far shots so why not. Every game feels the same force and turtle hockey, no matter which team you are playing against. Funniest thing is that like when there is no need to take care of far shots that much and team is defending tight, then some people are doing motivation carpets, just standing with a puck etc during the game because opponent is not coming to give pressure. Abilities (at least golden ones) would bring much more creativity and threats to gameplay and it forces teams to play defence much more active way than now. Im still curious to know like who is that "majority of community who wanted this awfull decision. There is plenty of people who has said like there should be at least gold abilites, even in elite division.

I think gold perks only would be a better experience for everyone. One of the problems x-factors introduced to the game is the fact that some animations/mechanics are locked behind them. This applies to both skaters and goalies. E.g. gold (or any level) one tee enables more than one passing option for perfect one timers.

I don't really care either way but you absolutely easily can by just limiting it to the stretch passes that are literally impossible to do manually, they are the ones people have issues with anyway.

We would love to find writers interested and knowledgeable in writing about ECL Core (and other divisions). Unfortunately, we have not received any applications from potential writers. If you're reading this and would like to contribute to the articles around the ECL, please reach out to me. Thank you. For more information, see this article.

Interesting take for a team that also had ex elite and pro players. But hey good season 👍

Jag håller med 👍🏻🪩

I've said tve same thing for a long time (without playing in ECL, but still affects me when playing with mainly Nightbot). Only allow one of each build in the lineup. IE: only one PFW, one Sniper etc. That would open up the game and make it way more creative and tactical, instead of now all forwards using the exact same PFW build (which somehow is as fast as a tiny sniper playmaker) and, and previous years the puck-moving defenceman. Games would be a lot more fun to both watch AND play. Everyone would have their own role, instead of just a bunch of clones with the exact same builds and stats. Just my two cents.

When the game is shit u need to make it as playable as possible tbf

There is already build bans Builds are a thing that breaks the game when u can be 88 kg and be faster than a 72,5 kg guy it makes 0 sense U have played a lot of NHL and ecl's during the years so u know how absolutely stupid it is Atleast if u are a sniper 170 72 kg with 97 speed u give up your ability to help the team defensively, as a powerforward or defensive defensman u dont give up anything in this current meta

But... there are already build bans? I don't know if you've missed it or not, but wingers can't use PMD etc, that's a banned build

Yea this i agree with, so i wouldn't say that the game is slow, i would say the gameplay at this moment is really really boring. We wanted to bring out the most skill from the players, but using a 88kg build with 97 speed is not that skilled. Just position yourself in front of the net and wait for the puck to bounce a couple of times before you have an open net.

Maybe “slow” is the wrong term to use, but I agree 100% with Savi. Right now it’s about waiting for the opponent to make a mistake while sitting in a turtle defense because you dont need to cover all the areas you had to before, then going full speed and crashing the net off the counterattack. When you don’t forecheck, the opponent are making motivation carpets Allowing the golden abilities would at least bring something to the gameplay and it would also add more tactical plays and creativity.

When abilities were in the game, you at least saw some people using smaller players and different player types. Now the gameplay feels so slow that you almost have to use big players and just crash the net to score. Overall, the gameplay feels much slower. It also feels like you score more often by simply crashing the net with big players than by taking a shot from a well-played situation. I think the gameplay would be much more enjoyable with golden abilities. All the tactical plays are now gone as you really don't need to defend shots from far away. Now its like "madden": hitting people, getting pressure, spinning in the corners and then forcing. It's still playable, but it's not that fun anymore. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if fewer teams attend the next ECL. It was fun for the first couple of days, but now it just feels like the same shit every night.

Whatever decision will be made, there always will be guys for it and against it. So really no traits is a most universal thing to do in current situation. As from goalie perspective - i can say that if you have shitty defence, you can have all elite traits and still suck. Dont really care that much about traits tbh. Seams that bot is more stable without them on animations. Still fair game if skaters dont have traits then why goalies should have them? Let it be skill on skill.

Not sure about the decision (I don't really have enough data on zero-ability games yet), but thanks for getting it out early as we all hoped.

Hi @Andjovis, I will send you a Private Message with instructions.

What do core teams get besides the right to participate in the ECL-Spring tournament? Last season, the first article about Core was when the winner was announced.

Yeah but low tier non playoff elite players and former top tier elite players is quite a difference. But since its pay to entry where u want anyways I think its fine such guys find themselves in lite. Shouldnt take honor of the rest of the team also playing really well. Good season GGS 👍🏻

A Team with foppatoflan and martindale winning Lite, oh what a surprise

🏆⚫️🔴🏆

Voittajat muistetaan, Matti myös voittajiin kuuluu.

Yes that's hockey

How is it facts when i've seen goalies make some insane saves without abilities, and the game is low scoring? So no ur not talking facts, you are talking from your own perspective.

Agree, but why cry about that YOU can't save a shot then?

Many of players were okay with last season bans so i think game was playable

Yeah there is rules like forwards can use forward builds and defenders defender builds but not bans (like in normal builds, these mascot builds ofcourse should be banned like they are) And yeah i agree with that like it doesnt make any sense like PWD is faster than most of the builds but there is still advantages in different builds. This all just start to hear like lets ban whole game and stop playing this s***. Game is what it is and we can just hope like EA would make better game in future. There is no point to play game if we are banning like 80% of things. And when we come about that NA build ban thing why we didnt banned those 183/72 builds last versions just because that forced people to use mainly PMD in defence too because there wasnt a chance to use bigger builds because of SPEED meta

The game does feel slower to me, which I'm chalking up to one or more of three things: 1) the stamina recovering ability is gone (although not everyone used it in the first place), 2) attacks last longer because people aren't taking as many shots from less than ideal angles, leading to less neutral zone hustle, and 3) I'm imagining it. It could be just the third option too of course.

I personally do not care much about abilities. The game is playable without them anyway. But, right now the game feels a bit like Madden. Every time a PWF and a DFD/TWD meet in a puck battle it turns into a car crash. I like hitting. Playing physical hockey is fun and it was already a big part of the last ECL season. But I honestly wonder if we are about to see some kind of tackling record in the next one? Everyone is getting beaten up out there. It is not hockey anymore, it is organized chaos on ice. Abilities will not fix this. The real question is if there are other ways to avoid the direction the gameplay is heading right now? Because at this pace we might need helmets, shoulder pads and a seatbelt. Just in case the next puck battle turns into a traffic accident. 😂

Because icon passing is not an ability

Democracy is slow and very good at making shitty compromises in situations like this.

Now you have to play by yourself and not behind traits 😊.

Best experience by far has been without perks in different leagues. This is of course only my opinion 🍌

Fantastic decision admins! 😍 Looking forward to get back into the ECL next season! 🍌

So i played lot of games in different levels now from neo to pro, and even some game in elite scrims. On the start i felt that we are pretty shitty when there is no abilities, game is bad and so on. But i put a lot of effort in my build, in my relearning game mechanics a bit and it feels amazing now. I would say for goalies game without abilities Sportsgamer give us second wind to fly and be good and enjoy games. Games also can go 5:1 and 1:1 or 10:1 the same, shutouts happens also, but if you put 2 identical team, its finaly esport gaming with skills and mistakes, that its fun(Goalie experience and skills now matters more then ever).I had some of the greatest game nights when playing pros vs pros with similar skill based teams, in years i didnt have so much fun. There is some goals what is still miracly scored, but its less a lot less. now we can actualy stop shots what we should stop everynight and be better with practice and skill. Skaters need to work harder, because beat frontal goalie is not so easy now, so need to look for passing, onetimers more, then just crash the net. Actualy now goals only goes if you beat goalie with pass or some awesome moves, not randomly. So i dont know about you all but i think its more fun , and we need to keep going with ban it all trend. There someone said that it will be easier to play with less defense, and its wrong, its actualy harder to play now as goalie if you team cant d, but if they play good hockey and other opponents play good hockey, its the best experience in the last 2-3 years. you actualy come down to situations where 1 goal will make difference, and your skill as team defense and goalie will do this difference. Its feel similar like 24 nhl start or 23nhl. Ofcourse if you meet team who is lower then your level its can be disaster oneside hockey, and goalie dont need even sweat because of easy shots, but its actualy how it should be. Im enjoying now to play this game again. Also now positioning and depth matters again (because there is no abilities to cover our mistakes on positioning and depth), so its time to hit the practices rinks again and make your moves perfect.

Only what i can say about goalies - if skaters can use gold abilities, then goalies should be able use elite abilities and blue, because even without abilities you can see that game is realy bend forward to skater, and if they gonna play with gold abilities we will not be able to keep up with them. And for skater to cry that this is hard to score and boring its funny. Also i feel without showstopper my goalie is easy screened and if there is some traffic infront of net he cant hold pressure and work around it.

The gameplay does not feel slow, since almost everyone is using a build with 97 speed etc. I would like to test this out, since i think it would be more enjoyable. 100% agree, and this has to do with the new meta, everyone is rocking an 88kg build with 97 speed

You cant do nothing to make this game work, its broken and whatever you do its still bad game. With abilities or without game anyway is poorly made and still happens bulshit on the ice. So to say with abilities is okey and without is not - game is worst in the last years, goalies act stupid in core gameplay and noone is fixing this stupid auto post hug even when we switch it off. i would say without abilities game is more forgiving for goalies and more goal line sitting works and breakaways is a lot easier now, but goalies seems slow and lot of times, my goalie dont even try to move on cross crease or onetimer, just stuck on the post for no reason, and its not timing problem lol. Games goes 24 shots 1 goal, almost every game goes to ot if team is decent enough to play on ice. The best decision is to just play as it is game without abilities, but game still will be lot of lucky shit, what makes nonsense. Its so hard to play goalie 26 because he is constantly fighting with you, if you post hug and go out of post hug, he jumps out on top of crease, amazing, when you see guy goes wraparound and you want fast hug posts, then goalie go to top of crease and you need to navigate your goalie back to the goal line and its fucking annoying. also sometimes, you want to just bfy slide to the post and he stuck on the post because you aimed your stick down and he stucked in animation, but your auto post hug is off... Or on breakaway, you get stuck on post hug animation for no reason, or cross crease shot where he jumps like fifa goalie for no reason - there is lot of bs what happens on goalies, and its already march and developers dont give a shit about that. They made goalies act more by ai, but put in dumbest ai i ever seen , even in dogma 2 this pawns is smarter then hockey goalies in 26. There is no reason to even debate about what is better what abilities to ban or not ban, game still be pretty shitty and skaters will always be better. and whatever you do game still be pretty luck based more then skill. Lets hope 27 gonna be better,but i doubt that, this guys is freakingly stupid and dont even give shit about their hockey game - i having less fun ever as goalie this game is not hockey even hut and 1v1 is peace of crap, i dont know how someone can play that, if not chel then this game is disaster, in chel its kinda playable, but not fun for sure, i dont know why guys telling they have so much fun this year to be goalie or even play this game as skater. This skater scoring also is not fun you learn some moves and it always goes in. How fun is that? or you shoot shoot and then beat with some stupid bs where puck hits your helmet drops down on your body and then flips in or whataver wierd goal and then you can be so happy about yourself - yeay i win this game, im so good. But actualy game just glitched your goal in or made goalie act stupid on easiest shot ever in game. Im not talking about onetimers and cross crease passes goals, yeah we are late or what but its actualy okey, it can happen, but when we let frontal goals and other easy shots from blue for some wierd reason because goalie just aims their save different side far away from side where puck going or stucking in stupid group up animation. Its not fun for sure and i cant understand how skaters can be happy playing this kinda game. Also even if you do all perfect you still cant be sure that easiest ever shot in game you will save every freaking time, and its make this game not fun, there dont matter how many hours you put in , how much training on position or game reading you put in, because its doesnt matter all comes down to your luck - maybe i will save everything tonight, but maybe i will save nothing at all. I dont know what they did to game, but goalies is disaster the worst after 23.