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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.

Can someone give me at least one good reason why you still allow X-factors at this point, when you’ve already banned eleven (?) of them and restricted builds by position? These days I don’t really care what SG does, I just play, but I’m genuinely wondering. Back in the day, I voted to either ban all of them, ban none or ban only a couple of the most overpowered ones. But this current approach of banning around 75% of them and letting the rest stay just doesn’t make sense. Yes, some of them are more useful than others, but the main idea behind all of these traits is the same: they’re basically stupid superpowers breaking the game mechanics. If you ban traits like hit boost, better balance and ones that generate extra pressure from spamming shots, then why on earth do you allow auto-saucers, speed boosts on pass reception, 2x endurance and whatever else is left? Yes, you can probably answer that by saying the community hasn’t complained enough about those perks being overpowered, but now we’ve reached that point and this is exactly what we knew would happen once you started banning traits one by one. You’re basically leaving breadcrumbs on the table. No hate, it just feels like there’s no logic behind it anymore.

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

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

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...

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.

If you are going to listen to the community feedback, then why not ban everything? Most people have said for a whole year that everything should be banned. And if you are not going all the way, why not remove Stick Em Up? Right now every Elite player is running Stick Em Up Elite. When there is no speed boost to get past defenders, and you face the poke aimbot on every player, the game is turning into trench warfare where everyone only plays defense and waves their stick. So why not go all the way and remove everything? Like someone wrote earlier in the thread. X Factors are simply boosts for star players in HUT. And now there is not much left to use at all, so why not just remove everything?

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.

Everything is going to get banned before the season this is just teasing. EA didn't really do great job with the game if everything is this unbalanced you say. There's literally like maybe 4 solid perks left so people are going to run pretty much the same build now.

Thats the nice idea but unfortunately we have seen it like that doesnt work. So many under level teams has used wrong password. There should be some kind of report system like teams are able to report teams and their players who are using wrong password, first they will get warning from that and if that happens again then whole team and players would be banned for next Sportsgamer tournament

I guess this is more of a bug fix than a nerf, the ability still gives a considerable stamina boost (even if it is only a one time thing now) I think it can be directly compared to wheels tbh - when it activates, you get a boost in stamina which equals a boost in speed in practice. It's also a very odd game mechanic, where you're incentivised to actually use all your energy when you're already low on energy? So to gain energy you can just use more energy lol. It's just not realistic in the slightest. (And ankle breaker imo is just stupid, because it makes defenders fall over for no reason)

Warrior has been added to the list of banned abilities. Read more here:

+1

Agree 100%. Playing defence is already unrealistically hard as it is. Banning the only hitting ability and NOT banning the ability that makes hits ineffective, makes zero sense. The balance of the game is already tilted 90/10 towards forwards.

Red Sponge is op. It sucks shots in open net situtations on the glove. Bad positioning makes you save open goals. Being bad should not be rewarded.

In ECL Elite Winter '24 there was average 5,11 goals per game. In ECL Elite Spring '24 this average was 4,78 goals per game. In ECL Elite Winter '25 there was average 5,78 goals per game. In ECL Elite Spring '25 this average was 5,53 goals per game. In Krike Cup (on-going) there are 9 Elite teams who have scored average 6,25 goals per game in a pretty serious 1 350 € buy-in tournament. So goal scoring is actually going up every version and players even have new X-Factor "Quick Release" that reduces goalies reactions by maximum of 50 %.

Great ability bans!

It's the most easy way to have a fair, equal and objective competition, for players and goalies

Ban them all. The most competetive and fun way to play the game.

Koitappa wäänäne päästä kentälle välillä

Now when I have also used "warrior" like many others it seems quite powerful. Like many says, maybe best and fairest way is to ban everything (also for goalies), but please make decision soon so there is time to practise with no x-factors at all. But if you dont ban shooting x-factors so then you cant ban goalie x-factors.

The reason why Lite-Neo teams search with ECLPro is simply because the public matchmaking is so bad you have to dodge non-competitive & bot-filled teams multiple times. That’s on EA, don’t blame the teams for just trying to find a damn game. I represent these teams and I have never found an opponent with ECLLite. How about one password for all competitive practice games, the team who dodges waits a bit before searching again to avoid re-matching. This way we could a) increase matchmaking pool, b) filter the matchmaking to competitive human-filled teams only, and lastly c) teams can dodge if they don’t want to play. Current system is never going to work without mods and who has time for that?

How do you fight against a red Warrior on defense? 😆 This is the attacker meta, red abilities should all be banned, many can unlock Quick Release/Second wind/1T, before the season..

"Ban them all" isn't very constructive in my opinion. It can be your genuine opinion, but we would love to hear the thoughts behind it. The plan is not to ban them all, so it would be more helpful to discuss which X-Factors drive you mad and why.

Ban them all

3x pfw meta coming🐐

Voi jehna, fiilis ku Saukkone uus ECL tulee piru jäykkä

I think sponge might be a bit of confirmation bias more than anything else tbh. Of course it's gonna light up on 'crazy' saves, it's designed to light up on every save basically on account of it impacting controlled save ability (note: this does not mean save ability in general because it seems like a weird distinction to make by EA if it did) and cover speed, which could be applied to almost every save ever. At the same time, if a save isn't made it's obviously not gonna activate the trait designed to corral rebounds (the puck is in the net, rip rebound).

Tip for new players: play every night, put yourself out there in free for night discord, play for every team, get your name out there and then you will find team. biggest problem with new guys they play only with friend groups and noone actualy know them - captains not gonna pick guy who they dont know. first year you actualy need to beg for position to captains, private message them and say you want to play for them say something about self to them, litteraly beg for attention. lot of guys want to go lite and think they are good enough, skipping neo and core. Dont do that, lite team will not pick you if your name is not known. Go for neo or core, they will give you chance, even if you think you are better and skilled, prove yourself in lower division and get your reputation. try to Play every friday night Thats how i got in to scene, i just played a lot of games with different teams and they started to see me and asked to play for them.

Rally english, here I come. I see here 2 options. Option 1: All teams (Lite, Pro) , (Elite?) can search Pro-password. If you dont like your opponent, dodge it and try find a new one. If you want play more competetive games, then you need arrange private game. Option 2: We must force ALL Lite teams (Core?) use Lite-password. And all teams need to know this. If all Lite teams uses it like pro-password, games will find easy. But there is "what if" problem always...(mixed teams, last season in Pro/Elite. etc...) Again, if you dont like your opponent, dodge it and find a new one. "just arrange bo3 games" is not an option for Lite teams if they cant use pro-password. Lite-password need to be popular. If Lite-password are not popular, then all the teams search with Pro-password... So far, my team havent found any games with Lite-password... Also late night games; If clock is like 23.00 (fin time) and Lite (Core?)team is going to search with Lite-password and games not found. Its very stupid, if Lite team must go to normal broken search and cant try with pro-password. At the time, most of teams are mixed and its good for everyone, if you can find an opponent elsewhere than in normal broken search...

I understand both saaggssy and Karlzzzon's perspective for sure. And I've played countless good games against Nightbot and saaggssy (many of which my team lost). So it gets more complicated with teams that could compete in Pro and are thus well matched against Pro teams. And as saaggssy pointed out, some Pro teams are actually worse than some Lite teams. I still support Saviinainen's idea of enforcing the passwords, however. This would make it clearer and fairer. If you make all these exceptions, even if they're based on teams' skill levels, the line gets blurred and people start asking why one team is supposedly good enough to use the password while another isn't. The slippery slope eventually returns us to this same situation. I'm personally not even in a Pro team now, I just like the idea based on a lot of experience with matchmaking using the ECLPro password.

What if you play with/in a club that's not in a league. A club like Nightbot.👀😎

This is a good idea. The ECLPro password has been abused for most of the time it's been around. Enforcement is the only way to make it work as intended. If your team is legitimately good enough to play against Pro teams, climb into Pro/Pro qualifiers with your team and then search with the password intended for those teams. If you don't enjoy playing against teams below that level, join a team that plays in Pro/Pro qualifiers.

I will once more explain why this isn't the case down below. But even if you had all shooting perks open and you banned all goalie X-Factors, goalies would still make those crazy saves. 1st you talk about increasing skill ceiling and immediately after that you are saying that goalie positioning shouldn't matter? It's literally opposite of increasing skill ceiling for goalies if positioning doesn't matter. It would mean that it doesn't matter who is in the net and it wouldn't matter if he positions wrong. So I disagree with this. If goalie plays perfectly and positions perfectly, he should be rewarded with the save at least most of the time. This isn't game only for forwards and defenders and this game should be fun for goalies also. But at the same time I do think goalies should be played more aggresively so I would actually like to see some nerfs on goalies when they just stand on goal line so it would encourage goalies to challenge shooters (like in real life) which in turn leaves more room to score from passing plays. This is true and with this I agree. But the solution isn't something easy like banning X-Factors or something, it's literally how EA has programmed this game. I have been playing competetive 6v6 almost 15 years and I can assure you that goalie making undeserved saves is not a new thing in 26. It's IMO incredibly short sighted to say something like that. However I do think the peak of undeserved saves was in NHL 24 and I'm pretty sure 99 % of the player base agrees with me on this. At least I did my research and all my numbers were correct.. Those numbers you gave are funnily enough wrong and VERY HIGHLY situational. Sponge activates only when you would make the save anyways. It gives no boosts to the save itself. Banning Sponge would actually only increase brown poopy goals, which isn't increasing skill ceiling. Post 2 Post activates only while moving sideways and then it can actually give 75 % save accuracy and reaction time. It also increases goalies speed while moving sideways. Dialed In is actually only X-Factor that is not situational as it boosts all saves. However I believe this is the weakest X-Factor for goalies and unless you get decent amount of saves, it's almost like you don't have X-Factor at all. Recharge activates after every save but again it will only activate when you would make the save anyways. It works quite the same than old battery perk, where it would give energy to players. Also it reduces fatique and pressure etc. so this one is actually very noticeable. However it feels like I'm only one using this and as it doesn't improve goalies save ability, it's hardly OP. Show Stopper activates only when making reflex saves. I'm not sure what reflex saves mean in actuality (would need EA to clarify this), but I do know that it doesn't mean it activates on every save. At least in paper I do think Show Stopper is the best X-Factor for goalies but I'm not 100 % sure how it works compared to other X-Factors so my words in this case should be taken with grain of salt. So from 5 X-Factors only 3 are actually helping goalie to make saves and even then 2 of them are highly situational and activate only when certain parameters are reached. Only X-Factor which isn't situational is pretty weak and it will reset after every goal given against. I can also guarantee that Elite Quick Release will be available in the next Season Pass so actually it will be available in the next ECL as we are talking about actual ECL. Incorrect. I don't use Post 2 Post because I'm able to save onetimers without it. Same applied to NHL 24 and 25 as I didn't use Post 2 Post on those either even when most of the goalies did use it. Reason why I use Elite Sponge is because I think Dialed In is the weakest X-Factor (like I said previously) and because I don't need Post 2 Post, there is only Sponge that I can use even if it doesn't boost my saving ability. I just think it's better gameplay from goalie perspective to not give up so much brown poopy EA goals. I wouldn't say it's OP tho. At least I gave some actual facts. I didn't say anything about undeserved goals or saves, I just pointed out the actual numbers. Learn to read and don't put words in my mouth thank you. You yourself are just rambling your own thoughts and gave no actual explanation for the goal increase. Yeah it COULD be because of this and that and it COULD be because of them and those but you arent proving anything by giving your thoughts. Also if you haven't played NHL 24 I think it's crazy to use argument: "This one might the furthest reach I have seen in a while." Like how would you know? I mean literally if you haven't played that game? Then suddenly you start to talk about NHL 25 even thought I was talking about NHL 24 and how bad goalie making undeserved saves really has been. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do also want to point out that EA fixed floating goalies and leaky short sides from NHL 25. They also fixed other numerous smaller things for goalies and made many improvements in quality overall so they wouldn't be so braindead all the time. So even if the gameplay would be identical to NHL 25, goalies would still at least in paper save more because of these fixes. I think currently most broken thing (stick checking included) is posts as many certain goals are taken away because of this. If EA fixed this it would already make huge improvement IMO. I also want to point out that I don't care what the bans are going to be for the next season as it will be same for every goalie. I'm pretty sure I can manage it either way.

I wouldn't mind having atleast actual ECL teams instead of 6 drunk russian guys with 500ms ping

Just want to highlight that I ran @FINSeRe's post through AI to give it an English translation. A great post about the goalie perks and how the perks might be given false credit for saves. Check it out if you previously skipped it due to the language barrier.

As my colleague wrote above. This is not HUT where it works completely differently and it has a logic like that. Here everyone has the opportunity to play for themselves, their own thoughts, their own fingers, their own decisions in situations. Team game. If you want advantages, you have to play other games. "Advantages" have nothing to look for in CHEL and a lot of people prefer the game without them because they want to play hockey. And with Advantages, it's definitely not hockey

Lite pw search has work very good lately 👍

Truculence banned but not warrior? No hits season 🤣

Quick question. Instead of doing everything on forums (it's old lol), why don't we create a new "FREE AGENT" access page with the ability to rank players based on the division they previously played in? Sorted by division. Because the forum is problematic because when a NEO/CORE player is looking for a club, or similarly for a NEO/CORE club looking for a player, they end up right in the middle of 20 messages from Elite and Pro players/clubs, so they have no visibility... I don't really know how to explain it, but there you go.

Enforcing this would be an overreach and teams will still use the most widely used password if they can’t find a game. So while it’s a nice idea, the community will carry on doing what they’re doing.

Prefer leaving Wheels or elite edges out of this list. Otherwise very good changes

Ban them all