ECL 12 Elite Weekly Recap - Week 2 - ECL

The second week of ECL Elite is usually when we start seeing the trends of the season as teams get more games under their belt and start showing their current form. The season is surprisingly short and we're soon at the halfway point and some teams are desperate to pick things up, will they do so moving forward?

Trends have surely developed, and on the positive side of those, we've got HAVU Gaming, FILADELPHIA and hREDS as expected. This power trio has managed to stay on top of things through the first two weeks of action and are now all boasting a point average of 1.75 or more, which will surely put them in the top three at the end of the season should they be able to keep up their great work. On the other hand, we've also got teams like SAWO ESPORTS and POGGERS at somewhat surprisingly high positions in the standings - although with games in hand on competition. Both SAWO and POGGERS are currently sporting point averages of 1.00, which historically won't put you in the playoffs in Elite competition, but these squads still have room for improvement and could find a way to sneak their way into the top eight if they are able to steal points in big matchups. At the bottom end of the standings, it looks tough for recently promoted squads ZSC Esports, Tunnel Vision and IQUE, whereas Elite mainstays KOVA Esports and Rusty Blades are struggling even more. What seems to be a common factor for all these teams is having trouble scoring, as all of them are currently below 1.6 GF/GP, which is rarely enough at the highest level. An interesting notion is that Rusty Blades are defending very well and are 6th in the league in terms of goals allowed per game, but struggle mightily with scoring at only one notch per game, which has put them at the bottom of the pack.

So far, FILADELPHIA is the only team on a perfect run, as they have right out dominated the league with fairly routine wins through their first ten matches. They will be going up against HAVU Gaming on Wednesday and hREDS on Thursday, two clashes that will set the tone for the rest of their season.

FILADELPHIA and hREDS have been the highest scoring teams in the league so far and naturally it is not surprising to see both Erik @Eki Tammenpää and Paul @PleeMaker Arontie continue at the top of the scoring table, followed by Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen. In terms of goals, though we are pleased to see Andreas @affelj96 Ljungberg continue his good form for FBK, but more surprisingly POGGERS' right winger Jan-Mikael @Janski (Jansku23) Aittoniemi has went off and is at 17 goals in 14 games this season so far - that's just below half of all of the goals for that POGGERS have scored.

Last week we highlighted FBK defenseman Johan @Lehmannens Lehmann with 10 points in 6 games and somewhat questioned his ability to keep up pace, but the man has proved us wrong as he now sits at 21 points in 12 games and is truly playing a career season. Tero @Terodee Dahlström has also been great production-wise for POGGERS and Aleksi @loimmu Loimuvirta has stepped up his overall play and reached entirely new highs beside Teemu @Xteemuz (Teemuyy) Polttila for FILADELPHIA.

In terms of goaltending, we still have Swedish dominance! Casper @ICappeI Lundgren is still on top with a perfect record, followed by Filip @Faze91- Azri, Johan @McSavid Rundqvist and Elie @eliekamel87 Kamel. Outside the top five, we've got the experienced Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen and Oskari @SibeIius Grönroos, who are sharing responsibilities for HAVU Gaming. Hansu is sporting an impressive 89.36 SV%, leading the league in that department.

Transfers
It's a somewhat rare occasion to see some movement at the Elite level after the start of the season, but some transfers have come to knowledge in the past week or so, we'll also be recapping possible movement in these reports. Here are the transfers that have come to light since last week:

Rusty Blades
IN Mikko @DieCutterMC Paloviita (Free agent)
The experienced defenseman of former Nordic Blizzard and Dynasty fame is now back at the highest level after spending ECL 10 with RPEAT Esports in Pro and ECL 11 with Oton Letkutemppu in Lite. He has made an immediate impact for the better in the Rusty Blades team and slots in very well on that LD spot next to team captain Juhani @Tanski87 Tanskanen. Rusty Blades are despite their new signing struggling mightily with scoring and unfortunately DieCutterMC is unlikely to help them too much on that front.

ZSC Esports

IN Mikkel @Birkedal96 Birkedal (Djurgarden Hockey)
The Swiss Elite rookies have struggled making their entrance into the highest tier of competition, ableit they get the benefit of the doubt due to a somewhat challenging schedule in their first week. Now, the team has decided to recruit an offensive force, when former Djurgarden Hockey right winger @Birkedal96 joins the ranks of the Lions. He is hardly a player that creates offence on his own, but is a very intelligent team player that can slot into a system like the ZSC are playing very well. Known as a proficient scorer, Birkedal should help the rookies find the back of the net at a higher percentage if he is able to translate his skill to the higher level.

Power Rankings Provided by @MartindalexC

This season, the logic behind the power rankings have been overhauled in order to make them based on something tangible that can actually be quantified - as opposed to just, "well these guys are doing kinda bad, right?". In short, a number (or points rather) is generated for each matchup a team plays that they should attain, going above this number (by collecting more points) means that they are above average, whereas going below (failing to collect points) means that they are below average. Said positive / negative number will be reset each week and the rankings will be based solely off of that, this decision was made so that each week's rankings are truly separate, and teams are not afforded a higher position simply based on previous weeks (i.e. the rank decay is incredibly high). With that said however, each team will also have their 'season-wide' rating visible so everyone can see how precarious, or safe, each team is based on their current form.

Furthermore, this week I have a (hopefully) final addition to the 'background' data for these rankings and as such will attach the updated week 1 rankings below* - there should not be any further changes beyond this point though! As well as this, since we are now moving into Week 2, two numbers will be assigned to each team in brackets. The first number represents their performance in the past week, whilst the second number represents how the team is doing over the entire season thus far.

In any case, here are the ECL Elite Week 2 Power Rankings:

1. FILADELPHIA (10-0-0) [+6.00 | +12.25]