ECL 12 Pro Playoffs: Round 1 Preview

NHLGamers,

The regular season of ECL 12 Pro is finished and now crunch time begins! The race for the playoff spots and battles in the relegation zone were as tight as ever before. We have seen some surprises as well as favorites defending the top spots in their groups. In the following preview we want to take a closer look at the upcoming eight matchups in the first round. It is extremely hard to predict which teams will advance but we will give you our best try. We also appreciate your opinion: Which of these 16 teams will be able to pave their way into ECL Elite? Be sure to post your predictions in the comment section!

Lainaa

10.6.2 ECL Pro Playoff Schedule
• Playoffs Round 1: 28.6 – 1.7 (BO7)
• Quarterfinals: 5.7 – 8.7 (BO7)
• Semifinals: 12.7 – 15.7 (BO7)
• Finals: 26.7 – 28.7 (BO7)

(1) HV71 – Inter Iceland (8)

With an important 4-2 victory over Rookie Mistakes on the last gameday, German side Inter Iceland managed to secure the last playoff spot in Group 2. The squad around goalie @PLA77NER(Hasek-39--) was not able to repeat their stunning regular season from ECL 11 Pro where they managed to secure a strong rank 2 behind Tunnel Vision but found an early exit in playoff round 1 against RCTIC (2-4). Forward @Stefan_397 once again leads the team in terms of scoring and will be one of their most decisive factors during this budding playoff run. On the flipside we find the Swedish side of HV71 who won Group 1 with a strong record of 22-8-0. The club from Jönköping manages to qualify for their first postseason on Pro level and will be one of the top contenders if they are able to continue their form. One of the best offenses combined with the third best defense in the whole league will be a tough nut to crack.

While HV71 was the only team in the whole league to not lose a single match in overtime, Inter Iceland fell short four times. Keeping their calmness and staying cool in the right moments will be one of the most decisive factors in a tight series. Both goalies can play an important role. While Hasek-39-- is surely one of the most experienced goalies in the community, @Tiipponenii(coffelainen) finds himself among the top goalies in ECL 12 Pro and records 8 shutouts - the most of any goalie during the regular season. The offense around captain @Demski13has found the right balance between playmaking and goal scoring abilities. While Elite experienced @Rubituss finds himself on rank 3 with 64 points, while his winger partner @Zupancic_King424 (Zuppe_29) contributed with 24 goals for his team. It is worth mentioning that 11 out of his 24 goals were GWGs! While HV71's dominant playing style could suit Inter Iceland’s dangerous counter attacks it will be hard to beat the squad in blue and yellow.

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: HV71 4-2

@Mikka's prediction: HV71 4-0

(2) BoxinElite – SPARTIATES X MCES (7)

The promoted squad from BoxinElite managed to play a stunning regular season and finished on a more than convincing rank 2. They only fell one point short to group winners HV71 due to losing one game in OT against Sinister. Team captain @xleksa35leads by example. Being one of the top scorers in ECL 11 Lite the, right winger showed his individual class once again - 68 points in 30 games makes him the second best scorer in the league. SPARTIATES X MCES had a tough start to the season. With only two wins out of their first 13 games the French side was surely not paving their way to a possible playoff appearance but had an amazing second half of the season. Winning 13 out of their last 15 games secured them rank 7 and their first postseason in their first season at the Pro level. The French are the third team from the central server to qualify for the playoffs beside Team LEISURE and Inter Iceland from Germany.

The Finnish BoxinElite is in clear favour of winning this series. Having one of the strongest offenses as well as a solid defense the stage is set for a long playoff run. While special teams could always make a difference – especially in a tight playoff series – both teams are lacking in efficiency while being on the powerplay. BoxinElite had the best penalty kill in their group (94,44%) and will be very hard to break down even while being one man short. It will be interesting to see if SPARTIATES X MCES are able to maintain their strong form and continue their five game winning streak. The winger duo of @Winciand @Adri1_SCP needs to produce and convert any chance given into a goal. High efficiency will be the most important factor. Will the French side be able to perform in the underdog role?

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: BoxinElite 4-1

@Mikka's prediction: BoxinElite 4-1

(3) Djurgarden Hockey – Hotbox (6)

The team from Sweden's capital found themselves among the top teams of Group 1 for the whole season. With a record of 18-7-5 Djurgarden Hockey secured rank 3 and home ice advantage in the first round. The Swedish side added @Strumpan87 from SSK Esports to their roster who immediately became their top scorer and contributed with 57 points in 30 games. While Danish Winger @Birkedal96 left the team after 6 games to ZSC Esports in ECL Elite, @amadee21 started every game on the right wing and found himself on a strong scoring streak. Lower seeded Hotbox started with a 5 game losing streak into this ECL 12 campaign. After getting acclimated to the Pro level, the Finnish squad started to collect their first points and especially being superior in winning tight matches by only one goal. Captain @Frans-Fin, who played every game in the regular season is also the teams best scorer with 44 points in 28 games followed by his winger colleague @James(Jamechkin) who contributed 35 points to the teams success.

While Hotbox records the league's best powerplay with 34,21%, Djurgarden Hockey records the league's best defense by only conceding 45 goals in 30 games. Like in every series, special teams may be a decisive reason to win or lose games. It will be interesting to see if the Swedish side manages to stay away from the penalty box or if Hotbox will be able to break down Djurgardens solid defense. While the Finnish outfit of Hotbox is quite new to ECL Pro playoffs territory, the Swedish squad is well experienced on that ground. Finishing on rank 2 last season and beating Blackdawgs (4-2) in round 1 but falling short to later promoted ZSC Esports (0-4) the squad around captain @Jungledonk will be keen on taking the next step. Right according to the mantra: Offense wins games but defense wins championships?

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: Djurgarden Hockey 4-1

@Mikka's prediction: Djurgarden Hockey 4-2

(4) Kiekko-Espoo Esports – Dynastia (5)

Will it be one of the tightest series in this year's first round? Kiekko-Espoo Esports find themselves on rank 4 while recording 18 wins and being one point ahead of VISU Gaming. After falling short of a playoff qualification in ECL 11 by only 2 points, the Finnish outfit around captain @Hazard-laser is set to take the next step in the postseason. After bringing in @Frilander to strengthen the defensive force beside @Raikkoneeh, Kiekko-Espoo seemed to have found their starting six that we can also expect to play in this series. Dynastia fought their way through the Pro Qualification tournament right into their first postseason appearance on Pro level. Right from the start, Dynastia was able to collect points. The only team the freshly promoted side was not able to get points from was Hotbox who eventually finished one rank behind them in their group. Captain @Majuri20 (Diktaattori62) and winger @Vilze (Vilze92) are leading their team in points. Strong performances will be needed to beat Kiekko-Espoo in the first round.

With 64 goals in 30 games, Kiekko-Espoo is the weakest offensive team of the top 8 in Group 1. On the other hand they record a strong defense by conceding only 1,93 goals per game. With their starting goalie @jg697000(Gresu__) reportedly being absent in the first round it will be interesting to see if backup @sMiika will be able to follow in his footsteps and carry the team to the second round. While Dynastia is one of three teams who managed to secure a spot for the playoffs with a negative goal difference it will be exciting to see how the offensive and defensive abilities of both teams will develop in this series. If Kiekko-Espoo maintains their calmness, they should be able to make use of their efficiency. @Timez(Timoccio), @Mikka and Hazard-laser played all 30 regular season games and scored many powerplay goals which could give them the edge over Dynastia.

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: 4-2 Kiekko-Espoo Esports

@Mikka's prediction: Mikka plays for Kiekko-Espoo Esports and stays neutral

(1) Conquer Gaming - Bjorkloven Esport (8)

Bjorkloven ended up staying above the playoff line after some walkover drama made sure to keep Sinister below them, but it does not in any way mean that they would not be worthy of playoff hockey. That being said though, the tight knit Conquer Gaming is the strong favorite here after steadily plowing through a Group 2 where it felt like almost every single team got into either losing or winning streaks of eight plus games. A testament to their consistency, Conquer had the best goal differential in the whole Pro division by a wide margin: a whopping +49 compared to the next-best +34 of Sulkavan Sudet and Djurgarden Hockey. Their leading offensive force centerman @Jertsicc was on fire too, finishing with a division leading 26+46=72 points in 28 games. At the other end, netminder @Jeresti (28 GP, 82.94%, 1.54 GAA, 2 SO) finished with the best save percentage amongst goalies who played the majority of games.

While Conquer ended up as the second best in both most goals scored and the fewest conceded, Bjorkloven did not really shine in any stat category. Bjorkloven’s roster also had more variation, with seven skaters seeing playing time and only @Janzuh and @vVoDee featuring in every game, meanwhile Conquer played the whole regular season with the same starting six. Conquer should be able to keep their train back to Elite steadily on the tracks, but the ECL 11 Lite champions could cause the well oiled machine some problems by starting on the right foot from the get go, with the help of their high level names like @EDHOLMINHO and Janzuh stepping up and carrying them through. Out of all playoff teams they were the most penalized one in the regular season, so they will need to stay out of the box too if they want to have a chance to cause an upset.

@Mikka's prediction: Conquer Gaming 4-1

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: Conquer Gaming 4-0

(2) sulkavan%20sudet%20500x500.png Sulkavan Sudet - Team LEISURE (7)

Another tight-knit former Elite roster, Team LEISURE have not had an amazing fairytale campaign back to the top this far this season. They struggled in the beginning to find their footing in the tighter Group 1, falling to a nine game losing streak after winning their three first, but have seemed to finally find it with 10 wins in their last 12, many of them with wide margins. Compared to the German outfit’s lackluster start resulting in them barely making the playoffs, Sulkavan Sudet on the other hand have been a positive surprise by managing to snatch the #2 seed from Group 2. The division’s top scoring squad (98 goals for) ended their regular season on a high note too, with winning streaks of four and eight games in their last 14. Their last opponents consisted of mainly the group’s bottom teams though, meanwhile Team LEISURE’s schedule had a bit of a wider mix of both bottom and playoff bubble opponents.

This could be one of the more interesting matchups in the first round, with Sulkavan Sudet always having been an offensive minded, strong counter attacking squad that now are facing the highly experienced Team LEISURE, who have traditionally been known for their strong defense and team play. That is not to say that they cannot score though, as they ended up scoring the second most goals in Group 1, with their tally of 88 falling just one shy of the well known offensive dynamo BoxinElite’s 89. They got a lot of help on that front from their back end, with @Franky__2768 (6+28=34) and @xXPsykoSkillsXx (5+29=34) finishing as the number one and two in points among all defensemen in the division.

Now that the Germans seem to have finally found their stride, I do not see many reasons why they would not be able to upset the much higher seeded Sudet. LEISURE’s playing style seems like it will match well against them as long as they keep an eye out for the Finns’ counter attacks. They have only made a six-game playoff appearance during their two prior Pro seasons, meanwhile Team LEISURE has always been a playoff performer and got some more experience from tighter games in the lower scoring Group 1. Even though Sulkavan Sudet racked up the most goals in Pro, they also let in a lot and that is why in my eyes Team Leisure have the advantage despite their low seed.

@Mikka's prediction: 1-4 Team LEISURE

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: 1-4 Team LEISURE

(3) Patience - Blackdawgs (6)

At around the midseason mark, Patience had some kind of internal falling out with their clear starter and only listed goalie, @PCJP(Pelkoneen), and he has not played a game for them since. After that the post between the pipes has been shared by ECL rookie @SirRaittinen and ECL 1 original @Miska (Zundeh), who has a few seasons worth of games under his belt at that position. The former seems to have been performing better though and looks slated to be the starting netminder come playoff time, with the latter most likely taking the center spot and @Karkkyjaa moving to SirRaittinen’s prior LW spot. Patience’s results have taken a bit of a dip after the goaltending change, but we will see if the uncertainty is now behind as they get ready to take on Blackdawgs.

As expected prior to the season, the mostly Russian outfit was led by the clear internal top scorer @Valluxet with 27+26=53, 15 more points than their next best @Tiltsson. Other than that, they did not cause major feelings in any way, ending up with streaky results both ways. Every time they lost a game after a win, they also lost at least the next one. As in, all of their losses were part of at least a two game losing streak. The same kind of trend can be observed with their wins too, with only one of them being neither followed or preceded by another one. Expect this series to be a tight battle that can be won by either team that ends up having the hot streak during next week. Can Patience smother the guy on whose shoulders the Blackdawgs' offense lies on, or can Valluxet execute his scoring prowess and take advantage of the opponent’s goaltender situation?

@Mikka's prediction: Patience 4-3

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: Blackdawgs 3-4

(4) Pata Hellalla - VISU Gaming (5)

Last but definitely not least, Pata Hellalla and VISU Gaming are going to be facing off against each other. VISU looked very strong to start the season with only two losses in their first 16 games, but then something happened and what at the time looked like an easy ride to the top seed changed to a nine game losing streak. They managed to somewhat gather their form back when it started to look like they could even fall out of the playoffs, dropping only three points in their last five with a record of 3-1-1. In their second last regular season game, the former ECL 11 Lite runner ups got a huge confidence boost from a 6-2 win over BoxinElite that also kept the fellow Pro rookies from overtaking HV71 as the Group 1 number one seed.

Similarly to VISU Gaming, Pata Hellalla had a very strong start too with 11 wins in a row, and after a one goal loss to Inter Iceland they once again got three wins in a row. After that though, in the remaining 13 games they only managed to gain a total of three wins, two of which in overtime, and one overtime loss along with seven of them in regulation, on top of the two walkover losses handed to them against Patience over their last matchup. This series is a battle of two teams with plenty of experienced players, which is once again going to be decided through who has the best form coming into the matchup. Although both outfits started out looking like their respective groups’ number one squads, VISU seems to have the slightly better form right now, giving them the edge over Pata Hellalla. Even then, this series is a toss up and could really go either way so do not be surprised about how it ends, unless it is a clear 4-0 sweep for either one.

@Mikka's prediction: 3-4 VISU Gaming

@Keuschemisch’s prediction: 2-4 VISU Gaming