ECL '22 Spring Lite: Season Preview - New challengers emerging and old favorites longing for success

Here we go. After a short break the show must go on and a new season of virtual hockey is yet again on the horizon so let's preview the upcoming Lite division and break it down a little.

Season information

To find out about the prize pool specifics, check out our earlier prize pool info article. For a look at the whole ECL framework, check out the sign-ups article.

Notable dates for the ECL '22: Spring Lite season:

• Regular season: 4.4-5.5.
• Playoffs
  • Round of 32: 8.-12.5.
  • Round of 16: 15.-25.5.
  • Quarterfinals: 30.5.-2.6.
  • Semifinals: 5.-8.6.
  • Finals: 15.-16.6. (TBC)

Default gamedays for the ECL '22: Spring Lite division will be on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, with one scheduled double-header for each team.

You can access the rulebook, schedule, standings, statistics and full rosters from the ECL ‘22: Spring Lite league page.

Socials

Here's an update to the social media instructions. Our sponsors this season are Kouvolan Lakritsi, St Hockey & Wilhelm.

Twitter:

When posting tweets of your lineups, matchups, recaps, clips, articles - or any other content you might want to create - please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: 

@SportsGamerGG
#ECL22Spring
#NHL22
#esports
#kouvolanlakritsi
#MukanaWilhelm

Instagram:

When posting on Instagram, please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: 

@SportsGamerGG
#ECL22Spring
#NHL22
#esports
#kouvolanlakritsi
#MukanaWilhelm

Note: It is very helpful and critical for us to succeed in getting our partners tagged, so they get the necessary mentions and interaction to validate their participation in the future. That being said, it is understandable that there may be circumstances due to your other partners where you are unable to tag competition etc. Your support is appreciated.

As there are quite a few hashtags by now, especially from a Twitter perspective with limited characters, we recommend using at least #ECL22Spring in the text part of the tweet and leave the sponsor tags for the end. If you need to cut out tags, remove #esports and #NHL22. For Instagram this shouldn't be an issue.

Season preview

The short break was intense and the games will start already tomorrow, on Monday April 4th, we'll surely see several teams get to action right away so keep your eyes peeled on the social media channels. What teams have improved most during the offseason? Will we see new challengers? Will the likes of Arkham Asylum recover from the Playoff disappointments faced in the winter season and how will the overhauled roster of Resurrection play in front of the long time captain @Jiihooo86? 

We have a few interesting new teams that have surfaced from the Core division, and Sawolanche even took part in the Pro qualifiers, coming up short this time but gaining some valuable experience, they are a squad to look out for this season with a great deal of potential. Rahinage is another new team that has a few seasons worth of Core experience under their belt and they certainly look ready for a challenge at the next level.

What can we expect from this season, then? At the time of writing, we are yet to see the groups, so it's tough to predict an outcome for the regular season. However, there are a couple really strong teams that will most likely top the tables regardless of the group they get put in. As mentioned earlier, Arkham Asylum had a disappointing end to their previous campaign but is looking strong as ever coming into this one. They have a very experienced roster with the likes of @ReDMisTi and @tominointi possessing experience from higher up and the skill to help others by their side become better players. Also their goalie @PCJP has a long career behind and has been really solid. Captain @Hippitukka has done a good job in building the team to this state and the team is one of the favourites no doubt. 

Swedish clubs Linköping HC and Luleå Hockey should also definitely be mentioned in the favorites category and their experience from higher levels will definitely help them in the postseason too. Linköping HC played in the Pro Qualifiers but didn’t find the pieces for going through, even though the team is very strong and can challenge a better squad. If they can keep their consistency throughout the regular season, it's easy to predict them playing meaningful games long into the spring. Look out for prolific veteran scorer @Lamsa.

Luleå Hockey played in Pro last season and lost their top scorer @Tkautto98 to HV71 but got a couple really strong reinforcements as replacement. @Tacterz was a backup for Frölunda HC in Elite last season and has been a part of generating success for Mora IK previously, he is very experienced and by that will help his team a lot. Also with solid defenders @basseman_ and @Vesterberg89 joining, the team is looking very strong.

Another very interesting Swedish team making a comeback after some absence is Synergy Hockey, who have gathered their old familiar ranks, looking very strong. Players like @Mumsi-, @Supremski and @J-Foppa are are some legendary names with lots of skill and most importantly - hockey IQ. Look for Synergy to be a contender for sure.

There are also a couple of dark horses in the race. Destiny, which was created for this season played in the Pro Qualifiers but couldn’t find their game yet but we can expect them to gel more as the season progresses, the roster consists of several experienced players with the necessary skill to do very well in Lite. Also Tic Tac Toes is back. Can @Artuzio lead the team to success - their squad holds perhaps more individual and mechanical skill than any other team in Lite, but if they can't translate all that to the 6's game, they could end up flopping. Finally, you can't forget Pata Hellalla. Losing their long term captain @kungenkurwa may be a tough pill to swallow but the team has played so long together we can probably expect some kind of a comeback story.

We'll get the action started tomorrow and in June we'll have a new Champion! Get ready for the season and we'll see you on the ice!