ECL '23 Winter Elite Weekly - Storylines unfolding

SportsGamers,

It's been quite the first week of competition in our ECL '23 Winter Elite division and several storylines are already slowly starting to unfold. While some teams have been able to take off big time, others haven't been able to start off the way they drew it up in training camp. Some of the parity of the league right now really shows in the fact that not even the defending Champion hREDS were able to escape the first week lossless, as they ended up taking an overtime L against fellow contenders in their opening night matchup.

Other things we got to witness right from the get-go on opening night was a true tale of two halves in the matchup between Reality Check and ZSC Esports. The newly promoted Reality Check squad laid a beating on the Swiss outfit in their first ever Elite bout and came away with a 10-0 win in which V-V @vvlampela (cTunkeilija) Lampela really popped off, recording 9 points in total. Imagine their surprise when the Swiss got their game going for game 2, this Elite campaign wasn't going to be quite that easy, boys! Zürich managed to mount a great response in their home game, returning the favor with a 3-0 win. The Swiss lions played four matchups in their first week, and at least early on it's looked like they've struggled finding their cycle game, having to resort to counter-attacking in many of their games. 

We've also been very pleased to see how Ilmari @Buantso Lehkonen has taken off in his new red and green colors with Frölunda HC. After a few quieter seasons with HAVU Gaming and JYP there was even some speculation of the highly skilled winger laying off the thumbsticks, but now he's back and looking better than ever. With six goals on opening night and 9+3=12 in the first week in total, Puantso is second in scoring for his team, and 11th in the entire league. 

Nordic Stars is a team we were expecting to make the Playoffs based on our preview, but the squad has really been able to open their season in style with a 5-2-1 record in their eight first games. However, their schedule thus far has been fairly favorable, including Roots Gaming and ISO Esports to name a few teams that we are expecting to finish outside the Playoff picture. One of the most convincing outing for Nordic stars this past week was their absolute shutdown of Falun Coal Miners. The team managed to walk away from the matchup with a 5-0 and 6-0 win, with goaltender Axel @MonkeyHeadAF Falck making a total of 17 saves in the process. If Nordic Stars manage to keep up this trend and their 1.38 point average, they will make the Playoffs at the end of the season for sure. 

Falun Coal Miners made another appearance with a heroic performance on Sunday against hREDS. The team has had a challenging schedule to start their campaign to say the least, but despite having to match up against bona fide contenders Frölunda HC and hREDS in the first week of competition, the Swedish outfit has still managed to cash in on six points in total, with two of them coming from OT losses against both of the aforementioned powerhouses. Tomi @Tope0090 (Mestari_tikkuuu) Heikkilä has shared responsibilities with Jonas @poliskontroll Lindström in net, and they have certainly been able to pull their weight for the team. Falun is expected to pick up their point collection pace in the coming weeks for sure. 

Standings - Week 1

1.  hREDS (-) 5-0-1

2.  Nordic Stars (+6) 5-2-1

3.  Frölunda HC (-) 5-1-0

4.  ISO Esports (+10) 3-1-4

5.  Unlucky Boys HC (+10) 4-2-0

6.  Tunnel Vision (-4) 3-0-1

7.  Reality Check (+4) 3-1-0

8.  JYP Jyvaskyla (+2) 3-1-0

9.  ZSC Esports (-3) 3-5-0

10.  Roots Gaming (+6) 2-0-2

11.  GOONS (-2) 2-2-2

12.  Färjestad BK (-8) 2-2-2

13.  Falun Coal Miners (-) 2-4-2

14.  Växjö Lakers (-9) 0-2-2

15.  JANO (-3) 0-0-0

16.  Luleå Hockey (-8) 0-2-0

ECL '23 Winter Elite continues today with two great broadcast matchups!
Tune in to watch Frölunda HC take on Tunnel Vision and Unlucky Boys take on Falun Coal Miners. See you at www.twitch.tv/SportsGamerGG at 19:45CET!