ECL 7 - All you need to know - ECL

Salute NHLGamers,

It's finally time for the 7th edition of the European Championship League, the best EASHL 6vs6 league there is (in our unbiased opinion)! This time we beat another record! Last year we had 108 teams, now it's up to 123. That's a BIG increase from last season and it seems to be the trend moving forward. Lets make sure we are as welcoming to new members as possible to make sure we continue on this path.

ECL Lite and ECL Pro will start playing today, Monday 15th of October and ECL Elite will start a week later, on Monday 22nd of October. The schedules for all divisions are available through the menu both on the main page and here on the community side.

Without further ado, here's all you need to know:

ECL 7 Rules

As usual, we have fine-tuned our ruleset, so we suggest you give them a good read before the season start! The rules for ECL 7 can be found here:

League Administration

All league related verdicts will be decided by the League Administration. To open up a case, visit the new Support section on the forums.

Please note: before contacting League Administration, teams are expected to solve issues they might have on their own. Familiarize yourself with our rules first, as they include lots of guidance for different issues. League Administration is always to be used as the last resort to solve any disagreements.

In which division can I find each team?

ECL 7 Elite

14 teams confirmed their participation for ECL 7:

Almost Famous
Dynasty
Falun Coal Miners
FILADELPHIA
Gotham Knights
Northern Ascendancy
Northern Stars
Radical
Rusty Blades
Sjukstugan
Symphony
Team Frosty
Unlucky Boys HC
Written In The Stars

As ECL Elite was missing two teams, League Administration decided to promote two teams according to rule 4.3, "Similarly, if the number of open spots in ECL Elite exceeds the number of promotions from ECL Pro, these additional spots will be filled with additional teams from ECL Pro according to the following factors from the previous season: Playoff wins"

SIKA (7 playoff wins)
Butterfly Effect (previously known as Red Machine, 6 playoff wins)

We would like to congratulate Butterfly Effect and SIKA for making it to ECL Elite!

ECL 7 Pro

25 teams confirmed their participation for ECL 7:

Baltic Sea Eagles
Bellizzi
Bone Breakers
Butterfly Effect
Checkmate
CLUB ONE
Cowabunga Hockey
Deadly Phantoms
EN HUND
EV Duisburg
Free From Rodents
Le coq Sportif
Murohoki
Nordic Nosebleed
Nordic Stars
Pata Hellalla
Raging Monkeys
Sektion K
SIKA
Silver Sword Griffins
Speedy Bros Hockey
Style
Synergy Hockey
The Visionaries
TIKI TALK
Wasps Gaming

With Butterfly Effect and SIKA getting promoted to Elite, we now had 9 open spots in ECL Pro.

According to the rule 4.2, "...If the number of open spots in ECL Pro exceeds the number of promotions from ECL Lite, e.g. due to ECL Pro teams disbanding, these additional spots will be filled with teams that applied during the sign-up phase according to the following factors:

Priority for ECL Lite quarter-finalists from the previous season, Franchise history, Roster composition, EASHL record"

First of all we looked at the Lite quarter-finalists from last season, which also had said "Yes" to apply for a Pro spot in their registration. These three teams fit the criteria:

Ghetto Firebirds (QF)
Pohjoista Voimaa (QF)
Unity (QF)

These three teams will play in Pro this season, congrats!

For the 6 remaining spots, we were looking at teams who applied for ECL Pro in their ECL Lite registration. Based on the previously listed factors the League Administration decided to promote the following teams:

Born With It
Bucketeers
Checkmate
Raccoon Rampage
Resurrection
Saints

Congrats to these teams as well, you will all play in Pro this season!

ECL 7 Lite

The remaining 75 teams that applied for ECL Lite will play in ECL Lite this season.

ECL 7 Groups:

On Saturday evening we streamed the group lottery for our divisions in ECL 7. Below is the complete list of the teams participating this season and in which groups they will play. Due to Crusaders deciding to not participate at last minute and our staff being informed after the lottery, we had to make a balancing adjustment to even things up and this moved Infinity into group 5.

Here are your ECL 7 groups:

ECL 7 Lite - 8 Groups

ECL Lite will be played in eight groups consisting of 9-10 teams each. With 2 games against each opponent, this results in an 16-18 game regular season for each team in which the top 8 teams out of each conference will go to the playoffs (64 teams total).

Group 1:

Cancun Pirates

HC Dark Alligators

HC Keskikalja

Inter Iceland

Last Period

Mentula SKA

Nearbird Fighters

Niederrhein Canucks

Rusty Bulls

The Black Jacks

Group 2:

Gents of Fortune

Kalamasu HT

KulmalaHengaus

Nordic Vipers

Rajatorpan Mafia

Stayhard Stallions

Team France

TEHOTTOMAT

TeQuila SunRise

The Next Gen

Group 3:

BoneHeads

Freddie Mercury Institute

HC Finlandia

Kaukosen Luistin

Red Devils HC

SPARTANS

Unknown Ice Breakers

We Kings

WESTEROS HC

Group 4:

DEG eSports

Elämäm Kiekko

Etelan Vetelat

FarmiNaattori

Fuularinsat

Melting Point

Outrageous Falcons

Perttilan Kommandot

Prowlers

SEVERSTAL

Group 5:

Bare Knuckles Hockey

Dubnation Gaming

Falcons

Infinity

K A R H U T

Kouvola Screaming Eagles

Lehmannens Badboyz

Pink Panthers HC

The Dudes

Group 6:

Clowns On Ice

Finnish Hockey Legends

HC Corsair

Poston Fruits

Red Light Zone

SHECANGO

SKA

Swedish Match HC

Team Bidon

Group 7:

Bombers Hockey

Clusterpuck

HokiDogit

Magic Mushrooms

Nuggetz

Puck Panthers

Saucer Hockey

Supernatural

Supremacy

Group 8:

Blackdawgs

Finnish Snipers

HARDCORE NAPPIAIVOT

HC Aurinko

Hockey Hooligans

HT White Sharks

Rising Phantoms HC

Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat

Suomen Sonnit

Schedule: ECL Lite schedule

ECL 7 Pro - 2 Groups

ECL Pro will be played in two groups consisting of 16 teams each. With two games against each opponent, this results in a 30 game regular season for each team in which the top 8 teams out of each group will go to the playoffs (16 teams total).

Group 1:

Baltic Sea Eagles

CLUB ONE

Cowabunga Hockey

EN HUND

EV Duisburg

Free From Rodents

Ghetto Firebirds

Murohoki

Raccoon Rampage

Saints

Speedy Bros Hockey

Style

Synergy Hockey

TIKI TALK

Unity

Wasps Gaming

Group 2:

Bellizzi

Bone Breakers

Born With It

Bucketeers

Checkmate

Deadly Phantoms HC

Le coq Sportif

Nordic Nosebleed

Nordic Stars

Pata Hellalla

Pohjoista Voimaa

Raging Monkeys

Resurrection

Sektion K

Silver Sword Griffins

The Visionaries

Schedule: ECL Pro schedule

ECL 7 Elite - 1 Group

As usual, ECL Elite will be played in one group, where the teams face each other twice per opponent. This will result in a 30 game regular season for each team in which the top 8 teams go to the playoffs.

Almost Famous

Butterfly Effect

Dynasty

Falun Coal Miners

FILADELPHIA

Gotham Knights

Northern Ascendancy

Northern Stars

Radical

Rusty Blades

SIKA

Sjukstugan

Symphony

Team Frosty

Unlucky Boys HC

Written In The Stars

Schedule: ECL Elite schedule

Thank you all for joining our stream on Saturday, if you missed it, you can see it here:

Team management tools

All teams have been created, the team management tools on the main page (click on your username in the top right corner to access them) have been unlocked for the team captains. All players need to be invited to the team rosters ahead of your first game. Please note that all invited players need to accept the invitation (there will be a popup alert on the main page for them) before they show up on the team roster and can start playing!

In case you have further questions, feel free to use the comment section below this article.

We hope everyone has a great ECL and good luck to all teams!

On behalf of the ECL staff,
@Panarinz