SportsGamer brings you the ECL '25: Pre-Season Tournament - Sign up here!

Hey Gamers,

It's time to get the NHL 25 season started with the ECL '25 Pre-Season. The ECL Pre-Season Tournament is a friendly tournament with three tiers for teams to get into the competitive mindset, without the heavy structure that comes with the actual ECL divisions framework. The tournaments include playoffs for each tier and the lowest tier allows new interested teams to try out the competitive games in a relaxed environment.
 

The ECL is the pinnacle of European NHL esports. The abbreviation stands for the European Championship League and it features NHL 6v6 esports in five divisions aimed at various skill levels. Every player, including the goalies, is controlled by a human. League games are played in the EASHL mode and the platform is PlayStation and Xbox. ECL has been played since 2015, so the upcoming season is already the 17th. The latest addition to the ECL product family is a 1v1 tournament, where Europe's best solo players fight for the championship. ECL 1v1 has been played since the ECL '23 Winter season.

Basic information/requirements of ECL:

• Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however, we do not necessarily exclude players located in North America or Asia. A European server will always be used. We reserve the right to exclude teams or players in case of severe connection issues.
   
• Individual requirements: Each player needs to have an account at SportsGamer.GG and create their personal player card.
   
• ECL licenses: Teams in ECL Elite & ECL Pro, ECL Lite, and ECL Core will require their respective ECL ‘25: Winter team licenses in order to play. In addition, every player in the above-mentioned divisions needs to have a valid ECL ‘25: Player License or ECL ‘25: Winter Player License before taking the ice. Players in ECL Neo require only an ECL '25: Winter Neo Player License.
  The ECL '25 Pre-Season tournament does not require the license, but purchasing the license early on is recommended for faster processing.
   
• Rules: The ECL '25 rulebook will be published closer to the season, you can check out last season's rules here.

For a more extensive overview of the ECL as a whole, check out our “What is the ECL?” news story released a few weeks back. 

ECL Pre-Season

As stated, the tournament will be hosted in three tiers without any major restrictions except for the ones mentioned below.

Elite & Pro  

• Only ECL Elite & ECL Pro teams, and by special request wildcard & qualifier teams
• This is a friendly warmup tournament, no need to argue (=no League Admin cases)
• The final format is determined by the number of teams
• Double-header gamedays
• Regular season 17.10-27.10
• Playoffs (BO3)
  • 30-31.10 (RO16)
  • 3.-4.11 (Quarterfinals)
  • 6.-7.11 (Semifinals)
  • 10.-11.11 (Finals)

Sign-ups are open until 12:00 CET, October 15th.

SIGN UP HERE

Lite & Core 

• Only ECL Lite & ECL Core teams, and by special request wildcard teams & qualifier teams
• This is a friendly warmup tournament, no need to argue (=no League Admin cases)
• Qualifier teams can participate, but the final rounds of the playoffs may coincide with the qualifiers
• The final format is determined by the number of teams
• Double-header gamedays
• Regular season 17.10-27.10
• Playoffs (BO3)
  • 30-31.10 (RO32)
  • 3.-4.11 (RO16)
  • 6.-7.11 (Quarterfinals)
  • 10.-11.11 (Semifinals)
  • 13-14.11 (Finals)

Sign-ups are open until 12:00 CET, October 15th

SIGN UP HERE

Neo & Newcomers 

• Only ECL Neo & Newcomer teams
• This is a friendly warmup tournament, no need to argue (=no League Admin cases)
• The final format is determined by the number of teams
• Double-header gamedays
• Regular season 17.10-27.10
• Playoffs (BO3)
  • 30-31.10 (RO16)
  • 3.-4.11 (Quarterfinals)
  • 6.-7.11 (Semifinals)
  • 10.-11.11 (Finals)

Sign-ups are open until 12:00 CET, October 15th

SIGN UP HERE

Uniform and logo unlocks for organizations

This form is intended for organizations associated with SportsGamer to request primarily uniform and logo unlocks in order to represent their team appropriately. The form should not be filled out before NHL 25 is released, but you can bookmark this link and fill it out once the team has been created. Here is a link for the unlocks form: https://forms.gle/TRy9PkVwh13gqMGs5

Rules

We hope you all enjoy and remember to play by the ECL rules! Although the Pre-Season Tournament will not be under as strict scrutiny as the ECL, we want to remind you to respect your opponents and go about the games just as you would when playing real ECL league matchups.

• The tournament will be played on the NHL 25 (PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X/S)

If teams are tied in points after the group stage, we will utilize these usual tie-breakers:

• Wins (including OT-wins)
• Head-to-head record (points in mutual games)
• Goal difference (across all games played)
• Scored goals (across all games played)

We hope you're as excited as we are to get back into the action - build your team, sign up, and have fun!