Image credit: Estudios Zürich

NHLGamers,

It’s yet another beautiful day as we get to announce another traditional sports franchise solidifying their presence in the rapidly growing esports environment. This time the Swiss hockey powerhouse ZSC Lions are making an entry into NHL esports by signing Swiss-based team The Black Jacks.

The team, led by captain Sven @Original-SnuS Julmi has been competing at the ECL stage for three total seasons now, being promoted to the pro level to cap off a championship run in ECL 7. The three founding members SnuS, Mike @burban26 Müller and Mario @Cami_7 Camenzind are still proudly sporting the teams colours after transitioning over from Xbox in late 2017. Besides ECL competition the former The Black Jacks have played GCL rather successfully, amassing three seasons worth of experience but never managing to overcome their arch nemesis BRAYCE Phantoms in the finals. Is that the hottest non-scandinavian rivalry in the scene?

"I met our manager Hakan Pazarcikli at a Call of Duty tournament some time ago, we had a short chat and I asked about the possibility to host an NHL tournament, which he showed some interest in. The tournament was held and with 124 participants signing up, we had proven the potential of NHL esports even in a non-traditional market like Switzerland. Negotiations ensued and Hakan managed to get us in touch with ZSC Lions about a 1 year engagement in NHL esports. We are happy to act as pioneers in the Swiss NHL community and eager to collect valuable experience with this project." - Captain Sven “Original_SnuS” Julmi on the negotiation process

Image credit: Estudios Zürich & NHLGamer

We had a short chat with captain @Original-SnuS about his feelings on the new partnership:

ZSC Lions is one of the more prestigious Swiss clubs and seems to have the urge to be pioneers on many fronts (Case Matthews). Now heading into esports, how does it feel to represent an organisation like ZSC Lions?
We are honoured to represent this club on the virtual ice. I am very happy that one of the best Swiss clubs showed interest in taking this step. We will proudly represent the colour of ZSC Lions in every game.

You’ve now established yourselves as a Pro level team - what are your goals going into your second season at that level?
Well, we only have one season behind us. The first one was decent but showed a lot of our weak points. Rest assured those quirks have been worked out and the next step is reaching playoffs. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves by setting bigger goals than that. The team didn’t give us any specific performance related goals to meet.

ZSC Lions eSports will play their first games on Sunday, 3rd of November in a friendly matchup against Växjö Lakers. The puck drops at 20:00 CET and the action can be followed at www.twitch.tv/zscesports.

Team captains Mike @burban26 Müller (A), Sven @Original-SnuS Julmi (C) and Reto @afc_Tschitsch Ulrich (A) Image credit: Estudios Zürich

ZSC Lions

ZSC Lions is a hockey club hailing from the Swiss city of Zürich. The club was founded in 1930 and is one of the most prestigious clubs in the country with a total of eight national championships and several other accomplishments such as a CHL championship in 2009. The club is also known for being Auston Matthews’ home for the 2015-2016 season when the superstar got his first taste of pro hockey after going through the US National Team Development Program. ZSC Lions is the first Swiss organisation to venture into NHL esports.

NHLGamers,

IS Cup 4 is well on its way and we've been treated to a some great games already. Over the course of the group stage we've seen a massive 2,984 goals scored in 462 matches, we also have three teams are who yet to be beaten, and four more who have only dropped one game thus far. All this means is that the playoffs are going to be heck of a treat to watch for the spectators as the 32 most competitive teams go to head to head, with the goal of making their way into the final four, securing a spot at GameXpo - as well as a shot at the title itself. As this group stage has been played under a particularly tight set schedule, we would like to take a moment and thank all participating teams for working well within the given limitations.

Please note that the schedule for the IS Cup 4 playoffs is as follows:
Round 1: 28.10 - 30.10
Round 2: 31.10 - 3.11
Quarterfinals: 4.11 - 6.11
Semifinals & Finals @ GameXpo: 15-16.11
 

Regarding the matchups we feel that transparency is the best policy. As such, it has to come our attention that the rule book had an omission in that when tie-breaking teams from different groups, PPG was ignored, with the following statistics being used instead to seed teams: Wins*; Goal difference*; Scored goals*. The major oversight in this was of course, a team could end up being seeded below another team despite finishing at an equal rank in a  group while having earned more points over the course of the regular season. As such, we felt that such an omission should be corrected for as opposed to carrying on and the rules have been clarified.

Without further ado, here are the matchups for round 1:

(1)  HAVU Gaming vs We Kings  (32)
(2)  Delusion vs Shooting Stars  (31)
(3)  Symphony vs Alliance HT  (30)
(4)  TIKI TALK vs HC SKULL TOWN  (29)
(5)  FILADELPHIA vs Oton Letkutemppu (28)
(6)  Butterfly Effect vs GHETTO FIREBIRDS  (27)
(7)  Bucketeers vs  Miracle  (26)
(8)  POGGERS vs BRAYCE Phantoms (25)
(9)  Synergy Hockey vs Vaxjo Lakers HC  (24)
(10)  Dynasty vs Reality Check  (23)
(11)  Northern Ascendancy vs Nordic Lightning  (22)
(12)  Roots vs Nightmare  (21)
(13)  Unlucky Boys HC vs Sandstorm  (20)
(14)  Vesa Pompa HC vs Black Horse  (19)
(15)  Raccoon Rampage vs Checkmate  (18)
(16)  Cowabunga Hockey  vs Almost Famous  (17)

We would like to wish all of the teams good luck! Please agree on your game times as soon as possible and let us know in the comments when your games will be played. We will be broadcasting some games during the playoffs, so knowing our options well ahead of time gives us the best chances of featuring matchups!

Also feel free to let us know your predictions for this round in the comments!

NHLGamers,

We’re proudly welcoming yet another traditional sports organisation into the world of esports and NHL gaming as Växjö Lakers from Sweden have acquired the team formerly known as Lavetten. Recently we’ve seen an increasing number of teams sign deals and represent various organisations in our tournaments, not only is this a step towards a more professional environment but it is growing the game that we love. With traditional sports teams such as Düsseldorf, AIK and today Växjö Lakers joining our ranks we create a connection between the traditional sport and the quickly growing esports scene. This connection will hopefully induce growth on both the virtual and real life sides of the sport.

Fredrik Sandberg from the Växjö Lakers organisation highlights the fact that esports is an uncharted territory for them: “In esports, we’re reaching a new demographic in which we see tremendous potential. We’re excited about setting the Växjö Lakers brand into new waters and very happy to have a few hometown guys on the roster.”

We caught up with Växjö Lakers captains Fredric @EDHOLMINHO Edholm and Fredrik @Kattenj Jansson for a short interview about the teams current status:

How did this project take off and is there a specific connection to Växjö within your team?
Fredrik (Kattenj): It all took off a couple weeks back when we made the decision to make a return as Lavetten. One of our new recruits is @Hockeyjohannes, who mentioned that he’s been in talks with Växjö previously and that there’s interest on that front. After some emails back and forth with Fredrik Sandberg at Växjö, we set up a meeting and things went on smoothly from there. We’ve got three guys from Växjö on our roster, so that’s the main reason and it’s with pride we represent our club.
 

Both of you have represented Lavetten before, your new roster consists of some familiar faces but a whole bunch of new guys, what kind of hockey can we expect from you guys in IS Cup 4?
Fredrik (Kattenj): Both me and Edholm have represented Lavetten before. Ever since that era came to an end, we have been thinking about joining forces again and now the time seemed right. We knew our team could be successful if we find the right pieces to fit our puzzle. We’ve been able to recruit a competitive roster with impressive depth and having @Hullued as our backstop is a great confidence boost.

Our aim is to play fast counter hockey and I believe that is something we’ve excelled at in the last few weeks. We’ve been on a hard grind and are definitely ready for what IS Cup has in store for us.

How excited are you about representing Växjö Lakers and what are your goals for IS Cup 4?
Fredric (EDHOLMINHO): First of all, we’re extremely grateful to have this opportunity. Växjö Lakers is a large and very well-known organisation and it’s very motivating to represent them in the upcoming IS Cup. Our number one goal is to make the playoffs, after that we’ll see what we can make happen.

The roster of Växjö Lakers for IS Cup 4

Växjö Lakers Esport will be making their debut tonight as they face the German based Shooting Stars in an IS Cup 4 double-header tonight at 21:00 CEST. The games can be watched on the Växjö Lakers Esport Twitch channel and will be commentated by Adam @esdor Ericson.

The team also has new Twitter and Instagram profiles that they welcome you to follow.

Växjö Lakers

Växjö Lakers Hockey Club, commonly referred to as Växjö Lakers is an ice hockey club playing at the highest level in Sweden (SHL). The club was founded in 1997 and plays their home games at Vida Arena. Despite their short history, the team has seen some success in recent years, hoisting the Le Mat Trophy awarded to the SHL champions in both 2015 and 2018. 
 

Hi there NHLGamers,

We're kicking off the 4th iteration of the IS Cup with a bang. At NHLGamer we really appreciate the possibility to cooperate with Ilta-Sanomat on this traditional tournament. This year we welcomed teams from all around Europe and with that we're happy to say that we've set an IS Cup record in terms of teams signing up. With 73 total teams signed up this time, let's make sure we are as welcoming to new members as possible to make sure we continue on this path. 

If you didn't read our news story with information about the event and prize pool, check it out here.

The group stage kicks off today on Sunday 13th of October. Default gamedays are set to Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Please prioritize your default opponents when scheduling. All games have to be played by Sunday, October 20th at 23:59 CEST.

Please head over here to find the group stage schedule.

Now let's get into all you need to know:

IS Cup 4 Rules

As usual, we have fine-tuned our ruleset, so we suggest you give them a good read before going ahead with your games! Please find the rulebook here.

Tournament Administration

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

Please note: before contacting the Tournament 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 group can I find each team?

Groups were drawn by dividing teams into baskets based on skill level and previous merit. Each group contains an even amount of teams from each basket. The groups were revealed in our stream on Saturday, October 12th.

Team management tools

All teams have been created, the team management tools on the main page have been unlocked for the team captains (find the Team Tools dropdown in the top right corner of the menu). 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!

Playoffs

A total of 32 teams will make the playoffs

• The top 3 teams from each group will progress to the playoffs
• Out of all the remaining teams across all groups, the top 2 based on PPG will be selected to advance.

Playoff Seeding

• Group winners are seeded #1-10
• Group runners-up #11-20
• Teams that finished 3rd #21-30
• Remaining teams with the highest PPG #31-32
• The seeding of the teams within these levels will be decided using the usual tiebreakers, found in 11.3 of the IS Cup 4 Rules.
   

Playoff Schedule

Based on your feedback we were able to extend the playoffs to give the teams a little bit more time during these important games.

Online Playoffs 28.10.-6.11.

• Round 1 (BO5): 28.-30.10.
• Round 2 (BO5): 31.10.-3.11.
• Quarterfinals (BO5): 4.11.-6.11.

Semi-finals & Finals @ GameXpo 15.-16.11.

Friday, November 15th 2019:

• Fri 15.11. @ 13.30    Semifinal #1, games 1-2
• Fri 15.11. @ 14.45    Semifinal #2, games 1-2
• Fri 15.11. @ 17.00    Semifinal #1, games 3-5 *
• Fri 15.11. @ 18.45    Semifinal #2, games 3-5 *

Saturday,  November 16th 2019:

• Sat 16.11. @ 12.00    Bronze Battle
• Sat 16.11. @ 13.45    Finals, games 1-2
• Sat 16.11. @ 14.55    Intermission
• Sat 16.11. @ 16.00    Finals, games 3-4
• Sat 16.11. @ 17.15    Finals, games 5 *
• Sat 16.11. @ 18.00    Finals, games 6 *
• Sat 16.11. @ 18.30    Finals, games 7 *

*as necessary

Semifinals = Best-of-Five
Bronze battle = Best-of-Three
Finals = Best-of-Seven

Captain and player chat on Discord

You can join the NHLGamer Discord and talk to your fellow players. For captains there's the captain channel, where you can ask fellow captains for help, schedule games or get notified of anything important going on right now. You can join the Discord by clicking here. The Discord is available throughout all of the NHLGamer leagues and tournaments.

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

We hope everyone has a great IS Cup 4 and good luck to all teams!

NHLGamers,

The IS Cup has become a tradition and with us stepping into uncharted territory and ramping it up on the 6vs6-side last year, we're now bringing the same, improved concept for the 4th iteration of one of the biggest NHL esports tournaments of the year. IS Cup 4 is presented by NHLGamer and Ilta-Sanomat, sponsored by PlayStation, Prisma Gaming and Alpro.

Originally a Finnish tournament, IS Cup breaks new ground with its 4th iteration; expanding the scope of the tournament in allowing all European teams entry to challenge the Finns for the throne. In NHL19 we saw Finnish HAVU Gaming and FILADELPHIA dominate the playing field, but it'll remain to be seen if we can find some new competition this year.

The 4th iteration of IS Cup will alike last year, cap off at GameXpo in Helsinki, Finland between the 15th and 16th of November. In the final event, the four best teams will meet to battle it out for a prize pool of 5000 €. 

Schedule of IS Cup 4:
Group stage 14-20.10
Playoffs 28.10-6.11
Semi-finals & Finals @ GameXpo 15-16.11

The prize pool will be divided as follows:
1. 3500€
2. 1000€
3. 500€

Prizes are subject to tax as per Finnish law and the tax is withheld before payment

Please note:

• Both the group stage phase and the playoffs will be very intensive and your team will be expected to play almost every day, so while the minimum required players amount is 7, be sure to have a roster big enough to take care of your duties.
• Teams that make the final four are responsible for their own travel and accommodation
• The semifinal games on Friday, November 15th will start during daytime 
• Sign ups close on Friday October 11th 12:00 CEST.

Gather your team and sign up to challenge last years champions FILADELPHIA!

To sign up your team for IS Cup 4:

If you're a player looking for a team:

If you're a team looking for players:

Brief in Finnish / Lyhyesti suomeksi:

Ilta-Sanomat ja NHLGamer toteuttavat yhteistyössä IS Cup 4 -turnauksen, jossa etsitään parasta 6vs6-joukkuetta NHL 20 -pelissä. Turnausta sponsoroivat PlayStation, Prisma Gaming ja Alpro. Lue Ilta-Sanomien uutinen tästä.

Karsintojen runkosarja pelataan 14.–20.10. ja pudotuspelit reilua viikkoa myöhemmin 28.10.–6.11. Neljä parasta joukkuetta jatkaa finaalitapahtumaan.

IS Cupin nettikarsinnat järjestää NHLGamer. Nettikarsintoihin voivat osallistua kaikki halukkaat ympäri Euroopan.

5000 euron palkintopotti jaetaan seuraavasti:

1. 3500 €  
2. 1000 €  
3. 500 €  

Huomioittehan ystävällisesti seuraavat asiat:

• Turnauksen pelitahti on intensiivinen sekä runkosarjan, että pudotuspelien osalta ja pelejä on pelattava lähes päivittäin. Vaikka turnaukseen voi osallistua seitsemän pelaajan rosterilla, varmistattehan, että ilmoittamanne joukkue pystyy pelaamaan aktiivisesti.
• GameXpoilla pelaavat joukkueet vastaavat itse matkustus- ja yöpymiskuluistaan
• Semifinaaliottelut perjantaina 15.11. alkavat päiväsaikaan
• Rekisteröityminen päättyy perjantaina 11.10. kello 13:00

Linkit:

• Ilmoita joukkueesi IS Cupiin
• Etsi joukkuetta itsellesi
• Etsi pelaajia joukkueeseesi

NHLGamers,

Another EA SPORTS NHL season is upon us. With our most successful year yet behind us, you can be sure we aren’t resting on our laurels. 
Instead, we are kicking things up a notch. 

NHL 19 saw the number of 6vs6 and 1vs1 tournaments produced by us here at NHLGamer.com increase by a significant margin. For NHL 20 we will be working towards solidifying this expansion of ours, while at the same time offering even more ways to compete in NHL gaming. While this is certainly cause for optimism (not yet celebration), it is also a time for reflection.

Gamers, we want you to get amped up for the coming season. Because we hope to make NHL 20 the best year yet for competitive virtual hockey. 
That said, the intent of this “letter from the commissioner”  (as @The_Alpha_Furyan coined it) is not just to wax poetic about how great the upcoming year will be. It is also to advice any and all teams and players out there to prepare themselves accordingly for what is to come. 

For example, with the increasing number of 6vs6 tournaments that we have planned there is a chance that we will see leagues and tournaments overlapping. Some slightly, others considerably more. This isn’t necessarily by design as much as it is a consequence of our conscious efforts to have prize pools and live finals for most of the tournaments we produce.

If you are one of those teams that take great pride in competing in as many tournaments as possible, prepare to enlist a deeper roster. Or prepare to set aside a lot of time for EASHL gaming. 

We are working to produce as many as 10 (or more!) 6vs6 leagues and tournaments in the NHL 20 “calendar year” here at NHLGamer.com. Before you choke on your beverage, be advised that some of these tournaments will have restrictions placed upon them – mostly based on nationality/location. 

The 6vs6 leagues will feature (but not be limited to) our established ecosystem of leagues:

• ECL (Europe - Q4 2019)
• NACL (North America - TBC)
• FCL (Finland - 2020)
• GCL (Germany - 2020)
• RCL (Russia - October 14th, 2019)
• SCL (Sweden - 2020)
   


While we talk a lot about 6vs6 here and it continues to be something we are very passionate about, we will continue working with 1vs1 competition as before and work with opportunities in the 1vs1 space as well.

Barring confirmation from partners and sponsors, we hope to be able to release the information on any upcoming seasons and events as soon as we can.

There is certainly a lot on the table for the next 12 months and we couldn't be happier to share it with the community that we have all built together. Speaking of which, if you're asking yourself "What can I do to help?", here are a few suggestions:

• Join our staff and get involved with NHLGamer
• Whether you're a team or an individual NHL gamer, all the positive content you produce around the game helps us all grow.
  • Using hashtags, such as #NHLGamer and remembering to tag us (i.e. @NHLGamerCOM on Twitter) when find it relevant helps the content get noticed.
• Follow and interact with our social media channels 
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
• Follow us and watch our broadcasts on Twitch
• Ideas and suggestions? Always feel free to send me an email (kenneth@nhlgamer.com) or private message. (If you need support, though, you can find it here)

See you all on the ice. 🏒🥅🚨

On behalf of NHLGamer
Kenneth “KenuFHR” Lehtinen

NHLGamers,

The yearly time has come where we announce a recruitment round. As you know, our operations have always been ran with a fairly small crew, but it's a fact that we are growing faster than ever and the future holds several interesting projects. This is certainly a great time to be a part of this community, but another harsh fact is that nothing could be accomplished without hardworking staff. 

In order to ensure and maintain a high production quality and tackle all these new projects, we reach out to you in order to ask for help. We are recruiting staff for several different positions and are looking for new staff members to work both with our European and North American leagues and tournaments. You will find a list of open positions below:

DIVISION LEAD
As division lead you are in charge of running the day-to-day operations of your assigned division together with your assigned division assistants. This entails making sure the schedule is being followed and games are reported accordingly, fixing possible errors and communicating with teams in order to solve possible conflicts or escalating the issue to League Administration if required.

DIVISION ASSISTANT
As division assistant you are helping out with the daily tasks of operating your assigned division. This entails making sure the schedule is being followed and games are reported accordingly, fixing possible errors and communicating with teams in order to solve possible conflicts or escalating the issue to League Administration if required. You report to the division lead.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER
As a graphic designer you'll be working in tight co-operation with the other staff and will assist in various types of content creation. Examples of content include (but are not limited to) stream artwork, images for news stories or even animations or pictures for social media. We're hoping that you have some previous experience in image editing and have a small portfolio to showcase in your application. You will also need to have access to software required for completion of your tasks.

VIDEO EDITOR/CONTENT CREATOR
We know there's a great deal of talent out there among you gamers! We are looking to take our content creation to the next level by generating more video content in addition to the traditional stuff that we have been doing. You will be free to pitch ideas of what you want to create and will be working together with our streaming crew and other content creators in order to figure out what type of content to push out. As a video editor you know a thing or two about video and audio quality and putting together a video using tools such as Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro X. You don't have to be a professional, but we would like to see some of your previous work in your application.

WRITER/INSIDER
You are responsible for producing content as discussed with the editor-in-chief. You are expected to be able to produce coherent text in English by yourself, but your content doesn't necessarily have to be perfect, as it goes through your editor-in-chief before publication. We hope that you have an interest to investigate and dig deep for those juicy stories. Knowledge about players and leagues will come in handy, but is not mandatory.
Please send in any articles you might have written previously as a reference. Feel free to sweep us off our feet with your application, in case you don't have previous journalistic references to send in.

BROADCASTERS
As a broadcaster you will have a very visible role on our Twitch channel.Your tasks will include commentating on matchups that are being streamed and engaging with the chat while doing so. We also hope that you'll have new creative ideas to bring to the table as we're constantly looking to improve out content production. We hope that you have some experience in using Twitch and Discord. Streaming experience is beneficial too. We are mainly looking for English speaking broadcasters, but are also interested in learning about Finnish and Swedish broadcasters, so don't hesitate to let us know if that is the case. For the English broadcasting, we expect you to have a good spoken English and some knowledge about the league and it's players. However, let's not forget the most important trait we value: enthusiasm.

As an NHLGamer Staff member, you will have a lot on your plate and we expect a certain level of work ethic, but in return you are provided with an interesting opportunity to enter the esports industry and develop your skills in a supportive environment. Several of our long-time members have made great improvements and taken steps towards a career in esports. 

The positions are unpaid at this time, but offer an opportunity gain valuable experience and a network of colleagues.

Contact

Please send your application as an email to careers@nhlgamer.com.
Please attach an introduction, your resume and a portfolio if you have one.

FLOU ❤️

As many of you already know our beloved friend and teammate, 
Daniel Anderzon - @Floor17, got hospitalized earlier this year after doctors through an MRI discovered a tumour in his brain.
Prior to the discovery Daniel had been struggling with major seizures of migraine over the course of a month, forcing him to take a step back from gaming, NHL and the community.

As doctors found out the tumour Wouldn't be operable, they put him on radiation therapy earlier this spring. Since then his body has been fighting off the cancer bravely - at times seeing progress with the tumour shrinking in size, at times being near collapse due to the tumour and treatment itself.
This took its toll on Daniel. Earlier this week his body simply couldn't take anymore and we received the news that Daniel has passed away, surrounded by his family.

As someone who's been around the community from day one, being one of the most well known players around, a pioneer for the entire scene for almost decade and a friend to so many, we would like to highlight who Daniel really was as a person. Having the opportunity to not only see the gamertag Floorbandy king or PSN-ID Floor17, but to really see the person behind it, is something we'll always treasure and the true value of being a part of Northern Stars through all these years.

Gaming was what brought us together and what held us together.
Ever since day one, 10 years ago, Daniel never really changed that much. Daniel were always Daniel, regardless if you got to know him at 16 or 26. Always humble, always a team player. Always the one wanting to play the support roles when the rest of us fooled around in other games, always the one taking a step back to help someone else taking three steps forward. Always ready to praise an opponent when beaten fair and square. It really defined him as a person. He always held his composure, both when playing and arguing, and has always been one of the major cornerstones in our team. Not only as a player, but as a leader in his own way and most importantly a friend to literally everyone who has ever come and gone throughout the years. The answer to how a team with cHIIMEERa and ma0niii as captains can last for a decade is as simple as Floor17. The youngest one of us, but yet the one who always kept our feet on the ground. We've always laughed at how he's always been like the grumpy but wise old man we've always needed.

It's admirable how much he knew about players and people in our community. If anyone ever would deserve one of those top fan badges for anything, it'd be Daniel for our NHL-community. He always loved to see and hear about people's opinions, with or without joining the discussion, and always loved to keep track on players in every team at NHLGamer and loved to watch all of the hardcore VS-players take it out on each other in tournaments and GWC. It's probably pretty common to easily get a bit salty and grow tired of a scene once you've been on top of that stage yourself, but for Daniel it was always a pleasure to watch others succeed just as much as being a part of it himself.

It feels surreal to write this text, as we're still in shock as it haven't really been able to sunk in yet. The constant in form of Daniel that's always been there for us when it comes down to NHL and Northern Stars is no more, it feels like we've lost our younger brother and this community has surely lost one of their brightest stars. 

We're thankful for every moment spent playing, talking and hanging out with you IRL throughout the years. You're a proof that anyone who says video games isn't a social thing and that video games can't be as fulfilling and connective as sports is wrong. You're missed and will never be forgotten.

We love you. @ma0niii & @cHIIMEERa
 

- - -

A word from @Kenu, NHLGamer:

On behalf of NHLGamer, I would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and teammates of Daniel in this tragic loss. Daniel was a beloved member of the community since day one and participated in all of our ECL seasons to date, racking up 199 games as a skater (123+163=286) and 2 games between the pipes (2W, 88,88%, 0,99 GAA, 1 SO). He was featured in one of our Hidden Gems articles during the ECL 5 season - you can read it here. 

Daniel will be forever missed, but not forgotten. In memoriam, we want to share with you a video highlighting some nice plays during Daniel's career with Northern Stars:

❤️

UPDATE:
We set up a fundraiser with @cHIIMEERa for Daniel's family to help with the expenses related to his passing and the funeral.

You can access it here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/qbnw2n-for-the-family-of-daniel-quotfloor17quot-anderzon

NHLGamers,

Today we’re extremely happy in announcing that Written In The Stars - our reigning ECL Champions and one of the most successful teams in the NHLGamer era has commenced a partnership together with HAVU Gaming - one of the most exciting organisations in Finnish esports. HAVU is one of the most well-established and active organisations in the Finnish esports scene and they have been announcing lots of convincing partnerships as of late. With the start of FCL today the timing is great to commence yet another tale of success. 
 

“HAVU has been looking for different options to expand into more games in competitive esports. Both the growth in popularity in different sporting games & the strong community and history around ice-hockey really made sense to go strongly into NHL esports. We had a great open discussion with the the team and our goals in the future were really similar. We want to show the world that Finnish NHL esports is going to stay in the absolute top also in the future. We are here to stay and to win titles.” - Lasse Salminen, CEO of HAVU Gaming

"It is a great honor to welcome HAVU Gaming into NHL esports. HAVU has in only a couple years been able to make themselves an impressive powerhouse within esports and we know that anything they decide to dive into, they do it with focus and effort. NHL esports has taken some massive strides recently and a lot of the credit goes to organisations such as HAVU that possess the vision and courage to jump into uncharted territory, providing support to a very potential competitive NHL Gaming scene and bringing it to the eyes of an even bigger audience. Written In The Stars is the reigning ECL Champion and one of the most consistent performers in the NHLGamer era, I am confident these guys representing HAVU are destined to do great things in the future." -NHLGamer founder Kenneth @Kenu Lehtinen
 

HAVU will from today onwards take the spot of Written In The Stars in ECL Elite. All team history will also be assumed by the new organisation. We had a short talk with the team captain Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha:

HAVU has formed several interesting partnerships as of late and is making a convincing surge for the top of Finnish esports. What does it mean for you guys to represent HAVU?

- We’re very excited and privileged to have this opportunity. HAVU has a great drive, an exciting brand and an organisation full of amazing people. We really got the feeling that HAVU wants to make a big push and invest in us, which surely adds to our excitement.

How does it feel to turn a new page in the history of Written In The Stars? After all, you were one of the most consistent top-level performers in recent years at NHLGamer.

- Personally I feel a bit sad, but all things must end someday and this new chapter will certainly be an interesting one. We’ve always wanted to lead the way and you’ll be seeing an even bigger push from us in the future tournaments. In the end, there’s nothing else but excitement about this new venture!

Do you think the new organisation will effect your team in some way? What can we expect from HAVU’s NHL team going forward?

- That’s a question you’ll have to ask again in a few months, but obviously the organisation having our backs will be a massive help to our team. We’ll have to take this chance in absorbing the positive energy and turning it into our asset moving forward. After all, we’re still playing the same game with the same guys, now only with more style!

HAVU NHL Roster:

• Risto @Dominointi Järvi
• Ilmari @Buantso Lehkonen
• Topi @topikeranen Keränen
• Wille @willekunq Juntunen
• Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen
• Vesa @VesKuLiNe Voutilainen
• Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha
• Kristian-Mikael @Nassustelija Katajisto

(In order of appearence in photo, from left to right)

About HAVU Gaming

Having been established in April of 2017, HAVU Gaming has just over 2 years worth of history in the rearview. Despite a rather young age, the organisation has been making waves in the esports world and is currently one of the most followed Finnish organisations. The organisations most notable accomplishments include a Finnish Esports League Counter Strike-championship in 2018 and a second place finish in 2019. In addition to this, HAVU has an impressive variety of streamers on their roster. Partnerships with the wildly popular lifestyle clothing brand Billebeino, Finnish hypermarket giant Prisma and multinational tech company Lenovo in the last month speaks volumes about the impressive surge for the top HAVU is starting to make.

About NHLGamer

Since its inception, NHLGamer has continuously strived to offer the best possible experience for any and all gamers who have come to enjoy the competitiveness of playing the EA Sports series of NHL games. We made our biggest stride forward yet when we in late 2015 introduced the first ever European Championship League (ECL) - a league where all the best European NHL gamers create teams and compete against each other in the game mode EASHL (6vs6) for the title of best EASHL Team in Europe. Since then, NHLGamer has hosted a wide variety of leagues worldwide and live-events in both Finland and Sweden.

Dear community, 

Unfortunately, we need to announce another ban for an NHLGamer member. The person is a repeat offender, @Alex28 (PSN ID AlexBVB28), who was officially banned from all leagues and tournaments on March 14th of this year.  

About two months ago the admins of NHLGamer were contacted with a hint that Alex has played with a new account (Camora) during the Summer Cup and the GCL 2 Season. This led to a detailed research from our side during which we found enough proof to confront him with those details.  

Two members of the NHLGamer staff confronted him with the accusations we had heard of and offered a reduced ban if he pleads guilty. Unfortunately, Alex denied having any second account named Camora and that this has nothing to do with him. At this point we showed him our technical findings.  

Finally, he confirmed that he created the new account Camora about one week after being banned and used this account as a team captain for Summer Cup and for playing in GCL 2.  

We also asked Alex to let us know if anyone was aware of his actions and he disclosed this information with us, with the condition that we agreed not to punish these users. We will honor our word and these gamers will not face any penalties. However, we do want to note that accepting this sort of behavior from your fellow community members is unacceptable and strongly punishable in the future. 

Rule infractions: 

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No player may have more than one account on NHLGamer.com. This account can be used for playing on different consoles simultaneously as long as the player has their PSN ID / Gamertag set up on their NHLGamer profile. 

Source

LA Ruling

Based on the above LA agreed on the following ruling: 

• AlexBVB28 will be banned for all NHLGamer activities / leagues / tournaments which are played on NHL 19. With the launch of NHL 20 he will be eligible to play again.
• AlexBVB28 will be banned from any captaincy role on NHLGamer for the next 5 years (until December 31st 2023). 
• Any further infractions against the rule of secondary accounts will result in a lifetime ban for AlexBVB28 from NHLGamer. 

Rule enhancements

We will also add the following additions to the rules: 

1. Teams who will pick up players that are currently banned from playing on NHLGamer will face serious penalties for doing so. The captains of the team will be banned for the duration of the season on NHLGamer and the team will be disqualified. For teams consisting of former teammates of the banned player, no proof is required in regards of whether or not they were aware. The assumption is that former teammates will be able to identify the banned player in voice chat parties or in WhatsApp groups.
    
2. New members on the NHLGamer platform - who have not participated in at least one event - cannot have a captain position of a team during the Summer Cup or for ECL Pro and ECL Elite teams. In order to confirm the identity of a member, NHLGamer Staff can ask for proof of identity as a means to prevent fraudulent behavior. 

FILADELPHIA is our IS Cup 3: 6vs6 eSM champion! (Picture courtesy of Jussi Jääskeläinen)

What a weekend, gamers!

GameXpo is now in the books and we can surely say it was a success. Saturday was the end of IS Cup 3 6vs6 and we set all kinds of records! It was most definitely a great stepping stone for the whole 6vs6 community. On behalf of NHLGamer, I’d like to thank everyone who showed up either to the event or joined via stream. Also a massive shoutout to everyone who helped out with the production of the event. Although we faced some adversity, our persistence prevailed and we were able to bring you what we are now proud to call the biggest event in NHL 6vs6 ever so far.

While the stakes were high, the players were enjoying themselves. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen)

Late on Saturday night, FILADELPHIA was crowned the champions of IS Cup 3: 6vs6 eSM. They are the first ever 6vs6 Finnish champions.

FILADELPHIA’s road to the cup:

10 wins, 1 loss and 1 overtime loss earned FILA a 2nd place behind Symphony in their group. Their one loss came in a 1-0 game against Symphony, who they later swept in dominant fashion in the semi-finals. @PleeMaker led the team in scoring through the group stage with 20+10 combining for a total of 30 points. 

FILA was coming in very confident into the finals event at Messukeskus, as captain @Patzlaf stated in an interview for Ilta-Sanomat that nobody is going to stop them from winning the tournament. FILADELPHIA played their semi-final against Symphony, who managed to steal points from them in the group stage. This time, FILA came out strong right from the get-go and were determined to send their competition home quick. The first game ended up being tightly contested and ended in a 2-1 win for FILA, with an impressive amount of people watching the game both at the event and on stream. The boys in orange also managed to win the second game, now with a larger score margin, 4-1. FILA was now in for a short break as the bronze game was taking place before the finals.

The final series were extremely even and long, the players had to focus for an extended amount of time. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen)

The finals were a different kind of spectacle for sure. I think it's safe to say we've never seen two teams matching up that well agains each other. All games went into OT and a total of only five goals were scored over the around 15 periods of hockey played. FILA won the first game as right wing @Eki opened the scoring of the IS Cup 3 6vs6 finals early in the first overtime period. The second game of the finals was one for the ages. Both teams went at it full-force and Written In The Stars had came back to play with their backs against the wall. FILA drew first blood and they looked like certain champions but SKY had different thoughts as they tied the game two minutes before the buzzer. Regular time ended 1-1 and we headed into overtime again. The teams played through five scoreless periods despite several scoring chances and bouncing pucks around the crease, only to see SKY right wing @Dominointi bury the series-tying goal in 6th overtime. What a thriller! There was still one decisive game left, both teams very exhausted but ready to go head-to-head for the trophy and a whole lot of cash that comes with it. We saw no surprise as it was yet agains a very tightly contested battle and both teams showed excellent defensive play and outstanding patience with the puck. It took 2nd overtime in game 3 to decide our IS Cup 3 6vs6 champion as @vatalisti, the right defenseman of FILA blasted a rocket from the blueline. The puck chipped the left post and crossed the line at 8:45 into double overtime of game 3 and we had a champion!

Vatalisti scored the decisive goal of the IS Cup 3 6vs6 finals. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen)

1.  FILADELPHIA 🥇

Championship roster:

Forwards
Patzlaf (C) @Patzlaf 🥇
I_Eki_I (A) @Eki 🥇
PleeMaker @PleeMaker 🥇
mikaasi @mikaasi 🥇
FIN_Potilas @FIN_Potilas 🥇

Defensemen
vatalisti @vatalisti 🥇
Janzuh @Janzuh 🥇
oGBioLan @oGBioLan 🥇

Goaltenders
FinKonna (A) @FinKonna 🥇
Zande95 @sibeelius 🥇

2.  Written In The Stars 🥈

Written In The Stars had to settle for second place this time - despite their great effort. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen)

Forwards
Dominointi (A) @Dominointi 🥈
FlyerKungen (C) @FlyerKungen 🥈
Bugimir @Bugimir 🥈
topikeranen @topikeranen 🥈

Defensemen
jtorro1234 (A) @jtorro1233 🥈
willekunq @willekunq 🥈
JOHTAJAVIRTANEN @JOHTAJAVIRTANEN 🥈
VesKuLiNe @VesKuLiNe 🥈

Goaltenders
JANURI98 @JanneK. 🥈
Hansulinho @Hansulinho 🥈



3.  Symphony 🥉

Symphony managed to win the bronze game and secure the bronze medal. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen)

Forwards
ADETIKKI @ADETIKKI 🥉
indi969 (C) @indi969 🥉
Puantso (A) @Buantso 🥉

Defensemen
vSilenttio (A) @vSilenttio 🥉
Ilmari_30 @Ilmari_30 🥉
Entii112 @entii112 🥉

Goaltenders
Laurilion @Lauri 🥉

Results of IS Cup 3: 6vs6 eSM
Semi-final: Written In The Stars - Dynasty 2-0 (5-0, 3-2 OT)

Semi-final: FILADELPHIA - Symphony 2-0 (2-1, 4-1)

Bronze game: Symphony - Dynasty 2-0

Final: Written In The Stars - FILADELPHIA 1-2 (0-1 OT, 2-1 OT, 0-1 OT)

IS Cup 3 ended in a disappointing 4th place for Dynasty (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen)

Once again, thanks to all the teams, viewers, staff and everyone who in some way participated in the event. We made history and we will continue on that path onto even greater things to come. Also, congratulations to FILADELPHIA as the recent IS Cup 3 6vs6 champions!

What's up NHLGamers,

Today we're extremely happy to have the opportunity in bringing you some world class 6vs6 action from our live event at GameXpo, Messukeskus in Helsinki. We're of course referring to the Finnish Champiopnships in NHL 6vs6, also known as IS Cup 3 and more exactly the final four of this tournament. 

The schedule of today will look as follows (times are CET):

10:30 | Dynasty – Written In The Stars (BO3)

12:00 | FILADELPHIA – Symphony (BO3)

16:00 | Bronze Game

16:30 | Final (BO3)

All games will be streamed live over at our Twitch channel. Please tune in and support your favourites! We'll also be active on all our social media channels, so make sure to follow our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
If you're from around the Helsinki area, you can also visit us and watch the games live on the big stage at GameXpo. Also note that t-shirts are still available at our booth if you didn't preorder.

See you at 10:30!

Red Jackets GCL Registration & Member Ban

The team Red Jackets - registered by member @schlundleo15 - will not be allowed to participate in the GCL3. This decision was made after reviewing the accounts of all captains who registered teams.

During this check it was discovered that the captain schlundleo15 had registered the team Western Dynasty as user man-at-work-74 before, after which he removed the registration without notifying the assistant captains. This lead to further account investigations during which we discovered that the user holds up an overall of so far six known accounts on NHLGamer, each associated with different PSN ID's/Gamertags. Western Dynasty's registration has been recovered and the team will be allowed to start the GCL3 season.

The discovered accounts so far are the following:

• sebbo
• xtreeem42
• Luroalel
• sabre2411
• man-at-work-74
• schlundleo15

This is a not acceptable behaviour and also not in line with the rules for competing in tournaments on NHLGamer.com. Therefore all accounts except one (chosen by the member within 24 hours) will be removed. The user is required to unveil any other possible account belonging to him. If an existing account that NHLGamer was not notified of within 24 hours is detected, this will also affect the ban period. As a result of the current findings, the user will be banned from all NHLGamer leagues and tournaments until December 31st 2019. If during this timeframe any new infractions or new registrations with a different ID are detected, the ban will be prolonged and can be changed to a lifetime ban.

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No player may have more than one account on NHLGamer.com. This account can be used for playing on different consoles and in different leagues/tournaments simultaneously as long as the player has their PSN ID / Gamertag set up on their NHLGamer profile.

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- League Administration

Hey NHLGamers,

We have plenty of seasons starting, with IS Cup 3, RCL, ECL and GCL starting up in the coming days, so it's a good time to refresh your knowledge about game reporting! Due to the new World of Chel dressing room mechanic, the EA API doesn't yet contain the stats nor results for private game sessions, so at least for the start of the season, the captains will have to do slightly more manual work.

Reporting games isn't difficult at all, but please have a look at the below for a good reminder before the season start in an attempt to clear any misunderstandings.

1) As a captain, you can see the TEAM TOOLS menu. To report a match, simply click ADD MATCH.

2) Next, pick the game you are reporting - remember, by default, the home team reports the team stats. It's good to have screenshots off all stats just in case, though. Click Add stats to add the team stats (for individual stats, see #5)

3) It's time to add the team stats. Quite simple, but pay attention to filling out all of the fields correctly. Note that it asks for amount of penalties, not penalty minutes! When you're happy with it, click Submit.

4) This is a re-cap screen. Please double-check that everything is correct. If you need to fix something, just click back.

5) Here's the part that the teams fill out individually. If you were the home team and reported the team stats, you'll be taken to this screen automatically. If your opponent reported the team stats, see #6 for how to get to this screen. You get the penalty and goal times from the Box Score menu in the game. Do not use the Action Tracker times, as they are reversed.

6) If you're the away team and your opponent reported the team stats, you'll see Add individual stats as an option in the reporting tool.

So there you have it. Be patient and everything will go smoothly. Just be sure to take pictures of all of the stats before exiting the game and use the times from the Box Score and not the Action Tracker and you'll be good.

Questions?

What if the game disconnects?

At the time of a disconnect, both teams need to take down all of the stats (take screenshots or photos). After the rest of the game has been played out, stats for both relevant portions of the games need to be merged, to report the whole game on NHLGamer.com. This whole procedure can be repeated multiple times, in case players drop out more than once during one scheduled game.

What if the game is reported incorrectly?

Contact support

Anything else? Ask us in the comments!

How's it going, gamers?

You might have seen us post recruitment posts looking for writers and artists some time ago. That's not all we need, though. NHLGamer is growing and there's demand for more and more content that is of higher quality than ever before. We're looking to take some big steps and need the help of our community.

Therefore, we're now reaching out to you guys looking for broadcasters. This mainly means we are looking for people to do play-by-play (think "Doc" Emrick) and commentary (think Eddie Olczyk), but we are also looking for some high caliber streamers that can share the responsibility of making our Twitch channel the best place for NHL gaming action with content every day.

As a broadcaster you will have a very visible role on our Twitch channel.Your tasks will include commentating on matchups that are being streamed and engaging with the chat while doing so. We also hope that you'll have new creative ideas to bring to the table as we're constantly looking to improve out content production. We hope that you have some experience in using Twitch and Discord. Streaming experience is beneficial too. We are mainly looking for English speaking broadcasters, but are also interested in learning about Finnish and Swedish broadcasters, so don't hesitate to let us know if that is the case. For the English broadcasting, we expect you to have a good spoken English and some knowledge about the league and it's players. However, let's not forget the most important trait we value: enthusiasm.

If you're interested, please send a small intro about yourself (links to your previous work is appreciated!) to @Kenu and we'll get going from there. If it's not for you but you happen to know someone who might be suitable, please refer your friend!

NHLGamer, in co-operation with Ilta-Sanomat, SJK eSports and SEAMK will be organizing the Finnish Championship in NHL 19 and FIFA 19. The sponsors of the tournament named IS Cup 3 are ED and PlayStation.

IS Cup 3 includes three tournaments: NHL 19 1vs1, NHL 19 6vs6 and FIFA 19 1vs1. Purchasing an eSM license will grant a player eligibility to participate in all of these tournaments. Please note that participation also requires Finnish citizenship. The total price pool amounts to 15 000 €.

The first event of the eSM tournament series will be held in the beginning of November (2.-3.11.) at the GameXpo-exhibition at Messukeskus in Helsinki. The second event will be held at the OmaSp Gaming House in Seinäjoki, after which the final tournament is back over in Helsinki at Kauppakeskus REDI.

www.is.fi/cup will be the place to follow the progression of the tournament throughout October, November and December.

Three main events

The first IS Cup 3 final event will be the NHL 19 6vs6 final at GameXpo on the 3rd of November. At this event, the four top teams from the online qualifiers will be competing for a price of 4500€.

The FIFA 19 1vs1 event will be held at the OmaSp Gaming House in Seinäjoki, the event takes place on the 24th of November. Six players will qualify through online qualifiers, and two players will receive invites from the organizers. These players will battle it out for the price of 2500€.

The NHL 1vs1 tournament takes the IS Cup back to Helsinki, as 16 players (four invites) will be fighting for a price of 8000€ at Kauppakeskus REDI on the 15th of December. A qualifier tournament will be held on the 2nd of November at GameXpo, the two top players will secure spots in the final. The remaining ten spots will be secured through online qualifiers between 8.-28.11.

How to participate

The online qualifiers will be organized by NHLGamer. There is no maximum amount of participants in the online qualifiers.

As stated, an eSM license and Finnish citizenship will be required to participate. The license costs 5€ and can be bought at http://www.esm.gg/pelaajalisenssi/. One license will grant eligibility to all tournaments and events.

Registration takes place at NHLGamer.com.

Schedules for the tournament can be viewed at NHLGamer.com. For now, the schedule is an estimate. The final schedule will be confirmed after the registration is closed. For more information on how to sign up, visit www.is.fi/cup.

For all of our international members - don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you! Sign up for ECL 7 now and stay tuned for more exciting announcements in the near future!

Dear NHLGamers,

As you all know, the new season of ECL is closing in on us. We'll have an exciting competitive season to look forward to.
In addition to just playing, we're looking to create the best content yet for you guys to enjoy. Therefore, we're now looking to boost our ranks with some artists!

Artist

What is expected of you?

You'll be working in tight co-operation with the rest of the ECL staff to create various types of art required for the site. Examples could be (but not limited to)  various images for streams or special events, pictures for articles or even some cool animations to be used on social media. We're hoping that you have some previous experience in image editing and have a small portfolio to showcase to us in your application. You will also need to have access to software required for completion of your tasks. 

If you're interested, please contact @Kenu by private message here on NHLGamer.com. Also feel free to refer a friend if it's not for you!

NHL 19 Competitive Review: 'The NHL series has grown up'

Welcome NHLGamers to the first ever game review on NHLGamer.com!

First of all, you might be wondering how a NHL-only website writing a NHL 19 review makes sense from a traditional standpoint - we're not IGN, GameSpot or one of the other big bangers in the media industry, right? That is the same question we have been asking ourselves, and instead of coming up with a simple overview of all the different game modes and new additions to the game, we decided to go for a so-called 'Competitive Review' that really takes a deeper look at the gameplay and how it affects players' favourite game modes. After all, there might not be a better place for a profound NHL game review thanks to the many enthusiasts and top players that gather on our platform. Whether you're a hardcore player or not, you can expect some interesting insight into game mechanics, World of Chel including the new NHL Ones and EASHL, as well as Hockey Ultimate Team which will be the second focus of our review to cover the 1v1 portion of NHL 19. To take care of this, we tasked @gzell60, our long-time NHLGamer Staff member and NHL player since 2009, to dive in with his review copy. Let's get started!

Gameplay: Familiar, but radically different

The question is: where do we start? There is a slew of changes players will face when they first pick up NHL 19. Aside from passing and deking, all gameplay elements across skating, poke-checking, hitting, shooting and faceoffs have been adjusted, some more drastically than others.

Skating

For instance, skating feels like a night and day difference thanks to the addition of 'Real Player Motion (RPM) Tech'. All NHL 18 players are likely familiar with what felt like artificial delay that was present in the skating mechanics, which lead to gameplay being slow and not enjoyable a lot of times - neither did it replicate the explosiveness that actual ice hockey is known for, nor did it allow for many creative moves since they were too predictable and the controls were simply out of place. This time around, the gameplay is noticeably faster and skating feels much more direct and responsive, which gives more freedom when it comes to creating plays and pulling off breathtaking dekes. While I do understand when people argue about it looking too arcade-y, in my opinion it is a necessary trade-off to offer players the tools they need to show their true skill on the ice. After all, EA SPORTS NHL is not a hockey simulation. Once you get the hang of the new skating engine, you will start to notice how severely other areas of gameplay were limited by it before.

Stick-checking / Stick-lifting

Nothing less important, poke-checking has seen a drastic overhaul for the good as well. For the past 8 years, the so-called 'poke spam' was a tool that was commonly used by the vast majority of players online in defense - simply because mashing the R1/RB button was effective enough to steal the puck or cover open space without too much of a risk of drawing penalties, even if your stick passed players' legs multiple times. The players that perfected their timing and positioning on the other hand did not really see a big advantage on their hand, because poke spam got the job done pretty good as well. NHL 19 will now consistently call tripping penalties for poking through your opponents' legs, which means the often-talked-about skill gap is back. Don't even try to land a pokecheck from behind or from the sides unless you absolutely want to sit in the box. In addition to this, poke-check targeting was dramatically increased, which means that whenever you tap the R1/RB button, your stick will always go in the direction of the puck - before, there had always been some randomness associated to it (probably to make up for the poke spam). If you are perfectly lined up with your opponent trying to pokecheck, you can now expect these attempts to be successful at least 90% of times from my experience. If you are not perfectly lined up and feel like you need to take a risk, do not complain if you have to sit down in the penalty box. In the competitive scene, this is likely the single most anticipated adjustment, whereas many more casual players have complained about receiving way too many tripping penalties. On top of this, you might also be happy to hear that L1/LB spam, which was discovered on NHLGamer (and pointed out towards the development team first!) and commonly used along the boards as a replacement for pokechecks, is now a thing of the past as well. You can still use pass blocking, but compared to NHL 18 tripping penalties will now be called if you hit players' skates. To make up for close encounters where poke spam or pass block spam won't work anymore, the effectiveness of stick-lifts has been increased. Maybe to an extent where sticklifting becomes kind of a spam fest now, seeing how rarely slashing and high sticking penalties will occur even from mediocre positioning, but considering how it's a tool that is commonly used in real hockey too, I feel like we are not too far away from great balancing. Generally, the defensive focus has shifted away from poke-checks to sticklifts and hitting, which was improved drastically too.

Hitting

One of NHL 18's biggest flaws was its hitting engine, that turned out to be scarily close to broken whenever a big and heavy player was in puck possession. This was most noticeable in 6v6 EASHL, where at least most European top forwards were consistently using the Power Forward build that allowed them to make hitting players bounce off by using puck protection or holding the stick out to the forehand side - even if they were faced by other Power Forward or Two Way Defender classes. As a result, the physical component of the game usually went missing as soon as two skilled parties had to play each other (not only in EASHL, but also in VS and HUT). NHL 19's hitting engine however gets the job done pretty well. In the many hours I played before writing this review, I rarely saw players completely bounce off their opponent unless they were significantly slower or aiming was off. Instead, a stumble animation will now kick in much more aggressively when there is slight body contact, which will not only slow the opponent down, but possibly also make the player lose the puck for a short moment. This does not only apply to charged up hits from a distance, but also if you are skating side-by-side up close, which means hitting is now a viable alternative to stick-lifting. All in all, there is a satisfying balance between all the defensive tools that allow you to tackle a player in any situation. Personally, I'd like to see stumbles trigger even more aggressively than they do now simply because there should never be any kind of incident where body contact does nothing at all, even if it only means losing speed. These incidents do still occur here and then though.

Other

Besides skating, stick-checking/lifting and hitting, there are also a couple of smaller gameplay adjustments that made it into NHL 19. For one, it feels like both wrist shots and slap shots received a smaller nerf. While longer wind-ups during a slap shot seem to increase shooting power and accuracy and lead to deflected shots more often (probably to punish players that collapse all the time and refuse to cover the point more vigurously), wrist shots from the high slot now seem to miss their target regularly. I can only assume the latter was done to decrease the success rate of a specific glitch shot (short-side from the high slot), although it is only a partial fix and other known glitches still seem to work well enough. Additionally, I suspect an increase in AI learning during breakaways as most of the go-to moves in NHL 18 only seem to work once or twice during a game, whereas a wide variety of different attempts during a single game looks to be more successful so far. Looking at EASHL and other World of Chel modes (which we will get to in a second), skaters are now able to see an endurance bar in the lower left corner of the screen. Using L3/LS to hustle will use up more energy, while gliding or standing still will allow you to recover. The more you get used to this feature, the more it turns out to be a real gamechanger as it brings a whole new level of strategy to the game. Human goalies will be happy to hear their controls are not delayed anymore either, similar to skaters the game plays much more responsive and rewards good vision and quick reaction times with saves from cross crease attempts that were not possible in NHL 18. Lastly, broken sticks were disabled entirely in all online modes. This is just another indication that EA SPORTS are trying to achieve a game that is suited for esports, and on this road they aim to eliminate all RNG ('Random Number Generator', refers to game mechanics that are based on luck) elements.

Next to the more aggressive stumbling I mentioned earlier, that brings me to my biggest point of criticism in the gameplay department which is related to glitch shots. Even though the development team tried to tackle these with lowered wrist shot accuracy from afar, they still seem to work very frequently, especially when goalies are handicapped by the goalie screen effect. NHL 19 shines thanks to reducing randomness (e.g. no broken sticks in online games, more accurate poke-checks) and encouraging quick, creative plays (that is what the new skating engine is basically all about), and that is why in my opinion, we need to talk about its existence. Personally, I believe disabling goalie screens altogether would lead to less successful glitch shot attempts, which in turn would further encourage passing, creativity, and skill. Similar to many other gameplay aspects, its a question of how much we are ready to sacrifice realism for competitiveness.

Last but not least, I imagine many players would love to see an overhaul of the physics engine. It starts with clothing being static and not affected by player movement and ends with weird puck bounces from shots, rebounds and puck dumps a lot of the time. This is where EA's Ignite engine possibly hits its limits, and I hope and expect Frostbite to add a breath of fresh air not only to the physics department, but the overall presentation of the game in the future. This is of course a minor complaint in a competitive review, but let's not underestimate the effect of a good game presentation on broadcasts or live events! The viewerbase and thus the perception of EA SPORTS NHL as a whole could benefit from it a lot.

World of Chel: An EASHL revolution... and much more!

'World of Chel' was one of the buzzwords that was used the most in the NHL 19 marketing campaign during the past few months. With World of Chel, EA SPORTS collected all of the Online Pro modes under one roof: EASHL (3v3 & 6v6 Club & Drop-in games), THREES Drop-In and the two new game modes, NHL Ones and NHL Pro-Am.

A new level of customization and progression

Aside of the game modes, a lot of work has been done to the underlying player and club progression system, as well as player customization. As you progress through player levels by gaining experience points in any of the modes mentioned above, you will earn so-called 'hockey bags' that include Pro and Casual gear, hairstyles, celebrations, emotes (for goals, big hits and big saves) and Hockey Ultimate Team reward packs from any of four different tiers (common, rare, epic or legendary) in random order. For club games, you are able to earn club hockey bags that include club-related items like logos, jerseys, arenas and arena customization options. While these club hockey bags remind us a lot of loot boxes in other EA games, they cannot be purchased with real money and only be earned by playing World of Chel, which makes the hunt for new gear a refreshing experience that rewards only the players that invest time on their road of becoming the best player out there. The sheer amount of new gear will definitely allow everyone to express their style on the ice, and is a big progress in the presentation area of the game. However, I have to ask the following question: Who thought it would be a good idea to send a player through 6 different selection menus to equip, for example, a hoodie (e.g. Casual -> Clothing -> Tops -> Home -> Hoodies -> World of Chel)? Performance-wise, menus still aren't the greatest of all time and this just adds another layer of complexity to the user experience. Yuck.

Next to hockey bags, players are also able to unlock 'loadout slots' and 'traits' by levelling up, which are the two main changes to player build customization this year. While you still have a choice of different player classes (Power Forward, Two Way Forward etc.), they can now be adjusted in terms of height and weight (which affects player attributes to a certain extent) and by adding a maximum of three traits. There is a good variety of traits waiting for you to be unlocked, and each one comes with increases and decreases to player attributes at the same time. For example, you can choose to add to your Balance attribute while sacrificing Wrist Shot Accuracy, or boost your Acceleration at the cost of Agility. Furthermore, there is a second, more mysterious category of traits that allows you to boost a certain gameplay mechanic at a time without any visible effect on hard attribute values. As an example, you could decide to go for more effective deflections in front of the net, increase the accuracy of saucer passes or go for extended endurance. A player class, together with height and weight, handedness and three traits can be saved in one out of a total of five different loadout slots (e.g. one for NHL Ones and four other slots for different positions in EASHL club games). These changes to player build customization are a huge deal and a great mix between the procedure that was used up until NHL 16 (that allowed you to distribute attribute points any way you liked and turned out to be a little broken as several attributes didn't seem to have any effect) and the premade builds that were introduced in NHL 17 to even out the build aspect for increased focus on individual player skill. At the time of writing this, it feels like the development team nailed the balance between all the player builds almost perfectly, although a big chunk of this is also made possible by the many adjustments to gameplay. There's no reason anymore to go with a Power Forward all the time - instead, each player class really shows its advantages and disadvantages more than ever, and the whole building aspect is now more about creating the type of player that suits your personal playstyle best. This is an important prerequisite to becoming a game that is ready for competitive players and tournaments and personally, I feel like this has never been possible as good as this year since the creation of EASHL almost ten years ago.

With all the positive things, there are two points of criticism I would like to get out as well. Firstly, I would love to see an even wider variety of traits to choose from, which are more evenly spread out across the player progression system. Currently you will have all traits unlocked before hitting player level 50, which means there are another 150 player levels to go before maxing out - and as far as it looks like, you will only be able to unlock cosmetic items and Hockey Ultimate Team rewards, nothing that influences gameplay. Secondly, now that Hockey Ultimate Team comes with (daily) objectives and milestones (more on that later), I wonder why there is no equivalent for World of Chel. An additional hockey bag a day or some truly unique pieces of gear that can be obtained by completing tasks across all the different World of Chel modes wouldn't hurt nobody, right?

NHL Ones: Hockey free-for-all

NHL Ones is one of two new game modes that was introduced this year. You are thrown onto the ice with two other opponent players for 3 minutes plus overtime (if needed) where you will battle it out against an AI goalie on a rink size that's approximately as large as the offensive zone of a regular NHL rink. The twist here is that compared to regular ice hockey, where only two parties are fighting for the victory, NHL Ones brings a third party to the ice which also introduces a lot of new strategical elements: If you are in puck possession, you will face off against two opponsing players that start to play defense together to keep you from scoring, and ideally you will do the same whenever you lose possession of the puck. Sometimes you will even find two players team up offensively: Imagine you're at 0 goals, Player B is at 1 goal and Player C is at 2 goals while there are only thirty seconds left to play. In this scenario, you either have the option to play on your own in hopes of scoring two quick goals - which is rather unlikely - or help Player B score the tying goal which would make the match go into overtime, giving you additional time to tie and eventually win. In theory, this kind of experience is a great addition to NHL 19, as it allows EASHL newcomers to quickly get a feel for controlling your Online Pro only and to get a couple of quick level-ups on your way to unlocking traits and gear. In practice however, and especially from a competitive perspective, the story is a little... well, very different.

Penalties of any kind are entirely deactivated in NHL Ones. This is a step further from the Threes modes that were introduced last year, where only hitting penalties (boarding and hitting from behind) were disabled. Together with the small rink that does not give you a whole lot of room to show your deking skills in the first place, both defenders can simply run into you and press R1/RB repeatedly to eventually strip the puck away from you. This limits players' capabilities of creating scoring chances so severly that most people will just stay back and play the following waiting game for the entire 3 minutes:

Step 1: Stand in front of the net, let Player B deal with Player C and ensure that nobody gets past you when B and C eventually got rid of each other

Step 2: Wait for Players B and C to lose energy and desperately start hitting each other along the boards

Step 3: As soon as either B and C are down on the ice and cannot get back up quickly due to low energy, get in and hit the remaining player to the ground

Step 4: Use your breakaway opportunity and score a goal

Talking about breakaways brings us to the next issue. Goalies in NHL Ones are way too inconsistent. Whereas 3v3 and 6v6 bot goalies are known to be incredibly strong on cross-creases and breakaways, and the only real working way of beating them is to refer to several glitch moves, goalies in NHL Ones tend to create highlight saves one time and completely open up the net for a free goal the next time. During my time with the mode, trying out plenty of different traits that increase shooting, deking and breakaway skills, none really made a difference to goalie behaviour - as it is now, you got to live with the fact that all of your breakaways may be saved while both of your opponents will find open nets most of the time (of course, I've seen it the other way round as well). At the same time, you will come across players that try to snipe the goalie from almost blue line distance (from the very back of the rink), simply because it works way too often.

Lastly, the progression system in NHL Ones feels rushed and like a single huge missed opportunity. Currently, leaderboards are reset after a specific amount of time (24 hours?), after which you will be sent back to Tier 4. From there, each win will send you up one Tier, while two losses in a row will send you down one Tier. If you manage to get to Tier 1, you will be rewarded with a special 'Diamond Tier' hockey bag once the 24 hour event is over, that supposedly gives you higher chances of earning legendary and epic pieces of gear. So far, this 24 hour tournament is the only kind of progression system there is, and I have to wonder why there are no bigger scale tournaments or other incentives and possibilities to earn some truly unique pieces of gear. After all, we are talking about the same developers that came up with things like Competitive Seasons in Hockey Ultimate Team. Unfortunately, while being an incredibly fun idea on paper, NHL Ones suffers from too many issues and - in its current form - is only good for wasting time while waiting for your teammates to get online for 3v3 or 6v6 EASHL. As I do like the idea, I hope the development team will take a deeper look to find the right gameplay balance and make it a more intruiging experience all around.

NHL Pro-Am: Offline 3v3 with your Online Pro

Summarizing NHL Pro-Am is easy: EA SPORTS have taken 3v3 EASHL offline and allow you to step on the ice with your personal Online Pro to take on other Threes teams consisting of some of the best hockey players there have ever been. While the majority of games are on for three periods with two minutes each, there are also some final tournament games that require you to score three or five goals to win. Along the way you will play around 50 games which will earn you 300 experience points each and also allow you to unlock a few Pro-Am hockey bags. There is a decent amount of player level progress to be made here, so if you are all about leveling up your character as quick as possible and without much effort - the difficulty is rather low and your bot teammates will get the job done most of the time - you should definitely take a look at NHL Pro-Am. Together with NHL Ones, I imagine it's a good way to get prepared for EASHL. Ones allows you to nail the basics in player movement while Pro-Am gets you some initial teamplay practice. Even though both game modes are nothing special, I like this approach of encouraging more players to get into NHL teamplay. "Where there are no bot players involved, players can show their true skill" is something that was mentioned by EA SPORTS NHL producer Sean Ramjagsingh in one of the interviews with NHLGamer during the NHL 19 Producer Tour in Stockholm and Helsinki at the end of August, and you can clearly see that this is what the development team is striving for with World of Chel. With that being said, let's check how all the changes to gameplay affect 3v3 and 6v6 EASHL in NHL 19.

EASHL: Sport gaming's best competitive mode, now even better

From a game mode perspective, EASHL is pretty much still the same as in NHL 18. You will be able to play 6v6 or 3v3 club games, or join drop-in lobbies for both versions in case you are out of teammates. Challenge lobbies haven't made it into the release version of NHL 19, we reported about it earlier, but they will be back with the next game update in October. For some reason, playoff club games are also still available (does anyone really still play those?) - as I said, it's EASHL as you know it, with one neat addition: Clubs can now play 6v6 and 3v3 games at the same time, as they are now seperated into two different locker rooms. Personally, I know the feeling of having 9 players online at the same time all too well, and being able to rotate between the locker rooms without requiring anyone to pause until a game is over is a great plus.

In terms of gameplay, I think we can all agree: the skill gap is back! And in EASHL, it is where it reflects the most. Now that poke spam is a thing of the past, the gameplay is all about positioning. As players in general are less confident in pulling off successful pokechecks and will resort to hits and sticklifts more often, this opens up a lot of newly gained space to create passing plays. Thus, forwards are well-advised to rotate as much as possible to create chances and find open passing lanes before they are struck down by a hit (remember, no more bouncing off!), while defenders will be rewarded by moving around more intensely and accurately to intercept passes (which now seems to work consistently if you are positioned correctly). Together with the new skating engine, that sped up the entire game in general and allows for more explosive movement, all of this becomes a much harder, but also more enjoyable task at the same time.

Although the improvements far outweigh the negatives, it is only fair to mention them as well. Shot deflections, especially with the Deflection Master trait (increased your ability to deflect shots) being equipped, become nothing short of ridiculous sometimes. Slapshots from the blue line that would otherwise horribly miss the net get redirected towards the net, while the deflecting player is literally 10 feet or less away from the shooter. This and many other examples kind of break the idea to encourage passing and creativity, and deserve a solid nerf in my opinion. Outside of that though, there is not a whole lot to complain about. You still get occasional weird puck bounces, occasional magnetic sticks that allow players to magically pass through two defending players and occasional goalie interference calls that make you question some of the animation work going on, but all of that a lot less regular than in NHL 18. Still though, it feels like we are hitting the Ignite engine's limits in this department, and I am looking forward to the introduction of Frostbite that could potentially help with more accurate puck and player physics to make another big step towards an esports ready NHL game. This time around though, EASHL is very close to being exactly that. A mode without bots that allows players to show their true skill. And a mode that for now refuses to acknowledge this skill, as EASHL leaderboards are sorted by played games instead of competitive rating, which means a team that quits games 100 times in a row would be ranked #1. We talked about some weird design choices already and we'll add this one to the list.

(At the time of writing this, EASHL has been suffering from severe matchmaking issues which kind of overshadow the whole experience. Players are frequently dropping out of lobbies due to 'dressing room errors' when the game loading screen kicks in, and there is no ETA for a fix, nor was any workaround discovered so far. EASHL matchmaking has an infamous record of issues in the past, from all game long home captain lag a couple of years ago, to matchmaking refusing to work altogether when teams idle in the dressing room for too long (which seems to be present still). The EASHL playerbase is definitely a little scarred, and many people are asking how these issues are still popping up and not discovered and fixed ahead of game release.)

Hockey Ultimate Team: Great framework, joyful gameplay with issues

Just like the headline, I believe it is worth splitting up the review about Hockey Ultimate Team into two parts: the framework, and the gameplay (which applies to Online Versus too).

Objectives & Milestones: Progress matters

In terms of the game mode, the framework as I like to call it, we are looking at various improvements over last year's edition of HUT. What stands out most in my opinion is the newly introduced objectives and milestones system, which rewards you with coins, loan players, packs and (hopefully!) yet to be discovered other goodies for the hardcore players that invest hundreds of hours each year into collecting player cards and building their dream team. Next to the obvious milestones (e.g. score X goals, play X games), there is also a daily category that unlocks specfic challenges for 24 hours only, like completing a set or buying items off the auction house. The amount of challenges is huge, and by the time I have finished this review, I was not able to tell whether they can actually come to an end, or if they expand indefinitely. In the past, Hockey Ultimate Team always felt like a tough grind when it came to obtaining new items, which eventually put me off after a month or two. With the implemenation of a steady flow of coins and items, this has changed into the right direction a lot, and I see myself coming back just to complete some of the daily challenges. Players that really go all-in with Hockey Ultimate Team are now rewarded even more, as the amount of coins they obtain by simply playing the game rises drastically. In that regard both casuals and competitive players will benefit a lot. Next to the objectives and milestones, a new feature that proves to be much more useful than it first sounded, are pack probabilities. When you hover over a pack from the store, pressing the Triangle/Y button allows you see the likelihood of obtaining a player of a specific overall rating range. It adds a lot to the transparency of the entire game mode, and is a good indicator on what to spend your coins and points (bought with actual money).

Team building: Where less is sometimes more

Talking about the contents of packs, players now come with much lower overall values compared to NHL 18 (I'll get back to that later on), and the development team also explained they were going to limit the amount of versions a specific player can have, for example Team of the Week specials. Looking back at NHL 18, where recently released player cards were essentially worthless after a month due to frequent releases of updated cards that came with increased overall strength, I think this is a good development. One could almost compare it with PS3/360 era legend cards for EASHL players that required you to play a ludicrous amount of games just to be able to keep up with other players and teams out there. In the end, it's always about finding the right balance between giving players something they can work for while still making sure skill is the deciding factor to win games. If you want to put in the money or work to obtain an ultra rare, one-time special edition of a player, that's totally fine - but having a team of top-rated gold rare players should not put you at a disadvantage as early as 3 months after release. On top of that premise, I also hope this limitation is going to affect collectibles and sets as well. Remember all the Flashback, EVO, Prime, Milestone, TOTW... ... ...collectibles from NHL 18? Yes, it really got out of hand quickly.

When we take a look at the gameplay in HUT and Versus, we should likely start off by going back to player overall values. Whereas Evgeni Malkin was rated 88 overall in NHL 18, he is now an 86 overall in NHL 19. Another example? Sidney Crosby was reduced from 90 overall to 87 overall. The same effect will probably also apply to special editions of players in the future, which means players rated above 94 overall are thankfully not the standard anymore. This is good news for two reasons. First of all, it brings the player base closer together so focus is on skill instead of player strength. Secondly, certain game mechanics tend to break as soon as you get players with very high ratings on the ice, such as shooting and skating. Glitch shots can be abused even more frequently, and insane values on acceleration and agility made it easy to simply skate past players with regular values, making it impossible for the opponent to actually defend. And this brings us back to the first part of the review: Thanks to lower overall values, all the gameplay changes to skating, hitting and stick-checking stay entirely relevant in 1v1 modes as well. Focus on skill over strength? Yes, I mentioned it a couple of times already.

Let me be straight with you: Hockey Ultimate Team and Versus are a joy to play. Similar to World of Chel, the improvements make a huge difference - NHL 19's 1v1 hockey is fast, varied, creative and unforgiving, though there are also a couple of issues that become apparent very quick. While the AI has been tuned to not take penalties anymore - or as one of our ECL staff members used to say, "EA are stopping the player from randomly getting punished for no reason from their AI just going bush league on a guy and slashing his face off" - this does not really work 100% of the time. During the two dozen HUT games I played for my review, I came across a few instances where the AI would still come up with a slashing or tripping penalty. As it was announced differently though, it is likely something that can and will be fixed with an update in the near future. Outside of these rare occurences, this change is another one for the good. Similar to goalies in NHL Ones, there is also some inconsistency to be noticed with HUT and Versus goalies too. While breakaways are fine and do not require any tuning from my perspective, the story is a different one when it comes to one-timers. From my experience, a one-timed slapshot after a cross crease pass, where a player's stick faces towards the inside (left-handed right wing or right-handed left wing), is pretty much a guaranteed goal. If your player's stick faces towards the outside though (e.g. left-handed left wing), one of two things will happen: Either will your shot miss the net horribly, or the goalie will ensure to save it in Spiderman-like fashion by all means possible. The distance to the net is not factored in either, so be prepared to get robbed on wide open nets as well. Interestingly enough, I spoke to other players about it (including the NHL Gaming World Champion, cheers Eki!) who all made a slightly different experience. One player was having issues with the supposed 'correct' handedness while seeing a bigger success rate with off-hand shots, whereas another player wasn't happy with low success rates on all kinds of one-timers. At this stage it is probably too early to tell what exactly is causing these different reactions, so time will tell if one-timers really need an adjustment in the long run.

And then there's also the tiresome topic of puck ragging (players holding onto the puck in their own zone, preferably around the net, when they are in the lead). It is still present in NHL 19, and as far as it looks like, there are still way too many players that do not shy away from abusing it. Unfortunately, the AI still isn't smart enough to help pressure an experienced puck ragger intensively enough to regain the puck most of the time. While I do admit that this is something that may not be possible at all, the development team should keep trying to come up with other measures to tackle this issue. Whether it's a system that recognizes this behaviour and kicks a player the 2nd time after he received a warning, or if it's a severe decrease to momentum, passing and puck control once a player is in possession of the puck for an excessive amount of time in their defensive zone - I'm not sure what the best solution is. Anyhow, it should not be brushed under the carpet.

Mic..macrotransactions: Dear developers, we need to talk

Last but not least, a word about microtransactions. Or macrotransactions. As a reviewer, I received my copy of NHL 19 for free, so I decided to invest some actual Euros into HUT packs. More precisely I purchased 2 Ultimate Packs for 25€ each, which come with a whopping 30 players, 6 guaranteed rares and 17 guaranteed gold cards. Unfortunately, my best pull in there was one 84 overall Panarin, while the rest of the players were 81 overall or lower. While that could simply be bad luck, we are still talking about someone spending another 50€ on top of the 60-70€ for the entire game, and in that regard the value for the money is atrocious. On the opposite side, making use of the Gold Common to Gold Rare trade-in set gave me an 86 overall Evgeni Malkin, an 85 overall P.K. Subban and an 84 overall Auston Matthews. Purchasing five gold common players off the auction house is a matter of a couple thousand instead of 150000 coins (or 25€), and either I was incredibly lucky those three times (in a row!), or there are once again some serious balancing issues going on. Is there any safe way of improving matters without causing more problems in other areas? I'm not sure. In terms of the Ultimate Pack though, reducing the player count to 10 and increasing probabilities for 83+ overall rated players by 10% would probably change pack rewards for the better. And I could feel more confident about spending money on packs again.

Conclusion

NHL 19 does so many things right, it feels hard to criticise. The skating is on point, the new defensive meta is the most meaningful and welcome change in years, and with the introduction of World of Chel, EA SPORTS have finally started to show some love for the most skill-based and intriguing game mode there is. Since EA SPORTS NHL's incarnation, this year marks one of the biggest leaps forward, thanks to acknowledging core player feedback and a lot of attention to detail. Yes, there are still some imbalances and yes, there are still a couple of quirks - but in the end, they are far outweighed by pure joy. The NHL series has grown up. Now, it's EA's turn to prove they are serious about it with NHL 20.

NHLGamers, what do you think?

Of course, every single one of you will have a different take on several parts of the review, and I am very curious to hear about them. To me, it was very important to share the review with a couple of other players beforehand, that I know are as passionate about the game as I am, so it is as representative as possible from an ECL community perspective. Do you believe there is anything we failed to mention? Do you possibly disagree with one or more statements entirely? Tell us in the comments below!

@gzell60

Dear NHLGamers,

The time for yet another exciting ECL season is nigh,
This year we are hoping to bring you even more action and excitement, and let me tell you, there has been some interesting developments.

With more stuff going on around the ECL, there will also be more work and therefore we’re now recruiting some potential journalists to join our team!

WHAT WE NEED
ECL Lite Journalist x 2
ECL Elite Journalist x 2

You will be working within your writing team to create articles such as season reports and matchup previews about the division under your responsibility.  In addition you will have the opportunity to pitch content ideas you'd like to create to the writing team and editor-in-chief. Good knowledge of the English language would be preferred, but the most important feature we are looking for in you is enthusiasm and the willingness to create content.

In case you became interested, send us a short application for one or several of the positions mentioned above. If you have previous journalistic references, please attach them too. Please contact me (@jahajaha93) or @Kenu directly via private message here on NHLGamer.com. If it's not for you, perhaps you know someone who would be the perfect fit - let them know!

Hey NHLGamers,

We are proud to announce that in addition to NHLGamer now being a member of SEUL (Suomen elektronisen urheilun liitto / Finnish Esports Federation), we have also signed a contract that covers the NHL and FIFA eSM - the Finnish Championships - license for two additional years. 

NHLGamer hereby announces the following eSM tournaments for 2018:

• FIFA 18: 1 vs. 1 (Summer 2018)
• NHL 19: 1 vs. 1 (End of 2018)
• NHL 19: 6 vs. 6 (End of 2018)

Yes, you read it correctly - in addition to battling out the 1 vs. 1 Finnish Champion in 2018, we will also be crowning the Finnish Champions in 6 vs. 6 NHL! We are working together with SJK eSports in creating the best live events. More details about participation, prerequisites and prize pools will be released after the negotiations are completed, so stay tuned!

Extending this partnership is the next logical step towards establishing NHLGamer and its leagues and tournaments in the gaming landscape. Together with our allies, we will remain dedicated to bringing you - the players - the thrilling and meaningful gaming experiences you are looking for. 

About the Finnish Esports Federation

The Finnish Esports Federation (SEUL) works as the umbrella organization for Finnish competitive electronic gaming. Their mission is to improve and promote electronic sports and the activities of their members. The federation was established in December 2010 to respond to the growing need for an organization to promote esports as a hobby and as a respectable sport.

The activities performed by SEUL are divided into the development of esports, protection of player’s interests and communicational work. The development of esports is done partly by utilizing workgroups, which are based on the work of our volunteers. The board is responsible for the day to day operations in co-operation with employees.

The federation co-operates with many national organizations such as VERKE, EHYT ry and KAVI, promoting a positive image of gamers and gaming in general. The federation’s participation in international field is strong, since we represent Finland in the International Esports Federation (IESF). SEUL is also on the receiving end of the yearly grants given out by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture for youth programs.

eSM 2018 will feature the following games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft II, Dota 2, NHL, FIFA, League of Legends, Tekken 7 and iRacing. The official eSM website is available at eSM.gg.

About SJK eSports

SJK eSports is an organisation that functions under SJK, a football club in Seinäjoki, Finland. SJK eSports is mainly focused in bringing new business concepts into the Finnish gaming scene. SJK eSports is especially commited to the growth of the console gaming scene, and is happy to work alongside NHLGamer to achieve that.

About NHLGamer

NHLGamer.com first saw the light of day in the end of 2015 by launching the European Championship League („ECL“), a 6 vs. 6 virtual ice hockey league carried out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The platform started off with immediate success, hosting 50 teams in its initial season, and has since grown exponentially into what is the largest community for EA SPORTS NHL gamers in Europe.

NHLGamer continuously strives to offer the best experience for any and all gamers who have come to enjoy the competitiveness of playing the EA SPORTS series of NHL games. Today, over 4000 website members not only visit NHLGamer to step on the ice themselves. We also enable them to be on top of all the latest NHL and gaming related news, watch broadcasts of NHLGamer league games featuring the very best players in the world, and enjoy exclusive content such as developer interviews and early gameplay impressions of upcoming titles.

While proud of our achievements and the success we‘ve had in creating and maintaining such a great community of talented gamers, this is just the beginning. Our long-term goals include further growth to host even larger leagues with prize pools, and working together with gaming oriented organizations to ultimately establish a platform for professional NHL players at the cutting edge of esports.

NHLGamers!

As of today, the European online qualifiers for the NHL Gaming World Championship 2018 are over and we have very exciting news to share. All eight regional finalists are part of the NHLGamer community!

Best wishes are going out to:

• @Hansulinho (Xbox Live: Hansulinho) - EU XBOX #1 bracket winner
• @plee999 (Xbox Live: PleeMaker) - EU XBOX #1 bracket runner-up
   
• @Erkki (PSN: I_Eki_I) - EU PS4 #1 bracket winner
• @FlyerKungen (PSN: FlyerKungen) - EU PS4 #1 bracket runner-up
   
• @Kane (Xbox Live: Kaneyh) - EU XBOX #2 bracket winner
• @Nieppii (Xbox Live: Nieppi) - EU XBOX #2 bracket runner-up
   
• @Darkic01 (PSN: Darkic01) - EU PS4 #2 bracket winner
• @Artuzio (PSN: Artuzio) - EU PS4 #2 bracket runner-up
   

Hi there NHLGamers! 

You might have spotted some social media posts some weeks back about founder @Kenu being interviewed for a broadcast on Aito Hitti – A Finnish radio station, part of a network that according to their website has around 800 000 frequent listeners. Unfortunately, the interview was done only in Finnish and we felt that we shouldn’t exclude our international audience from learning what our founder had to say. Therefore, in this article I’ll briefly be recapping some of the main points discussed in the almost 20 minute segment about NHLGamer. 

The interview focused on some basic things about NHLGamer, such as the conception of the community and the idea behind it and the ECL. Besides that, also some of the hottest topics in the community were discussed - such as money tournaments in the scene and the evolution of these.

Some of our community members have been with NHLGamer all the way since late 2015 when the site was released to the public. However, the idea was conceived already in 2009, when EA Sports discontinued their NHL-series for PC. Kenu had been creating popular mods (SM-liiga Pack, later FHR) for the PC version of the NHL-series for around 10 years together with a small group of people. When the possibility to create such mods was suddenly missing, there was a need to start doing something else. After creating the Finnish Cup's and taking a brief stint at the EHL-series at ConsoleHockey, Kenu and @Lurkins decided to combine forces in creating what we now know as NHLGamer.com. This domain wasn't always theirs, though - a guy called Petri Wathén, PW, had a platform for organising NHL tournaments at the start of the century, but as his interest faded, some of the remaining staff decided to acquire the domain.

In recent years, NHL gaming has come a long way and as mentioned above, one of the topics discussed was the introduction of money tournaments into the NHL gaming scene. A good example of this is the NHL Gaming World Championship, which was introduced this spring. The qualifiers for this tournament are currently in progress, with community members @Hansulinho and @FlyerKungen already advancing to the regional qualifiers in Stockholm, Sweden. (After the interview took place, also @Erkki, @plee999, @Kane and @Nieppii have secured their spots in Stockholm. That's 6/6 for our community. Keep it up!) Currently, the EASHL community hasn't seen major money tournaments, but rest assured - they will be coming right here on NHLGamer.

• For those of you that are able to understand the interview without a translation, you'll find the interview above.

The current ECL season was also discussed. Kenu mentions the increase in teams within the last few seasons and the fact that games are tighter than ever. All of the divisions hold very talented teams and the divisions framework introduced in ECL 4 has worked very well in assigning teams to appropriate skill levels - creating tighter matchups and more interesting and exciting seasons. It's been great to see the growth of our community with new members joining every day. It's also been great to witness how people are coming together and building lasting friendships. A beautiful sense of belonging was present at the recent IS Cup (November 2017), where we saw some tough competition but also how close our community members actually are.

An interesting question briefly discussed was wether the Finnish Liiga has shown any interest in NHLGamer. At this stage there have been no talks, says Kenu, but it's absolutely not out of the question. Professional ice hockey teams such as Ässät, HIFK and Pelicans - to name a few - are active in the gaming scene. No teams are currently represented in virtual ice hockey, but as money is starting to be discussed in the scene, interest might spark. The consensus at the end of the interview was that the future for NHLGamer and virtual ice hockey is bright. As sponsors and organisations are getting the smell of money, it will create more interest. It's now up to us to show what we as a community can do in order to make this bright future happen.
 

Hello NHLGamers,

It has been a pleasure for all to see the pace of expansion in the NHLGamer community. There’s well over 4000 of us here today. With the number of players, teams, leagues and tournaments and the organization thereof, NHLGamer – to us at least, fully qualifies as an esports organizer. Fortunately, that is also the perception outside of NHLGamer. To illustrate that point, NHLGamer was invited to organize two major NHL/FIFA events in Finland last year, broadcasted on TV, with responsibilities ranging from online qualifications to live commentary in said broadcasts. The events themselves were a great success, including the experience and the lessons learned from all the inevitable small bumps on the road.

One of the goals of NHLGamer has been to bring together on one platform as much of the competitive EASHL userbase as possible, whether competitiveness meant having fun in the Summer Cup, or pursuing the toughest objective – winning the ECL Elite. The growth we have seen in just a few years is a delight to many, but it does not come without new challenges.

The community had a fantastic response to the pronounced need for additional staff. Nothing but a heartful thank you will do service for that. It signals that you, the players, share our vision and goal. Though to avoid the pitfalls of complacency, we must recognize there is still a long road ahead. If you would also like to see NHL-gaming mature to its full potential as a legitimate and well-recognized esports, but don’t feel like a staff responsibility is really your thing, don’t worry. There are issues that must be confronted on a team-level if the objective in horizon is a (semi)professional esports league.

It has been wonderful to see many teams starting up their social-media channels and beginning to create an identity, be it through writing, logos or just pure memery. It is an extremely important task, branding many would call it, because sponsorship is not charity. Companies do not hand out sponsorship to various places from their marketing budget based on whatever individual preferences. This is an important point; sponsorship deals come from the marketing budget. They always expect a return on investment, or ROI in short, for all marketing. Otherwise it is just a waste of money. In the case of sports teams and especially esports, the value of a team is mostly made of its visibility. There are various tools and methods for companies of numerating the visibility or the value of it, but those details are outside the scope of this article. What this means is that if you would like to see your team grow in status, or just help the community grow and be recognized, as a whole (preferably both!), you must create value.

Big and medium-sized companies always have some kind of a brand identity, an image of the company that it tries to reinforce through various methods. Astronomical sums can be used for this purpose, for sometimes the brand is the only thing the company is valued of. Let’s take an example from a brand very known in sports: Nike. Unlike many would think, Nike does not produce a single shoe. It licenses the production to subcontractors and instead spends almost a billion dollars a year for marketing and reinforcing its brand, including the careful selection of athletes, teams and organizations it sponsors, those that are seen fitting for its brand image. Perhaps a plural should be used, because there can simultaneously be different images being portrayed to different audiences.

Some avid readers might be worried of this corporate talk, reflecting on the dull-and-boring interviews of athletes we see nowadays. While those without a doubt stem from the wishes and requirements of financial backers, it is to be remembered that on the quest for the end of the rainbow, the road is painted in many colors. Last year the amount of Twitch users surpassed that of Netflix or any other on-demand streaming service. As of February 2018, Twitch had over 2 million monthly broadcasters and 15 million active daily users. The typical characteristics of a Twitch user is a male between 18 and 34 years of age. What it means for the esports community, NHLGamer included, is that a company is far more likely to see marketing value in an esports team, if it is trying to target a similar demographic for its products. That’s why an energy drink company is far more likely to sponsor an esports team than a spring water company would be. This of course reflects to the desired or sought-after images that potential sponsorship targets portray; Ninjas in Pyjamas works much better in esports than it would in horse polo.

NHL-gaming has large untapped potential as an esports. While hockey is not a major global sport it still gives an enormous base of audience, who do not play the virtual game themselves, but are already completely familiar with the rules and various nuances of the game. Therefore, were the community to grow in quantity and professionality, it does not take a long leap of imagination to one day see ECL Finals on live television.

One discussed topic around the community lately has been the concept of buy-in tournaments, where the teams pay a certain amount to enter a tournament in hopes to get their hands on a bigger prize pool. We will be talking a lot more about this in the near future, but for the time being, let us at least confirm to you today, that this concept is definitely on our road map and you will be able to participate in these kinds of tournaments right here at NHLGamer.

“Why so serious?” – the big question of our generation. You don’t have to be serious to be successful. Sports is an entertainment business and it is very hard to entertain if you are not having fun. An image of a group of laid-back guys having a blast and left-handedly crushing their opposition is not a bad sales pitch at all.

Keep developing your own brand of hockey. Do not hesitate in finding ways to increase the visibility of your brand and contacting potential sponsors or partners. There is simply nothing to lose. NHLGamer is an expanding canvas and everyone has been given a brush. You have the power to define the outlines of the picture that forms; every drop of paint is a step closer to our goal.

Good luck and have fun!

Yours truly,

NHLGamer

NHLGamer is happy to announce that starting mid-March we will host another online league on our website. The German GEL - which just finished its first season with a complete new staff - will join NHLGamer. This means that NHLGamer besides the European-wide ECL and the Russian RCL, now also offers a third 6vs6 league. While joining NHLGamer, the GEL will be renamed to GCL, which stands for the German Championship League.

The GCL is targeted at ambitious teams from the German speaking area (typically Germany, Austria and Switzerland) which want to gather a first experience in a 6vs6 league. This operation mode shall also be kept, meaning the league will be restricted to teams which have at least German speaking captains. 

Several teams which played last years' initial GEL season also play in the ECL. The most well-known team is probably Inter Iceland, followed by teams such as Deadly Phantoms, Clowns on Ice and Rising Phantoms. Besides those, a few new teams that got their very first 6vs6 experience in the GEL decided to also join ECL 6. 

The GEL Staff from the will continue to operate the league and move over to NHLGamer. Besides the current GCL Staff, the team is still looking for new people willing to join. Anybody interested should contact @typolino79, @Capitano_82,  @Bille123 or @Hennisch. 

We are very proud to have the GCL as a part of NHLGamer and welcome the GCL Staff, teams and players with open arms!

On behalf of NHLGamer

Dear NHLGamers,

Our website has always been run with quite a small staff compared to the amount of tasks and especially during the last few months and the last ECL, it has been run with 2-3 active people. You may have noticed this as a delay in replies or game report fixes and a lack of the in-depth content that we love to produce for you. On the other side of the table, running such an intensive league with almost 100 teams, plus successfully introducing the RCL and running two big versus tournaments including both online and and live-events, things have taken their toll. This also significantly ties up our hands in actually developing new features, as our hands are tied with tasks that weren't intended to eat away from the development.

In order for us to ensure a successful ECL 6 and other exciting things in the future, we are hereby asking our community for help in the form of (but not limited to) the following positions:

ECL ELITE LEAD

• You are in charge of running the daily operations of ECL Elite together with your two assistants. This means making sure games are played on time, reported on time and correctly, fixing possible errors and communicating with the teams to resolve easy conflicts or escalating to the League Administration where necessary. The ECL Elite Assistants report to you.

ECL ELITE ASSISTANT (x2)

• You are proactively helping out with the the everyday tasks of ECL Elite. This means making sure games are played on time, reported on time and correctly, fixing possible errors and communicating with the teams to resolve easy conflicts or escalating to the League Administration where necessary. You report to the ECL Elite Lead.

ECL PRO LEAD

• You are in charge of running the daily operations of ECL Pro together with your two assistants. This means making sure games are played on time, reported on time and correctly, fixing possible errors and communicating with the teams to resolve easy conflicts or escalating to the League Administration where necessary. The ECL Pro Assistants report to you.

ECL PRO ASSISTANT (x2)

• You are proactively helping out with the the everyday tasks of ECL Pro. This means making sure games are played on time, reported on time and correctly, fixing possible errors and communicating with the teams to resolve easy conflicts or escalating to the League Administration where necessary. You report to the ECL Pro Lead.

ECL LITE LEAD

• You are in charge of running the daily operations of ECL Lite together with your two assistants. This means making sure games are played on time, reported on time and correctly, fixing possible errors and communicating with the teams to resolve easy conflicts or escalating to the League Administration where necessary. The ECL Lite Assistants report to you.

ECL LITE ASSISTANT (x2)

• You are proactively helping out with the the everyday tasks of ECL Lite. This means making sure games are played on time, reported on time and correctly, fixing possible errors and communicating with the teams to resolve easy conflicts or escalating to the League Administration where necessary. You report to the ECL Lite Lead.

ECL LEAGUE ADMINISTRATION

• Sometimes things don't run as smoothly as we want. Sometimes it's one teams fault, sometime both teams and sometimes no one is at fault. Either way, in order to run a fair and well-oiled league we need rules and we need people that are both unbiased and ready to tackle these issues. Being a part of the League Administration demands being open for criticism, working as a team and keeping a cool head. Our goal is for the LA-team to be a team with a good (short) response time and to set a clear standard for how we apply the rules.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

• We have previously produced a lot of articles, such as season previews, player interviews, news stories about the ECL and about the NHL-video game itself, who's hot and who's not and so forth. We are looking for someone to pick up the torch and help us create this content at a good quality and frequency.
  
  The editor-in-chief is in our case in charge of producing these articles, whether it is through writing it yourself or working with your writing team (work-in-progress) to produce the articles in a timely matter.
  
  The material produced will be in English and we expect the the editor-in-chief to excel in the English language, as you are also responsible for editing your writers texts where needed.
  
  We can probably tell a lot from your application, but please include any previously written articles you think we might find interesting when sending in your application.

JOURNALIST

• You are responsible for producing content as discussed with the editor-in-chief. You are expected to be able to produce quality articles in English by yourself, but your content doesn't necessarily have to be perfect, as it goes through your editor-in-chief before publication. 
  Please send in any articles you might have written previously as a reference. Feel free to sweep us off our feet with your application, in case you don't have previous journalistic references to send in.

STREAMER/BROADCAST CREW

• Streaming is a larger unit and a big possibility to both showcase our fantastic divisions and their best games and expand our NHLGamer brand. You may have noticed that we've been doing some streams from the the Finnish Championships, the IS Cup and all of the ECL Finals. Our streams have been met with some good viewer counts and our Twitch channel currently stands at 700+ followers. Our goal is to expand on this number, have weekly streams and create more interactivity with the viewers.
  
  Thus, we are looking for people interested in being a part of creating weekly ECL broadcasts, ideally covering up to three matchups per week and with play-by-play. The broadcasts would ideally be in English, but if there is a demand for the occasional Finnish or Swedish (these two being two major languages among our community at the moment) stream, we're open to your suggestions regarding that.
  
  On top of ECL streams, we'd be happy to have some up-and-coming NHLGamers (or legends) streaming for example HUT, VS or EASHL drop-in games.
  
  If streaming is your thing and you want to pitch an idea to us - whether it resonates with the above descriptions or not - feel free to get in touch.
  
  To sum it up, we're looking for a group of people to work as a team on this and the exact structure will be determined based on the applicants.

VIDEO EDITOR/CREATOR

• There's a great amount of talented players and goalies in the league and we've seen a few cool team montages in the past. We want more of this! We also want to support this on a divisional and league level, to create things such as the TOP 5 plays of the week or similar. It's all up to the community supplying us with clips. Assuming streaming continues growing as much as it has recently, there should be no shortage of material to work with. That being said, the teams working together with the video editor is a must for creating quality content efficiently, as we can't expect a person to go through 100 teams streams to find the gems. (Not that we're saying there can't be more than one video editor.)
  
  We also realize not everyone likes to read walls of text these days (even if it's quality text), so we're also interested in creating more video content around the league to mirror some of the written content and also broaden the spectrum of our content.
  
  As a video editor/creator you know a thing or two about image and audio quality and cutting together a video using tools such as Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro X. You don't have to be a professional, but please send us some of your previous work to showcase your talent.

PROGRAMMER

• We're happy to say we've found some help in this department and are excited to get started with a new team member. That being said, the resources are still scarce, so we are interested to hear if there are some fellow programmers out there that have the knowledge and desire to develop for us.
  
  You will want to know your way around HTML5, PHP and MySQLi, but we're interested to hear about other skills too. Please send us some of your previous work so we can check it out.

SOCIAL MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE

• We currently operate on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube and Instagram and with the shortage in man hours we've barely been able to cover Facebook and Twitter and those could benefit from some more activity too. If you feel you know how social media works and feel like you could contribute in this department, get in touch.
  
  Even if you don't want to be in charge of our social media, you can help. How? Be sure to like and share our social media posts that you enjoy.

FORUM MODERATOR

• In order to make sure our forum is a friendly place for young and old, new to the community or veteran, we want to put some more hands on deck for the moderation team. A good written understanding of English, tactfulness and lurking around the forums are good features for this role.

Please note: There have been a handful of people who have previously voiced their interest to help. If you're one of them, don't worry, we have not ruled you out, we just want to do it through the below process that is open for everyone.

Also note that one may apply for more than one role. Please apply by following the below instructions.

How to apply

Please send a freely formulated private message to me (@Kenu) here at the forums, ideally by Friday the 12th of January. We're always looking for more talent though, so feel free to get in touch also after that.

Please include the following:

• Name
• Where you're from (for time zone purposes mainly)
• Which of the above roles you are interested in (you may also suggest something that isn't listed)
• Describe your qualities (now's your chance to brag!) that may be of value
• How much time you can approximately allocate to working on NHLGamer and let us know of possible limitations. (We do understand that schedules change, but a rough estimate of availability is helpful.)
• Anything else you think might be relevant related to your application.

The sooner we get the team roster filled up, the sooner - and more effectively - we can get going with ECL 6! Thanks in advance!

Hey NHLGamers,

Finland’s largest news media Ilta-sanomat, Playstation Plus, SJK eSports, Kamppi Center, NHLGamer and SEAMK collaborate in creating the event in Kamppi Shopping Center on 17th to 18th of November.

The sixteen best players compete for the prize pool on the most popular console platform in the country - Sony Playstation 4.

The IS Cup 2 final event is currently being played on the fourth floor of the Kamppi Center. You are welcomed to join in and spectate the event live or follow the stream on www.is.fi/esports. 

The 6000€ prize pool will be distributed as follows:

• 1. 2000 €
• 2. 1000 €
• 3.-4. 500 €
• 5.-8. 250 €
• 9.-16. 125 €

Short facts:

You can watch the stream here (audio in Finnish): https://www.twitch.tv/streamcorner

Finns can follow the action here in Finnish: https://www.is.fi/iscup

Group stage schedule and scores: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/schedule.php?leagueID=4&lang=en

Group stage standings: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/standings.php?leagueID=4&lang=en

Top 8 go to the knockout rounds (best-of-3) and you can eventually find the playoff tree here: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/schedule.php?leagueID=4&lang=en

Hey NHL Gamers,

French magazine "Slapshot", one of the nation's biggest hockey publications around since the year 2000, included a 2-page news story about e-sports and virtual hockey gaming called "À quand la Stanley Cup virtuelle?" ("When will we see the virtual Stanley Cup?") in their latest September - November 2017 release #88. Besides the NHL and other hockey related stories, they have been talking about recent e-hockey developments and NHLGamer's ECL in their "Prolongations" section on pages 54 and 55.

Thanks to the authors, we are allowed to share both pages with you for free - you can read them here:

Slapshot_88_E-Sports.pdf

For everyone who's not capable of speaking French, we created an English translation on our own. Minor inaccuracies may be present due to limited French skills on our end! 

Quote

When will we see the virtual Stanley Cup?

Many do not yet realize the impact it will have in a few years. E-sports, known as electronic sports on a PC or game console, does not omit ice hockey either. Continental tournaments of very high level already exist, and some of the players are playing them on a more or less professional level. The NHL is paying attention to this phenomenon, and an official competition is already in the pipeline. By Yann Maillet.

Everyone is talking about e-sports. The players, the critics, the developers, the testers, the geeks, the nerds and everyone else. It’s organized around the world, online or not, for a phenomenal amount of different video games. Some of the more famous ones are League of Legends, World of Warcraft, FIFA and Gears of War. The best players in the world compete in amateur or professional competitions as individuals or organized in teams, and some win nice prize money and other rewards. In 2016, around 800 DotA 2 players participated in approximately 2000 tournaments all over the world, playing for a total prize pool of 38 million US dollars. The global dimension of these competitions has come to convince video game publishers to take care of the e-sports package whenever they launch a new video game. Finally, the growing development of virtual reality (VR) only reinforces an e-sport that’s already an inherent part of the gaming landscape.

Bettman wants to launch the e-NHL

The NHL series developed by EA SPORTS does not escape this development, but you are warned, so far it is quite less extensive, if only in relation to FIFA. Many professional NHL players exist, some are sponsored by the developer and serve as early game testers. Some of them are even associated with the development of the game, just like real NHL stars. The management of the North American organization managed by Gary Bettman has recently mentioned the interest to potentially port an official virtual competition of the game under direct license of the league.

Bettman makes it one of his growth levers. The NHL commissioner wants to attract new fans, especially among the youth, through a video game and its 6 vs. 6 competition. For each real franchise, 6 players form a team to represent the same franchise to win a virtual Stanley Cup and likely high prize money, all of it from the couch in their living room. All of these hockey-related projects are still little compared to what already exists for Basketball and American Football, but progress is there and it will probably happen before 2020.

6 vs. 6 is targeted with lots of determination by our friend Gary, simply because it’s the game mode most suited to a competition worthy of its name. As opposed to FIFA, where 1 vs. 1 is its panacea, true online gaming in NHL takes place as 6 vs. 6 with every player taking his position. Since most of NHL‘s pro players are located in North America, lots of formidable teams are gathering in tournaments across the pond already. In Europe, the frenzy is a little less. However, a competition shows by its seriousness, dynamism and level of play that comes close to excellence. You may be wondering why the hell I am talking to you about separate American or European competitions when the online portion of a game allows anyone to connect from anywhere and anytime. Playing on remote servers has some constraints by causing a game to slow down, an effect called ‚lag‘. And that’s why these competitions are mainly continental and not really global.

French in the assault of the European Championship

ECL, the European Championship League, is heading into its fifth season. Founded by Kenneth Lehtinen and his friend Samuli, this competition brings together everything that European e-hockey has to show. „The demand for e-sports is considerable“, says Kenneth Lehtinen. „This is true for all sports and hockey is no exception. We created the competition to cover the demand. Especially since it’s a new phenomenon, we discovered there is public interest for the game itself and an audience that likes to watch the games. The integration of divisions last season has notably split the levels of skill and we find ourselves with an assiduity much larger than before. Many more things are coming too“. You can find all information on the league’s website NHLGamer.com.

The French are also represented well in this organized competition on three levels: Elite, Pro and Lite. The Hawks (eds. note: Hawks Hockey Club), conglomerate of French players, have been finalists in the past season of the Lite division and have qualified for the Pro division in the current season that was launched shortly after the release of the new version of the game NHL 18.

„The ECL is a very serious championship“, says Izzo, winger of the Hawks. „We face the best teams in the game out there and the matches become really intense sometimes. 6 vs. 6 is a highly demanding and very specific game mode. Last year we participated for the very first time, and we met our goal of qualifying for the Pro division. Sadly we lost the Lite division finals in game 7 of the series, but while it was disappointing for all of us we still achieved our promotion. This season, we return with a few adjustments to our roster.“

Another French club is about to embark during the next season, the Pirates du Cancun hockey club. The team, which has been playing together for four years now, brings together a dozen French, Swiss and Quebecois and presents itself as one of the most active French clubs. „During last year, we really focused on the rigor and tactical involvement of each player. This year we apprehend things with a little more hindsight“, estimates Sébastien Girodo, defender and assistant coach of the Pirates du Cancun. „ECL is really interesting, but we are facing difficulties when it comes to scheduling matches, and our bench is not yet deep enough. If we go into that competition lightly, we will be going down. The skill level of certain players and teams is just amazing. So while ECL is not yet a priority for us, we will keep it in our heads. At Pirates du Cancun, we mainly play to be with our buddies, while also trying to win more possible titles.“

E-sports is on track to change the way we approach video games. Time will tell if we will someday be seeing Olympic champions in Warcraft, but the current trend points towards it. Many will regret that the real outdoor sport could be supplanted by this new way of playing. Meanwhile, video game publishers are rubbing their hands.

Translation courtesy of @gzell60. No content was altered or modified on purpose.

What do you think about Slapshot's take on our ECL and the developments in e-hockey and e-sports in general? Let us know in the comments!

@gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

NHLGamers,

It seems like it has been the month of announcements, doesn't it? Well, today we bring you another one.

NHLGamer.com are immensly proud to announce that we are partnering with Ilta-Sanomat, SJK eSports and SeAMK for the latest edition of the IS Cup! You may remember our reporting from the last edition of IS Cup, if not you can find it here (Part 1) and here (Part 2), where we met up with many community members (including eventual winner @plee999) and covered the event from a journalistic perspective. 

This time around we will be an active host and participant in the prestigious tournament that will be open to players from all over Europe and is free to sign up for. 

Oh and, did we mention the 6000€ prize pool? 

Here you can find the official news story from main partner Ilta-Sanomat [Article in Finnish]. However, if you're not a native Finnish speaker, here's our brief breakdown of the event:

Quote

Take part in the biggest NHL tournament in Finland! The IS Cup Prize Pool is 6000 €

IS Cup 2 prize pool 6000 euros: The best NHL gamers clash together in Kamppi Center on 17th and 18th of November! 

Finland’s largest news media Ilta-sanomat, Playstation Plus, SJK eSports, Kamppi Center, NHLGamer and SEAMK collaborate in creating the event in Kamppi Shopping Center on 17th to 18th of November.

The sixteen best players will compete for the prize pool on the most popular console platform in the country - Sony Playstation 4.

The IS Cup 2 event will be held on the fourth floor of the Kamppi Center on the 17th and 18th of November. You are welcomed to join in and spectate the event live or follow the stream on www.is.fi/esports. 

The 6000€ prize pool will be distributed as follows:

• 1. 2000 €
• 2. 1000 €
• 3.-4. 500 €
• 5.-8. 250 €
• 9.-16. 125 €

In addition, players will be awarded with product rewards, courtesy of PlayStation.

 

Are you the best NHL player (and able to attend) in Finland?

16 players will take part in the IS Cup 2 final event and you can qualify in three different ways; first, by succeeding in the online qualifications (12 spots), second, by qualifying from the local qualifications at Kamppi (2 spots), third, by invitation (2 spots).

The online qualifications for the IS Cup will be held by NHLGamer. The qualification round will be played in October and there is room for 1536 players, but the amount can be increased if needed. Registration for the qualifications can be found on the NHLGamer website.

The local qualification will be played in the Kamppi Shopping Center on the 17th of November, with a maximum attendance of 64 players. More details about the local qualification event will be published later.

The organizers will invite two players to the event on basis of previous achievements. The invited players will be revealed at the end of October.

 

The online qualifications will be played on the following schedule:

DATE	TOURNAMENT PHASE
Wed 27.9.	Online qualification sign-ups open
Sun 8.10.	Online qualification sign-up closes
Tue-Thu 10.–12.10.	Online qualification starts, round 1536
Fri-Sun 13.–15.10.	Online qualifications round 768
Mon-Tue 16.–17.10.	Online qualifications round 384
Wed-Thu 18.–19.10.	Online qualifications round 192
Fri-Sun 20.–22.10.	Online qualifications round 96
Mon-Tue 23.–24.10.	Online qualifications round 48
Wed-Thu 25.–26.10.	Online qualifications round 24
Fri 27.10.	Online qualifications close.

As mentioned before, here at NHLGamer.com we are truly proud to be one of the main, active partners of this tournament and will work tirelessly to see it top the tremendous experience that was provided through the last IS Cup.

So, how do I sign up?

As mentioned above, the tournament is available to anyone in Europe, as long as you're available to travel to Helsinki for the final tournament (at your own expense).

Here's where to sign up:

• Finnish speakers can sign up by heading over to https://nhlgamer.com/iscup
• If you're not from Finland, you might want to head over to the sign-up page in English over at https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/index_en.php

For all of our members out there, old and new, I suggest you strap in - the NHLGamer journey is just getting started.

(Article editor: @The_Alpha_Furyan)

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Hi NHLGamers,

Finally, the time has come for NHL 18 and we have begun the preparations for a new fascinating season of gaming.

The first games have been played, the first goals have been scored and the first goalkeeper saves have been made. Hundreds of pages on gamer forums around the whole world are already filled with discussions on how good or bad this new part of the hockey franchise from EA Sports is.

But for us, just having the game in our hands wasn’t enough. We had something else in our sights! We’ve worked hard on it and have spent many sleepless nights full of discussions and work.

For a long time we thought about how to unite hundreds of people who are thousands of kilometers away with several hours of time difference between them. After we were done thinking, we started working. We started a project to make sure that a geographically very large nation to the east could fully be a part of our big NHLGamer community.

We have overcome many difficulties along the way. Not everyone we asked were ready to join the new project, but the general response we received from the majority of people has made it clear that we are on the right track. People need this project and people follow us.

The RCL

In Russia many of us can’t play in the ECL, for a number of reasons. For example, when most of the ECL teams are warming up before the games, many of us have already woken up and gone to work, university or school. Furthermore, a lot of us have certain problems with the quality of connection in EASHL games due to the closest EA SPORTS servers being a few thousand kilometers away. Some also experience difficulties with language communication.

But are these reasons worth thinking that these people can’t be part of our community? We say: of course not!

Today is a big day for those of us who have been involved with this project. Today we declare that the Russian Championship League (RCL) is opened: the new official league of Russian teams on the PS4 console. We’d like to describe it as the beginning of a new journey for the Russian NHL community. This news story is our way of saying: “Hi, NHLGamer Community!”.

The registration starts today, the 26^th of September, and ends on the 15^th of October. The RCL season will kick off on the 23^rd of October.

Details

We have gathered over 15 Russian EASHL teams from our old platform and we are working constantly on getting even more teams to join. We have also been working with NHLGamer leader @Kenu on making the website NHLGamer.com more comfortable for Russian users, so the players who have never been on this great website before didn’t experience any difficulties, language or otherwise. There is still some work to be done, but the first phase has been adding the Russian language to the community forums.

There is a new section for the purposes of the RCL, and you can find it here:

https://nhlgamer.com/community/forum/38-russian-championship-league/

Finally, we would like to express our huge gratitude to the administration of NHLGamer for the immense help which they have provided us and will continue to provide in the future. We hope that all players of our NHLGamer community will also accept us, even though we might not be as strong English speakers as you.

We understand what a heavy responsibility we have undertaken. But we are full of energy, we are full of ideas and we say “Hi” to the world of NHLGamer and competitive gaming.

Let’s play hockey.

Yours faithfully,

Russian Championship League Administration @MAYZIIX, @Denisovl17l, @Khemnos, @s_w1ld_rus.

(Article editor: @The_Alpha_Furyan)

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