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Get ready to dive into the exciting world of the European Championship League (ECL) as we bring you the highly anticipated ECL Wraparound, hosted by the one and only Cody @Tougie24 Tougas! From ECL Neo to Elite, witness the fierce competition as teams battled it out for supremacy on the virtual ice. Who emerged as the dominant force in each division? Which players stood out with their exceptional skills and game-changing performances? Find out all the answers and more in the ECL Wraparound.

SportsGamers, We would like to remind every team that the transfer window for all ECL '24: Winter divisions expires tomorrow Tuesday, December 5th at 23:59:59 CET.  Please remember to make sure your trades are in line with the rulebook before making them and check with support if you aren't sure. Remember, only one transfer per player is allowed per season - unless the player has played 0 games (overall, for any team) the entire season, which is covered in rule 14.6. If you're a player still looking for a team or a team still looking to add to your roster, please head to the Free Agents section or the Clubs Looking For Players section on our forum. Please post any last-minute transfers in the comments section below so everyone can enjoy them. 

SportsGamer and PlayStation are proud to bring you the PlayStation NHL 24 Showdown - a Finnish NHL 24 tournament played on the PlayStation 5 throughout December and January! This year's installation includes both the 1v1 and 4v4 game modes. The PlayStation NHL 24 Showdown is for all players who are looking to test their skills in a competitive environment with the chance of winning some awesome PlayStation prizes in the process. Entry is free and in true SportsGamer fashion, we’ll be highlighting the greatest plays and most exciting games of the tournament on our social media channels and in live finals on Twitch.    Tournament format The PlayStation NHL 24 Showdown will span over the course of four weeks and is going to be played fully online in four different stages.   4v4 1st Qualifier 20.12.2023 2nd Qualifier 27.12.2023 1v1 1st Qualifier 21.12.2023 2nd Qualifier 28.12.2023 Players and teams will have two opportunities to qualify for the Top 16 that will make the playoffs, as eight players/teams will be qualifying on each qualifier. The below dates apply to both game modes Top 16 2.-3.1.2023 Quarterfinals 4.-7.1.2023 Semifinals 8.-9.1.2023 Finals 13.1.2023   The prizing of the tournament consists of 1400+ EUR worth of PlayStation Vouchers! Find more information and register now at sportsgamer.gg/showdown!

We have discovered a game-breaking bug in NHL 24 that seems to be caused by taking a timeout during a 'full pressure' situation. While this should reverse the pressure and re-energize the players, the negative effect from the previously active 'full pressure' situation seems to stay active and drain the affected players as a result, even though there is no visual representation of this. As of today, taking a timeout in all ECL matches is forbidden, however, if a timeout is taken and the bug occurs the match must be stopped immediately and restarted at the moment the timeout is taken. Please see the the rule below: How to proceed if a bug occurs: Disconnect from the game The remaining time in the game will be played in a new game. Teams are advised to wait for the clock to run down to the time when the timeout was taken and complete it regularly. Alternatively, they can also use a different procedure of their own if both parties agree (providing the start point is at, or before, the time in which the timeout took place). For instructions on how to report a disconnected game, please refer to our article 'How to report disconnected games' If despite the rule a timeout is taken and the bug does not appear The match can be played to the end The result of the match remains The case must be reported to the LA and the team that took the timeout will receive a warning. If the same behavior continues, it may result in an automatic forfeit of the match.   We have shared the details and videos provided by the community to the development team at EA SPORTS and we are optimistic that they will be able to patch this, at which point the rule will be removed.   You can find the updated rulebook here, although it may take some time for the cache to update for you to load the new one if you viewed the first version before.  

In response to mounting concerns raised by the community regarding packet loss issues on the Helsinki (Europe North East) server, a temporary rule is hereby implemented by the League Administration. This rule permits teams affected by packet loss on the Europe North East server to opt for matches on the Stockholm (Europe North) server as a viable alternative. This rule only applies to moving games from the Helsinki server to the Stockholm server - any games intended to be played on the Central server are still played on the Central server. The decision comes after an outcry from players and teams who reported significant packet loss on the Helsinki server, which was impacting the quality and fairness of competitive matches. Two threads on the SportsGamer.gg community forum highlighted the widespread issue: The League Administration has taken these concerns seriously and decided to address the issue by introducing this temporary rule. Under this rule, teams experiencing packet loss on the Helsinki server will have the option to play their matches on the Stockholm server instead. This move aims to ensure that competitive integrity is maintained and that all teams can compete on a level playing field. While the decision is temporary, it reflects our commitment to providing a fair and enjoyable competitive environment for all participants.  Teams and players affected by packet loss are encouraged to communicate clearly with the opponents by requesting server changes and ensuring the smooth transition of matches to the Stockholm server during this period. SportsGamer is actively in touch with EA SPORTS regarding the issue and several community members are having an active dialogue with the DNA internet service provider. While nothing can be said for certain until the issue is located, we are fairly optimistic that we'll see an improvement or at least an update on the situation during the upcoming week. If you wish to discuss the subject, please see the below forum thread:  

SportsGamers, The ECL '24: Winter - Official Rules are now available and can be accessed through the league pages. Generally speaking, the rulebook is a revised and improved version of the rules used in ECL '23 Spring. Find the ECL '24: Winter - Official Rules here. Some major changes/clarifications have been made as follows: 5.13: Wins in playoffs round replaced by regular season seed as a tiebreaker 11.3: Win in regulation time is now worth three points instead of two Player ability bans were removed from the rulebook with the new version of the game For any discussion and feedback about abilities and builds, please go here. The use of special builds such as Bones is currently allowed, but any new builds coming out are being monitored and could be decided to be prohibited in the future. 11.7.6. The use of non-human characters, such as the werewolf, is not allowed in the ECL. 13.1.5 In order to make the start of the season as clear and smooth as possible, the player and team licenses must be purchased and active (✅) before stepping on the ECL ’24: Winter ice. Failure to do so will translate into a forfeit of the game Please also remember to activate the necessary backup player licenses (max 3 per team) Note: ECL Neo does not require a team license or player license and as such, this rule does not apply to ECL Neo. We ask every team and its members to familiarize themselves with the Official Rules before taking the ice for the ECL '24 Winter season. Please refer to the rulebook in case of any issues that may arise over the course of the season. In case of any questions, please be in touch with support.

SportsGamers, The ECL '24 Winter season is starting on Sunday and we want to remind you that today (November 15th) is the last day to sign up for the ECL Core and ECL Neo divisions. If you're new to the ECL and don't know what this is about, please familiarize yourself with the below news story: Wildcard teams: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Lite Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Pro Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Neo: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ⚠️ ECL Core: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ⚠️ ECL Lite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ECL Pro: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ECL Elite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 *Signups will close at 23:59 CET on the last day mentioned unless otherwise specified. Schedule Pro & Lite Qualifiers: 1.11-> Elite Qualifiers 7.11-> Regular Season duration: 19.11.-21.12.2023 (Neo, Core, Lite) 20.11.-21.12.2023 (Pro, Elite)

SportsGamers, We are only a couple weeks away from the beginning of the ECL '24 season and we want to remind you that today (November 6th) is the last day to sign up for the ECL Lite, ECL Pro, and ECL Elite divisions. This applies only to the teams that are eligible based on last season's performance. Please see our previous post for the full list of eligible teams. The ECL '24: Winter signups will still continue for the Core and Neo Divisions until November 15th, so there is still time to build or join a team and join the fun! If you're new to the ECL and don't know what this is about, please familiarize yourself with the below news story: Wildcard teams: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Lite Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Pro Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ECL Neo: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ECL Core: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ECL Lite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ⚠️ ECL Pro: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ⚠️ ECL Elite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ⚠️ *Signups will close at 23:59 CET on the last day mentioned unless otherwise specified. For a full list of the default gamedays during ECL '24: Winter, please see the below image. Schedule Pro & Lite Qualifiers: 1.11-> Elite Qualifiers 7.11-> Regular Season duration: 19.11.-21.12.2023 (Neo, Core, Lite) 20.11.-21.12.2023 (Pro, Elite)

SportsGamers, With the ECL '24: Pre-Season tournament going on and getting closer to the puck-drop of the actual ECL season, we want to remind you that today (Oct 30th) is the last day to sign up for the ECL Lite & Pro Qualifiers. If you're interested in playing in ECL Lite or Pro but haven't got your spot yet - sign up today. The sign-up deadlines for all divisions can be found below. If you're new to the ECL and don't know what this is about, please familiarize yourself with the below news story: Wildcard teams: 18.-30.10.2023 ⚠️ ECL Lite Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ⚠️ ECL Pro Qualifier: 18.-30.10.2023 ⚠️ ECL Neo: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ECL Core: 18.10.-15.11.2023 ECL Lite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ECL Pro: 18.10.-6.11.2023 ECL Elite: 18.10.-6.11.2023 *Signups will close at 23:59 CET on the last day mentioned unless otherwise specified. Schedule Pro & Lite Qualifiers: 1.11-> Elite Qualifiers 7.11-> Regular Season duration: 19.11.-21.12.2023 (Neo, Core, Lite) 20.11.-21.12.2023 (Pro, Elite)

Hey Gamers, It's time to get the NHL 24 season started with the ECL '24 Pre-Season. The ECL Pre-Season Tournament is a friendly tournament with three tiers for teams to get into the competitive mindset, without the heavy structure that comes with the actual ECL divisions framework.The tournaments include playoffs for each tier and the lowest tier allows for new interested teams an opportunity to try out the competitive games in a relaxed environment. The ECL is the pinnacle of European NHL esports. The abbreviation stands for the European Championship League and it features NHL 6v6 esports in five divisions aimed at various skill levels. Every player, including the goalies, is controlled by a human. League games are played in the EASHL mode and the platform is PlayStation and Xbox. ECL has been played since 2015, so the upcoming season is already the 17th. The latest addition to the ECL product family is a 1v1 tournament, where Europe's best solo players fight for the championship. ECL 1v1 has been played since the ECL '23 Winter season. Basic information/requirements of ECL: Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however, we do not necessarily exclude players located in North America or Asia. A European server will always be used. We reserve the right to exclude teams or players in case of severe connection issues. Individual requirements: Each player needs to have an account at SportsGamer.GG and create their personal player card. ECL licenses: Teams in ECL Elite & ECL Pro, ECL Lite, and ECL Core will require their respective ECL ‘24 Winter team licenses in order to play. In addition, every player in the above-mentioned divisions needs to have a valid ECL ‘24 Winter Player License before taking the ice. The ECL '24 Pre-Season tournament does not require the license, but purchasing the license early on is recommended for faster processing. Rules: The ECL '24 rulebook will be published closer to the season, but you can check out last season's rules here. For a more extensive overview of the ECL as a whole, check out our “What is the ECL?” news story released a few weeks back. ECL Pre-Season As stated, the tournament will be hosted in three tiers without any major restrictions except for the ones mentioned below. Elite & Pro Only ECL Elite & ECL Pro teams This is a friendly warmup tournament, no need to argue (no League Admin cases) The final format is determined by the number of teams Double-header gamedays Regular season 23.10-6.11 Playoffs (BO3) 7.-8.11 (RO16) 9.-10.11 (Quarterfinals) 12.-13.11 (Semifinals) 14.-15.11 (Finals) Sign-ups are open until 12:00 CET, October 19th SIGN UP HERE Lite & Core Only ECL Lite & ECL Core teams, and by special request wildcard teams This is a friendly warmup tournament, no need to argue (no League Admin cases) Qualifier teams can participate, but the final rounds of the playoffs may coincide with the qualifiers The final format is determined by the number of teams Double-header gamedays Regular season 23.10-6.11 Playoffs (BO3) 7.-8.11 (RO32) 9.-10.11 (RO16) 11.-12.11 (Quarterfinals) 13-14.11 (Semifinals) 15-16.11 (Finals) Sign-ups are open until 12:00 CET, October 19th SIGN UP HERE Neo & Newcomers Only ECL Neo & Newcomer teams This is a friendly warmup tournament, no need to argue (no League Admin cases) The final format is determined by the number of teams Double-header gamedays Regular season 23.10-6.11 Playoffs (BO3) 7.-8.11 (RO16) 9.-12.11 (Quarterfinals) 13.-14.11 (Semifinals) 15.-16.11. (Finals) Sign-ups are open until 12:00 CET, October 19th SIGN UP HERE Uniform and logo unlocks This form is intended for organizations associated with SportsGamer to request primarily uniform and logo unlocks in order to represent their team appropriately. Here is a link for the unlocks form: https://forms.gle/eGyEQwYqDRLPEMyk7 Rules We hope you all enjoy and remember to play by the ECL rules! Although the Pre-Season Tournament will not be under as strict scrutiny as the ECL, we want to remind you to respect your opponents and go about the games just as you would when playing real ECL league matchups. The tournament will be played on the NHL 24 Gen 5 version (PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X/S) If teams are tied in points after the group stage, we will utilize these usual tie-breakers: Wins (including OT-wins) Head-to-head record (points in mutual games) Goal difference (across all games played) Scored goals (across all games played) We hope you're as excited as we are to get back into the action - build your team, sign up, and have fun!

Edit: Note - the campaign has now ended. Hey Gamers, I'm sure many of you have seen the reminders already, but we want to make sure nobody misses the fact that today is the last chance to purchase the ECL '24 licenses at the Early Bird pricing. This is final reminder for those who have not had a chance to purchase the Early Bird Licenses yet. Grab your Early Bird ECL '24 Winter Team license and ECL '24 Player License (Winter + Spring) at special pricing until midnight. After that, standard pricing applies, so get yours now! If you're wondering "What is the ECL?", read this article. If you're looking for information about the new ECL season and the NHL 24 competitive year, read this article.

Welcome to the ECL ‘24 season and the NHL 24 competitive year! The ‘23 season was certainly one for the history books as most notably, we managed to pull off the first-ever 6v6 eHockey World Finals in a successful manner. With the continuous growth of the community supporting us, we are confident in our ability to make similar moves in the future and focus on the development of the sport from the ground up. This post marks the starting point of a new, great season with new, great Champions - will this be your time to shine? The prize pool for the ECL ‘24 Winter season will be 23 420 EUR! Before we go any further, if you’re reading this and find yourself wondering “What is the ECL?”, or you're looking for a blast from the past listing of all ECL Champions so far you can find an article about that here. One of the more frequent requests from our community through the years has been transparency in terms of upcoming plans. The benefits are clear, as it will help teams with preparation, strategizing, and assembling rosters, and of course, help players plan their holidays, trips, or other activities without sacrificing the opportunity to partake in the eHockey season to the fullest. So, without further ado, here is what the NHL 24 competitive year looks like for Europe. Please keep in mind there are still lots of details being put into place, but we want to provide as good of an overview on the timing of the ECL ‘24 Winter and Spring seasons, as well as the National Championships, that are played in between the ECL seasons. ECL '24 Competitive Year The ECL ‘24 Pre-season tournament will kick off on October 16th, giving teams the ability to get right into action, get familiar with NHL 24, and test their line-ups against teams of equal skill levels. The Pre-season will consist of the following groups: Elite & Pro Lite & Core Neo & Newcomers The ECL ‘24: Winter - Lite & Pro Qualifiers will kick off on November 1st. For this reason, we suggest that teams participating in the qualifiers skip the Pre-season tournament. The ECL ‘24: Winter - Regular Season will start on November 19th and be completed just in time to wind down for Christmas and the New Year. The last round of games before the holiday break will be played on December 21st. The ECL ‘24: Winter - Playoffs will start after the holidays, on January 3rd. Most of the ECL ‘24: Winter divisions will be completed by the end of January, whereas the date for the Elite Finals is still TBA at this stage, and could be as late as the last week of February. After the end of the ECL ‘24: Winter season, it’s time to battle in the National Leagues, such as the CSCL, eHockey SM, GCL, SCL & WECL. Many of the details are still work-in-process, but rest assured weeks 6-14 are reserved for National League play. The ECL ‘24: Spring season will commence with the Lite and Pro Qualifiers in weeks 13-15. The regular season will be played weeks 16-20, and the playoffs will be played weeks 22-26, with most divisions done before midsummer and the Lite Champions being decided just after. Early Bird Offer on Player and Team Licenses Below you’ll find the pricing of the team and player licenses for ECL ‘24. Starting today and for the next two weeks (until September 14th), you can pick up the ECL ‘24 Winter Team license and the ECL ‘24 Player License (Winter + Spring) for the Early Bird pricing listed below. After that, standard pricing will be in effect. PURCHASE YOUR ECL '24 LICENSES HERE For those of you participating in the qualifiers and unsure which division your team will play in for the ECL ‘24: Winter season, you can still take advantage of this offer; Purchase the Early Bird license for the division you are qualifying for and if your team is unsuccessful in the mission, we will refund you the difference to the Early Bird price for the division your team ends up in. For example, if you enter the qualifiers for the Lite division, purchase the Early Bird Lite license. If your team doesn’t qualify for the Lite division, you will play in the Core division and we will refund you the difference - in this example: 100 EUR. The ECL Neo division will remain free of cost. Please refer to this ECL Ranking in order to understand which teams are eligible to sign up for each division. New and refreshed ECL 1v1 With ECL ‘23 we launched the first-ever ECL 1v1 seasons and while they were a blast and we saw some great games and worthy champions (1, 2) crowned, we have gathered the feedback and data and aim to improve the experience for players of all levels for the ECL ‘24 season. We’ll save some details for later, but what we can tell you is that there will be a TOP 4 selected from both the Winter and Spring seasons, that will then face each other at the end of the ECL ‘24 year to crown one ECL ‘24: 1v1 Champion. Rule Changes & Community Opinion We would like to raise two items up for a community vote and open up the floor for discussion. The 3-point system vs 2-point system For the longest time, the ECL has used the 2-point system, where the winner gets 2 points, whether in regular time or overtime, and 1 point for a loss in overtime. We’ve heard some wishes for a change and the time has come to re-evaluate whether we should instead opt for the 3-point system instead. In the past, the polls have been pretty close to 50/50 on this topic, but it’s time to discuss this topic properly and if the discussion suggests a need for a poll, that can be implemented. You can already discuss the point-system here. Zone & Superstar Abilities - Yay or nay? For the ECL ‘23: Spring season we made the decision to ban a selection of Zone & Superstar Abilities. As NHL 24 is a new release, our initial instinct is to start with a clean slate and not ban any abilities until the community gets to know the new game and has a chance to make up its mind about whether the abilities are working or not. While we have preliminarily set our minds on not banning any abilities for the first season, we welcome the discussion and would love to hear your opinion. You can discuss player abilities here. Are there some rule-related changes we’ve missed? Now is your chance to discuss and suggest what type of changes you would like to see in the rulebook. Stay tuned for the official kick-off of the ECL ’24 Winter Signups, launching mid-September.