Kenu

Hey NHLGamers, After the exciting Semifinal round, only two remain and NG KELAMIEHET and NG HANAA - the two teams ranking #1 and #2 in the regular season - are getting ready to meet in a best-of-5 battle for the Summer Cup 3 championship on Sunday night. (1.) NG KELAMIEHET vs NG HANAA (2.) NG KELAMIEHET (KEL) took the final spot decisively by beating NG Pena ja Setelit 2-0 in both games of the best-of-3 series and @JanneK. (Januri98) getting two additional shutouts, getting the total up to an astonishing five shutouts in the 10 playoff games so far! It is in fact a goalie battle between a very experienced ECL goalie and someone quite a bit less saturated to the scene, as Januri with five seasons of ECL goaltending and all Summer Cup's under his belt faces off against @Viltzup, who has played goalie in three ECL seasons and this being his first Summer Cup. Despite the gap in experience, Viltzup doesn't pale much in our stats comparison (above - playoffs) and overall is an excellent example of how the Summer Cup is an excellent platform for up-and-coming players and goalies to get a chance to step up and show their worth and play with some of the more known members of the community. Speaking of good goaltending by Viltzup, NG HANAA (OTA) had an amazing comeback against NG Alahärmän Pullistus, where in game 2 overtime Viltzup made a save on the breakaway and helped his team win the game and eventually win game 3 in the dying seconds! NG Hanaa should consider themselves a little bit lucky to have survived the above mentioned scenario and were having some issues making it into the zone against their last opponent. On the upside, HANAA's game improved throughout the series and they got the necessary goals to make it to the finals. On the defensive side the teams are quite equal when it comes to the efficiency in points, however NG KELAMIEHET has been able to rack up a much higher +/- than their opponents. Statistically speaking, @Aze is the most likely to throw the puck at the net, while @FakiiR1 is the one to most probably put it in the net. The stats below are from the playoffs. Offensively, NG KELAMIEHET has been flying (no pun intended). @FlyerKungen has been leading his team - and the league - in goals and points in the playoffs, while his winger @Filariou comes in close in second place and has been the player with the most assists. @SadaPoika, @Vilupoika and @valta15 from NG HANAA and @jjonij have all been racking up points quite nicely too, and both teams have a wide arsenal of finishers to win this one. Both centers have been winning more than half of their faceoffs, but FlyerKungen with 60,90% could bring a big advantage to his team, unless he simple hasn't met his match yet. See the full stats below (playoffs). The finals are played in a best-of-five series and the games will be covered as follows: Game 1: Sunday 22nd of July 2018 20:00 CEST | LIVE STREAM (Commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) Game 2: Sunday 22nd of July 2018 20:30 CEST | LIVE STREAM (Commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) Game 3: Sunday 22nd of July 2018 21:00 CEST | LIVE STREAM (Commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) Game 4: Sunday 22nd of July 2018 21:30 CEST (If necessary) | LIVE STREAM (Commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) Game 5: Sunday 22nd of July 2018 22:00 CEST (If necessary) | LIVE STREAM (Commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) We wish all participating teams and players good luck and hope as many of you as possible join us on the stream to enjoy the action between these two teams!

Hey NHLGamers, The Quarter Finals treated us to some good hockey and in case you missed the games, you can see three of the four matchups by following the links here and here. As this was the Quarter Final round, I'm not sure if we can talk about big upsets at this stage, with so many talented teams remaining, but the home teams came on top in all series but one. NG Pena ja Setelit (#8) managed to beat NG Blue Circle (#3) in three games and statistically, that was the only upset of the round. As we move forward into the Semifinals, the matchups look as follows: (1.) NG KELAMIEHET vs NG Pena ja Setelit (8.) In the first pair we have NG KELAMIEHET and NG Pena ja Setelit, both teams that have got into the Semifinals by winning their three first rounds 2-1, 2-0 and 2-1. Can @FlyerKungen (13+12 in Playoffs) and @Filariou (8+15 in Playoffs) keep up their top-scoring performance, or will @MarkunPaukku (Mpaukku_, 12+8 in Playoffs) and @Penatski (6+13 in Playoffs) step up and challenge them for the scoring leader title? While @Caazual (AcED719) for NG Pena ja Setelit and @JanneK. (Januri98) for NG KELAMIEHET have equal stats when it comes to wins and losses, the latter has more impressive stats in Save% (73.77 vs 81.25), GAA (2.00 vs 1.50) and shutouts (0 vs 3). Whether or not the previous stats will matter - or indicate any strength relationships - tonight when the puck drops remains to be found out. This pair will decide which one goes to the finals tonight at 21:00 CEST on our Twitch channel, so don't miss the action! The semifinals are played in a best-of-three series and the games will be covered as follows: Game 1: Wednesday 18th of July 2018 21:00 CEST | LIVE STREAM (no commentary) Game 2: Wednesday 18th of July 2018 21:30 CEST | LIVE STREAM (no commentary) Game 3: Wednesday 18th of July 2018 22:00 CEST (If necessary) | LIVE STREAM (no commentary) (2.) NG HANAA vs NG Alahärmän Pullistus (5.) In the other pair we have two teams who swept their last round 2-0 and got to the semifinals perhaps with a little less sweating than the teams in the other pair. @Vilupoika won both the goal and point scoring categories for the regular season with an astonishing 37+25 in 18 games and his center @SadaPoika didn't finish too far off at 13+34. Vilupoika will definitely be the most dangerous one to get the puck across the line, so if NG Alahärmän Pullistus can keep him under wraps, that could be a key to victory. On the opposing side, @Hermurderer and @Naikou88 have really been lighting the lamp during the playoffs, while @kibenibe has been the dishmaster. Both sides have a strong defence and we could be seeing this being a battle between the goalies. In the NG Alahärmän Pullistus end of the ice, @vokial2 (SolidElli) has been putting up the highest save% of the playoffs at 86.58, 1.57 GAA and 2 shutouts. In the other crease we have @Viltzup with 78.37% and 1.60 GAA. Both stats are good and the difference in faced shots is huge in the advantage of SolidElli, 71-29. Could a low number of shots be an advantage for NG Hanaa? SolidElli has 6 ECL seasons under his belt, while as a goalie, Viltzup just finished his second ECL season. All of these are just numbers and Thursday night will show us which team comes out more prepared! The semifinals are played in a best-of-three series and the games will be covered as follows: Game 1: Thursday 19th of July 2018 20:00 CEST | LIVE STREAM (commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) Game 2: Thursday 19th of July 2018 20:30 CEST | LIVE STREAM (commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) Game 3: Thursday 19th of July 2018 21:00 CEST (If necessary) | LIVE STREAM (commentary by @Kenu & @Janikka) As a reminder, here is the schedule for the rest of the Summer Cup 3 playoffs: Semifinals: 16.7.-19.7. Finals: 22.7. We wish all participating teams and players good luck.

Hey NHLGamers, The Summer Cup 3 Quarter Finals will be coming to an end already tonight. Last night NG KELAMIEHET and NG Alahärmän Pullistus made their way into the Semi Finals and we will be there to cover the other two matchups tonight. Our broadcast starts at 20:15 CEST and @Kenu and @Janikka will be commenting on both matchups. In the first matchup NG Pena ja Setelit (#8) will be facing NG Blue Circle (#3).NG Blue Circle came out the winner of group 1 and NG Pena ja Setelit finished second. Both of these teams have played five games in the Playoffs to make it this far. NG Blue Circle had to resort to overtime in game 3 against NG Finnish Snipers, where eventually @lycki10 decided the series in their favour. NG Pena ja Setelit swept their last round 2-0 against NG Puck Nation, but it's worth noting that both games were very even and took overtime to decide them. @MarkunPaukku and @Lamsa proved their worth to the team with scoring the overtime goals and leading their team to the Quarter Finals. Statistically, NG Blue Circle has the advantage in this pair, however in both meetings during the regular season, NG Pena ja Setelit came out on top, winning 2-1 and 6-0 and Aced719 (@Caazual) managed to outplay taiguri9 (@kasper.kampe) between the pipes in those games. Playoff hockey is playoff hockey though, and with everything on the line, it will be interesting to see how these teams match up. The puck drops around 20:30 CEST. You can find the line-ups for the matchup below: After we have seen the decision between NG Pena ja Setelit and NG Blue Circle, we will be treated to the last undecided pair of the Quarter Final round, as NG Blackout (#9) tries to get the best of NG HANAA (#2). Both of these teams have taken the longer, more suspenseful road to the Quarter Finals, as both previous rounds have went to round 3 for both teams. On top of that, NG HANAA has come out on top of both game 3's in overtime (NG Misfits & NG Chaves Carnivores) and NG Blackout needed a game 3 overtime in their most recent series against NG Tampereen Elvis. As in the first pairing, statistically speaking and looking at the regular season, NG HANAA should come out on top. However, you may see resorting to game 3 overtime in both previous matchups as either a weakness, or a display of strength and coming out on top in the tight situations. Whichever point of view you go with, we expect some great Summer Cup hockey between these two tonight and expect nothing less than game 3 overtime hockey! Below you'll find the line-ups for the two teams: The best-of-3 series' will be streamed completely, so get ready to watch the action on our Twitch channel! Our broadcast starts tonight at 20:15 CEST and will feature commentary by @Kenu and @Janikka. Who is your favorite? Who do you expect to win? Will we see some OT-drama? Let us know in the comments! We'll see you tonight at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch

Hey NHLGamers, The Summer Cup 3 Quarter Finals kick off tonight. Starting at 19:00 CEST, be sure to join our Summer Cup Quarter Final stream, as we will be exclusively featuring the games between NG RIPmoti and NG Alahärmän Pullistus. NG RIPmoti finished their season in 6th place (#2 in Group 4) and NG Alahärmän Pullistus in 5th (#2 in Group 3), so it shouldn't really get much more even than this. NG RIPmoti has swept their first two rounds 2-0, while NG Alahärmän Pullistus needed a game 3 in the second round. The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. Exceptionally, tonight's games will not be commentated. What are your thoughts - who will come out on top? PS: We are looking for games to broadcast with commentary tomorrow, Thursday 12th of July, so be sure to send me (@Kenu) a private message here on the forums if you want to be featured on the stream.

Hey NHLGamers, We closed round number two in the Summer Cup 3 playoffs last night and were lucky enough to see the deciding moments in a total of three different matchups on our stream last night. Overall, the second round saw the home teams winning as expected, with one big exception: NG Paikallinen - ranked #19 after regular season - managed to win against NG Club Kannunkulma, who finished the regular season 4th and was certainly one of the teams we had jotted down as one of the candidates to win the whole thing. As we move forward into the Quarter Finals, the matchups look as follows: (1.) NG KELAMIEHET vs NG Paikallinen (19.) (2.) NG HANAA vs NG Blackout (9.) (3.) NG Blue Circle vs NG Pena ja Seteli (8.) (5.) NG Alahärmän Pullistus vs NG RIPmoti (6.) There were a few requests to include Sunday as a game day, due to players wanting to watch the FIFA World Cup semi finals and as there is no negative impact and the Semi Finals were planned to start on Monday the 16th anyway, we have agreed to this request. However, the teams that decide to finish the Quarter Finals on Sunday are required to report the scores by midnight, so that NHLGamer staff can prepare the Semi Final round on time. The quarter finals are played in a best-of-three series starting tomorrow, on the 11th of July 2018, and has to be finished by the end of Sunday the 15th of July 2018. A note to the remaining teams regarding logos and broadcasts: There are quite a few teams still missing logos and if you wish, we can still add a logo for your team. That makes the teams more recognizable and definitely helps us make the streams and the ads for the streams better looking. If you want a logo added, just send me a private message here on the forums. If you need help with something, let me know. Secondly, if you want your teams games to be broadcasted with commentary on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, please consider the following: Inform @Kenu as early as possible about: What teams are playing on what date and time Who is streaming the content for us to capture Also let them know to turn off the commentary in the game and not include the party chat or any overlays on the stream. What is the roster for both teams that are playing As a reminder, here is the updated schedule for the playoffs: Playoffs round 1: 2.7.-4.7. Playoffs round 2: 5.7.-9.7. Quarter Finals: 11.7.-15.7. Semi Finals: 16.7.-19.7. Finals: 22.7. We wish all participating teams and players good luck.

Hey NHLGamers, It's time to start the Summer Cup Playoff Broadcasts tonight as NG Puck Nation (#12) will be taking on NG Pena ja Setelit (#8). NG Puck Nation finished 5th in Group 3, while NG Pena ja Setelit finished 2nd in Group 1. From a standings perspective, NG Pena ja Setelit will be going into this series as a favorite, but all in all it looks like a very tight series where either team could come out on top. Both teams had to go to game 3 in the first round of playoffs, but managed to come out on top and we expect this series to go to a game 3 as well. The line-ups of both teams are yet to be announced and we will have them for you later. The best-of-3 series will be streamed completely, so get ready to watch the action on our Twitch channel! Our broadcast starts tonight at 20:15 CEST. The games will feature commentary by @Kenu and @Janikka. Who is your favorite? Who do you expect to win? Will we see some OT-drama? Let us know in the comments! We'll see you tonight at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch

Hey NHLGamers, The first round of playoffs is behind us and while most of the top teams made their way into the second round, we saw some tight battles and a few upsets in the first round. The second round is now underway and you'll find the pairs below: (1.) NG KELAMIEHET vs NG Whoforce (26.) (2.) NG HANAA vs NG Chaves Carnivores (22.) (3.) NG Blue Circle vs NG Finnish Snipers (20.) (4.) NG Club Kannunkulma vs NG Paikallinen (19.) (5.) NG Alahärmän Pullistus vs White Sharks (18.) (6.) NG RIPmoti vs NG Knox (16.) (8.) NG Pena ja Setelit vs NG Puck Nation (12.) (9.) NG Blackout vs NG Tampereen Elvis (10.) The 2nd round is played in a best-of-three series starting today, on the 5th of July 2018, and has to be finished by the end of Monday 9th of July 2018. No extra time will be given! As a reminder, here is the schedule for the playoffs: Playoffs round 1: 2.7.-4.7. Playoffs round 2: 5.7.-9.7. Quarter Finals: 11.7.-14.7. Semi Finals: 16.7.-19.7. Finals: 22.7. We wish all participating teams and players good luck.

I_Eki_I is the winner of the 2018 NHL Gaming World Championship and $50 000 (twitch.tv/nhl) Our very own @Eki has won the first ever NHL Gaming World Championship! Eki, who was unbeaten through the European qualifiers and the European regional finals, showed that he really is the best 1vs1 NHL 18 player in the world at the moment, as he beat every single one of his opponents in the World Finals in Las Vegas. In the finals he met JrPens91 and he won the best-of-3 series 2-0 with the scores of 2-1 and 7-3. Huge congratulations to Eki and coach @plee999 for the success in the tournament. Also congratulations to @Artuzio for his great effort of making it into the top 6. A longer article will be published later. The results of the group stage in the World Finals (twitch.tv/nhl) The final results of the tournament (twitch.tv/nhl)

The two European players to make it into the World Finals: I_Eki_I and Artuzio, being interviewed by Andrea Helfrich (twitch.tv/NHL) Hey NHLGamers, Tonight is the night when the NHL will be crowning the first ever champion of the NHL World Gaming Championship and in addition to the ultimate bragging rights, that person will be walking away $50 000 (roughly 43 000 €) richer! Not too shabby, eh? Our very own community members Arttu "@Artuzio" Mustila and Erik "@Eki" Tammenpää are representing Europe, after coming out on top in the European Regional Finals. In case you didn't see the behind the scenes footage and the interviews with the gentlemen after securing their spots in vegas, you can check out the video below: The six players playing in the 2018 Gaming World Championship Finals are Finnish players Erik ”I_Eki_I” Tammenpää and Arttu "Artuzio" Mustila, Canadians Nicola ”FoolX90” Bruna and Matthew ”YungGren” Grenier, and John Wayne ”JohnWaynee90” Casagranda and David ”JrPens91” Roebuck from the USA. The majority of people seem to have the opinion that the Canadians or Finns will come out on top of this, while the two representatives from the USA are expected to finish 5th and 6th. And when we say the majority of people, we're of course referring to Twitter predictions. Most of the predictions put I_Eki_I, YungGren or Foolx90 on top. Predictions are only predictions, though, and whoever plays the best will come out on top at the end of the finals and we certainly can't wait to watch this thrilling display of talent tonight. The six finalists competing for the $50 000 main prize (picture credit: nhl.com/fans/gaming) The NHLGWC Finals will start tonight at 22:00 CEST and while we don't know the exact details of the schedule, we know that all players will face each other once and based on these games, the top two players will face each other in a best-of-3 final. That should provide us with plenty of exciting gameplay and what we assume will be a long stream of NHL Gaming action. Read more about the NHLGWC competitors elsewhere: NHL.com interview with all of the finalists Ilta-Sanomat interview with I_Eki_I (Finnish) Ilta-Sanomat interview with Artuzio (Finnish) The stakes for the games played are high - there's a lot of money on the line! (twitch.tv/NHL) While we are generally speaking very unbiased here at NHLGamer, we would like to wish the best of luck to our community members @Artuzio and @Eki! Get that championship guys! Let us know your predictions in the comments below! PS: We're pretty sure @plee999, coaching I_Eki_I, is the best dressed coach at the event Be sure to check out the finals embedded below or by visiting the official NHL Twitch page today, Tuesday June 19th, tarting at 22:00 CEST:

Hey NHLGamers, We didn't get any information on NHL prior to, or even at the E3 event as we're used to, as EA SPORTS are keeping us all in suspense until tomorrow, when they will be doing a full reveal of NHL 19 at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas. As expected, a teaser was released and it is in fact just that - a teaser. If you haven't seen it yet, you can enjoy this 12 second masterpiece of teasers below: As a good teaser does, this clip doesn't do much more than confirm that NHL 19 is in fact coming and leaves you asking questions that will luckily be answered tomorrow with the full reveal. Or that's what a full reveal should do, right? No teaser is too short for speculation, though, and discussion has been active on Facebook and Twitter. In the video we see what seems like a smaller and not professional hockey player - perhaps we'll finally see a full-flexed story mode, similar to the NBA2K-series or FIFA, where you start off in the minors and work your way up towards the NHL, while making character defining choices along the way. Or is it perhaps simply the availability of outdoor games? (We sure hope it's more than that.) One of the most viewed NHL YouTubers, BaconCountry, offered his humorous take on the trailer: What do you think? What would you like to see? Let us know in the comments. That leaves us with the cover athlete speculation - who will be on the cover this year? EA SPORTS has confirmed the athlete has never been on the cover before, so that takes Alexander Ovechkin out of the equation, as he's been featured on both the NHL 07 and NHL2K10 covers. Many have been wishing for Marc-André Fleury to be featured on the cover, as he had a phenomenal season and let's face it, fantasy covers like the one below are looking really sharp. Based on the art in the official "Who's next?" teaser tweet, it is looking like it's going to be a skater, rather than a goalie. Assuming the skater is facing us, the skater is a right-handed shot. Who could it be, who's your pick? We will keep you up to date with the full reveal, as soon as we get our hands on some new information tomorrow.

Hey NHLGamers! The sun is coming up and the Summer Cup 3 is about to start soon. Here is our service post that provides all the necessary details for all captains and regular players to be ready for today's Live Draft and the league start. THE DRAFT The Live Draft will take place today, Saturday 9th of June, on NHLGamer Twitch at 16 CEST / 17 EEST and we will be streaming for approximately 5-6 hours in an effort to draft all of the ~400 players, meaning the draft procedure will be finished by 22 CEST / 23 CEST. This will require all of the captains to make their selection in 30-45 seconds per turn. @Kenu will be functioning as our lead host during that time, joined in the studio by @Erkki (I_Eki_I) to keep all viewers up to date on all draft developments. We will also have a few topics to discuss, and are happy to answer any questions that come up in the chat! To all captains: We have sent out a private message to all of you, asking to confirm your presence for today's draft. It is crucial all of you are able to attend - otherwise we need to find backup captains on short notice! You have also been sent a message with more information about the player list and options to get connected tomorrow. Don't miss it! The draft order was decided in the draft lottery, which we broadcasted on Friday evening. The draft will be a so-called snake draft, meaning that if you get the first pick in round 1, you will have the last pick in round 2. If you had the last pick in round 1, you'll have the first pick in round 2 - and so on. You can see the draft order below: USEFUL LINKS FOR FOLLOWING THE DRAFT We will do our best to entertain you and keep you up to date on our stream. However, if you're a captain, or simply enjoy browsing through lists, you might find these useful. Full list of everyone who signed up for Summer Cup 3 (static) Same as above, but only including players that are undrafted (dynamic) See the draft picks here (dynamic) Updated list of available players in draft (dynamic) Static means that the information will not be updating, while dynamic means that these pages will update (requires a browser refresh) according to what happens in the draft DO YOU WISH TO BE A CAPTAIN? As you may have noticed, there are a couple captain spots open. If you're interested, please send a message to @jahajaha93 and @Kenu as soon as possible. We will need to fill up the spots to ensure an enjoyable Summer cup for everyone. THE RULES The ruleset for this year's Summer Cup is finished and available below. It is everyone's obligation to be aware of all the details mentioned in all of the sections to ensure a smooth league progress during the next few weeks! All in all, the rules are based on ECL 6 (which worked out very well) mixed with a couple of Summer Cup specific aspects: LEAGUE FORMAT Summer Cup 3 will be carried out in 4 groups with 10 teams each. This means, each team will have to play a total of 9 opponents (=18 games) during the regular season. The first 8 teams out of each group will go to the playoffs, meaning we'll see 32 out of 40 teams in the playoffs. The league kicks off on Monday the 11th of June and the regular season will be finished in 3 weeks. The playoffs will be best-of-three, meaning it takes two wins to progress. However, the finals will be best-of-five. Regular season: 11.6.-30.6. Playoffs round 1: 2.7.-4.7. Playoffs round 2: 5.7.-9.7. Quarter Finals: 11.7.-14.7. Semi Finals: 16.7.-19.7. Finals: 22.7. That's all you need to know for now. Make sure to tune in for today's Live Draft!

Hey NHLGamers! The ECL Summer Cup is a draft-type league aimed at both experienced community members and complete rookies. The stated goal of this tournament is to improve networking within the community and introduce new players to the great world of NHLGamer. Our Summer Cup is always a great venue for prospects to open up doors for entry into the upcoming ECL season. The same promise remains for season 3, only this time we’ll deliver better! Last year over 300 players took part in our tournament, we organized a nice draft day stream, which due to technical difficulties didn’t go completely as planned (and presto, we got a night stream as well! 😅). We’ve learned from our mistakes and this season we’ll get the draft done in a swifter fashion. We’re hoping for an even larger number of players this season, so please consider your availability to act as a Summer Cup captain. Unlike last Summer Cup, we will not be having any prizes for this season. We’ve received valuable feedback from our community members and based on this, the decision was made that a Summer Cup without prizes will best serve the original purpose of the tournament – to increase networking and allow new players entry to our community. SUMMER CUP 3 FRAMEWORK Team building: No more than 2 players from a single ECL 6 team are allowed to play on the same Summer Cup team. This rule applies to the final rosters, after transfers and free agents. Team names: The Summer Cup will be played in dedicated EASHL teams which will have "NG" as a prefix - for example "NG Golden Knights". Sign-ups: To rule out unfortunate circumstances when it comes to player positioning, holidays and other aspects, the sign-ups will follow a clear structure, allowing captains to recognize fitting players more easily. Draft procedure: The team captains will be taking part in a snake draft, where all of the signed up players will be drafted during one night. LEAGUE DETAILS Summer Cup Season 3 will take place on the PS4 version of NHL18. Last day to sign up is Wednesday 6th of June 2018. Players sign up using the registration tool linked at the bottom of the post. Due to the latency issues experienced by the North American players in Summer Cup 2, Summer Cup 3 is only for European players. All signed up players are aimed to be seeded into teams with a size of 10 players (may vary). Out of all registrations, NHLGamer Staff will select an according number of team captains from the players that offered to take on a captaincy role in their sign-up post - anyone is allowed to apply for it. Team captains will receive a draft sheet on Thursday 7th of June, containing all signed up players and relevant information in a structured form. Team captains will be taking part in a live draft event on Saturday 9th of June picking their roster until all players are seeded. The draft will be streamed live on our Twitch channel. All games are played 6vs6 using dedicated EASHL teams. The Summer Cup is set to start on the week of June 11th and aimed to be finished in July. Full rules will be released after registration is over. HOW TO PARTICIPATE To participate, make sure you are logged in or create an account first, visit the sign-up page and fill in all fields of the registration form like below - make sure the player positions in your Player Card are up-to-date so captains know who they are drafting! You can update your Player Card on the "Edit Player" page. Sign-up page: Click here! Let's make this year's Summer Cup at least as memorable as the previous ones! Looking forward to see you on the ice!

I_Eki_I finished #1 in the NHL GWC European Regional Finals and took home the $5,000 and a ticket to the Finals in Vegas (twitch.tv/NHL) Hey NHLGamers, It's been an exciting weekend, as I was able to experience the European regional finals of the 2018 NHL Gaming World Championship on location at the Viasat studios in Stockholm. I'd like to start by thanking @Kane for making me his +1 and thus granting me access to the event - much appreciated! As we mentioned in an earlier news story, all of the eight players that made it to the European finals are a part of our NHLGamer community and it was really nice to get to meet everyone. The eight players made their way into the European finals through the four qualification tournaments: @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 The European finals were played using double elimination rules, meaning that losing one time puts you in the lower bracket and two losses means you're out. If you were to reach the final without any loses, that would put you one win away from winning the regional finals and $5,000, whereas reaching the finals through the lower bracket would require you to win two games in a row in the final round. The stakes for the games played on Sunday were high, and come June 19th, there's a lot of money on the line! (twitch.tv/NHL) The EU Finalists arrived in Stockholm on Saturday morning and for some players, such as PleeMaker, that meant getting up at 3 AM, as he had to fly out to Helsinki first. The day was spent at the Viasat studios, where the players got accustomed to the environment, were interviewed by the broadcast team, got photos taken etc. The day ended at around 8 PM and the players tried to get enough sleep for what would certainly be one of their biggest days in their NHL gaming careers. On Sunday morning it was off to the studio around 6:30 AM and after some breakfast, warmups and photoshoots it was time to play. The games were played in two rooms: The main stage and upstairs on a smaller stage. The best place to watch the games were outside the main stage room in the couch area and that's where most players and guests would spend their time between games. There were also some friendly games played in the warmup area. I made a small travel/behind the scenes video from the trip and it also features interviews of the two winners this weekend, be sure to check it out and give it a thumbs up if you enjoy it. At the end of the day, two players came out on top and met each other in the EU Regional Finals. I_Eki_I won the very first game of the day against Artuzio 7-2 and would only need one win to come out on top. The final game between these two was not at all as lopsided as the first game of the day, but I_Eki_I managed to keep his edge, taking home the $5,000 by a score of 2-1. The two players to make it into the World Finals: I_Eki_I and Artuzio, being interviewed by Andrea Helfrich (twitch.tv/NHL) Overall, it was really nice to be able to be on set for such an amazing event and I hope the broadcasts catch as big of an audience as possible and we'll see more of this (and hopefully 6vs6) in the future. A big thank you to all of the players and their friends and family members that I met during the weekend. It was also nice to get to meet the broadcast team of Andrew Telfer (TheNasher61), Arda Öcal, Frankie Ward and Andrea Helfrich, who all did an amazing job to bring the games alive. Not only are they professionals and good at what they do - they're also very friendly and approachable. The results of European Finals (twitch.tv/NHL) So there you have it. All of these eight gamers put on a great show and we should applaud them all for making it as far as they did. After this weekend, there could only be two remaining and NHLGamer would like to congratulate this weekends winner I_Eki_I and runner-up Artuzio for their success and wish them the best of luck in Las Vegas on the 19th of June in the World Finals! If you haven't already watched the official stream, you can watch it below via the NHL's official Twitch channel:

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL 6 Elite Finals were decided tonight and Carlsberg HC took the decisive win against Northern Ascendancy in game 5 double overtime and won the series 4-1. Hereby NHLGamer would like to congratulate Carlsberg HC for becoming the ECL 6 Elite Champions, and thus the ECL 6 Champions! If you missed their playoff games, you can check them out here: https://www.twitch.tv/nhlgamertwitch/videos/all These are the series results: Game 1: Northern Ascendancy - Carlsberg HC 0-2 Game 2: Carlsberg HC - Northern Ascendancy 2-1 Game 3: Northern Ascendancy - Carlsberg HC 2-1 OT Game 4: Carlsberg HC - Northern Ascendancy 3-0 Game 5: Northern Ascendancy - Carlsberg HC 1-2 Carlsberg HC's Championship roster: G: #88 J. Onion @sibeelius (Zande95) G: #92 J. Tancredi @FinKonna D: #12 T. Brady @vatalisti D: #19 P. Sniska @Pontus T (Terasniska) D: #82 M. Nyqi @Janzuh F: #89 J. Bones @Vilupoika F: #94 M. Apeno @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_) F: #96 T. Malone @Penatski Carlsberg HC's road to the cup: 22 wins, 6 losses & 2 OT-losses during the regular season, ranked 3rd in ECL Elite Quarterfinals: 4-2 VS Sjukstugan Semifinals: 4-1 VS Dynasty Finals: 4-1 VS Northern Ascendancy Thank you to all ECL teams and fans this season! We will be releasing Summer Cup information within the next few days, as well as the full recaps of ECL 6 Elite, Pro and Lite, so be sure to check out the site regularly.