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ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. The second to last part of our 16 in 16 focuses on a young team with experienced players who can be considered as some of the best in the business. This team is certainly one of the strongest contenders in ECL 7 Elite. It’s going to be the first Elite season for the team, but the players are no strangers to top tier competition. FILADELPHIA was created by @Patzlaf before the start of ECL 6, where they took a part in our Pro division. The team was then considered a new "super-team", as it was formed out of established and very skilled players, much alike what Patzlaf had done earlier with Carlsberg HC. FILADELPHIA had a dominant showing in the regular season, and were surely favourites going into the playoffs too, however they ended up hitting a brick wall called Monarchs in a 7-game final series. FILA had a large player turnover after last season, but they made some of the biggest acquisitions of the offseason, signing not two, not three but FOUR ECL 6 Elite champions and young prodigy @PleeMaker. IN Zande95 <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) PleeMaker <-- Gotham Knights Finkonna <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) Vatalisti <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) Janzuh <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) OUT Swagx88 --> Gotham Knights Hazard-laser --> Saints xDoumi --> Radical (ex Carlsberg HC) VsVs_58 --> Free Agent ac_tiska --> Free Agent Current 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 I managed to get a hold of assistant captain @Eki for a short interview, the guy also known as "goat" kept it short and sweet: What are your expectations going into the 7th season of ECL competition? We expect nothing but to win ECL 7 Elite. Do you guys have one player you'd like to showcase as a potential difference maker? Yes, we have couple of them, but I think @vatalisti is going to be a game changing player. He is the best D-man in the game. Would you like to share your thoughts on the ECL Elite License? It´s a step in the right direction. Who would you say are the favorites to take home ECL 7 Elite? FILADELPHIA. Who's the hidden gem in your team? Patzlaf's new internet. Thank you for the interview Eki and good luck in the upcoming season season. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. FILADELPHIA 3. Radical 4. Symphony 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. Butterfly Effect 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Stay tuned for our 16 in 16 about the predicted #1 team of ECL 7 Elite, Written In The Stars! The article will be released over the weekend.

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Hi there, NHLGamers! Almost Famous is next in line for our 16 in 16 series as the team was voted to finish 11th by the captains in the division. It is their inaugural season in Elite, but despite that, the roster doesn't consist of complete rookies at this level. They have a few players who possess some experience of playing in Elite. One of these is captain @Aze, who I'll have a short discussion with at the end of this article. Almost Famous is quite a young team, as the team only has two seasons under their belt. Despite this, they have already accomplished a great feat, being the first ever ECL team to gain promotion in consecutive seasons, progressing through the divisions framework from Lite to Elite. The team was played it's first season in ECL 4, but didn't start to reach it's form as we know it until ECL 5, when the project aF really took off. MUKIMIEHET (RIP) disbanded and captain Aze took control of the team, which had originally been his brainchild already in the early spring of 2017. Unofficially, the team has maintained their core throughout their short history, as captain @Aze, although seeing things through in MUKIMIEHET still ran things in a background role during their first season in Lite. IN SepiDN <-- Evolution kikiukko <-- Rusty Blades SadaPoika <-- Evolution Chafak <-- Free Agent Nampa77 <-- Sjukstugan OUT DevilFish14 --> Break from NHL Realpulunen --> Etelan Vetelat Rimpe37 --> Gotham Knights Current Roster: Forwards Ikavalko (A) @Ikavalko SadaPoika @SadaPoika Chafak @Chafak Nampa77 @Nampa77 Defensemen AzeStiNE (C) @Aze jahajaha93 (A) @jahajaha93 kikiukko @kikiukko Goaltenders Vaporik @Vaporik SepiDN @SepiDN taiguri9 @kasper.kampe What do you expect from ECL 7? I'm hoping for a lot of tight games during the season. If the preseason is anything to judge from, that is what we'll see too. There's been a number of transfers and several new teams in the division, so it'll be exciting to see who will make the biggest impact. Who would you name as a key player from your team? Well, goalies are never too overrated so I could say our goalie trio @SepiDN, @Vaporik and @kasper.kampe will be the ones we either live by or die by this season. There will be tough games for sure, so you will need a good goalie in order to give you a chance to win everyday. What are your thoughts on the ECL Elite license? I think it's a step in the right direction, so yes, it's brilliant. I don't think it's a sustainable solution as it is but a fine middle-ground for now. Talk a bit about the moves Almost Famous made during the summer and recently. We ended up having quite a lot of turnover as SadaPoika and Nampa77 joined our offense, kikiukko joined our defense and we brought in Elite proven goaltender SepiDN. We needed additions to our offense, depth for defense and a goalie who adds more activity in net and has shown ability to play at the Elite level. They have fit in very well, great players and great guys. Who would you say is a favorite to win it all in ECL 7? FILADELPHIA and Written. Both teams have top versus players in their teams, so it'll be interesting to see which mode they will invest in more, 1v1 or 6v6. I believe FILA made some amazing acquisitions in the offseason and is arguably the strongest team on paper. Written also made some moves and will undoubtedly perform at the top-level as expected. Who'd you say is the "Hidden Gem" in Almost Famous? @Ikavalko is one of the most entertaining players in the scene and has a lot of potential. It'll be nice to see how he will utilise it all and perform in Elite. Thanks Aze for your time and good luck to Almost Famous for the next season! Our second Sunday article will be taking a look at a team that's trying to shake off the rust accumulated over the summer, can you guess who we're talking about?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. In the third part of our 16 in 16 series we are going to take a look at a team that's been along for quite a while already. During the three seasons of ECL divisions, this team has already suffered one relegation and had the joy of one promotion. You could say it's been a rollercoaster. The team under our close investigative eye is Gotham Knights. Gotham Knights hasn't always been around as it is currently. The team started off as Refuse To Lose when EASHL made the transition to the new gen consoles in NHL 16. Refuse To Lose competed without any mentionable accomplishments until the summer of 2017, when @ReDMisTi, and @Kefleri decided to join forces and create Gotham Knights as we know it. ReDMisTi brought @Hanssonni and @MKivinen95 with him from RTL and the team recruited some new faces to bolster their ranks. Since the beginning, Gotham has wanted to prove that they can compete at the Elite level. It's something that will be even more of a theme now in NHL 19, as the team goes into their first consecutive season at the top tier. IN Nieppii <-- Sypperstaars erholtzi <-- Red Machine swagx88 <-- FILADELPHIA OUT PleeMaker --> FILADELPHIA Serg1vratar --> Free Agent ktewjh --> Rusty Blades jyrkkis_ --> Team Frosty EemilK02 --> Raccoon Rampage Sweaty__99 --> Unlucky Boys Current roster: Forwards ReDMisTi (C) @ReDMisTi Kefleri @Kefleri Hanssonni (A) @Hanssonni Puteli88 @puteli88 Defensemen Mkivinen95 @MKivinen95 Nieppii @Nieppii Goaltenders swagx88 @swagx88 erholtzi @Erholtzi After this introduction of the team, I'd like to get into some questions to team captain and former teammate of mine, @ReDMisTi: What are your expectations going into the 7th season of ECL competition? Our expectations are that we can play a good season. We're trying to keep the playing level high and minimizing the amount of bad days. Staying in Elite is an absolute minimum, but reaching the playoffs is our goal. Do you guys have one player you'd like to showcase as a potential difference maker? I can’t name just one key player, we will play as a team and therefore every player is a big part of our success. Would you like to share your thoughts on the ECL Elite License? I guess the idea is good for sure. Remains to be seen who will pay up and who won't. Can you talk a little bit about the moves Gotham made during the summer? We had a few players leave, and a few players joined so it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of impact the transfers have on our game and the league. I guess we still play the same kind of hockey we did last season. Who would you say are the favorites to take home ECL 7 Elite? FILADELPHIA has easily been our toughest opponent for now, I’m surprised if they are not in finals. Do you have a "Hidden Gem" in your team? Yes, @Nieppii is one of the best versus players in Europe and now he wants to be one of the best 6vs6 defensemen too. We're talking about a really skilled player and he can easily become one of the best D's after a bunch of training and facing the worlds best players in ECL Elite. Are you going to play offensive or defensive hockey? Hard question, a good defense is the key for sure, so we want to defend hard but at the same time keep the puck as much as possible. We don't want to be just a counter attack team. We're staying versatile, so I'd say we're 50/50. Thank you for your interview and good luck with the new season! Ranked to finish 13th by our ECL Elite captains and making a comeback to the Elite level, we'll have an exciting one for you guys tomorrow. You'll be given the pleasure of seeing two long-time NHLGamers having a chat about the upcoming season and the return of a dearly missed writer. Check back tomorrow evening for more of the goodness we've called ECL Elite 16 in 16!