[Rulebook update - Misc. Changes]

Great update!

But with terms like immediate game situation also comes interpretation. How long is a game situation? Who determines when the game situation is over? Everything that can be interpreted/misinterpreted will be subject for debate, always. Imo, better to have the game stop as soon as someone drops regardless of what happens after and make everything that happens in the game void from that point on granted that you have video to back it up

 

[ECL 12 Qualifiers Info]

  

3 hours ago, Bjono said:

What about the wildcards then? Have a club for a week and play the same qualification as 12th seed in PRO. 
is that unfair? 
 

promote the teams that do a good season instead of holding on to the ones who didnt made it. Its just the open spots. And then we still have the qualification.

As I stated in the last article about ECL 12 - Imo, there is no fairness in having wildcard teams. If you disband, then you officially give up your spot and automatically fall down the ladder. It's that simple. But then there is the question of how far you shall fall? Well, since Elite and Pro are the most competitive tiers, would it be strange to fall down to Lite/Core/Neo? Imo, not at all. I think that disbanding teams is a huge issue for the divisional system since it disrupts the "flow" of the relegations and promotions quite a lot and thus needs repercussions. With disbanding, I mean officially stating that you are not going to compete in a tournament with that particular team or it ceases to exist. Changing names and most of the roster is another issue for another day. No disrespect to the teams duking it out in the wildcard battle, many of them are highly skilled and would give even the best of teams a run for their money. But it's just not fair that you can scrap together a team (hypothetically) on a weeks notice and just run into a Pro-qualifier when you already have teams in line, that has had decent seasons in the lower tier. As I also earlier said, by doing it this way, the communitys feeling of a teams skill seems to outweigh the performance of last season. Promoting the next eligible teams in line from the lower tier? Well, that's like pissing on someone and pretending that it's raining. Why not just place them in the qualifiers? If this logic continues to the next season, a bottom Pro-team would have an equal chance of qualifying to Pro just by not playing this tournament and get a Wildcard-spot for the next tournament. No schedualing issues or playing during the summer, ez game ez life. But as stated in previous articles, this is a one-time deal with the qualifiers so this can't happen right?

3 hours ago, MaciPapi said:

We understand if the timeline as per now is too short but there are some options still and there is still time for some changes that would result in more fairness with less frustration and dissatisfaction.

A. Add these Lite teams to the Qualifier and put them to a fair test. A 25 team Qualifier would take maybe 1 week extra than planned. This would mean 12 spots to Pro out of the 25 team Qualifier.

B. If 25 team Qualifier is to big and take too long time. Let the highest Pro seeded teams from the Qualifiers get those open Pro spots and replace them in the Qualifiers with the 5 Lite teams. This would feel more fair and you'd have time until next ECL to overhaul these Qualifer rules and it's flow.

Thank you!

And if we had more time:

C. No wildcards and Qualifiers for bottom Pro and all eligible Lite-teams (including the ones that are now promoted). Wildcards placed in Lite

2 hours ago, Mikka said:

Also I don't personally get the complaints about how this was announced mid-season, I mean I'd like to think that everyone wants to achieve the highest finish possible no matter what, so I don't see how an earlier heads-up would've solved anything. I do understand that the teams affected might feel upset about getting this unpleasant surprise so late, but be honest if you would've finished higher due to the fear of a relegation battle instead of the hunger to get into the playoffs, you're doing something wrong.

Fair point and I agree to some extent, but imo I think you should't change the pre-conditions of a tournament when there is merely 3 rounds left, it's just poor judgement.

But as I search around for the divisional framework and in particular the info regarding relegation in ECL 11, I only see this side note:
*Note: The divisions are still a work-in-progress and NHLGamer reserves the right to adjust the divisions as necessary.

Is that referring to this upcoming qualifier or have I missed some info in any of the previous articles?

[ECL 12 Qualifiers Info]

Wow, just wow. Imo, you already messed up with the announcement of the qualifiers and the timing of the tournament etc., but this is on a whole other level. So how does promoting the next available Lite-team make the qualifiers a fair deal?

[ECL 12 Season Information]

A little bit of feedback on all of this:

- Informing about a qualification series in the middle of ECL 11

The season (almost) played out fairly but it could have not been a more ill-advised thing to do, mostly because of the fact that it basically alters the pre-requisites of the entire tournament for everyone below Elite

- Allowing wild card teams in the qualifiers

This is wrong in my opinion, very wrong. We are going in to the 12th iteration of ECL and we have well established frameworks for the league and it must be disheartening for teams in Lite (#10-13) to be denied a fighting chance in favor for wildcards. In other words, the communitys (admins and NHLGamer staff included) perception of a team weighs heavier than last seasons results. Of course you can base it on individual stats, previous team stats from previous tournaments and such, but the data is most likely outdated and there are far more factors that weigh in to be able to make a fair judgement of a teams "skill". But this is my personal opinion, everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion

- Scheduling of ECL 12

As J-Foppa said, there must be some factors unknown to us community members that forces the decision to play out most of the tournament during the summer months. Either way, I think that it would have been better to wait until late August or just get on with it straight away. I have been an advocate for strict schedules for some time, meaning that I think that the rules for re-schedualing are way too relaxed as of now. It will most probably be a mediocre tournament since most teams need to broaden their rosters and schedualing will be pure hell due to people not being available, hence the scheduals can't be followed and we are back to square one

[Our friend Sami "Ampuhaukka78" Luoma has passed away]

I had the chance to play with Ampu while being part of my first summer cup adventure here on PS4 and we kept in touch over the years, occasionally filling a spot when it was needed. He stood out to me as a calm and caring gentleman and showed his many strengths on the virtual ice. It's sad to hear these news, but hopefully you are in a better place now ❤️ My deepest condoleances to the family and friends of Sami. May you rest in peace

[NHL 20 Beta - We want your feedback!]

Here is my somewhat late observations from the beta:

1. NHL Ones
   • Played against the reigning champion (Griefff something) at one point and it seems that he had found a way to perform the insta-wrap consistently and in the process make the goalie jump out of his crease and thus creating an open goal. In every other aspect it was business as usual in Ones. In my opinion this game mode is unneccesary as it is not something you could build a scene around
2. NHL THREES Drop-In (Arcade Threes)
   • Same as above, might be fun for a bit but nothing that can be played competitively due to it's higly scripted nature compared to other modes
3. EASHL Drop-Ins (Please specify if it is in 3s/6s/both)
   • 6s and 3s: Could not spot any difference compared to last years edition. I am now talking about finding a game and the lobby. Gameplay and dressing room will be covered under other headers
4. EASHL Club 3s
   • Same as above except that this is NHL Threes unscripted and probably the preferred version of 3s for warmups in this community
5. EASHL Club 6s
   • The dressing room is kinda buggy as it does not refresh itself in real-time. This was easily fixed by either pressing unready/ready or by selecting a position. This has to be fixed until release though
   • Nice feature that you could now switch between builds and gamertag of all the players present in the dressing room and in waiting lobby when an opponent was found by using the right analog stick
   • Loading into a game felt smooth and I can't recall that anyone ever lost connection in any of the games I launched into
   • Still miss the feature of a goalie becoming the 6th man when he is pulled
   • A practice mode (It was promised? If it was, make it really happen!)
6. AI skaters in World of Chel (specify mode + how many AI)
   • EASHL 3s/6s/Drop-in: The only feedback I have on the AI skaters is that they seem to have a hard time scoring on breakaways and the seem to always do something "unnatural", meaning that they always resort to some kind of weird shot instead of challenging the goalie with a deke or a well-timed shot that is a bit harder to read
7. AI goalies in World of Chel (specify mode)
   • EASHL 3s/6s/Drop-in: As mentioned earlier, some players seem to have found a way to use the insta-wrap consistently and in the process make the goalie jump out of his crease and thus creating an open goal. This must be fixed until release! This will be devastating for people playing with/against AI goalies and I guess that this applies to versus/HUT as well. I don't have any video material available but maybe it's possible to reach out to the champ of Ones or something
8. AI goalies in EASHL (specify if in 3s/6s)
   • Same as above
9. Customization: Player Classes + Traits/Specializations
   • I don't know if this was a mistake but I really like the fact that the face-off trait was removed. I think that it limits the center as it was almost compulsory to have if you wanted win faceoffs
   • Remove the need of leveling for traits/specialzations
   • If the enforcer class is to included in this game, well then it needs an overhauld. I guess that you could buff the effects of hits and a fight won or that you could switch builds mid-game. But the bottom line is that this class is utterly useless at this point in my opinion
   • The traits are quite balanced but of course there are traits more used than others. I would like return to this argument when the "meta" has been found and see what traits are less used and see if they could use an overhaul
   • The goalie traits seem to be somewhat broken as the negative effects outweigh the positive in most cases and it seems that many goalies only use the specializations. An overhaul maybe?
10. Customization: Gear (Casual + Pro gear + Gear Bags)
    • They are good as they are and I would not put a penny on these if microtransactions were implemented
11. Other World of Chel related feedback
    • There should be some kind of function that you could re-map the menus so that one could load into the dressing room with one click instead of like 10
12. Online Vs.
    • -
13. AI Skaters in Online Vs.
    • -
14. AI Goalies in Online Vs.
    • -
15. Skating
    • Feels smooth and I really like the fact that defenders are punished if the are facing towards the opponent when they receive the puck in transition. The pivoting is a bit slower and this is positive in my opinion as defenders probably are less prone to pinch thus creating a new dynamic in the game
    • The backskating needs some more attention as it is still the go-to move for competitive players. It still is ridiculously effective
16. Hitting (Collision Physics)
    • A bit broken to be fair as the line between charging and a good hit is too thin. It seems that you need some speed regardless of weight to even be able to hit and that kinda defeats the purpose of having a physically stronger build
17. Pokechecking
    • Better than in NHL 19 as you seem to get punished for attempting a poke when positioned incorrectly but not as unforgiving as in the NHL 19 Beta
18. Shooting
    • Massive improvements! It's so nice to see that snipes finally work on manual goalies. Mainly because goalies now are punished more for bad positioning than before but it still feels as if the shooting mechanism has been revamped and they certainly feels good to be able to use the sniper class again. The animations also look great
    • Rebound shots now look more natural
19. Offensive Play (i.e. how did it feel to play offense? How easy was it? Was there a skill gap? Were there limitations?)
    • I think both offense and defense are quite balanced and it seems that we may have a new kind of offensive dynamic coming up as shooting is more effective. In NHL 19, you could almost survive with just clogging up the slot but as a well aimed shot from the outside now is a major threat, teams might be forced to play more balanced
20. Defensive Play (i.e. how did it feel to play defense? How easy was it? Was there a skill gap? Were there limitations?)
    • Same as above
    • Some of the defender builds may need some more work as it clearly is too popular to use grinder or even playmaker on defense. It should not be the first choice when playing defense
21. Human Goalies in EASHL
    • I really like the fact goalies now are punished even further for not challenging the shooter. For instance, if the opponents have the puck in the corner and you are just standing at the nearest post without holding it you will most likely be punished hard if you don't challenge the shooter if they happen to shoot it through the gap between you and the post or if they get a one-timer off the slot and shoot it to your far post. It seems that you can't rely on the animation to take care of the one-timer to the far post. This was way more lenient in NHL 19 in my opinion
    • The animation made by the goalie when receiving a shot from the neutral zone is horrendeous. It's slow and you can in no way cancel it. I would much rather have the goalie move freely until the puck collides with the goalie and a plus would be if you could manually control the reception by manually using the right analog stick to shove the puck to the corner (timing it) instead of waiting for the animation by sitting in the butterfly position
22. The new presentation and scoreboard (if you're having problems with it, let us know if you did the configuration properly when starting the beta for the first time)
    • I actually like the placement of the scoreboard, good decision to move it to the bottom
    • I mean, it's kinda hilarious with the pre-game dances and all but was that really necessary?
    • Remove the unskippable replays and consider an observer function with replay controls
23. Other (anything not covered here)
    • As stated every year these feedback threads appear - consider adding an observer function so you can join games a spectator. This would take broadcasts to new heights
    • Another thing that would be benificial in live tournaments - the ability to pause the game without a 30 second timer and instead only use a "ready"-function (players need to press ready to resume the game). Only viable in tournaments though, would be a drag in normal EASHL
    • The automatic spin-o-rama when clicking L2 - why is it not an option? I want to turn it off!
    • And while we are at it - why can't we manually assign buttons? No need to tamper with the analog stick functions, but remapping the buttons would be a nice feature

[Beloved community member Daniel "Floor17" Anderzon has passed away]

My deepest condoleances to Daniel's family and friends

Many times have we battled on the virtual ice and the memories I have are truly great ones. You will be missed, rest in peace ❤️