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Good day NHLGamers, Hope you enjoyed our ECL 5 trailer - it has been in the works for quite some time. Be sure to share it and spread the word if you liked it. We can tell you that a lot of effort went into making it and while a great many people have been involved in its execution from start to finish (including of course our featured talent @Bjono, @pnordetun, @cHIIMEERa, @Hansulinho & @Dominointi who couldn't have been more professional during the shoots), no one more so than @LastMandalorian. From developing the concept months ago, to setting up the film shoots, to traveling around Sweden and Finland to actually film it - all the way through editing the material and picking the right music. Hats off to you, sir - a job well done. Hockey returns 133. That is the exact amount of days since the European Championship League was last in action. 133 days (or more than 3000+ hours) of waiting for this next shot at virtual ice hockey glory. It is true that while this years Summer Cup did satiate some of the community need for competitive gaming, there is nothing quite like ECL hockey. The fourth ECL season was a season of change for many reasons. A new system featuring divisions was implemented. Instead of one lone winner, three champions were to be crowned. As a result more teams than ever before chose to sign up; a trend we hope (and expect) to continue as the ECL continues to expand its reach. When the dust settled and the smoke had cleared after ECL 4, the NHLGamer "Hall of Champions" that already featured Nordic Blizzard (ECL 1), MUKIMIEHET (ECL 2) and X Factor (ECL 3) had been expanded to include Laser HT, Carlsberg HC and J P T J who managed to bring home the titles for Elite, Pro and Lite respectively. Furthermore, we got to see the first ever Xbox ECL with OHO SORI winning the title in 5 games against The Black Jacks. We think it was a good start and would like to support this community initiative of bringing more competitive tournaments to the NHL landscape on Microsoft's console. That is why we will also give you the opportunity to sign up for Xbox ECL 2! ECL 5 - PS4 While ECL 5 will be bigger and hopefully more competitive than ECL 4 it will not feature the same amount of change to our structure, something we hope will offer a welcome sense of continuity with regards to how much things changed last season. In short, this means the rulebook, the divisions and most of the things that worked really well in ECL 4 will continue to be implemented in ECL 5 as well. This also means that, while we did find the ongoing discussion and community vote concerning the ECL point system - mostly a debate between the merits of employing a 3-point system versus a 2-point system - interesting and balanced, we will not change from the current 2-point format at this time. We welcome continuous discussion on this topic as the ECL continues to evolve. Furthermore, we are sure that one of the biggest questions for some teams and members at this stage is "where will we play this season?" as the poll concerning if you should be able to apply for Pro or not turned out to be quite divisive. This has perhaps been the biggest question faced by the staff ahead of this season. The baseline we are working from is this: if you earned your place in either the Pro or Elite divisions last season, you still have the right to it. We will not be employing any type of forced demotion in either of these two divisions. In a vacuum, this means we already have our 16 Elite teams and 32 Pro teams ready to go. Outside of this "vacuum", the truth is that many of these Elite and Pro teams have experienced significant changes during the off-season between ECL 4 and 5. Therefore, if you are either a Pro or Elite team (based on how ECL 4 ended) - you need to confirm your participation in the division you ended up in last season. If you do not confirm your spot before the last sign-up date, that spot will need to be filled by the Staff. Read on to find out how to sign up for ECL 5 and how to apply for these open spots. Framework Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL challenge game mode in NHL 18. Individual requirements: Each player needs to create an account at NHLGamer.com and create his personal player card. Roster requirements: Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. Sign-up period: Teams can register until October 13, 23:59 CEST. ECL 5 Kick-off: ECL 5 is set to start on October 16. Rules: TBA Sign-up procedures There will be different ways of signing up to ECL 5 this time - the procedures are explained in detail in the section below. Generally speaking: New teams that did not participate in ECL 4 at all or teams that were relegated from ECL 4 Pro: Please read the "ECL Lite" paragraph below. Teams that were able to stay in ECL Pro, were relegated from ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Lite during ECL 4: Please read the "ECL Pro" paragraph below. Teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 4: Please read the "ECL Elite" paragraph below. ECL Lite ECL Lite welcomes any and all teams that did not participate in ECL 4 as well as the teams that were relegated from ECL Pro during ECL 4. As last season, there will be no limit to the amount of registrations! We will flexibly adjust group sizes to accomodate all teams that are looking to participate. To sign up your team for ECL Lite, we ask the main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Lite registration thread: ECL 5 Lite Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. Due to the fact that only 31 teams are ECL Pro qualified at this time - and other teams may be folding - we also offer teams the opportunity to apply for ECL Pro during the sign up process. However, ECL Lite quarter-finalists from ECL 4 will take first priority when filling up spots in the Pro division, which means only a few or no spots at all might be available for completely new teams. When looking at Pro applications, we will choose applicants depending on their player strength and other factors such as in-game 6 vs. 6 leaderboard results. Below is the list of prioritized teams: ECL Pro ECL Pro is our 2nd division and will consist of all the teams that were able to stay in ECL Pro, were relegated from ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Lite during ECL 4. ECL Pro has a fixed size of 32 teams, divided into two groups. All the qualified teams are listed below: To sign up your team for ECL Pro, we ask the team's ECL 4 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Pro registration thread: ECL 5 Pro Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. In case ECL Elite teams are folding, we will automatically ask the best ECL Pro qualifiers from ECL 4 to fill these spots, according to their playoffs progress (criteria #1) and regular season PPG average (criteria #2). You are not required to apply for these spots. However, you are required to confirm your attendance for ECL Pro to be considered for selection. ECL Elite ECL Elite is our 1st division, housing the very best 16 European teams in a single group. It will consist of all the teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 4. All the qualified teams are listed below: To sign up your team for ECL Elite, we ask the team's ECL 4 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Elite registration thread: ECL 5 Elite Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. Xbox ECL 2 To help in building a larger competitive Xbox community, we will host the second edition of Xbox ECL. The first season was based on a community initiative that started off with few individuals asking for a NHLGamer branded tournament taking place on Xbox One. Thanks to these members who contacted other teams on their platform of choice to spread the word, interest was starting to pick up, and the first season ended with a total of 5 teams. While this is undoubtedly a small number compared to the amount of teams on PS4, we know that plenty of players joined NHLGamer during recent months. And thanks to the dedicated players that were doing their best to set up the first season, we expect participation to grow in the long run. Xbox ECL 2 won't be based on the divisions format that is taking place on PS4, and instead will instead offer a league format used in Xbox ECL and ECL 1-3 on PS4 - however, our long term goal is having divisions on Xbox One as well. Framework Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL challenge game mode in NHL 18. Individual requirements: Each player needs to create an account at NHLGamer.com and create his personal player card. Roster requirements: Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. Sign-up period: Registrations will be open indefinitely until 8 teams have agreed to participate. Afterwards, sign-ups will be open for another two weeks to make for a larger competition. Rules: TBA Sign-up procedure To sign up your team for Xbox ECL 2, we ask the main captain (C) only to go to the Xbox ECL 2 registration thread: XBOX ECL 2 Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. Final notes ECL and its divisions format is in a process of continuous evolvement. When NHLGamer.com first announced the switch to setting up three skill-based divisions, our main goal was to transform the diverse EASHL landscape to encourage the development of true franchises. Thanks to all the dedicated players out there, this is already bearing fruit: Established teams are building a core roster while also paying attention to the plenty of ambitious newcomers in the NHL community. We see social media channels popping up on a weekly, if not daily basis. We see lots of new streamers on Twitch and other platforms, showing off ECL to all the NHL fans out there. We see allies supporting our project more frequently than ever before. We see how the community is evolving and shaping up to be a professional and organized force in the gaming landscape. This is something we will continue to support in the future. We believe that, even though we might see a few teams folding this or even next season, which potentially requires us to restructure some of the divisions, in the long run we will see a healthy and fluid framework for the greatest 6 vs. 6 experience that's out there. It's not our achievement. It's your achievement. We welcome everyone to continue this road of success. We welcome everyone to play with the best. @The_Alpha_Furyan & @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com Facebook (NHLGamer)Twitter (NHLGamerCOM)YouTube (NHLGamer Official) Instagram (NHLGamerOfficial) Twitch (NHLGamerTwitch)

Good day NHLGamers, It’s been a busy few weeks for us here at NHLGamer, as is to be expected in the month leading up to the release of any new EA SPORTS NHL title. Amongst other things, we had the opportunity to visit the NHL 18 Producers Tour both in Stockholm and Helsinki all the while wrapping up our Summer Cup, Xbox ECL and planning for the launch of ECL 5. These are truly exhilarating times to be a part of this project as the momentum we carry from one day to the next continues to propel us forward. However, as our ambitions for NHLGamer continue to grow, so does the workload. One of the things we continually receive feedback about from the community is the amount of “in-league” articles we produce and that you would appreciate seeing us do more analysis, deep dives and opinion pieces on NHL gaming in general. Let the personality of NHLGamer show, as it were. Bearing this feedback in mind and with the understanding that the coming months will give the current staff plenty of work (and challenges!) to go around, we here at NHLGamer are opening up the floor for any and all content contributors who are interested in helping out. Where is this going? What will essentially happen is that we open up a virtual “Writers Room” for NHLGamer. If this is the first time you have ever heard the term, Wiktionary.org offers the following; “The room in which the showrunner and the writers of a television series collaborate on the plot and develop the script.” Now, NHLGamer is not running a television series by any stretch of the imagination but what we are running is one of the most exciting websites out there when it comes to competitive sports gaming. For a project that looks to have 100+ teams in its next league tournament and on top of that is involved in some other cool things coming up, we could sure use the help. How would this work? The writer’s room will consist of NHLGamer members who feel like they have something to contribute to the website. Whether that means a weekly column similar to the “Who’s hot and who’s not”-feature I developed over a year ago, or an in-depth exploration of what goes into the building of an EASHL franchise (or HUT team for that matter) doesnt matter – we want to see it all! Basically, we are interested in any content that is related to sports gaming, be it specifically ECL or something completely different. The members of the NHLGamer writer’s room will pitch their own ideas and articles to myself and @gzell60 (who have acted as NHLGamers “lead writers” over the past year and a half) to which we would give feedback and/or our edits before we release on the website. If something interesting pops up that is related to NHLGamer and merits an article, we might throw out a feeler to see if anyone in the writers room would be interested to tackle it. This does not mean you are put under any obligation to contribute a specific amount of articles per month or anything like that. We will ask you to estimate how much you are able to contribute though, so we know how to optimally allocate the tasks. It also doesn’t mean that the regular staff will completely stop writing articles. The NHLGamer writer’s room is simply a way to produce more content, involve all of the community and together pull on the same rope to make NHLGamer.com as cool of an experience as possible. If you have ever silently clenched your fist and gone “I could do that better” or if you’ve simply felt we weren’t doing enough in terms of content, this is your chance to be a part of the project and get your writing out there to an audience of thousands. If you are interested, simply send a PM on the community side where you include me (@The_Alpha_Furyan) and Max (@gzell60). Label it “Writers room” to make the messages easier to sort through. We hope to hear from you soon. Later skaters, @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com

Evening NHLGamers, Yesterday (September 5th) turned out to be a big day for fans of the game mode Hockey Ultimate Team, HUT. As one of the core game modes in EA SPORTS' series of NHL games, HUT usually draws a heavy interest from fans in the weeks leading up to release. What then could be better than suddenly finding out who all the new "HUT Heroes" are for NHL 18? Maybe getting to experience over 15 minutes of exclusive gameplay from the new edition of HUT? Here at NHLGamer we say: why not both? Before we get to the gameplay, lets start off with the announcement of all the new HUT Heroes. Yesterday, EA SPORTS released this article presenting all 30 NHL 18 HUT Heroes: https://www.easports.com/nhl/hockey-ultimate-team/hut-heroes To break it down for us and provide a proper NHLGamer analysis, we enlisted one of our resident HUT experts and hardcore gamers: @esdor . Take it away Adam! NHL 18 HUT Heroes - Analysis Gamers, I have been asked to give you my thoughts on the new HUT Heroes for NHL 18 so, here we go! In total there are seven new HUT Heroes that differ from the roster we had in NHL 17. As a first impression, I must say that I was hoping for a few more new Heroes. Three of the "new" ones were actually already in the game for 17 but only obtainable from packs as "legends". These players are Cam Neely (Boston), Jeremy Roenick (Chicago) and Wendel Clark (Toronto). Personally, the card I am looking forward the most to trying in the new game is new San Jose Sharks hero Owen Nolan. Those who have seen me play HUT know that I am a big fan of strong righties in the vein of Ovechkin. Sadly this means the previous hero from San Jose (Doug Wilson) is out. He will be sorely missed seeing as he was one of my favorite defenders that I used all year in 17. Another missed hero for me is going to be Red Wings hero Brendan Shanahan that I used a lot in the begining of NHL 17. It will be very interesting to see how good Rick Nash (Columbus) will be as a HUT Hero. The last two HUT Heroes that are new this year are Shane Doan (Arizona) and Tampa Bay defender Dan Boyle. In the start of the game I believe that the Heroes will be very effective cards even though their overall got reduced from 94 to 90. I would actually say that a few of the new Heroes will be used the entire game, like in NHL 17 with Heroes Ron Hextall and Olaf Kolzig. In my opinion, both those goalies were among the best goalies in HUT throughout NHL 17 and might continue to be in 18. Last but not least I want to really praise EA for the design on the cards in HUT, they have done a great job on making the new cards look fresh and exciting. Exclusive NHL 18 HUT Gameplay Footage Lets pick this up by thanking esdor for an excellent breakdown of all the new HUT Heroes. When he is not contributing content for NHLGamer, you can find him at https://www.twitch.tv/esdor. Finally, as I hinted at in the beginning of this article, yesterday also saw the release of over 15 minutes of exclusive HUT gameplay footage on the NHLGamer YouTube Channel. This content was captured during NHLGamers recent visit to the NHL 18 Producers Tour in Helsinki and was then edited and produced by our very own @Kenu - just like the NHLGamer On The Road video from Helsinki. It is with great pride and joy we can say that this video has been watched almost 5.000 times since it was released less than 24 hours ago. Wow! Without further ado, here it is: That is all for now. Until next time, later skaters. @The_Alpha_Furyan, @Kenu and @esdor for NHLGamer.com

Afternoon Gamers, In the last few months NHLGamer.com has seen an incredible growth. Not only when it comes to our membership totals on the webpage (about to hit 2500 at the time of writing this) but also when it comes to the ways in which you, our members, choose to interact with us. Our social media channels has grown exponentially and the level of overall commentary and discussion across all platforms is the highest its ever been. As we stand on the verge of new and exciting projects that could potentially propel the NHLGamer brand even higher, it is important to remember where we came from. That, coupled with our desire to introduce our many new members to what it is we actually do around here, led to the creation of an article titled: What is the ECL? Well, the ECL (or European Championship League) is, quite simply, the biggest and most competitive EASHL championship on the European continent. It has long been the "flagship" project for NHLGamer.com and continues to be one of its highest priorities as the project moves forward. All games in the ECL are always played 6v6 (= 6 human-controlled skaters on both sides, including the goaltender) in the EASHL game mode on EA SPORTS' latest iteration of the NHL franchise. When the ECL first saw the light of day almost two years ago (2015) it did so with a healthy amount of hype. The European EASHL community, having previously been divided between Xbox and Playstation, had all decided to come together on one platform (it ended up being the PS4) in anticipation of the championship. Thus it came to be that the ECL, right from the very start, hosted the most competitive enviroment anyone had ever seen... and from there it grew. While the number of teams who competed in ECL's 1, 2 & 3 stayed relatively even, around 50, and the summer tournament hosted on NHLGamer (Summer Cup; previously a part of the ECL but now edited to be its own franchise) was a success - we still felt like there were more European teams and players out there who either hadn't discovered us yet or hadn't gotten around to signing up. With a game-changing innovation introduced ahead of ECL 4, we were about to be proven right... Divisions The idea behind creating separate, skill-based divisions had been rattling around the NHLGamer community ever since before the first ECL, but it wasn't until after ECL 3 that a formal concept was announced. The community was then given a chance to present their feedback and suggestions for improvements before the Staff announced the final version. When faced with the opportunity to play an entire season against teams of an even skill level, the number of sign-ups soared. The ECL went from having about 60 sign-ups with 45-50 teams finishing the season, to having 80 sign-ups with 78 finishing the season - a 97.5% completion rate. We attribute this success partly to the divisions evening out the competition amongst teams, but also to the enhanced structure a system like this offers. ECL Elite always houses 16 teams, meaning the regular season is always 30 games long. ECL Pro always houses 32 teams, meaning two "conferences" of 16 teams and a regular season 30 games long. ECL Lite is flexible so that we can always accommodate however many new teams choose to sign up. ECL 5 Our next ECL season starts in the middle of October while sign-ups will start as early as September. We expect to once again beat our sign-up records to host the biggest championship yet. Can you afford to miss out on the experience? Keep an eye out for more information, news and hype concerning ECL 5 (including when sign-ups open) in our social media channels; Facebook (NHLGamer) Twitter (NHLGamerCOM) YouTube (NHLGamer Official) Instagram (NHLGamerOfficial) Twitch (NHLGamerTwitch) See you on the ice! @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com

Good evening, Gamers The long-awaited third episode of ECL Talk is here! Exciting times lie ahead as we try our hand at recording the podcast through a Skype call instead of the PS4 party platform. The title of the episode is Dominating the Beta, something that is reflected in the episodes' content as we review the NHL 18 Beta leaderboards and find the NHLGamer community well represented... Here's a more detailed rundown of whats happening in Episode #3 of ECL Talk (synopsis from YouTube page): "In the third episode of ECL Talk, hosts vSilenttio and The_Alpha_Furyan take a look at the final NHL 18 Beta Leaderboards (team rankings as well as player rankings) and find quite a few familiar names. The bulk of the episode is made up of this "review", with every skater position from Goalie to Center getting their time in the spotlight. Once past the Beta leaderboards, the discussion turns towards how the vacant divisional spots should be filled for ECL 5. Finally, we hint at what is coming up in the future for NHLGamer.com" Bonus material While recording the podcast, we had a "cheat sheet" of sorts in the form of screenshots taken on the last day of the Beta (midnight to be specific). As we mention in the podcast, we decided to share this material with the community as a form of "bonus content". To make the screenshots more visually appealing and show how dominant the NHLGamer community actually was in the Beta, @Kenu enhanced the images with some ECL art. Enjoy! Teams All Skaters Centers (featuring @ADETIKKI, @Joonas Paatiala, @Erkki, @xDoumi, @otto aaltonen, @Tzon93, @Norpee and @Migo_boo) Left Wingers (featuring @SadaPoika, @xMaick82x, @Bugimir, @plee999, @Rimpe, @pajenc, @mir02k1 and @hpkfani) Right Wingers (featuring @FlyerKungen, @imosi, @jumalpeku, @vatalisti, @Pelle3000 and @epelis) Defensemen (featuring @vSilenttio, @Slaivone, @Janikka, @The_Alpha_Furyan, @Ilmari_30, @Rullstolskalas, @kikiukko and @Gustafsson7) Goaltenders (featuring @FinKonna, @Casper, @Tauri, @s_w1ld_rus, @Jiihooo86, @Hullued, @Zande95, @jaakko katiska, @Ylijumala and @MajLeN-Gaming) As always, stay tuned for more ECL Talk and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and like the video if you want to see more content like this in the future. See you then! @vSilenttio and @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com

Good afternoon, Gamers The second episode of ECL Talk is here and so are our sound problems! Yes, we know what you're thinking: good job @vSilenttio and @The_Alpha_Furyan - and we thank you for that. So, to poke some fun at ourselves and to honor the late Chester Bennington, we've named the episode after a Linkin Park song; Lost In The Echo. Be sure to note how confident we sound in the beginning of the episode that we did indeed fix our issue... Anyway, here's whats going down today (synopsis from YouTube page): "In this second episode of ECL Talk, our hosts The_Alpha_Furyan and vSilenttio turn their attention to reviewing the NHL 18 Beta. The episodes main focus is on our hosts providing their own impressions of the game, while also discussing which ECL franchises seems to have figured out the game and done well for themselves in this short span of time. Furthermore, ECL Talk #2 touches down in the Free Agents thread – looking at some of the remaining “big dogs” out there. Lastly, the Summer Cup is discussed briefly with the champions being crowned no more than a week ago." Stay tuned for more ECL Talk and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and like the video if you want to see more content like this in the future. PS: A final apology for the once again poor audio quality – for Episode 3 we will be recording in a different manner to make sure the quality is crisp. See you then! @vSilenttio and @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com