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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

(Posting this on behalf of @vSilenttio and the rest of LA) Hey Gamers, The Summer Cup Playoffs Round 1 pairing NG Club Kannunkulma - NG Oispa Taitoo finished their series on time early last week. However, the game reports remained missing for a whole week after that. After League Administration made contact concerning this matter during the weekend, the games remain unreported, even as Round 2 is already going on - making it impossible to generate correct playoff-trees etc. We look at this kind of action as completely reckless towards the rules but also towards the other participants of the Summer Cup. "10. Match report, from the rules of Summer Cup. All match reports must be submitted within 24 hours after the game is completed, but as a general rule teams are expected to submit the stats immediately. Continued failure to report stats on time and/or accurately will result in disciplinary action. In case of repeated user error offenses, a warning will be issued. Once a warning has been given, further offenses may lead to a suspension or a deduction in team points. The rule also applies to the 24 hour period within which the matches should be reported. " "Continued failure" is almost a week in this particular case. While there has been instances of game reports lingering for longer than 24 hours, this is an extreme case and the fact that we are currently in the Summer Cup Playoffs, Round 2 also work as an aggravating factor. After receiving all information on the matter from both captains, League Administration has decided on the following outcome: Captain of NG Club Kannunkulma, @plee999, will receive a 1-game ban for Round 2 of Summer Cup Playoffs. The 1-game ban takes effect immediately, meaning the first game of Round 2. Captain of NG Oispa Taitoo, @Selezny will receive a 1-game ban for ECL5. As his team lost the series 3-2, that means Selezny's next possibility to play official league games at NHLGamer is in October 2017 when ECL5 starts. The 1-game ban takes effect immediately in ECL 5, meaning the first game of ECL 5 for whatever team Selezny chooses to play for. Furthermore, we would like to clarify once more that when you have taken on captaincy responsibilities, and if you for some reason you can't report your games on time, you can and have to tell your Assistant Captains about the problem and tell them to submit the stats in your place. - League Administration