Mikka

Right now the Relegation/Promotion Battle is scheduled to be played the same week as Pro quarterfinals, and there's almost a 3 week break between the Pro regular season and RO16 So basically the Pro playoff dates are messed up, I'd guess Looks like all the divisions have that break so that's probably intentional, but anyways then the Elite relegation just has the wrong dates I guess

Is there a new unannounced Elite relegation system?

I’m obiviously not saying that there should be a poll for FCL or anything, just adding my piece to the poll discussion. I prefer the bans currently so I should really be against any polls. Also an Elite only poll is not realistic due to the in-season relegation qualifier against Pro teams. Elite & Pro basically need to have matching rulesets. Elite/Pro and Lite/Core/Neo could work in theory if there is a big enough divide in opinions, but even that’s not ideal for teams making the jump up a division.

Oh yeah, one more thing about the draft channel vote(s) that get shared here from time to time. As we can see in this thread, going against the grain / top top players’ opinion can lead to some pretty nasty stuff being said to you & getting all kinds of reactions (& DMs…) Now combine that with an open, public vote where everyone can see what you voted for. See the problem? Not saying that the results would necessarily be any different, but imo there’s a realistic threat of some people not daring to vote in fear of getting blacklisted, or even straight up receiving hate. This community has a lot of relatively young people, and standing up against something isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Surrendering to herd mentality without much thought, on the other hand… So, without going too tin foil hat, my point is that a proper poll is an anonymous one, and I know SG has the tools for that. Other polls can have some value as conversation starters for example, but decisions shouldn’t be made based on those. In real elections, voter secrecy excists for a reason.

I know reading comprehension levels worsen year by year in the society, but holy hell For my confused finnish bretheren, I recommend googling some information about ”vertauskuva” or ”satiiri”, for example. Oh yeah, we were talking about NHL traits and I’m totally making it a society-wide issue again, sorry (😢). Let me start with a small reminder of what Kenu himself said: As I’ve tried to point out earlier as well, simply posting ”ban x but not y because everything is good right now” copy&pasted 5 times in a row is not constructive nor well-reasoned. Just write something in any language you feel you can get your point across with, and then you’ll have an actual chance to affect something. Spelling doesn’t matter, the content of your message does. The things you’re actually trying to say. Anyways, that’s enough about that for now. I have personally found the game a lot more fun with the abilities banned, not being able to poke behind your back & teleport a few meters into a 1T animation. It has felt like you actually need to use your brain more in regards to how you position yourself and so on, as a few others have said here. That being said, I somewhat get the point about 1T forcing teams to defend more aggressively. Banning only the golden abilities could be a fine compromise like some have suggested here. Still, I’d first like to see some actual competitive games to really see the effects, as we now will with these national leagues. I know I’ll get misunderstood more or less intentionally by some, but let me cap this tirade off with another Kenu quote: From what I’ve gathered (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), a good portion of the top players currently (still) refuse to practice (or at least play drafts) without abilities, even though they have registered for FCL. I know you have probably tried a few games here and there & have a lot of expectations and ideas about what the gameplay will be, but come on now. Give it a proper try, and then come back here with your informed opinion. Every time the meta changes, playstyles take a little while to evolve. Just think about the beginning of every NHL that has seen a noticeable change in gameplay. Finally & lastly, posting screenshots where the opponent is clearly fooling around is useless, get some real gameplay from proper games and then make your case – or don’t. Writing this has once again been way too time consuming for the amount of care I have for whether there are any bans or not – all options are tolerable, even though I do currently enjoy the bans the most.

I'll also add this. Elite broadcast viewership seems to hover around 90-150 viewers or so every time I happen to open Twitch. That's basically nothing, and I'd wager most of the people watching are either current or aspiring Elite players. We can listen to the top players and make the game play how they want it to, so that it's the most enjoyable for them to play and watch. But if someone thinks the viewers will automatically follow... Just take a moment to reflect on the overall state and health of this great game made by our beloved friend EA Sports. Growing the viewership has to come from outside the Elite bubble, so don't y'all think listening to those people as well would be appropriate? Also, from what I've gathered, seems like a huge chunk of players below the Elite level see those players as arrogant and full of themselves. Take a moment to reflect on that as well. What do you think you are doing about that appearance in this thread for example? Try to look at it from the outside, if you read these messages and didn't know yourselves and your peers at all, what would your perception of them be like? Would it make you want to watch them play this state of the art video game product? If you actually explain your viewpoints in a calm manner, maybe the authority of being a top player with tons of hours put in the game will do you something. Not explaining anything, just saying "we're the best so we know the best + we don't actually care what bans you peasants down there play with, just don't come here affecting our experience". Does that help with one of the main points that shows up here, growing the scene and making Elite viewership skyrocket? Does that make these lower level players, prime target customers for watching you play, want to share their opinions on things? How do you reach these people if you aren't willing to listen to them, just straight up attacking their persona and skill level?

There's been some polls historically, but looks like some of the results are hidden atm.

I have little to no interest in actually engaging in this shouting match involving some copy&paste answers and some really well put together arguments, but I’ll just drop this extremely constructive piece here: Seems to me like some people are talking about how more goals = more entertainment = don’t ban scoring abilities but ban trucu. But oh wait, don’t actually ban stick em up because then we can’t poke check = defend = there will be a lot less goals than without it. Hm, how about that? Food for thought 🤔 Also on another note, I thought we as a society were kinda done with this uncritical american idolization some decades ago. If you want change, justify your point of view in a proper way. The language never has to be perfect, but if your message lacks substance & consistency…. To reiterate and put it simply in other words: ”NA does it, why don’t we” is not a standalone argument for anything. Substitute NA with whoever and my point remains. To quote an old idiom, if your friend jumped off a cliff, would you too? Have fun fighting, boys.

Looks like this time the results are in the wrong order even when looking through the schedule, so it is what it is, but anyways I’m sorry to say SSK went from 1-2 down to a 3-2 lead & then 4-3 in the Otukset series So no 1-3–>4-3 this time

twitch.tv/otuksetnhl

Minor correction, Otukset's loss was actually game 2 . Games get reported nonchronologically way too often, so I recommend using the schedule page to see the results in the right order (still not foolproof, but more so than the team page). Enjoyed the article though, keep up the good work

Somewhat agree with this. First of all I gotta say I know first hand how much effort these articles need to be this well together put, and I appreciate all the work you writers put in as volunteers, solely for the love of the game ❤️ But as Migu said, the articles & Wraparound episodes could maybe be honed to complement each other a bit better, with these in-(regular)season articles perhaps focusing even more on the big picture, or megatrends within the league if I may use a semi disgusting term Meanwhile still maintaining an easily digestible & interesting format. So in short I guess what I’m trying to suggest is that these reg. szn articles could be relatively short & sweet big picture type overviews/reports, that would bring a distinctly different angle than the Wraparound episodes which are already decent weekly recaps. I do think these are worth keeping, but I’d try to tune the format. The size of Pro brings a lot of challenges & time constraints in itself, so I do get that it’s a tall order – just trying to give some broad food for thought. It’s great that there’s a good amount of content now, but turning overlapping parts into complementary ones would improve the quality even more! E: Gotta say I love the addition of ”important games coming up”! Exactly the type of thing I think could be more in focus in these articles.

I don't think the regular vibration gives anything at all, tho admittedly I haven't really noticed it anymore (which probably means that I've gotten used to getting no vibration). Except for sometimes during a stoppage, there's been that extremely strong vibration which has basically just matched the song being played at the arena. So I assume it's the enhanced vibration "leaking through", it kind of extends the arena audio/atmosphere Edit: Well, this is kinda embarassing... I went to double check & my vibration setting was "Off". I'm not admitting it, but I must've missclicked on day1 . Turned it back on & now the regular vibration seems to do something at least (feels a bit off still, but that may be inside my own head). But, that still means I've been getting those occasional glimpses of enhanced vibration with the setting fully turned off. I also tried playing with the enhanced vibration turned on now, and that odd vibration I described is indeed the one you (sometimes) get with that. As a general feedback, I'll add that having every single stride on the ice vibrate makes the enhanced setting unusable, even if there could be some other cool effects. Right now it's constant vibration when the game is on, but when for example a goal is scored it just ends. Just my opinion, but the enhanced effects should pretty much only happen when big things happen (=match the arena atmosphere), meanwhile right now it seems to be the inverse. Obviously not a thing that is or should be anywhere near their top priorities, but I'm just yapping.

I would've guessed that this would work - still haven't tested it outright but... we loaded into a private game vs an opponent we hadn't played a single time this year (grudge off, didn't result in a grudge match) --> game either froze or crashed for everyone before puck drop --> (so everyone booted the game) --> new search, grudge still off --> Grudge MatchTM --> 👍 After the game we went straight into a new one against the same opponents (no dr boot or game boot or anything), and what do you know, another grudge match. Oh, and after which, we started searching with ECLPro (=changed password), grudge still off, got the same opponents again, aaaaand GRUDGE MATCHTM

Some other issues: - Regular vibration setting doesn't work (results in no vibration at all, except for 2-3 times since launch I've had the enhanced vibration effects happen during a stoppage in play) (<-- with vibration turned off****) - Even with the new scoreclock, how much of a penalty is left is still not always displayed (usually from the beginning of a period until it appears after the first stoppage (like last year), but occasionally in other situations too I think)