J-Foppa

It’s not the why but the how that’s criticised. SG should monetise, but not by taking money from its core user base. It’s not growth when you take that money from the community itself. SG has failed to acquire the right sponsorships if they feel the need to charge their members. You see, we are definitely the most important factor SG uses when trying to recruit sponsors. So either SG is not doing a good enough job with sponsors, or the interest from outside investors for NHL as an e-sport is too low. If they had the money the needed from sponsors, they would not ask for this type of money.

Changing again? Tournament has not started. Why so sensitive to tournament start, that hasn't stopped you before

First: I still don't see an argument as to why it was better to announce it mid-season. Now you say there were no changes? Okay, I will argue otherwise. Thy changed alot of things after the season was underway (hence mid-season). Tbh it was not mid-season but really towards the end of the season. Change: ECL 1-10 Pro team 13th played best out of 7 against 16th. Change: ECL 1-20 Teams 1-12 did not qualify, now 12th team were put in qualification Change: Roster moves were allowed Change: 3 months between regular season and relegation is not fair play. Why do you think relegations are played shortly after regular season in real sport and not before the beginning of a new season with new rosters? The relegetion/promotion system is tied with a regular season for a reason. We might very well play against team-members in the qualification that were part of the team who put us in qualification in the first place. How can anyone think that is fair play? I challenge you to name one example in the history of sports when relegation/promotion has allowed roster moves. SSK did not get a chance to prove themselves when the change is announced 1 week to go of regular season with 3 games left. 3 opponents hardly even equals the majority of teams you play. The most drastic changes NG ever done to League structure, would't you agree? After season (and after promotion/relegation) is fine. Then everybody played the tournament with the rules and and prerequisites at hand at the beginning. Actually no...we have not been given a chance to prove ourselves with the team who went into qualification. With our team now I believe we wouldnt even be in qualification. So can we please get to play against all the pro teams from previous season again? (Im not serious, Im just making a point that no 12-16 teams in Pro has gotten the chance to prove themselves under the prerequisites that they were put here. About the schedule? Obviously the change has taken a lot of time. If they didnt make it now, ECL could play during spring as every other 2nd ECL since the start of ECL. No play during summer

You might disagree and I might have missed your point as to why you think changing format mid-season is a good thing, but I dont see it? NG did announce there was gonna be a change to promotional system for ECL12. Thats not the same as postponing qualification 3 months and allowing roster moves, or new teams in qualification. Or that they will seed Lite teams (regardless of position) higher than Pro teams (except then they change it back again, so now Pro teams are seeded higher in the actual qualification....which makes no sense if you're supposed to use the same logic). It creates a bunch of problems. Unfair competition being a major one. The othe major one is forcing teams who want to keep their spot to play during summer vacation. If they released the change after we would have fair competition and could all enjoy the beach for summer NG would have 8-9 more months to figure out the best possible solution for a new league structure. Maybe collecting feedback from community etc.

I cant speak for others but I don't believe people think this was a hasty decision??? Quite the opposite considering the complexity of the format. Their timing is completely off. Either you make the deadline before a tournament start or you postpone it until after the tournament. The complaint lies in changing the format for an ongoing tournament. No messege in a chatbox about potential future changes remedies that (chatbox is not an official channel for communication if Im correct?) Im sure NHLGamer faces challenges I do not comprehend, but as any organisation in the world hosting tournaments, there will be challenges to overcome. It's not that we are complaining they didnt do something in time. if that was the case, then people could argue their work is overloaded. We are complaining they did something when they should have waited.

Its not an opinion that the tournament is unfair. Its a fact. Changing prerequisites in an ongoing tournament makes it unfair. Again, please make an argument how allowing new teams to enter the qualification, or recruiting players between regular season and qualification makes for fair competition. Do you understand why there are trade deadlines in sport? You are arguing that NG is working hard and listening to feedback, which is not arguing the point. No one is disputing that NG is working hard. Decisions are sometimes tough, but the decision to change the League structure is a fairly big decision to make. They just had to make it between seasons. It is really not that hard. And when you make a decision that creates unfair competition...you should correct it. Im fine with us qualifying. I knew we had to qualify 10 games into ECL11. Really...Im not asking for free spot. What I would ask is to play the qualification close in time to regular season with the rosters who got there. This is not possible anymore. But at least, they can make every team who did not get a Pro spot qualify. I do feel bad for SSK who got the notice 1 week and 3 games left of regular season that 12th position would put them in qualification, and then gets a lower seed than Lite teams who did not make the quarterfinals in Lite.

We know they work hard for little or no pay. We appreciate it and therefore so many have stayed since ECL1 Actually because of the hard work of @Kenu everyone at Consolehockey moved to NHLGamer in the first place. But sometimes people make bad decisions, and in this case the timing issue is caused by their own actions. They decided to make the change mid-season. If they had just waited a few weeks, they would have until October/November to figure out the format for coming tournaments. AND bonus: keep the ECL fair. Which means; not forcing teams to wait months and allowing teams to recruit players, or even allowing new teams who did not participate in ECL11 regular season to qualify. Now they may argue that a change was needed because of the increase in players and teams. Fair enough. But ECL has increased with every season if I’m correct? This had to be foreseeable and expected. They just had to make the change in between seasons. I welcome anyone to argue ECL11 + qualification is a fair competition. Don’t wait to fix this. Do it now.

@NHLGamer The seeding is wrong for the Pro-qualifier. Why is suddenly Pro-teams 12th-14th seeded higher than Lite Playoff team 10th???? Please explain why you consider 9 Lite teams to be better than the Pro-teams but not 10. You also state that the Lite-teams will replace the directly promoted teams. So it makes more sense if you seed them higher Its wrong...but at least make it consistent. Also if you belive free spots are wrong then make it right now, not after the tournament.

Out of curiousity....as I understand it for ECL12-13 etc the top 4 core teams will get into qualifiers for Pro before some Lite teams who are not successful enough in playoffs. BUT if enough pro/elite teams disband then potentially a Lite team who is not eligible for Pro-qualifier can get the Pro spot before the pro-qualifier eligible core team. Its very unlikely, but theoretically possible, no? @NHLGamer Im not sure but there is probably like a 100+ years or so of documented promotions/relegations in sport...why not have a look at how its done?

Actually it’s because we went to Lite finals and got promoted to Pro according to the rules set before the start of season 10, and it’s way more difficult being top 11 in your Pro group than reaching top 16 in Lite. Im fine with qualifying. I’m not fine with all the changes to the regulations mid-season.

Really? You dont see any difference from previous 10 season? I wonder why that is... Did you get a Pro spot without qualifying perhaps?

@NHLGamer Please explain why you change the rules again. And can we trust the rules set for the qualifying-tournament or will these be changed again before ECL12?

This feel like politics. It doesnt make sense but there are probably unknown factors at stake that I will never understand. Can NHLGamer at least provide a good explanation for wives/GFs when we cancel the summer vacation?

Still free backup ld for FCL

Free LD (can play backup as well) for FCL

To Brayce if they are reading this I would suggest getting a Router with geo-blocking abilities for example Netgears with DumaOS. Then set your location to Sweden/Finland and limit your perimeter to that area. It should help.

Not even if they change to northern europe under club settings? I wouldnt know, no one has been willing to try

It’s not just some people Kenu. Im not aware of all the matchups between northern european teams and german teams in ECL but the ones I am aware of the german teams have not been willing to share servers, instead referring to the rule book that there is no rules about servers = one way street Helping these teams is not automatically a one way street but when they are not cooperating in ECL it becomes a one way street. I’m not against searching relaxed, I just don’t feel like helping people who only cooperate when it benefits them. That’s not the same as being an asshole, that’s being uncooperative towards assholes

Perhaps start with a rule for servers in playoffs? It would be nice as a higher seed team to play your home games on your server, instead of 7 games on the German-server This cooperation thing seem like its just a one way street.

We don't mind the predictions Keep em coming!

When organisations such as SHL take on projects like these it’s aim is long term. It is impossible for anyone to predict the outcome but the aim of such an investment will always be long term. Why? Because there are no short-term benefits to be had. With that being said, do you think representing 2 esports-organisations at the same time helps the league to be viewed as serious for external sponsors etc?

Agreed. NHL12 saw more thriving Swedish teams than NHL 20. I think that eSHL could have helped the community grow.

The biggest problem is that it kills the hype for the league. If audience etc want to just watch skilled players there is ECL etc. The hype is surrounding the opportunity to watch SHL teams battle on virtual ice. Imo the Swedish Community need to grow. We need new talent and the best way to do so is creating interest around the teams and league. Why even bother with a swedish league if it’s just about having the best teams?

Linköping invented a new term; surrogate-team