markalla2

That's a fair and great point! That could easily be taken into account in the lower divisions by allowing rescheduling to like Sun-Thu 19-22 CET while keeping the other reschedule tool updates I suggested. It would make the process so much smoother for everyone.

The lower you go in ECL divisions, the harder it is to schedule games with inexperienced teams & captains. Also, players in the lower divisions play more casually because they more often than not have late nights at work, family and other things in life, meaning team management for captains is much bigger of a task. I don’t have an exact number on how many games are played according to schedule, but wouldn’t it be easier for all parties involved if the games are only allowed to be played on official division game days (Tue, Thu, Sun in Core for example) between 19 - 22 CET? I have witnessed with my own eyes a team declining default schedule and proposing 15:00 CET on a Saturday. And even if we are not talking about the most extreme cases, currently captains are basically allowed to propose anything between Sun-Thu 18:00 – 23:00 CET, no penalties for not answering in time or scheduling matchups on top of another matchup. My quality-of-life improvement: Each matchup (=two games and a start time of the 1st game) has a status of “Accepted”, “Proposal pending” or “LA case”. By default, each matchup is “Accepted” as the default date & time. Captains can set a default password & home game server for their team to be viewed by other teams’ captains. The password used for the matchup will be the first game’s home team’s password, set by the official schedule. If there’s no need to reschedule, no need to send any rally-english / google translate DM’s. You can just go ahead & play as the schedule says. If the opponent doesn’t appear in 15 minutes after the scheduled start, you can create an LA case with evidence for WO wins and call it a day. Naturally common sense should be used and if something urgent happens right before puck drop and you can’t play, you can always try and send a message to the other team, but the other team has no obligations to read or answer. If, however, games need to be rescheduled well ahead of puck drop, there is a Reschedule-button next to the matchups listed in the current Schedule-view. The Reschedule-button is greyed out if there is less than let’s say 2h until puck drop. With the Reschedule-tool, you can only select dates & times from dropdown lists that are: A) official division game dates (Tue, Thu, Sun for example) B) start time between 19:00 – 22:00 CET, ½h intervals C) you cannot select a time that overlaps with other matchups (because matchups are accepted by default) D) you cannot select a start time that another team has proposed to you or the opposing team (because the matchup status is “Proposal pending”) You can add up to 5 unique date & time proposals. Along with the proposal you can add additional information like “we can never start before 20 CET, we got kids” etc. The team receiving the proposal has 12 hours to either accept one of the proposed times or respond with a new proposal set & free text. If a new proposal set is sent, the other team only can only accept/decline it in 12 hours. If declined or not answered, the matchup status turns to “LA case” and LA will figure it out in DMs. So basically every “Reschedule” is a process that takes up to 24hrs before LA jumps in and settles the case. Benefits for… LA When an LA case is created, you get all the required information immediately Teams follow the rules, you know exactly when games will be played Captains currently the amount of effort & time captains put into this (mainly for free of course) is mind-blowing Team members players with different life situations (work, family...) can make plans days or even weeks ahead for the competitive season I know this sounds like a lot of full-stack development for SportsGamer, but we are paying a rather premium price for playing on this platform and usually there are quality-of-life improvements on such services. Yes, there are downsides too, for example if a starting lineup player can never play on a certain day of the week that happens to be a default game day or a team can never play before 20 CET, but I think having regulation would certainly outweigh the downsides (and currently those examples I gave would have to be negotiated in DMs anyway). The only reason I currently don’t want to be a captain is simply the game scheduling: gathering your own roster’s availability is already a task on its own and, on top of that, you sometimes must negotiate with people you don’t even share a common language to begin with. I also understand that if you’ve only played in Elite/Pro or never negotiated on a reschedule you must be thinking what on earth is this guy talking about, but it really gets wild down here in Neo-Lite. Teams are filled with more casual players who have late shifts at work, family, other hobbies so team management is much harder and the amount of games to be scheduled isn’t any less. So, in a nutshell, this QoL improvement wouldn’t change anything in Elite/Pro, but it would greatly save captains’ valuable time in Neo-Lite and bring some much-needed clarity on the rules of following the official schedule. Question for other casual teams with a variety of life situations among roster: How do you keep track of availability? Do you find scheduling games hard? I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this

Couldn't agree more with both @MartindalexC & @Janikka. This year player height & weight affect way more than before but I've seen like 2-3 guys using a bigger forward build. For a few weeks I've been rocking a 193cm 81.5kg TWF at center and highly recommend giving it a try, also comes with some broken ass animations while puck protect + L2 For me this conversation is all about removing the RNG/unpredictable outcomes all over the ice that XF abilities cause like @Janikka described in detail. I also understand @Kenu's approach that we play the game as EA has intended but in 6s EA's intentions aren't catered towards competitive play at all. SG announced that there will be new tournament concepts during this year's cycle and I really hope we try playing without abilities at some point. I can imagine it being as fun as NHL10-14 EASHL was. The only downside I can think of is finding games during the transition phase, I'm afraid teams without abilities would often match up with teams still rocking all 3 ability slots. There are 10 loadout slots so maybe creating duplicate builds with & without abilities is a quick fix.

Niinno joo täysin totta kun alustapalvelusta kyse, sillon twitch tarvis ne oikeudet 👍

Valikkomusat ei oo EA:n omaa musaa ja vaikka oliskin niin sulla pitäs viel lisäks olla levitysoikeudet kyseisiin biiseihin. Eli valikkomusat pois päältä ni se o siin

Great post and my previous comment still stands: whatever SG decides, please consider doing it at the beginning or end of the competitive season cycle. For NHL25 it probably is too late now unless there's a summer season next year.

After giving it some thought and reading others' takes on this... I'm also team BanThemAll. And here's the reasoning why: The whole X-Factor ability shenanigans were added to the game in order to highlight superstar players with their superstar abilities. I totally understand that concept from an offline mode or online versus point of view, it's a great addition and does what it's supposed to do: recognize greatness. But in WOC game modes, we don't need that at all - everybody can already spend their XP however they see fit under the ruleset of preset builds and be the superstar they want (even though I'd love to see the return of the old custom build system). In WOC the X-Factors don't make anyone a superstar in the way they were intended in the first place if evvvveryone on the ice has them. What the X-Factors bring in 6s especially is instead lower skill gap RNG to a vast variety of in-game scenarios an even stronger meta for each wingers, centers, defencedudes & goalies where everyone exploits weaknesses in the game Therefore a competitive setting with no superpower abilities would balance not only the meta but also the dreadful RNG. EA made the decision on our behalf to remove EE from WOC, which, if you think about it for a second, is actually is a huge step towards the direction I'm suggesting here. And absolutely nobody is complaining about it. Now it's all about finishing what EA started this year and play without the honestly quite unnecessary X-Factor abilities in 6s.

If you decide to restrict builds on a team basis, please don't test it mid-cycle of the competitive season. IMO would be test to try it in a summer league next year or early NHL26. Now it's too late. But as you said it's reeeeally hard to implement to the whole ECL structure.

I really think Furyan is on to something here with the pure entertainment value caused by the variety of playstyles. Now, in all honesty, only the off-ice twitter shit creates a strong brand in top leagues. That isn't the case with real hockey leagues where teams play hockey in a variety of strategies. I know the same approach doesn't apply 1:1 to ehockey but it does to some extent. +1 for one build style per team AND banning Big Tipper

100% agree with the matchmaking settings mentioned earlier. Maybe they have done some updates to servers and network code but still EU and NA shouldn't match up unless it's 4am here in Finland and after 15mins of searching no-one else within 80ms ping shows up. What I also don't like at all is the hip check auto-locking to opponent, it is far too OP. Otherwise LT feels really good and controls feels smooth and responsive. Quite similar to 24 but very good QoL changes.

I think a great feature on this website would be a list of free agents where a player can add their own xbox/psn id. Add a couple of required multi-choice questions like division / position / language / role (starter/backup), a single-choice like closest server, and a long free text field for additional information like availability and contact details. On top of that, show the divisions the player has played in the last few seasons from your own database. And while you're at it, create the same feature for teams looking for players too Heck, even add an 'Alert Me' setting when a team/player matches with your filters 💆 And ohhh baby when a free agent is signed, have it has a system-assisted process which automatically creates a forum post of a signing so we can all cheer on that! I think this would greatly reduce the time teams spend to find suitable players and vice versa. It would also give new players a better chance of being signed when their 'post' is displayed similar to the community legends.

The bans have been proven to work towards a more balanced gameplay experience. IMO unless EA states these op abilities are either heavily nerfed (doubt) or removed from the game (more doubt) it's not that likely the gameplay updates in 25 balance those out. We've been here before.

Wait so when two teams from different regions match up the skill based onetee becomes a ping based onetee

Salary?

Since we don't know how they've tuned the abilities or if they've tuned them at all it's very hard to decide. However, there was a reason why certain abilities were banned and it was done in a rather successful manner one might say: players could still use abilities, just the most OP/fun-killing abilities were banned. My thoughts on the banned abilites and what's to come: I don't see a scenario where Truculence wouldn't be a pain in the arschloch come NHL24. Based on beta, hitting is already OP once you learn the slapshot type of hit. l also don't see enabling Big Tipper gaining popularity among the community. Apart from positioning, deflections aren't done manually. Close Quarters was annoying for goalies from the very beginning of NHL22, but the goalie skill gap has increased (at least on paper) and good goalies can actually outplay CQ with the new guessing system? Time will tell, but silver CQ will most likely open later in the skill tree and will we have enough time to make a conclusion before ECL starts?

Thank you sir! To each their own I guess, I find statistics fascinating. Might do some more if there's an interesting topic. I literally had no idea Big Tipper wasn't available day one. I've always played D/G so probably that's why. That sure explains a lot 😄

…sooooo I did some stats! At first I was just interested who was right on what’s gonna happen if some X-Factors are to be banned – the comment section was on fire before ECL Spring Probably the easiest way to check it was to compare the ECL 23 Winter & Spring stats in the Elite Division. I chose to analyze these equal sample sizes by average aggregates from both leagues: Regular season games only Forwards: TOP50 skaters in Points total (manually deleted defenders from that list) Defensemen: TOP30 in Games played Goalies: >14 games played Let’s go through the banned abilities one by one and see what the numbers look like. All Data © SportsGamer “If you ban Close Quarters, you need to ban goalie abilities too” If the goalie abilities remain the same, less shots go in when CQ is removed? Well… kinda, yeah! Forwards certainly had less point production and a lower shot percentage while goalies had better stats across the board after the ability bans. Especially breakaways SV% increased significantly, though goalies face far less than one breakaway per game on average. But does it mean that the goalie abilities are too OP? A 0,7 %-unit increase in SV% might not be it. Some goalies made the argument that “banning CQ removes the shit goals” and that seems to be the case by the numbers. Some personal observations: at the time of the ban polls and heated conversation, nobody was using the Shnipe or Make It Snappy traits and probably didn’t realize that those would, to some degree, balance out the end result. Goalies have used the same builds all the time. “Banning truculence makes the game more enjoyable” This one is a tough one to solve in numbers - how do you measure enjoyability? Some said that you lose the puck constantly on small bumps and the energy loss is devastating. So, let’s look at it this way: did defensemen have less hits and takeaways? Did the forwards have less giveaways and more time with the puck? LOL the decrease in hits for defenders! Man I wish there was a record for pokes… Or if someone actually knows what the “interceptions” stat for skaters is, please let me know if it also counts for pokes and not just intercepted passes. Defenders’ takeaways remained the same, only a 0.05 increase per game and could be the result of the meta change, I don’t really know. Also, the TwP/G is up by 13 in-game seconds – more control breakouts? Less forecheck? Let’s keep in mind that not only defenders were using Truculence, quite a few forwards had it equipped as well. Forwards had the puck for 5 in-game seconds more and gave away the puck slightly less per game. Those average aggregates aren’t much but proving a point: the game is more enjoyable for forwards after the ban. “Big Tipper” No-one was against banning the Big Tipper ability. After all, deflections aren’t done manually and banning the even more superior deflection abilities seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, there isn’t a stat for deflection goals, only the deflections per player. A deflection usually comes from a defender’s shot attempt resulting in an assist for the defender – is there a decrease in assists for defensemen? Let’s take a look…. Interesting to say the least! Defenders shot the puck far less per game but their shooting % went up by 2 % and scored nearly equal amount of goals per game - did the meta change to defenders joining the rush more? Or did they shoot from the blue line as usual but more of the shots weren’t tipped and went in straight? I prefer the latter. This one I find even more interesting: the amount of deflections per game for centers across different leagues. Even without Big Tipper, centers were making far more deflections in Spring vs Winter; tips are very good even without the extra ability and Elite teams know it. The meta change is even more evident when you look at the historical change from NHL22 to NHL23. League-wide stats Δ% means the % difference from the row above When comparing NHL22 to NHL23, I think you can see the “more fun” aspect here. The penalty minutes were down by a massive margin, causing more up-and-down even strength hockey to be played. Shot attempt totals show how the deflections had a huge buff and the gameplay changes buffed offense. The huge increase in hits shows how dominant Truculence before it was banned, resulting in total hits being lower in 23 Spring than 22 Spring. Conclusion of the ability bans Banning the Close Quarters ability had the biggest direct impact of all the bans. It buffed goalie stats and nerfed forwards’ shooting percentage, but it was also the easiest to calculate without a huge margin for error. The previous meta was replaced by a slightly more balanced meta, one could argue. Without Truculence defenders had far less hits, which however didn’t result in any less takeaways. Forwards had the puck for longer and didn’t give away the puck as often. The ban definitely took away the "crazy hits and bumps that make you lose the puck" but hitting is still a big part of hockey. Deflections are somewhat OP even without Big Tipper ability and the stats confirm it. Bonus stats for shits and giggles: “NA vs EU” 🔥 These stats won’t tell you who is better, NA or EU, but they are here to showcase the different playstyles of NA and EU. In NACL 23 Winter the skill difference between teams was quite massive, which means that the top teams in NA scored far more against the bottom teams than in ECL Elite. I think it would be better to merge ECL Elite & Pro (maybe even Lite and Core) team stats together to represent EU as a whole and then do the comparison - maybe even decide who’s better - but I didn’t have the time to do it. Maybe next time!

Free G, 50-50 or backup. Division doesn't matter as long as the team doesn't split in a week after the season ends. DMs open markalla2 PSN/Discord 👋

FYI self sauces and passes along the boards lower a player's pass percentage so I wouldn't trust it religiously. But it does give some hint of the stat though. Great article once again 🔥

Yes there's always going to be a meta with custom builds. But if you ban the most OP, fun-killing and unreal abilities, the new meta should be a bit more balanced and diverse, right? That's what this whole conversation is about - balancing. IMO even if the new meta is a miss, it's still something new and fresh for the remainder of NHL 23.

It's just so, so sad that the game is in a state where the community has to have this conversation. But since there hasn't been any balancing to the abilities mid-season, we are left with no other choice. I would ban the most OP ones (the top 3 of the vote) meaning both gold and silver abilities. The general idea of X-Factors is good but at its current state there are abilities that are either unrealistic, kill the fun or force everybody to use it (golden EE) if you don't wanna be in a disadvantage all the time.

This, all of this. 👏

Good stuff: -increase to base speed attribute for many builds -manual saucer pass assist is a nice touch -basically everything feels more responsive, fast and agile, just the way icehockey is these days -shot and pass speed increase across the board, I like it -human goalies can actually stop onetimers and breakaways. BUT let's see again when everybody has Close Quarters unlocked 🤡 Bad stuff: -while the pokecheck nerf is a step in the right direction, it is like a deathblow now to even slightly touch it as the puck carrier got a speed increase at the same time -hits should just a tiny bit more often result in a stumbling animation for the puck carrier or at least separate the puck -many of the X-factors are completely useless (third eye, tape to tape, send it, magnetic) due to the gameplay changes -AI goalies are carbage 1on1 but they save nearly every wide open onetimer or cross-crease. A little balancing needed there

Free G for FCL and beyond. Mainly looking for a starter / 50-50 role in Lite-Pro but I'm open for all exciting offers - I could continue playing as RD/LD too. Preferably a Finnish speaking team. I have found myself playing between the pipes more often and I've been loving every bit of it. I read plays well, keep the kulma kiinni and rarely get outplayed. I trust my teammates and give credit where credit's due ✌️ Off the ice I'm very active and follow the scene constantly. What you'll get from me is an experienced, humble guy that has a very big heart for this game and hunger to learn more. I can play Sun-Thu PSN markalla2 Discord @markalla2#0737 E: signed

Up! ☝️