Janikka

My ideal is just eliminating as much of the randomness as possible. Of course, the randomness isn't exactly random under the hood, but various competing factors coming together to produce each outcome. This is reflected to players as perceived randomness. Regardless, puck receptions are a good example. I don't see it as a dichotomy between what we have now and making them fully manual, whatever that would entail. The outcome of puck receptions could be far more straightforward. It currently involves too many variables that contribute to the perceived randomness, and the interaction of some of those variables is poorly designed. As a player, you can still account for a lot of them, but all of them put together lead to gameplay that's far less predictable than it could be. This is why the outcomes often feel somewhat out of control for the player. Taking a page out of Psyonix's book doesn't mean upending the whole game and having to figure out impossible mechanics for each action, such as making pass receptions fully manual. It means a departure from EA's current design philosophy where the various mechanics are confused by too many factors that don't play together so well. The Abilities are a good example of this, by the way. They clash with the game's core mechanics by overpowering them, which makes the core mechanics less reliable and thus seemingly more random. This is reflected to everyone on the ice from goalies (as an example, think of perfect positioning not always leading to the expected outcome due to Close Quarters) to defensemen (being in position for an interception or disruption that gets overrided by the abrupt speed boost and physics-defying phantom stick afforded by some of the shooting traits) and forwards (beating a defenseman only to have Stick 'Em Up cleanly dislodge the puck at an impossible angle).

I think Rocket League is about as close as you can get to a pure skill-based game in anything remotely similar to NHL. I know a lot of people think a hockey game should have a lot of randomness to it because it's in the nature of the sport, but personally I wish EA took a page out of Psyonix's book to better cater to those of us dreaming of an unadulterated competitive experience where outcomes are determined almost exclusively by our actions (of course some other variables are inevitable, such as how lag compensation is implemented in the netcode).

What does that have to do with my message?

The traits exacerbate the randomness of the gameplay that's pretty random to begin with, so I'm all for banning everything. The boosts can stay. I've disliked the traits since they were introduced.

It would be nice to know how exactly the game determines a one on one situation where Shutdown is activated. It's never been clear to me. There are theories floating around, but they're all based on conjecture, such as what a one on one should mean or a perceived consistency in how the trait works.

Just to be clear, I take it this means both the silver and gold versions? You didn't specify, which would refer to a comprehensive ban of the trait, but just making sure.

The golden tipper is at least as OP as last year, I saw some pretty crazy tip-ins when our center used the trait last night. Not sure about the silver tipper yet.

We seem to be getting a bunch of non-ECL teams too. A lot of teams from Central Europe. Finding another ECL Pro team is very difficult, so I support the idea of common passwords for the time being.

in: @Jakeexh @Kauppias4 Welcome! This completes our roster.

Zenegeim (FCL, ECL, and beyond) in: @Sanezh (C) @Janikka (A) @pakjiz (A) @imosi @jubex0r @Viktorhall (Still looking for #1 LW and 50/50 G.)

Still looking. Also looking for a Goalie to share the ice time ~50/50 (whoever plays better gets the big games).

Thanks for the encouragement. I would perhaps not be the best candidate to run a defending school. When it comes to the current era of the ECL, I've only played in Pro (and a bit in Lite), so it would probably be good for someone guiding others to have experience from the top league and know what it takes to get to that level.

Really interesting, thanks for doing this and reporting on the outcome. I'd like to see more of this kind of thing, and I'd love to see teams at least in ECL Elite take the next step in competitiveness by having dedicated coaching. As long as this scene doesn't stagnate or regress (and we've unfortunately seen some signs of that), I think that would be a natural step for teams to gain an edge over the competition.

Congrats, but where is the legendary MKivinen95?

Zenegeim (FCL, ECL Pro Qualifiers) Zenegeim is looking for a new #1 LW. We will play in the FCL and enter the ECL Pro Qualifiers for the ECL 24 Spring season. Please contact either Janikka-, Pakjiz, or Sanezh. Contact any of us either here or on PSN.