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NHLGamers, The playoffs have arrived also for our Pro division. We've got the best 16 teams remaining to fight it out for the Pro title and promotion spots for ECL Elite. This spring we have some very interesting matchups set up for us and we're excited to be able to preview them for you guys. Let's get going with the matchups: Monarchs (1A) - Raging Monkeys (8B) The Monarchs were a team many around the community knew about even before the start of the season due to Captain and goaltender @chavelski's brutally honest forum series "Life of a General Manager". Toes were stepped on, certain amounts of drama was created - but the unit of players that ended up representing the Monarchs was a strong one. Going into the playoffs, the lineup will be led by veteran Swedish center @pajenc, known for his terrific puck control and excellent vision. Flanking him to the left he'll have @Tacterz, and to the right @Zalaz, one known for his excellent dangling skill and the other for his smart two-way play. On defense they'll ice point-producing machine @Philip Strom with smart defensive defender Bortalaget covering up in home field. In net Chavelski has yet to be defeated this season, going 18-0-0 during the regular season. That will be put to test versus the Raging Monkeys where Swedish captain @Buffy has assembled quite the foreign legion. @DangledYouOut and Akin71 from Germany and @Birkedal96 rumoured to be from Denmark. Furthermore, word around the community says Group 2 was the tougher overall group, which could have left the Monkeys battle-hardened and ready for a challenge. Raging Monkeys excel by playing an up-tempo, fast attacking style when they have the puck while remaining patient without it. It will likely come down to a battle of captains here as BuffyTBH was Monkeys' leadings scorer while chavelski's undefeated tenure in net is certainly impressive. Prediction: Monarchs win 4-3. FILADELPHIA (1B) - Quality (8A) We knew going into the season that FILA was a heavy favorite contender. They surely lived up to the hype by surfacing as the number one seed into the playoffs with an astonishing 27-1-2 regular season record. They were by far the highest scoring team in the Pro division, outscoring the second best team in this category by 29 goals in total. Defensively we know these guys can hang with the best in the game. It should be all about motivation and focus for FILADELPHIA in this series. Will they keep powering on in the playoffs or can the underdog Quality put them back in their place? Quality was the lowest seed into the playoffs, a team that underwent several roster changes before the deadline and almost the whole starting lineup was changed at some point. However, the team managed to find their game a bit closer to the end of the regular season. The addition of @KattenJansson97 seemed to boost their offensive production, but the defensive play is still a concern. Can they match the dominant FILA offensive trio of @mikaasi-@Erkki-@Joonas Paatiala who put up a combined point total of 239 points in the regular season? Prediction: FILADELPHIA win 4-1. Almost Famous (2A) - Monte Carlo (7B) Almost Famous was the runner-up last season in Lite and they also came 2nd in group 1 this season in Pro. They are used to finishing in 2nd place and will want to show that they can reach for that gold this playoff. With last Lite season’s best point and assist producer and also ECL 6 Pro’s best faceoff taker, @Ikavalko, and their mentor/coach in the own zone @Aze, they know how to play strong in both ends of the ice. Monte Carlo has been a team flying under the radar this season with a mid-table finish, playing even matches throughout the season. But if you look at their team you see that it is full of former top players, see @Lage, Octobussy (@Masapunda) and @J0HTAJA for example. With ECL Leader @Kenu by their side, anything can happen. The series has already begun and Monte Carlo have a 2-1 lead so far. Although I see Almost Famous turn it around, being a consolidated group of guys and knowing each other’s playstyle in and out may be the difference in this series. Prediction: Almost Famous win 4-3. Alliance HT (2B) - Deadly Phantoms HC (7A) In this series we'll have the clash at the Iron Curtain with a really strong Alliance HT against the Deadly Phantoms HC, who performed well in their inaugural season in Pro. Alliance finished their season with 7-3-0 in their last 10 games as they started to click and find their game. They scored 20 goals in their last four games of the regular season, led by @Awptim as their top scorer. @JaikenK was solid in both ends of the ice, proving to be a tremendous off-season signing and an important addition to the team. The German team Deadly Phantoms HC will certainly have their work cut out for them, but an upset is not completely out of the question in this one. The Phantoms are a solid defensive team who will go for the simple solutions offensively, but tend to be very effective despite that. The most dangerous element in this team is the fact that they can ice five scoring players in any game. There isn't one obvious scorer and one obvious playmaker so it'll keep the Alliance defense on their toes. Prediction: Alliance HT win 4-2. SIKA (3B) – Arctic (6A) Oh boy - two veteran teams here going at it. Or, let me re-phrase that: two groups of veteran players going at it. While SIKA is a storied franchise in the halls of NHLGamer, Arctic is a fresh team but it does consist of veteran players like captaincy trio @selänne8, @TackleControl and @MAYZIIX. Expect SIKA to carry the play and defend well through well balanced defensive pairing @vSilenttio and @MCH_98. While vSilenttio is the more offensively gifted of the two, both bring strong two-way sensibilites to the game and can help you win regardless of opponent. The attack will be led by SIKA stalwart @imosi and new aquisition @yrjoo, likely flanked by @Naikou88. On Arctics side, a lot comes down to captain BiggestEight - the primary offensive threat on Arctic. This "Hidden Gem" is a goal-scoring machine but will be relied upon to make plays and defend as well, if Arctic is to come out alive from this one. Mayziix and YouShallNotPass (@swe best sniper) form a strong D block and TackleControl is the primary dishmaster for "the Cold Ones". Look for this one to go 7. Prediction: SIKA Win 4-3. Shameful Knights (3A) - Red Machine (6B) The Knights had a decent regular season. They didn't quite perform as well as some might have expected, but certainly did enough to get the job done. Their roster performed evenly and the scoring worked well in every way. The problem I can see Shameful running into is not being able to provide the "wow"-factor. The lineup hasn't changed much and their game hasn't quite evolved to the level it probably should have. As their playoff series start they will surely hope to prove this preview wrong and put on a show for us viewers. On the other side of the ice we'll see a team in their second ECL season after a Lite title run in ECL 5. Red Machine acquired their top scorer @RutonMosse just before the start of the season and although there have been rumours about an upper body injury, the youngster has kept producing. As long as his linemates can continue feeding him the puck we might see an upset provided my RED. Prediction: Red Machine win 3-4. White Trash (4A) - Clowns On Ice (5B) White Trash have a lot of ECL experience, as they have played 4 ECL seasons. Watch out for Kaneyh (@Kane), White Trash top scorer with 34 goals and a 53.1 shooting percentage during the regular season. Clowns On Ice have former ECL experience too, playing in 3 seasons and also having just started GCL Season 2. Clowns On Ice had the worst PP% of all teams that made it to the playoff, but their forward @Tim_FlyersFan was 2nd in goals, 3rd in points and 1st in shots taken during the regular season in Pro. Both teams are fairly comfortable in high scoring games and you will probably see that in this series as well. Prediction: White Trash win 4-2. Synergy Hockey (4B) - Baltic Sea Eagles (5A) Two games have already been played and the series is tied 1-1. Synergy finished the season in a very strong manner, with six wins and grabbing points in nine consecutive games. Synergy is a very experienced team that has played all six ECL seasons, two of them in Elite. After being relegated last season they would look to get promoted back up again. Baltic Sea Eagles have been consistent throughout this season and have a very stable and reliable defense. They also have players at the top of the hits leaderboard. When you face them you need to stay focused throughout the whole game, cause if you don't, you will get mangled in the boards. These games will probably be very defensive and don't be surprised if a couple of the games goes to OT. This prediction is highly relying on Synergy's form at the moment. Prediction: Synergy win 4-2. There's a lot of playoff hockey to be played and anything can happen. The beauty in this time of year is that any game can go any way and in a tightly contested series we can expect to see some exciting turns of events. Be sure to check the NHLGamer front page for streams to tune in to! Thanks to @Panarinz and @The_Alpha_Furyan for creating this preview in co-operation with Yours Truly.

Hey NHLGamers, Please join us now for our ECL Playoffs stream, where we will be enjoying at least 4 games of ECL Playoff action. Our first matchup is the ECL Pro battle between FILADELPHIA and Quality, after which we will watch some ECL Lite Playoff action between Suomen Sonnit and Style. The games will be commentated by @Panarinz and @Kenu and you can watch it here: https://www.twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch You can read about our predictions for these playoff battles below: The full Pro predictions will be released later today. You can read all Lite Playoff predictions by clicking here.

Greetings NHLGamers, In the last few days the League Administration has had to make multiple rulings. Here's a quick summary of the most critical cases. PRO REGULAR SEASON DEADLINE On Wednesday evening, at around 22 CET, EA PSN servers went down. Due to this multiple teams weren't able to play their games. Since this server downtime wasn't part of a scheduled maintenance, we gave teams one day more to play their games by extending the Pro regular season to Saturday, 24th of March. That said, there won't be any delays - the Pro playoffs are still scheduled to start on Monday, 26th of March. Expect a news story about that shortly. SYPPERSTAARS DISQUALIFICATION Sypperstaars have been disqualified and removed from the ECL 6 tournament. The team had massively fallen behind the default game schedule and their captains weren't responding to inquiries by their opponents, nor by the League Administration. As such, the team is disqualified and its captains (@Artuzio, @Nieppii and @PekkoWP) have received a ban covering the end of ECL 6, Summer Cup 3 and a 10 game suspension in ECL 7 in addition to a full season ban from being able to take a role of a captain/assistant captain during ECL 7. PRO RELEGATION Due to three Pro teams dropping out (aforementioned Sypperstaars, disqualified Inter Iceland and The Beagle Boys who are disbanding after having finished this season) we are forced to adjust the Pro relegation system for this season. The current rules state that each season 8 teams participate in a relegation series out of which 4 teams from the Pro division are relegated to Lite. For this season only 1 team from Pro division will be relegated to Lite. As such, here's the adjusted rule: GOAL POST COLORS Our rules have previously defined that the color of the have to be dark red. We have seen some teams use other colors and our options were to punish these teams or to adjust the rule. After further consideration, we have decided to only ban white post colors and from now on officially allow other colors besides red. As such, here's the adjusted rule: - League Administration

The All-Star Week Gameday 1-stream is live NOW at our Twitch-channel! Stream is hosted by @Kenu and @nylanderi. The schedule of tonight will be as follows: Team ICappeI 20:30 CET Team SepiDN Team TehhAhola 20:45 CET Team cHIIMEERa Team cHIIMEERa 21:00 CET Team SepiDN Team TehhAhola 21:15 CET Team ICappeI Team ICappeI 21:30 CET Team cHIIMEERa Team SepiDN 21:45 CET Team TehhAhola We expect to see you in the stream!

Meet Kenneth, aka KenuFHR, boss of the ECL since its inception. He expresses his pride in seeing the league exceed the key figure of the one hundred teams and announces that several innovations are approaching. Hi Kenu! Tell me, how many hours a day do you spend managing ECL? « Hey! That’s a great question and the answer really depends on the day. Recently anywhere between 4-12 hours per day, taking into account general NHLGamer related tasks, but of course I take some days off here and there. The time leading up to the new seasons and the events, such as the Finnish Championships (eSM) and the IS Cup are the most time consuming projects and often require a big push. » The symbolic number of the hundred teams has been crossed. Is it a pride, or on the contrary an anxiety because of the management that it will impose? « There’s definitely a big feeling of pride for myself and the whole staff to reach this milestone. We were close with ECL 5, where we reached 96, so we were very hopeful to do it this time around. Of course the large amount of teams brings with it a big responsibility for us to run things smoothly, but let’s call it a inspirational and motivational boost rather than anxiety at this stage. » With so many teams and players, do you think about dealing commercial agreements with hockey brands or video game industry brands or other? « I definitely see a great opportunity in commercial co-operation and we had a good experience with Webhallen and our Summer Cup last summer. We’ve also seen our first eSports contracts for a few players in our league and the Cancun Pirates sponsorship by Bauer Hockey France is an excellent display that there is an interest in our community, teams and players. That being said, we have nothing to announce at this time. » « New and long-awaited features are coming » You called out to the community for help in January, was this call heard? « Absolutely! I was blown away by the amount of people that reached out, the quality of their applications and their work mentality later on. We have over 20 new members to our ECL Staff and the guys have done a great job so far preparing for the season. The challenge is of course to keep this positive spirit and activity going throughout the season and beyond, so let’s all do our best to make the new team feel welcome. We are still looking for more people interested in video production/editing, so if this is something you’d be interested in, please get in touch. » Well, let's talk about the upcoming season. A first surprise with the absence of Aapon, Elite champions. Do we know the reasons of their absence when they had announced to be back trough Facebook some weeks ago? « That was indeed a big disappointment for myself and many others, but these things happen. I believe some key players had decided they wanted to play elsewhere and in some cases this means taking away the glue that was making the team stick together so well in the past. » In your opinion, are there favorites already visible in Elite, Pro and Lite? « The divisions keep getting more and more talented each season and ECL 6 is no exception. I do think there are a few teams in each division with favorite status, but I prefer not to have an opinion about this. My goal besides running the website is to help my team, Monte Carlo, go as far as we can in ECL Pro. » Can you tell us some new things to come this season? « We have got a new member, @Hennisch, to join us and work on the code of NHLGamer and you can expect to see some new and long-awaited features rolling out during the ECL 6 season. With the new bigger ECL Staff we are putting a lot of work into producing more material during the season and seeing the most ECL streaming coverage we ever have before. Of course we are also putting a big emphasis on the very basics, such as reporting and replying to any team enquiries as quickly and accurately as possible. Last season we did that with roughly three active people and the new staff should make things run much more smoothly. It’s only logical to expect a small learning curve at the beginning of the season, so please have some extra patience in the first days, if there’s something. » « ECL 7 on NHL 19? » Finally, will ECL 7 take place on NHL 18 or rather on NHL 19? « As it looks right now, due to a lot of players wanting to take some time off in the summer, we believe it’s in the interest of the community to play ECL 7 on NHL 19. We do, however have a couple other 6vs6 tournaments planned for the time in between. Feel free to disagree with this and let us know if you think ECL 7 should take place during NHL 18. » Anything else to add? « On behalf of the team and myself, I am super excited about how many people and teams are finding their way onto our website and into ECL and we thank you for your interest and support! I would also like to thank my new (and old) staff members for their efforts in the off-season and the coming months - this is only the beginning. » Interviewed by Virtual_Saku

Even thought the title says "Captain", this also has some good points for everyone to think about. We are at the beginning of ECL 6 and you as a captain are the representant of your team. Below are some things to remember about what it means to be a captain of a team and what responsibilities you have, so that everyone here can have a good experience. Guidelines: No matter what the result, win or lose, you should always treat your opponent with respect. If there is a unclear situation contact the staff. Respecting your opponent applies to both the forums and the in-game actions. Always think before you say something out loud, as we are always looking to add players to the community - not to scare anyone away. The other guy might not have as thick skin as you do. In order for there to be a league, you need opponents to compete with, so try to make them feel as comfortable as possible while you are having a dialogue with each other. No one is saying you can't disagree or have different opinions, but in general please behave when debating. Be flexible - every opponent is not going to have the chance to play at the same time you do, so try to make it work with the tools you have. As a captain you should understand that it is not always that easy to get multiple people online at the same time and captains of both teams should consider not only his own interest, but also the opponents. We as a community need to help each other out. Do not try to blackmail the other team with a walk-over - the fun thing is actually playing the games, right? So try to make it work, but understand that it might not always be that easy. If there is no chance that you can agree on a playing time, contact the staff and remember, the staff takes lots of things into consideration when making the calls, such as co-operation, communication and the rules. Not every day is going to go the way you want it, you might hit a rough patch and go on a losing streak. As a captain it is your job to try to keep the morale high even though the going gets rocky. There will always be quitters, but to be able to make this even more of a legitimate league we need some sustainability. There is always going to be people that are going to quit due to a variety of different reasons, nothing in life says you must play this game, so remember to have a good size on your roster and involve them also in the daily playing of EASHL, as that helps the rest of the community and should help the league be more sustainable. Embrace the rivalries. Rivalry meetings is the little extra spice that can either make you feel like a king or be your worst nightmare. so it is important to remember even if you win or lose a rivalry meeting that you as a captain show class and respect to the other team. Responsibilities: Remember to report the score and stats at the latest 24 hours after the game, if you can’t do it, make some of your assistants to do it. No matter what the score, just do it. As a captain, this is your responsibility Make everybody on your team aware of the rules, what to do if a player lags out and stuff. It is important that everybody is aware what to do in these situations as it makes it a better experience for everyone. As a captain it is your responsibility that everybody is registered on your team, your team has at least 8 players and be sure that the in-game names are the same as in your player cards Make sure that you re-schedule the games that needs re-scheduling on the site as well. This will help everyone in the community to keep track of the standings, follow their favorite teams and bring more people to your streams as well! There's almost nothing better than grabbing some popcorn and watching one of the top games of ECL! Last but not least I'll give you "The Untold Story of a General Manager Trying to Make It" posts that will assure you that you are not alone with your daily struggles! PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4

BiggestEight - Free Agent (FA) ECL Hidden Gems is a concept that was created by @The_Alpha_Furyan and @pnordetun (patovic). The idea evolved out of discussions concerning what type of content patovic himself would like to see more of at NHLGamer.com and what kind of texts he'd be most interested in writing. Hidden Gems, for the purposes of this feature, means players that the author feels haven't quite gotten their time to shine at NHLGamer or players that aren't getting full credit for the skill they bring to the table. This is the third edition in a six-part series that patovic has written so do enjoy the witty writing of "pato" and leave a comment with your thoughts on the piece. Alex Ovechkin, Teemu Selänne, BiggestEight… There’s a number of "big eights” in the hockey world but virtually, we’re talking about the best one right here today. The gamer we’ll be taking a look at for the third edition of Hidden Gems is BiggestEight, aka @selänne8. The great BiggestEight really caught fire and put his name up on the boards during his two seasons with HC Checkmate in ECL 3 and 4, scoring an amazing total of 81 and 96 points respectively. ECL 5 saw him repeat a nice point-total of 76 points, albeit now representing Baltic Sea Eagles. At this point, I think it’s safe to say that he is living up to the name that his PSN-ID is suggestive of. In the group stage of ECL 4 Pro he finished 2nd in points behind Tapparafan - and was 1st in goals, GWG and shots on goal with a full 49 shots (!) more than the next player. This is surely a feat that isn’t all too far-fetched for the real-life counterpart of Alexander the Great either. In the all-time leaderboard BiggestEight can be found at 5th in points and 3rd in goals with only PleeMaker and Joukki pacing him in the goals-column. Always dangerous in the offensive zone and especially from his office at the left faceoff circle from where he lets the one-timers rip. Word on the street is that he lives by the motto: “the top corner is always open.” BiggestEight has yet to succeeded come playoff time, though. The reason could obviously be the high level of competitiveness at the tournaments hosted here at NHLGamer but BiggestEight has yet to make it past the first round in the playoffs. Once again we find similarities between him and the real-life counterpart on the Washington Capitals. However, it appears possible that ECL 6 is the time and place where this promising offensive juggernaut could be seen sniping top-cheese deep into the playoffs. It all depends on which team is able to snag this Hidden Gem before the registrations close. In the end, maybe it’s just a matter of trying a new stick manufacturer or applying a different tapejob to his stick - all will be revealed in ECL 6 so stay tuned for more goals from BiggestEight. BiggestEight Fact Box [Player profile] Joni Kurtti, Finland ECL All-Time Stats: 151GP, 209G, 165A, 374P, +86 All-Time overall leader in shots on goal Favors the LW position in EASHL Looking for his first strides in a 2nd-round playoff matchup come ECL6 Text by: @pnordetun Editing and additional content by: @jahajaha93 Art by: @OxtreeLAT

ECL 5 - Lite Playoffs It is time to get the Lite Playoffs underway and below you will find the playoff pairings that will get it done. Before you scroll down, the NHLGamer.com staff would like to thank all 48 Lite teams who finished the ECL 5 season. You guys truly rock and despite some hard decisions that were forced to be made here towards the end of the season, we hope to see all of you back again for ECL 6 (regardless if it is in Lite or Pro!) when it starts up in January 2018. Thank you. Note that all the playoff series are to be played in the Best of 7-format. Playoff pairings (left = home, right = away, seeds marked with #) # 1 Deadly Phantoms HC vs. # 32 (WILDCARD) Bucketeers # 2 SGWEER United vs. # 31 (WILDCARD) Roistot # 3 Almost Famous vs. # 30 KulmalaHengaus # 4 Raging Monkeys vs. # 29 Rising Phantoms HC # 5 Red Machine vs. # 28 Slapshot Club Germany # 6 Face Wash Hockey vs. # 27 IN4MOUS # 7 Try Another Hole vs. # 26 Ice Phoenix # 8 EV Duisburg vs. # 25 Rusty Bulls # 9 HC Aurinko vs. # 24 Breakers of The Bone # 10 Squad Vilttiketju vs. # 23 Nottingham Chiefs # 11 RAKETTIPUTKET vs. # 22 Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat # 12 The Beagle Boys vs. # 21 Mentula SKA # 13 Penalty Box vs. # 20 Lucky Strike # 14 Nearbird Fighters vs. # 19 Finnish Hockey Legends # 15 Nordic Nosebleed vs. # 18 Freddie Mercury Institute # 16 Nordic Eagles vs. # 17 Puck Panthers Playoff schedule To be able to complete ECL 5 Lite before Christmas, this is the exact timeline that needs to be held for the playoffs. No extra time will be given during these playoffs as we won't be able to complete the playoffs before the holidays in that case and if there is one thing I am sure we can all agree on, is that we dont want a repeat of ECL 3 where the "christmas break" turned out to be devastating for the playoffs. Anyway, here is the schedule: Round 1: Starts 2017-11-16 (TODAY!) with last day to play games 2017-11-22 Round 2: Starts 2017-11-23 with last day to play games 2017-11-29 Round 3 (Quarterfinals): Starts 2017-11-30 with last day to play games 2017-12-06 Round 4 (Semi-finals): Starts 2017-12-07 with last day to play games 2017-12-13 Round 5 (Finals): Starts 2017-12-14 with last day to play games 2017-12-20 The playoff tree and schedule can be found here: https://nhlgamer.com/league.php?leagueID=25&gameType=regular&show=playoffs Good luck to all remaining teams. Text by: @The_Alpha_Furyan Art by: @Lurkins & @OxtreeLAT

Floor17- Northern Stars (NOS) ECL Hidden Gems is a concept that was created by @The_Alpha_Furyan and @pnordetun (patovic). The idea evolved out of discussions concerning what type of content patovic himself would like to see more of at NHLGamer.com and what kind of texts he'd be most interested in writing. Hidden Gems, for the purposes of this feature, means players that the author feels haven't quite gotten their time to shine at NHLGamer or players that aren't getting full credit for the skill they bring to the table. This is the first edition in a six-part series that patovic has written so do enjoy the witty writing of "pato" and leave a comment with your thoughts on the piece. I might find myself out on thin ice over some pretty deep waters right about now, but the fact is that Northern Stars veteran Daniel Anderzon aka @Floor17 doesn't quite get the recognition he deserves in the ECL community. This is a player who is a 5-time ECL veteran (and lord knows how many 6v6 tournaments before that!) that routinely manages to control all aspects off the game, in all zones off the ice. Not only that, he is a beast at the Versus portion of the game as well, having won one Swedish championship and making it far in various other tournaments. As the great coach Marc Crawford once said: "If you want him to shut down the opponents best player, he will get it done. You want him to score goals? He will get it done. You want him to be a playmaker? He'll get it done. You need him to be physical? He'll get it done. He is so gifted and the list just goes on and on". You can trace the origins of the so-called "floorbandyking" back to the old Xbox team "Swedish Tigers" that featured such legends as ivve83 and unbroken-anders (man, where did those guys go?). Floor17 was truly a dominating force in those early Xbox years and have continued to build his legacy in EASHL ever since. At the beginning of his virtual career, he was considered by many to be more of a pure offensive weapon. This went on for years and especially once he found himself playing with @cHIIMEERa on the Swedish powerhouse Northern Stars. The last few seasons, Floor17 has managed to enhance his repertoire to include an ability to play both wing and defenseman at a very high level, as well as the occasional stint at goaltender. Flash forward to today where NOS had Finnish superstars @tbnantti and @plee999 join the team for ECL 5, it has been quite interesting to see how the old "curveshot master" has adapted to the situation and found an integral two-way role on the roster where he has been a big contributor to the teams' success. To summarize: Floor is awesome at videogame hockey and wins stuff, that is just what he does. It ain't easy winning all the time - if it were, everyone would be doing it! PS. Mean rumours back in the day said that the King of Floorbandy used the "99 overall glitch" in EASHL... and that it was possibly @eyebiz (the old rascal!) who had the hackset to hook him up - but if you ask me? Nah, Floor17 didn't need it then and he doesn't need it now - this man is nothing but skill and determination Floor17 Fact Box [Player profile] Daniel Anderzon, Sweden ECL All-Time Stats: 86GP, 60G, 92A, 152P, +85 Participated in all 5 ECL tournaments at NHLGamer: all five for Northern Stars Favors the RW position in EASHL Swedish Champion of NHL 11 Versus Runner-up (Finalist vs. NHLGamer member @Kribba) in NHL 12 & NHL 13 Versus Text by: @pnordetun Intro and editing by: @The_Alpha_Furyan Art by: @OxtreeLAT

Hey NHL Gamers, French magazine "Slapshot", one of the nation's biggest hockey publications around since the year 2000, included a 2-page news story about e-sports and virtual hockey gaming called "À quand la Stanley Cup virtuelle?" ("When will we see the virtual Stanley Cup?") in their latest September - November 2017 release #88. Besides the NHL and other hockey related stories, they have been talking about recent e-hockey developments and NHLGamer's ECL in their "Prolongations" section on pages 54 and 55. Thanks to the authors, we are allowed to share both pages with you for free - you can read them here: Slapshot_88_E-Sports.pdf For everyone who's not capable of speaking French, we created an English translation on our own. Minor inaccuracies may be present due to limited French skills on our end! What do you think about Slapshot's take on our ECL and the developments in e-hockey and e-sports in general? Let us know in the comments! @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Hey NHL Gamers, the ECL 5 sign-up period ended yesterday, and we are very proud of the fact that a total of 98 teams will be participating in the first season taking place on NHL 18! This is up 24% from the 79 teams that signed up for ECL 4 - a truly amazing growth. Without further ado, let's look at the final division structure. ECL 5 Elite - All teams 15 teams confirmed their participation for ECL 5: Written In The Stars Northern Ascendancy (previously Unknown) Kattiautomaatti Sjukstugan SJK eSports (previously Laser HT) Silver Sword Griffins Carlsberg HC Aapon Taikasauva Dynasty Northern Stars Nordic Nightmare MUKIMIEHET Synergy Nordic Lightning TIKI TALK Due to the fact that Limitless were folding, one spot in the Elite division had to be filled. To make this decision, League Administration was looking for the most successful ECL 4 Pro team that wasn't promoted to the Elite division by regular means. Round 2 of the ECL 4 Pro playoffs featured 4 possible contenders: White Trash (4 PO wins / 1.18 reg. season PPG) Shameful Knights (5 PO wins / 1.43 reg. season PPG) Unlucky Boys HC (6 PO wins / 1.5 reg. season PPG) Rusty Blades (7 PO wins / 1.54 reg. season PPG) Based on these numbers, League Administration offered the 16th ECL 5 Elite spot to Rusty Blades. The invitation was accepted by the team's captains. ECL 5 Pro - All teams 23 teams (excluding Rusty Blades, which were moved to ECL Elite) confirmed their participation for ECL 5: Alliance HT Baltic Sea Eagles DEAD END KINGS SIKA Inter Iceland J P T J Bellizzi Nordic Stars Shameful Knights Lavetten Gotham Knights (previously Refuse To Lose) Pata Hellalla Hawks Hockey Club White Trash Speedy Bros Hockey (previously Finnish Roosters) Evolution (previously Nocturnal Hunters) Bare Knuckles Hockey Sypperstaars (previously Rynnäkköviikset) Free From Rodents Unlucky Boys HC AK 47 Nemesis Murohoki This means a total of 9 spots had to be filled with ECL Lite sign-ups. As ECL 4 Lite quarter-finalists, these three teams were prioritized and moved to ECL 5 Pro: EN HUND Banterfield Battalion Black Panther Party (previously HC Ancient Warriors) For the 6 remaining spots, we were looking at all the remaining ECL Pro applications from these 14 teams: Red Machine The Beagle Boys Soldiers of Odens God Tier Clowns on Ice GHETTO FIREBIRDS THE UNITED KNIGHTS Dirty Animals Slapshot Club Germany Squirt Hockey Face Wash Hockey Falun Coal Miners Phantoms HC Company of Geeks To ensure a competitive and sustainable Pro division, League Administration not only looked at in-game leaderboards and records, but also considered EASHL history as well as notable achievements, recent games and ECL experience (games played, points, wins etc.). At the end of our evaluation, these 6 teams were considered suitable and are moved to ECL 5 Pro: God Tier Clowns on Ice GHETTO FIREBIRDS THE UNITED KNIGHTS Squirt Hockey Falun Coal Miners ECL 5 Pro - Final groups ECL Pro will be played in 2 groups with 16 teams each. With 2 games against each opponent, this results in a 30 game regular season in which the top 8 teams out of each group will go to the playoffs (16 teams total). To determine the final groups, 10 pre-seeded teams were randomly assigned to the 2 groups. Afterwards, the remaining 22 teams were assigned to the groups. Here is the result: Group 1 AK 47 Alliance HT Bare Knuckles Hockey Black Panther Party Evolution Falun Coal Miners God Tier Gotham Knights Hawks Hockey Club Inter Iceland Lavetten Murohoki Nemesis SIKA Squirt Hockey White Trash Group 2 Baltic Sea Eagles Banterfield Battalion Bellizzi Clowns on Ice DEAD END KINGS EN HUND Free From Rodents GHETTO FIREBIRDS J P T J Nordic Stars Pata Hellalla Shameful Knights Speedy Bros Hockey Sypperstaars THE UNITED KNIGHTS Unlucky Boys HC ECL 5 Lite - All teams The remaining 50 teams will be participating in ECL 5 Lite: Elämäm Kiekko The Beagle Boys iNF4M0US Pohjoista Voimaa Terrific Tigers HC Aurinko Ice Phoenix Rising Phantoms HC EV Duisburg Papat Nordic Nosebleed Company of Geeks Red Machine Soldiers of Odens Lucky Strike Freddie Mercury Institute Puck Panthers Nottingham Chiefs Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat Nordic Eagles Try Another Hole SGWEER United Rusty Bulls Finnish Hockey Legends Raging Monkeys Nearbird Fighters Mentula SKA Dirty Animals Slapshot Club Germany Squad Vilttiketju Deadly Phantoms HC Almost Famous Bucketeers DarrasStars Cold Turkeys Rasend Krokodil Face Wash Hockey Kouvola Screaming Eagles NuggetZ South Sweden Panthers Roistot Hc Nappiaivot KulmalaHengaus Donec Reges Phantoms HC Penalty Box Burns Beardy Bastards RAKETTIPUTKET Breakers Of The Bone PUNANEN REHTORI ECL 5 Lite - Final groups ECL Lite will be played in 5 groups with 10 teams each. With 2 games against each opponent, this results in an 18 game regular season in which the top 6 teams out of each group, as well as the two best 7th ranked teams out of all groups will go to the playoffs (32 teams total). To determine the final groups, 15 pre-seeded teams were randomly assigned to the 5 groups. Afterwards, the remaining 35 teams were assigned to the groups. Here is the result: Group 1 Face Wash Hockey Finnish Hockey Legends Freddie Mercury Institute Lucky Strike NuggetZ PUNANEN REHTORI Puck Panthers Raging Monkeys Roistot Terrific Tigers Group 2 Cold Turkeys EV Duisburg Ice Phoenix Kouvola Screaming Eagles Nottingham Chiefs Penalty Box Phantoms HC Rasend Krokodil Red Machine Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat Group 3 Company of Geeks Deadly Phantoms HC Donec Reges HC Aurinko iNF4M0US KulmalaHengaus Pohjoista Voimaa Rising Phantoms HC Soldiers of Odens Try Another Hole Group 4 Almost Famous Breakers Of The Bone DarrasStars Elämäm Kiekko Mentula SKA Nearbird Fighters Nordic Nosebleed Papat South Sweden Panthers The Beagle Boys Group 5 Bucketeers Burns Beardy Bastards Dirty Animals HC Nappiaivot Nordic Eagles RAKETTIPUTKET Rusty Bulls SGWEER United Slapshot Club Germany Squad Vilttiketju ECL 5 Rules The rules for ECL 5 can be found here: All players, whether they are captains or not, are obligated to be aware of all the rules. Make sure to memorize all rules outlined in "8. Game rules" due to the 30 second limit for stoppages in-game. Throughout the tournament, the rules may be updated. Any updates will be conveniently listed at the very top of the ruleset. Make sure to check out if anything changed once in a while. League Administration members All league related decisions will be made by League Administration. To open up a case, create a new question in the "Contact League Administration" helpdesk: https://nhlgamer.com/community/forum/27-contact-league-administration/ Please note: Teams are expected to solve issues on their own before contacting League Administration - the rules include lots of guidance for different issues. League Administration is always the last resort to solve any disagreements. Team management tools All teams have been created, and the captains will shortly be unlocked for the team management tools on the main page (go to https://nhlgamer.com and click on your username in the top right corner to access them). All players need to be invited to the team rosters ahead of your first game. Please note that all invited players need to accept the invitation (there will be a popup alert on https://nhlgamer.com) before they show up on the team roster and can start playing! In case you have any questions, please use the comment section below this news story. Good luck to all teams and have fun! @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Good day NHLGamers, Hope you enjoyed our ECL 5 trailer - it has been in the works for quite some time. Be sure to share it and spread the word if you liked it. We can tell you that a lot of effort went into making it and while a great many people have been involved in its execution from start to finish (including of course our featured talent @Bjono, @pnordetun, @cHIIMEERa, @Hansulinho & @Dominointi who couldn't have been more professional during the shoots), no one more so than @LastMandalorian. From developing the concept months ago, to setting up the film shoots, to traveling around Sweden and Finland to actually film it - all the way through editing the material and picking the right music. Hats off to you, sir - a job well done. Hockey returns 133. That is the exact amount of days since the European Championship League was last in action. 133 days (or more than 3000+ hours) of waiting for this next shot at virtual ice hockey glory. It is true that while this years Summer Cup did satiate some of the community need for competitive gaming, there is nothing quite like ECL hockey. The fourth ECL season was a season of change for many reasons. A new system featuring divisions was implemented. Instead of one lone winner, three champions were to be crowned. As a result more teams than ever before chose to sign up; a trend we hope (and expect) to continue as the ECL continues to expand its reach. When the dust settled and the smoke had cleared after ECL 4, the NHLGamer "Hall of Champions" that already featured Nordic Blizzard (ECL 1), MUKIMIEHET (ECL 2) and X Factor (ECL 3) had been expanded to include Laser HT, Carlsberg HC and J P T J who managed to bring home the titles for Elite, Pro and Lite respectively. Furthermore, we got to see the first ever Xbox ECL with OHO SORI winning the title in 5 games against The Black Jacks. We think it was a good start and would like to support this community initiative of bringing more competitive tournaments to the NHL landscape on Microsoft's console. That is why we will also give you the opportunity to sign up for Xbox ECL 2! ECL 5 - PS4 While ECL 5 will be bigger and hopefully more competitive than ECL 4 it will not feature the same amount of change to our structure, something we hope will offer a welcome sense of continuity with regards to how much things changed last season. In short, this means the rulebook, the divisions and most of the things that worked really well in ECL 4 will continue to be implemented in ECL 5 as well. This also means that, while we did find the ongoing discussion and community vote concerning the ECL point system - mostly a debate between the merits of employing a 3-point system versus a 2-point system - interesting and balanced, we will not change from the current 2-point format at this time. We welcome continuous discussion on this topic as the ECL continues to evolve. Furthermore, we are sure that one of the biggest questions for some teams and members at this stage is "where will we play this season?" as the poll concerning if you should be able to apply for Pro or not turned out to be quite divisive. This has perhaps been the biggest question faced by the staff ahead of this season. The baseline we are working from is this: if you earned your place in either the Pro or Elite divisions last season, you still have the right to it. We will not be employing any type of forced demotion in either of these two divisions. In a vacuum, this means we already have our 16 Elite teams and 32 Pro teams ready to go. Outside of this "vacuum", the truth is that many of these Elite and Pro teams have experienced significant changes during the off-season between ECL 4 and 5. Therefore, if you are either a Pro or Elite team (based on how ECL 4 ended) - you need to confirm your participation in the division you ended up in last season. If you do not confirm your spot before the last sign-up date, that spot will need to be filled by the Staff. Read on to find out how to sign up for ECL 5 and how to apply for these open spots. Framework Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL challenge game mode in NHL 18. Individual requirements: Each player needs to create an account at NHLGamer.com and create his personal player card. Roster requirements: Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. Sign-up period: Teams can register until October 13, 23:59 CEST. ECL 5 Kick-off: ECL 5 is set to start on October 16. Rules: TBA Sign-up procedures There will be different ways of signing up to ECL 5 this time - the procedures are explained in detail in the section below. Generally speaking: New teams that did not participate in ECL 4 at all or teams that were relegated from ECL 4 Pro: Please read the "ECL Lite" paragraph below. Teams that were able to stay in ECL Pro, were relegated from ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Lite during ECL 4: Please read the "ECL Pro" paragraph below. Teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 4: Please read the "ECL Elite" paragraph below. ECL Lite ECL Lite welcomes any and all teams that did not participate in ECL 4 as well as the teams that were relegated from ECL Pro during ECL 4. As last season, there will be no limit to the amount of registrations! We will flexibly adjust group sizes to accomodate all teams that are looking to participate. To sign up your team for ECL Lite, we ask the main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Lite registration thread: ECL 5 Lite Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. Due to the fact that only 31 teams are ECL Pro qualified at this time - and other teams may be folding - we also offer teams the opportunity to apply for ECL Pro during the sign up process. However, ECL Lite quarter-finalists from ECL 4 will take first priority when filling up spots in the Pro division, which means only a few or no spots at all might be available for completely new teams. When looking at Pro applications, we will choose applicants depending on their player strength and other factors such as in-game 6 vs. 6 leaderboard results. Below is the list of prioritized teams: ECL Pro ECL Pro is our 2nd division and will consist of all the teams that were able to stay in ECL Pro, were relegated from ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Lite during ECL 4. ECL Pro has a fixed size of 32 teams, divided into two groups. All the qualified teams are listed below: To sign up your team for ECL Pro, we ask the team's ECL 4 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Pro registration thread: ECL 5 Pro Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. In case ECL Elite teams are folding, we will automatically ask the best ECL Pro qualifiers from ECL 4 to fill these spots, according to their playoffs progress (criteria #1) and regular season PPG average (criteria #2). You are not required to apply for these spots. However, you are required to confirm your attendance for ECL Pro to be considered for selection. ECL Elite ECL Elite is our 1st division, housing the very best 16 European teams in a single group. It will consist of all the teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 4. All the qualified teams are listed below: To sign up your team for ECL Elite, we ask the team's ECL 4 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Elite registration thread: ECL 5 Elite Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. Xbox ECL 2 To help in building a larger competitive Xbox community, we will host the second edition of Xbox ECL. The first season was based on a community initiative that started off with few individuals asking for a NHLGamer branded tournament taking place on Xbox One. Thanks to these members who contacted other teams on their platform of choice to spread the word, interest was starting to pick up, and the first season ended with a total of 5 teams. While this is undoubtedly a small number compared to the amount of teams on PS4, we know that plenty of players joined NHLGamer during recent months. And thanks to the dedicated players that were doing their best to set up the first season, we expect participation to grow in the long run. Xbox ECL 2 won't be based on the divisions format that is taking place on PS4, and instead will instead offer a league format used in Xbox ECL and ECL 1-3 on PS4 - however, our long term goal is having divisions on Xbox One as well. Framework Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL challenge game mode in NHL 18. Individual requirements: Each player needs to create an account at NHLGamer.com and create his personal player card. Roster requirements: Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. Sign-up period: Registrations will be open indefinitely until 8 teams have agreed to participate. Afterwards, sign-ups will be open for another two weeks to make for a larger competition. Rules: TBA Sign-up procedure To sign up your team for Xbox ECL 2, we ask the main captain (C) only to go to the Xbox ECL 2 registration thread: XBOX ECL 2 Registration You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes. Final notes ECL and its divisions format is in a process of continuous evolvement. When NHLGamer.com first announced the switch to setting up three skill-based divisions, our main goal was to transform the diverse EASHL landscape to encourage the development of true franchises. Thanks to all the dedicated players out there, this is already bearing fruit: Established teams are building a core roster while also paying attention to the plenty of ambitious newcomers in the NHL community. We see social media channels popping up on a weekly, if not daily basis. We see lots of new streamers on Twitch and other platforms, showing off ECL to all the NHL fans out there. We see allies supporting our project more frequently than ever before. We see how the community is evolving and shaping up to be a professional and organized force in the gaming landscape. This is something we will continue to support in the future. We believe that, even though we might see a few teams folding this or even next season, which potentially requires us to restructure some of the divisions, in the long run we will see a healthy and fluid framework for the greatest 6 vs. 6 experience that's out there. It's not our achievement. It's your achievement. We welcome everyone to continue this road of success. We welcome everyone to play with the best. @The_Alpha_Furyan & @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com Facebook (NHLGamer)Twitter (NHLGamerCOM)YouTube (NHLGamer Official) Instagram (NHLGamerOfficial) Twitch (NHLGamerTwitch)

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 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

Howdy, Gamers! We told you earlier this week that there was going to be one more cool thing released before the NHL 18 Beta kicks off next Tuesday and here it is! Well, at least we think it's cool. NHLGamer Presents: ECL Talk is our brand new podcast program for the official ECL news, trades and other things that are associated with NHL gaming. How does it work then, you might ask. Basically, it's about two passionate NHL gamers talking about what is going on around NHLGamer - and sometimes outside of it. We have two hosts: @The_Alpha_Furyan and I, @vSilenttio, and we might have some guests with us talking about stuff in the future. As we tell the latest news and other things that are going on, we're also giving our personal opinions on things. We would like to emphasize that the things we say are not official words of NHLGamer - we just tell our opinions as individual gamers. Anyways, give us a listen and find out yourself if it's your thing or not! If you enjoy it, be sure to subscribe to our channel and give the video a thumbs up! PS: We're working on improving the technical quality of the series in the future. Until next time, have a nice day!

Hello NHLGamers, As the saying goes, better late than never. After janbonators first article as a returning member of the NHLGamer staff, the exquisite ECL Elite Season Report, we are back to tie a final bow on our ECL 4-season with the ECL Pro and Lite Season Reports. While they won't be as extensive as janbos in-depth chronicle of the Elite season - there are awards to be handed out and individual performances to celebrate. ECL 4 - PRO The Pro division featured a total of 32 teams competing where 16 made the playoffs and 8 faced relegation. The Top 4 teams of the Pro playoffs all secured a spot in Elite for next season, truly displaying what a competitive hornets nest the Pro division was in its first ever season. The ECL 4 Pro Champion was Carlsberg HC, who achieved this honor by beating Sjukstugan 4-1 in the Best of-7 Finals. Let's get to some of the other individual and team performances. Promotions & Relegations The teams that were promoted from Lite to Pro for ECL 5 were: Lavetten, DEAD END KINGS, Hawks Hockey Club and Lite champions J P T J. Congratulations to all these teams on well executed seasons! The teams that were relegated from Pro to Lite for ECL 5 were: Company of Geeks, Thunder Tigers, The Lights Out and The Beagle Boys. We hope to see you back next season, hungrier than ever. Stay strong! Should there be any changes to the divisions and teams after ECL 5 registration, we will inform you of these events. Awards Here's a list of the best performers in the Pro division during ECL4. Forwards Most points: Tapparafan- [52+48 = 100p in 30 games - 3.33 Points/GP], Nordic Stars Most goals: BiggestEight [61g in 30 games - 2.03 Goals/GP], HC Checkmate Most assists: TackleControl [55a in 28 games - 1.96 Assists/GP], HC Checkmate Most hits: jnmxx [171 hits in 30 games - 6.57 Hits/GP], Kattiautomaatti Best +/-: Janzuh [+85 in 28 games], Carlsberg HC Defensemen Most points by a Defenseman: Janzuh [11+31 = 42p in 28 games - 1.50 Points/GP], Carlsberg HC Most goals by a Defenseman: Janzuh [11g in 28 games - 0.39 Goals/GP], Carlsberg HC Most assists by a Defenseman: Janzuh [31a in 28 games - 1.10 Assists/GP], Carlsberg HC Most hits by a Defenseman: Tanski87 [164 Hits in 28 games - 5.85 Hits/GP], Rusty Blades Goalies Best Save% (min. 50% of games played): Hullued [83.62% in 24/28 games], Shameful Knights Best GAA (min. 50% of games played): Zande95 [1.52 GAA in 17/28 games], Carlsberg HC Most Wins (W+OTW) by a Goalie: hoiggaa [25 Ws in 30 games], Kattiautomaatti Most Shutouts: LastMandalorian [5 shutouts in 26 games], Sjukstugan Playoff MVP joukki13, Carlsberg HC ECL 4 - LITE The Lite division featured a total of 32 teams competing, including two different conferences with 16 teams each. All Lite teams made the playoffs where they had the opportunity to both win the title and secure promotion to Pro. The ECL 4 Lite Champion was J P T J, who won the championship after a grueling series versus Hawks Hockey Club that lasted all 7 games. Awards Here's a list of the best performers in the Lite division during ECL4. Forwards Most points: makeee76 [71+56 = 127p in 28 games - 4.53 Points/GP], J P T J Most goals: makeee76 [71g in 28 games - 2.53 Goals/GP], J P T J Most assists: moilanenC & mikihoo [60a in 28 games - 2.14 Assists/GP], J P T J Most hits: Albaz90 [162 hits in 30 games - 5.40 hits/GP], Vemppaosasto Best +/-: makeee76, moilanenC, mikihoo & jonezki26 [+85 in 28 games], J P T J Defensemen Most points by a Defenseman: Rankaisija_ [8+50 = 58p in 30 games - 1.93 Points/GP], Old Farts Most goals by a Defenseman: Anenthran [11g in 25 games - 0.44 Goals/GP], Dynamo Danglers Most assists by a Defenseman: Rankaisija_ [50a in 30 games - 1.66 Assists/GP], Old Farts Most hits by a Defenseman: TEAMSEILA [228 hits in 28 games - 8.14 hits/GP], EN HUND Goalies Best Save% (min. 50% of games played): Gunde021 [86.69% in 19/28 games], DEAD END KINGS Best GAA (min. 50% of games played): Gunde021 [1.52 GAA in 19/28 games], DEAD END KINGS Most Wins (W+OTW) by a Goalie: Tonza-_-89 [21 Ws in 27 games] & Nebelparder55555 [21 Ws in 26 games] Most Shutouts: IFKPEKlNG2k15 [5 shutouts in 26 games], Lavetten Playoff MVP moilanenC, J P T J Thank You As janbonator took the opportunity to thank us Staff members for organizing the ECL 4 season in his Elite Season Report, I would in return like to thank everyone in the community for your participation and continued support. The ECL franchise is something we are immensly proud of and truly the flagship in our journey towards the ultimate NHL gaming experience. With the introduction of Versus (and possibly other types of tournaments...) NHLGamer.com is taking the next step in its development, but make no mistake: ECL is at our core. Again, thank you. Later skaters,

Battle Royale After what can only be described as a thriller of a tournament, Laser HT has been crowned the champion of the 4th European Championship League in a plot that would have left even Stephen King hanging on the edge of his seat, while desperately holding onto his MUKI. The start of the season was Written in the Stars, but the scripture had too much TIKI TALK in it, and was thus shattered around with a banhammer, also known as Kenu's Taikasauva, with other teams picking up the fragments for points as the season progressed - eventually turning it into a Nordic Nightmare for them, on the first round of the playoffs. How we saw nightmares on Round 2 is anyone’s guess, as on Round 1 they had triumphed against an Unknown team. In an extremely competitive regular season the Northern Stars were fading and only two Swedish team made it to the playoffs, but unfortunately lacked the Synergy to shut down the beam team of to-be-champions. One team seemed to regard the playoff-line non-existent, and in their nearly Limitless limitlessness almost eliminated themselves out of the limited-for-eight playoffs. No Dynasty was made this season, either, as they continued an impressive record of 3 Game 7 losses in the past four tournaments, reportedly leading to a violent burst of Nordic Lightning in the vicinity of Kouvola. All the while, at the bottom of the standings, there was a team that Refused to Lose only four times during the tournament. Other relegations were the Animalia of Elite; Finnish Roosters and SIKA (pig) will be seen in the Pro division next season, together with Rynnäkköviikset. Promoted teams The teams that were promoted from Pro to Elite for ECL 5 are: Carlsberg HC, Kattiautomaatti, Silver Sword Griffins and Sjukstugan. We will inform of any changes to the divisions and teams after ECL 5 registration, if need be. Awards A big thank you to @The_Alpha_Furyan for compiling the statistics for all three divisions. Here's a list of the best performers in Elite during ECL4. Forwards Most points: Dominointi [39+55 = 94p in 28 games - 3.35 Points/GP], Laser HT Most goals: PleeMaker [49g in 30 games - 1.63 Goals/GP], Limitless Most assists: Dominointi [55a in 28 games - 1.96 Assists/GP], Laser HT Most hits: PleeMaker [145 hits in 30 games - 4.83 Hits/GP], Limitless Best +/-: Haldeem, Penatski, tbnantti, PleeMaker & nylanderi [+43 in 30 games], Limitless Defensemen Most points by a Defenseman: nylanderi [12+22 = 34p in 30 games - 1.13 Points/GP], Limitless Snapu48 [4+30 = 34p in 30 games - 1.13 Points/GP], Dynasty Haldeem [6+28 = 34p in 30 games - 1.13 Points/GP], Limitless Most goals by a Defenseman: nylanderi [12g in 30 games - 0.40 Goals/GP], Limitless Most assists by a Defenseman: Snapu48 [30a in 30 games - 1.00 Assists/GP], Dynasty Most hits by a Defenseman: friilander [140 Hits in 30 games - 4.66 Hits/GP], SIKA Goalies Best Save% (min. 50% of games played): Ranta83 [80.58% in 30/30 games], Unknown Best GAA (min. 50% of games played): Sandr0hh [1.93 GAA in 16/30 games], Dynasty Most Wins (W+OTW) by a Goalie: Ranta83 [19 Ws in 30 games], Unknown Most Shutouts: Danielcadabra [4 shutouts in 12 games], Written in the Stars DUNZA [4 shutouts in 14 games], Synergy VilberttoCarlos [4 shutouts in 18 games], Nordic Nightmare FinKonna [4 shutouts in 30 games], Limitless Playoff MVP Dominointi, Laser HT Words of a Champion Now, let’s hand over the pen to Risto “Dominointi” Järvi, the captain of Laser HT and the MVP of the tournament: “For the regular season our objective was only to make the playoffs. It got very tight in the end, but we managed to battle ourselves to 7th. A couple of players left the team at the end of last season and we got the replacements for them from Nordic Blizzard. I think it made each players’ role in the team much more clear. We played the regular season quite a bit differently than what people perhaps expected or had seen from us before. I played quite a lot up the ice, looking for stretch passes while the wings gave close support on the breakouts. I feel like it helped a lot, at least against certain teams. The team probably wasn’t on equal level skill-wise compared to last autumn, but this season we played strong as a team from the get-go, which I think was the primary reason for our success. Nowadays in this game you have to play as a team if you want to succeed, the level of competition is simply so tough. In the playoffs we were just trying to keep our own end clear of goals, with the front of the net being the keywords. We knew that if we kept our defence tight, we had a chance to win every game, as we pretty much always manage to score at least a few goals. We couldn’t go into a goal-scoring competition - something that would not have ended up well against every team. On the first round of the playoffs we faced Synergy, a team we’re very familiar with. For the most part we knew how they’d be playing and where we would need to strike at. The first games were tight, but we managed to clinch them and eventually won the series. On the second round we were up against Nordic Nightmare, a team that eliminated us last year when playing for Nordic Blizzard, so we were looking for a revenge. We thought of our approach carefully because Nordic Nightmare has a unique style of play for Elite. Our game-plan was to strike them on the breakout and try to prevent their quick counter-attacks. We knew they’d be playing very straightforward hockey and blocking shots would be important. Of course, we supposed our opponent would also know how we’d be playing, so we tried to mix that up a little as well by getting more pucks to the defencemen and more shots from the blueline. We played well and deserved to progress on to the finals. In the finals we were up against a very familiar team, Dynasty. We knew them to be a great defensive team and to add to that they have a lot of skill on every position. Their goalies were top of the league, too. We set out to play brave hockey and apply strong pressure to the defencemen, always shooting the puck and crashing the net when there’s an opening. The first four games of the series were tight, but somehow it felt we had that slight edge, even though the stats were very even in every game. The weekend break started with us leading the series 3-1. After the break we had games 5 & 6, and quite frankly, we had no chance. The opponent had changed their approach and our tactic was not working at all. Deserved wins for Dynasty and off we went for a game seven. For the deciding game, we agreed to just play our regular game, not try anything too complicated and just park the bus in the neutral zone. After some thrilling events and a lot of screams and shouts, we clinched it 2-1 and won the title. The series could not have been tighter – that’s just how it ended this time. Overall, I think Leksa played a fantastic tournament. Counting both the regular season and the playoffs, I don’t think he had a single off-game. I will tip my hat to the performance of our goalies in the playoffs, especially Hansu in the finals. The defence was rock solid throughout the playoffs, too. Vesa and Wille were excellent in the finals and Selarit played as well as he always does. As for the future of the team, I can’t tell. We agreed that we’ll look at it again before the beta, but most likely we’ll be continuing with the same lineup.” The Decider Scored by who else than Risto "Dominointi" Järvi in the closing seconds of the 3rd period of Game 7. Broomsticks and Magnets Every year the game franchise makes small but significant changes to online gameplay. One year it's short-side one-timers, the other it's far-side one-timers. One year poke-checks are overpowered, the other it's stick-lifts. I'm yet to witness a year, however, in which the rock-paper-scissor of the meta game would've have found, say, rock unbeatable. This year there were some tricks to be found in terms of puck control, the kind of tricks your user manual doesn't tell. Some individuals and teams started picking up on these towards the latter parts of ECL 3, one of the masters of such arts winning the MVP award of the tournament. These type of players and their rather spectacular-looking play-style I call Magnets. Some teams spent their off-season between ECL 3 & 4 figuring out how to deal with Magnets, and one of the answers was a Broomstick. By now, the Broomstick technique has spread wide and has arisen some heated debates, and I know there are teams that refuse to play against each other because of this. The Broomstick is of course the crouch block position you can go to by pressing L1. The most obvious advantage is that you can't get penalized; you can't trip, slash or interfere with a player while doing so. While I think anyone would agree using the function in the game as intended should be allowed, many would say spamming it the way it is possible to spam, is effectively abusing a glitch. Personally, I'm inclined to disagree that it should be forbidden or whatnot. The Broomstick is much more effective along the boards than it is anywhere else as a means to strip the puck. Now, if we look at board play and puck control in general, is it balanced, or does the offensive or defensive player have an advantage? I think definitely the player with the puck has the advantage; with the puck your player is much more agile, you can actually move your stick through the boards while controlling the puck etc. So, effectively, I find the Broomstick a balancing, not a breaking factor of gameplay. Furthermore, I find the gray area on the defensive side to be larger than on the offensive side. In real hockey, too, you're effectively allowed to do things on the defensive side of the puck that you're not allowed to do when attacking. Also, you can still be a great player in this game even if you never used the whole function. Thank You I had absolutely no stake in organizing ECL 4 and thus would like to use this opportunity to express my gratitude to those that did – Kenneth, Samuli, Max, Väinö, Hampus, Jānis and Teemu, it was yet another great tournament to take part of, thank you very much for your effort on behalf of all of us players, and let’s try to build on this as a community going forward. From now on I’ll be back on-board with the staff as well. Have a great summer everyone, hope to see many of you in the SC - you still have a day left to register have you not done so already, but if not, see you in the autumn with ECL 5!

Good evening NHL Gamers! In a tremendous finale tonight, and with a last minute game winning goal in game 7, Laser HT beat Dynasty and secured a 4-3 series victory to be crowned ECL 4 Elite Champions! These are the series results: Game 1: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 2-1 Game 2: Dynasty @ Laser HT | 2-5 Game 3: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 1-2 OT Game 4: Dynasty @ Laser HT | 1-2 Game 5: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 0-2 Game 6: Dynasty @ Laser HT | 3-2 Game 7: Laser HT @ Dynasty | 2-1 Laser HT Championship roster: G: #33 P. Roy (aka Hiiirulainen) G: #88 D. Hansek (aka Hansulinho) D: #16 K. V (aka VesKuLiNe) D: #43 Y. Wilhelm (aka willekunq) D: #87 I. Junub (aka Selarit) F: #11 L. Lekker (aka Leksa94) F: #13 I. SK (aka Dominointi) F: #67 I. Dishmaster (aka hooneli) F: #68 J. Jagr (aka Hermurderer) Laser HT's road to the cup: 18 wins, 10 losses & 2 OT-losses during the regular season, ranked 7th Quarterfinals: 4-1 victory against Synergy Semifinals: 4-1 victory against Nordic Nightmare Finals: 4-3 victory against Dynasty NHLGamer staff congratulates the whole team for winning the most prestigious 6 vs. 6 tournament in NHL 17! Even in truly outstanding and merciless Elite competition, Laser HT were consistently showing great playoff performances for a deserved championship victory. A big shoutout to Dynasty as well: Carrying the series to game 7 after being behind 1-3 deserves special mention and huge respect! During the live stream on Twitch, almost 150 people were watching the game winning goal in the end of game 7, which is an outstanding number. It confirms the growing relevance of the ECL championships and NHLGamer.com, people are more hungry for top tier virtual ice hockey than ever before. ECL 4 is not over yet though, as Pro and Lite Divisions are still fighting for their championships and promotions, with some really intense match-ups ahead. Make sure to keep an eye on further coverage! A more detailed ECL Elite season recap including award winners will be released in due time - stay tuned. @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Introduction Hey, some of you know me as a goalie since earlier. I'm currently with SKY this season, and I played with TUW, VSH, and XF during my 3 ECL seasons here, but only a few know that I enjoy creating highlight videos on YouTube as well. It all started about 2 years ago, and since then I have tried coming up with new ways to improve my editing technique, and now I'm ready to take it one step further. What probably separates my videos from a lot of other gameplay videos, is how I always try give them an authentic feeling, and I will try use that in this project as well. But enough about me - let's move on to the important stuff. After talking with the NHLGamer Staff, and going through all kinds of details, I'm happy to announce our new Top Plays project for this ECL Season. We will be uploading Top Plays videos on YouTube featuring the very best goals and saves from all our divisions. What type of replays? The most common replay to capture when playing is obviously your live feed, but there is also an option to watch your highlights during the intermission, or after the game, and this replay will be just as important. The small replay screen will display the selected highlight from all kinds of camera angles (see image below). Once you have captured the best and most authentic camera angles, save the replay, and it will eventually come alive using screen capture. Goals However the replay screen only captures about the last 4-5 seconds, meaning the build-up play to a goal might get lost. Thats why we want to combine the live feed of the goal, with the after game replay. Live feed Replay Screen Saves The save will most likely always be at the end of the highlight, so here we dont have the same problem. Therefore we will only use the replay screen to capture a save. Replay Screen Below is a proof of concept video with some saves (please ignore the ugly overlay texts ): How do I share my video? Of course there is the matter of uploading the highlight as well. The key here is to make the upload process available and simple for everyone. So after looking over the different sharing options, we have decided that YouTube is our best option. This will require a YouTube account, but its free, and simple enough to setup, if you don't already have one. In addition to sharing your single replay directly to YouTube, we also recommend using a program called SHAREfactory. It's free, and can be easily downloaded on your PS4. This allows you to add several clips into one video, edit and cut any irrelevant parts and then upload it to YouTube. Meaning you don't have to upload a new YouTube video for every highlight. When uploading to YouTube the title should contain the following: "(Type_Gamertag_Year_Month_Day"). For example ("Save_Danielcadabra_2017-02-07") This way its simple to keep track of who did what, and when. Once your video is up on YouTube, send me a message here @Danielcadabra, preferably containing a link to the video, or the name of your channel. As soon as I have captured the video, I will send a confirmation, and then you can feel free to remove it. Alternatively, you can of course also send me a link to a higher quality file that you have uploded. Vision At this point I have no idea of what to expect exactly, but I'm excited to get the word out, and hopefully this project gets lots of hype from all of you in the community. Feel free to ask any questions and leave feedback. Want to create and share your own videos? If you want to create your own videos and share them with the community, don't be afraid to approach myself or @Kenu and we can look at getting more content up for the community and fans all over the world. Take a look at this fantastic video created by @FIN_Potilas about his ECL Elite team Rynnäkköviikset: We here at NHLGamer absolutely love this type of videos, so keep them coming! We will also be introducing a logo package that can be used by media and video makers, to make sure you get the best quality official images into these videos in the future. That's all for now - let's make this happen!