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Hello NHLGamers, The ECL 5 Pro season was an exciting battle from the very start, until the overtime winner in game 7 of the finals. Let's start with the group stage: Group 1 In this group all of the top 3 teams from The_Alpha_Furyan'ss ECL Pro Preview made it to the playoffs. Gotham Knights and SIKA ended up in the top 2 during the regular season and White Trash finished 6th in the group. Group 1 was tighter than group 2, with only 13 points between Gotham Knights - that won the group - and Murohoki and Black Panther Party, who finished in 9th and 10th place and just barely missed the playoffs. When you look at the bottom of the table you find Squirt Hockey, Nemesis and Bare Knuckles Hockey. All of these 3 teams had to play Relegation games to try their best to stay in the Pro division. If you go through the personal stats in this group, we have the Inter Iceland duo @Stefan_397 (88p) and @Playmaker1010 (83p) at the top. Both of them had big roles for their team that finished the regular season in 3rd place. My teammates and I in Lavetten got a painful reminder of how good that duo can be when Inter Iceland slaughtered us 10-0 and Stefan racked up 4+6 and Playmaker 3+4 in that game. After that devastating loss, Lavetten managed to play so much better in the second half of the season without me. I was really impressed by the guys on my team when they ended the season with 12 wins and 2 OT losses being the hottest team in the second half of the season in Group 1. Best goalie stats-wise in group 1 was - the star goalie from SIKA - @SpiderRoyal with a 15-5-1 record and an 83.01 save percentage. Group 2 In group 2 the two favorites Unlucky Boys HC and Shameful Knights did not disappoint their expectations finishing first and second. These two teams and Nordic Stars - who finished third - managed to score more than 100 goals each in the regular season. In group 1 there was only one team that scored over 100 goals (107 Inter Iceland). Looking at the bottom of the table you will find Banterfield Battalion, GHETTO FIREBIRDS and Bellizzi. Baltic Sea Eagles started out the season very well, being undefeated for the first 10 games, before losing two straight games against Nordic Stars. Unlucky Boys HC started the season very well as well, by winning their first 8 games only letting in 9 goals in those games. The top scorer in group 2 was @sweatyfathoe99 from Unlucky Boys HC with an impressive 54 goals and 30 assists in 28 games. Hullued from Shameful Knights was the best goalie in group 2 with a 25-4-0 record and an 81.81 save percentage. Playoffs Round 1 I must say I was surprised when Shameful Knights lost in the first round against Falun Coal Miners as well as when SIKA lost in the first round against The United Knights. Apart from those series the other ones were very even; Pata Hellalla managed to turn around the series completely after being down 2-0. Sadly, after losing to Pata Hellalla in the playoffs, Lavetten decided to disband. Gotham Knights beat LITE up-and-comers J P T J, Inter Iceland won against En Hund, Evolution beat Baltic Sea Eagles in an intense series that went go game 7, Unlucky Boys HC beat Alliance HT and in the last series Nordic Stars beat White Trash. Quarter Finals In the second round, Falun Coal Miners kept on impressing by beating another top team, as Nordic Stars lost in game . Unlucky Boys showed how good they are by sweeping The United Knights comfortably 4-0. Pata Hellalla beat Gotham Knights 4-3 and Evolution won against Inter Iceland 4-2 Semifinals In the semifinals it was Evolutions turn to show what a good team they are by beating Pata Hellalla 4-0. In the other series Falun Coal Miners did not manage to beat a third top ranked team and Unlucky Boys HC won the series 4-2. Finals The finals in the ECL 5 Pro playoffs was something special. Evolution got the best start being up 2-1 in games. However, Unlucky Boys managed to turn around the series with two wins in a row and Evolution had a lot of pressure going into the last day of the final series being down 3-2 in games. After a 2-0 win in game 6, Evolution managed to win game 7 after a OT goal from their new super signing I_EKI_I. Congratulations to Evolution for winning ECL Pro! After the very exiting finals in ECL Pro where Evolution managed to win this thrilling series that went to game 7, I asked Evolution Captain @Crisu_rottis about their impressive season: Playoff stats I_EKI_I (@Erkki) showed what a good signing he was from the Elite team MUKIMIEHET, leading his new Evolution team to the title in ECL Pro. I_EKI_I had the most points in the entire playoffs with 46 points (20+26), Stefan_397 from Inter Iceland was second with 42 points (22+20) and Sweatyfathoe99 was third with 40 points (25+15). Looking at the goalie stats we find two goalies from the teams in the finals, @SepiDN from Evolution, first with a 80.09 save percentage and @eissi83 from Unlucky Boys HC, with a 81.44 save percentage. Summary: Synergy Hockey was relegated from ECL Elite together with Nordic Lightning. After losing many players to other teams Synergy are merging together with Dead End Kings. Lavetten disbanded after only two seasons in ECL. Relegated teams from Elite to Pro Synergy Hockey Nordic Lightning New teams from Lite to Pro Nordic Nosebleed Almost Famous Raging Monkeys Red Machine

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL 5 Pro Finals were also decided earlier this week and the finals between Unlucky Boys HC and Evolution went all the way into overtime in game 7, where Evolution came out on top and won the championship. NHLGamer would hereby like to congratulate Evolution for being the new ECL Pro Champions! If you wish, you can watch all seven of the finals here: https://www.twitch.tv/nhlgamertwitch/videos/all These are the final series results: Game 1: Evolution @ Unlucky Boys HC | 0-1 OT Game 2: Unlucky Boys HC @ Evolution | 3-6 Game 3: Evolution @ Unlucky Boys HC | 3-2 Game 4: Unlucky Boys HC @ Evolution | 2-1 Game 5: Evolution @ Unlucky Boys HC | 1-3 Game 6: Unlucky Boys HC @ Evolution | 0-2 Game 7: Evolution @ Unlucky Boys HC | 2-1 OT Evolution Championship roster: G: #8 F. SeRe (aka FINSeRe) G: #24 I. Bock (A) (aka SepiDN) D: #10 I. Tuuba (aka puke85) D: #77 J. Jokipaska (C) (aka Crisu_Rottis) F: #11 J. Golds (A) (aka Jageksi) F: #25 E. Tammenpää (aka I_Eki_I) F: #40 K. ra (aka topikeränen) F: #52 S. Kärkkykov (aka Kaerkkyjae) F: #73 K. Luistelija (aka wickedtah69) Evolution's road to the cup: 19 wins, 7 losses & 4 OT-losses during the regular season, ranked 5th in Group 1 Round 1: 4-3 victory against Baltic Sea Eagles Quarterfinals: : 4-2 victory against Inter Iceland Semifinals: 4-0 victory against Pata Hellalla Finals: 4-3 victory against Unlucky Boys A more detailed ECL Lite season recap will be released soon. Stay tuned.

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL 5 season is coming to an epic end tonight and oh boy do we have some great games to stream for you! Starting at 20:00 CET we have the Pro finals between Evolution and Unlucky Boys HC. This best-of-7 series is currently 2-3 for Unlucky Boys HC. Starting at 21:00 CET we will continue with the Lite finals that are played between Red Machine and Almost Famous. Red Machine leads the best-of-7 series 3-1. The stream will be commentated by @Kenu and @nylanderi, so be sure to come say hi in the chat box! Be sure to tune in to the action at https://www.twitch.tv/nhlgamertwitch starting a tiny bit before 20:00 CET!

The ECL Pro finals will be televised! Evolution face off against Unlucky Boys HC as the two teams vie for the coveted grand prize after a long and successful run in the Pro division. Join Kenu and Janikka at the official NHL Gamer live stream at https://www.twitch.tv/nhlgamertwitch Without further ado, jump in and talk to us!

NHLGamers, We have reached the semifinals phase of the ECL 5 Pro Playoffs and here are the playoff pairings and framework: FRAMEWORK Each pairing must be finished within 7 days from today, meaning last evening to play games is December 12th. Don't expect any extensions! All pairings are to be played in a best-of-7 series (teams on the left side below play home first) PRO PLAYOFFS Here is how last round ended: #1 Unlucky Boys HC vs. #8 THE UNITED KNIGHTS [4-0] #2 Nordic Stars vs. #7 Falun Coal Miners [3-4] #3 Gotham Knights vs. #6 Pata Hellalla [3-4] #4 Inter Iceland vs. #5 Evolution [2-4] This gives us the following pairings for the semifinals: #1 Unlucky Boys HC vs. #7 Falun Coal Miners #5 Evolution vs. #6 Pata Hellalla We offer our congratulations to Unlucky Boys HC, Falun Coal Miners, Evolution and Pata Hellalla for making the "final four" of ECL 5 Pro. All four teams will - at the very least - have the opportunity to play for a spot in Elite for ECL 6. An announcement from the LA department regarding the SJK-SKY case and the ECL finals will be released shortly. @The_Alpha_Furyan 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 evening, Gamers The long-awaited third episode of ECL Talk is here! Exciting times lie ahead as we try our hand at recording the podcast through a Skype call instead of the PS4 party platform. The title of the episode is Dominating the Beta, something that is reflected in the episodes' content as we review the NHL 18 Beta leaderboards and find the NHLGamer community well represented... Here's a more detailed rundown of whats happening in Episode #3 of ECL Talk (synopsis from YouTube page): "In the third episode of ECL Talk, hosts vSilenttio and The_Alpha_Furyan take a look at the final NHL 18 Beta Leaderboards (team rankings as well as player rankings) and find quite a few familiar names. The bulk of the episode is made up of this "review", with every skater position from Goalie to Center getting their time in the spotlight. Once past the Beta leaderboards, the discussion turns towards how the vacant divisional spots should be filled for ECL 5. Finally, we hint at what is coming up in the future for NHLGamer.com" Bonus material While recording the podcast, we had a "cheat sheet" of sorts in the form of screenshots taken on the last day of the Beta (midnight to be specific). As we mention in the podcast, we decided to share this material with the community as a form of "bonus content". To make the screenshots more visually appealing and show how dominant the NHLGamer community actually was in the Beta, @Kenu enhanced the images with some ECL art. Enjoy! Teams All Skaters Centers (featuring @ADETIKKI, @Joonas Paatiala, @Erkki, @xDoumi, @otto aaltonen, @Tzon93, @Norpee and @Migo_boo) Left Wingers (featuring @SadaPoika, @xMaick82x, @Bugimir, @plee999, @Rimpe, @pajenc, @mir02k1 and @hpkfani) Right Wingers (featuring @FlyerKungen, @imosi, @jumalpeku, @vatalisti, @Pelle3000 and @epelis) Defensemen (featuring @vSilenttio, @Slaivone, @Janikka, @The_Alpha_Furyan, @Ilmari_30, @Rullstolskalas, @kikiukko and @Gustafsson7) Goaltenders (featuring @FinKonna, @Casper, @Tauri, @s_w1ld_rus, @Jiihooo86, @Hullued, @Zande95, @jaakko katiska, @Ylijumala and @MajLeN-Gaming) As always, 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. See you then! @vSilenttio and @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!

Summer is almost here but before that - good evening once again NHL Gamers! It was Carlsberg HC who managed to be the best out of 32 Pro teams as they beat Sjukstugan in the ECL 4 Pro finals. CAR-112 series results: Game 1: Carlsberg HC @ Sjukstugan | 2-1 Game 2: Sjukstugan @ Carlsberg HC | 3-2 OT Game 3: Carlsberg HC @ Sjukstugan | 3-0 Game 4: Sjukstugan @ Carlsberg HC | 1-5 Game 5: Carlsberg HC @ Sjukstugan | 3-1 Final Carlsberg HC Championship roster: G: #88 J. Sibelius (aka Zande95) D: #82 M. Nyqi (aka Janzuh) D: #7 J. Jate (aka vatalisti) F: #9 R. Grimes (aka joukki13) F: #10 P. Lehtera (aka mikaasi) F: #28 M. Scofield (aka alexbvb28) F: #30 W. Shakespeare (aka F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_) F: #86 J. Paatiala (aka Patzlaf) Carlsberg HC's road to the ECL 4 Pro Championship: 24 wins, 3 losses and 1 OT-loss during the regular season, ranked 1st of Group 1, the best PPG in the ECL 4 Pro (1,75) Round 1: 4-0 victory against Huppati HC Round 2: 4-0 victory against White Trash Round 3: 4-0 victory against Silver Sword Griffins ECL 4 Pro finals: 4-1 victory against Sjukstugan The whole NHLGamer staff congratulates Carlsberg HC for winning the first ever Pro championship - and also for taking the big step into ECL Elite next season! Same goes for Sjukstugan as they secured their ECL Elite spot by beating Kattiautomaatti in the Round 3. Kattiautomaatti also stepped into Elite as they won SIKA in the Relegation faceoff. A big congratulations to these new Elite teams! Finnish Roosters and Silver Sword Griffins are still battling for the 16th Elite spot next week. In ECL Lite, Hawks Hockey Club and J P T J are playing for the Lite championship in the upcoming week as well so there's two big match-ups remaining in the ECL 4. See you guys soon & have a nice weekend! Oh and hey - we're not done yet so just like before, stay tuned! @vSilenttio for NHLGamer.com

Hello NHLGamers, With the regular season behind us, we now shift our focus on the playoffs. This time around in addition to fighting for the championship, teams will also try to avoid relegation and secure promotions to higher divisions for ECL5. Before announcing the playoff parings for the first round, we need to note that some teams weren't able to play all of their regular season games, forcing us to issue walkover wins/losses. In each respective case the League Administration took into consideration the availability, communication and attempts to reschedule the games from both sides. Here are the final rulings: Unplayed games between "Clowns On Ice" and "Ice Phoenix" - two WO losses for both teams. Unplayed games between "Origins" and "The Lights Out" - two WO wins for Origins. Unplayed games between "Huppati HC" and "Company Of Geeks" - two WO wins for Huppati HC. Unplayed games between "Inter Iceland" and "Thunder Tigers" - two WO wins for Inter Iceland. Unplayed games between "Written In The Stars" and "Aapon Taikasauva" - two WO losses for both teams. After applying all the WO rulings, here's the summary for each division: Playoffs MUKIMIEHET vs. Limitless Synergy vs. Laser HT Unknown vs. Nordic Nightmare Written In The Stars vs. Dynasty Relegation Faceoff Finnish Roosters vs. #4 of Pro playoffs SIKA vs. #3 of Pro playoffs Relegation Rynnäkköviikset Refuse To Lose Playoffs Carlsberg HC vs. Huppati HC Sjukstugan vs. HC Checkmate Rusty Blades vs. Royal Club Unlucky Boys HC vs. Germany's Finest Alliance HT vs. Shameful Knights Silver Sword Griffins vs. Nocturnal Hunters Nordic Stars vs. White Trash Kattiautomaatti vs. ORIGINS Relegation Faceoff Bare Knuckles Hockey vs. Company of Geeks murohoki vs. Thunder Tigers Nemesis vs. The Beagle Boys Showtime vs. The Lights Out Sadly some teams have abandoned the tournament. Due to this there are 16 teams in one group and 14 in the other. In order to make the current playoffs format work, we've decided to merge both Lite groups, sort teams by PPG and automatically advance the two teams with the highest PPG to the second round. Playoffs Hawks Hockey Club and DEAD END KINGS - both automatically advance to the second round. EN HUND vs. Blues HC J P T J vs. A Dream Valhalla Old Farts vs. Pohjoista Voimaa Dynamo Danglers vs. Vemppaosasto GHETTO FIREBIRDS vs. The Youngsters Clowns On Ice vs. Prometheus Lavetten vs. Die TwitchProleten Banterfield Battalion vs. PSHL Roadrunners Teletapit vs. Ice Phoenix HC Ancient Warriors vs. Papat Bone Breakers vs. HC Scorpions HC Palosaari vs. Falun Coal Miners Last Kings vs. EV Duisburg Elämäm Kiekko vs. INF4MOUS Sharpen your skates as the playoffs will start on the 3rd of April and the first round of the playoffs is to be played 03.04 - 09.04., best of seven. Good luck! NHLGamer.com

Good evening NHLGamers, Me - The_Alpha_Furyan - and the rest of the NHLGamer staff bid you welcome to another installment of our ECL Season Preview. To get an idea of what we will be doing in these previews, you can check out our previous one for Season 3. While that preview focused more on listing all the participating teams and predicting which ones would come out on top from the regular season, this one will try to dig a little deeper and supply a more in-depth look at each and every division - something the community has been vocal about in their feedback to our writing staff. After giving you the preview for the ECL 4 Lite division yesterday, we now move on to the ECL 4 Pro division. To assist me with this preview I have enlisted the help of a community member who needs no introduction (but will still get one). After finishing up the previous ECL tournament as the captain of the championship winning team Limitless, this Finn wanted to contribute more to the community in the form of reporting. Therefore, it is with great joy we here at NHLGamer.com - through this article - introduce our newest content creator and Staff member, @nylanderi. So without further ado, I now turn the mic over to nylanderi for this preview. The predictions and words are his, my contribution is solely some editing and additional thoughts. Let's go! Main text, scouting and predictions by nylanderi Text editing and additional reporting by The_Alpha_Furyan Art by OxtreeLAT Prediction for the Regular Season Top- 5. 1. Carlsberg Carslberg HC is a team who would quite possibly be my pick for even the ECL Elite Championship - so this choice was pretty much a no-brainer for me. I expect this reunited team to dominate the regular season, possibly even finishing their whole run without any losses. Carlsberg truly are amazing in every zone on the ice, with almost no weaknesses to their game. Especially look for joukki13 and Patzlaf to most likely finish #1 and 2 in scoring for the Pro division. 2. Sjukstugan I will say that Sjukstugan has made some really interesting moves in the offseason - acquiring Filariou, The_Alpha_Furyan and LastMandalorian. From what I have seen when recently playing against 112 in EASHL games they have really taken their game a step in the right direction. Honestly, if they can defend as a team in ECL they could challenge CAR for the ECL 4 Pro title. In my opinion their team offense is their biggest source of strength, but forwards will have to make sure to also defend if they want to find themselves in ECL Elite when NHL 18 shows up and ECL 5 kicks off. 3. Unlucky Boys HC One of the more underrated teams out there, I think UB is really going to impress a lot of people this season. They have great players upfront in Anhel_kuru and Ilmari30 but also share a weakness with many other Pro teams - their defense. In UBs case, especially defending together as a team. If this team wants to succeed they will have to be able to shut other teams down. Their offense can score goals against pretty much anyone, but it will not help them if they let in more than they score. 4. Kattiautomatti This is a team that I am quite familiar with, seeing as how we faced them in the ECL 3 playoffs. Overall I think Katti is a really good defensive team, but they are somewhat lacking in offensive power. If they can find a way to score a few extra goals per game, look for them to go real far this season but if not, it could be a tough season. Good luck guys and again - thanks for the playoff series! 5. Silver Sword Griffins To me, it was kind of a big suprise last season to see how good SSG did. Their defense and goaltending is usually their strength (it has always been their trademark) but how they are going to score their goals is usually the big mystery. SSGs goals often come from low point shots with deflections and that style of play definitely requires luck if they want to go far. A big responsibility will be on the shoulders of #1 center and top scorer, ProMinx24. Will also be interesting to see how OxtreeLAT handles going from goaltender to defender - from what I have seen it should work out really well. Championship favorite It is Carlsberg. For me, as I said in the regular season predicitions, this was never in doubt. Maybe one of the other teams pull off an upset and somehow sneak by Carlsberg... but if they do not win the Pro division (or at the very least make the finals) it would have to be considered a failure. Players to watch 1. Janzuh, Carlsberg, D I have heard many people state that Janzuh is one of the very best LDs in the competitive NHL gaming scene, and I totally agree with that notion. Janzuh is rock solid in his own end and with his amazing hockey IQ I am sure he is going to have a huge role in Carlsbergs offense as well. 2. Ilmari30, Unlucky Boys HC, Forward One of the better playmakers in the game for sure. He makes things easy for him and his teammates. His definitely gonna quarterback UBs game, and take them far this season. 3. Stefan_397, Inter Iceland, Forward Stefan, just like the rest of Inter Iceland, is some kind of mystery to me (and to the community I think). I dont really know that much about him to be honest, only that he can score a lot of goals. If he can keep that kind of scoring up (65 goals last regular season) we can expect great things from Inter Iceland this season. 4. Kaneyh, White Trash, Forward Kaneyh is one of the best Versus/HUT players to come out of Finland and based on his stats from last season, his talents has carried over to 6v6 as well. If WT is able to shut down their opponents and Kaneyh manages to continue his skillfull terror upfront - watch out for him and for this team. 5. Juizki, Checkmate, G Juizki is one of the most underrated goalies in the game and everytime I have faced him in EASHL, he has been really good, bordering on amazing. Checkmate as a team has acquired a whole bunch of new players and with Juziki backstopping them, this team is going to be really interesting to watch. Teams to watch 1. White Trash We faced them last season and from what I could tell then (and now) their offense is truly elite level. But again the same story as most of the Pro teams comes back - they really lack unity in their own zone. If they can sort that out, these guys are going to be scary good. 2. HC Checkmate Building on what was said above in "Players to watch" with Juizki, Checkmate is a team to look out for this season. While maybe not at the very top of the predicted Pro teams, they still feature a lot of skill and massive amounts of chemistry. Their offense, led by BiggestEight on LW, also features speedcell104 and TackleControl - forming a line whose speed and creative attacks is enough to send the opponents heads spinning. Couple that with Juizkis play in net and new signing IYouShallNotPass on defense and you have a real interesting team. 3. Nordic Stars This is a team filled up with some great players. However, I have not yet faced them in EASHL competition so I couldn't really put them in the top 5 prediction this time. This team has the potential to be really good in every zone though and actually dominate the pro division - possibly even challenging CAR and 112 for the championship. 4. Baltic Sea Eagles Don't forget about these veterans. BSE has been around since before Jesus (not talking about the Company of Geeks captain... or am I?) and has amassed a lot of experience. This will be their first entry into the ECL scene from what I understand and it will be interesting to see how they handle the tempo of ECL competition. That is it for Pro, leave your thoughts in the comment section and give nylanderis first contribution to the website the attention it deserves. See you all tomorrow for the ECL 4 Elite preview! Later skaters, The_Alpha_Furyan & nylanderi

Hello NHLGamers, It’s been rumored, it’s been talked about… we even hinted at it earlier during the season but tonight we are finally making the official announcement: moving forward after ECL 3, the European Championship League will take on a skill and merit-based divisional format. This is your post to find out everything about this new system and the next step in Online Competitive EASHL gaming before it is launched in ECL 4. Divisions First thing’s first, the divisions. The idea behind creating these divisions will be expanded upon in the text but the short version is this: We are continually working to improve the site, the leagues and the overall NHLGamer experience for everyone. Some might say this development process is moving too slow and does not reach far enough, some might say the website is expanding in ways that it should not. The community is special in many ways, not just because parts of it has stayed together for years (including previous websites, the community is now more than half a decade old) but also because it is continually expanding. NHLGamer has almost doubled its membership in less than a year while still maintaining its core, which is all of you in the community. It creates a tough balancing act when trying to create a fun place for EASHL rookies that want to experience the thrill of playing competitively for the first time while trying to give the hardened tournament veterans what they want, which is the best tournament possible where the stakes are high and winner takes all. Still, in an attempt to achieve this, we will be creating a divisions system where the hope is that teams will be better matched against each other – something we hope will lead to tighter games, more fun for everyone involved all the while creating a stronger foundation for the tournament to stand on. Our hope is also that more teams will be inclined to stay together and build longer lasting franchises. We’ve structured this post so that we should be able to answer as many of your questions as possible by getting to them one by one – a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) if you will. This FAQ will be available for future reference when the actual division based leagues come around. Despite this, if you feel something is unclear or just plain weird, feel free to sound off in the comment section with questions like: “Well, what if this happens..?” and we will do our best and elaborate. Let’s get to it: Q: How many divisions will there be? The short answer is 3 – a total of 3 separate divisions. The longer answer is that we set off to create an environment where all the top teams face off in the prestigious ECL Elite, up and coming franchises battle with veteran teams in the competitive ECL Pro and all newly entered or learning teams start off in ECL Amateur to hone their skills. This prevents teams with years of experience and chemistry from numerous EASHL competitions, from facing off with teams new to the site who are just learning what it takes to play EASHL at the ECL level. Q: How many teams will there be in each division? We are looking at a total of 16 teams for ECL Elite, 16 teams for ECL Pro and, depending on the amount of registrations, 16-24 (or more) teams in ECL Amateur. The goal is to keep ECL Elite and ECL Pro consistently the same size (16 teams each), which means if teams completely drop out of the division system or inactive teams return (read on), there will be balancing measures - meaning increased amounts of promotions or relegations. During extraordinary circumstances, ECL Pro can deviate from its 16-team baseline but ECL Elite has a hard cap of 16 teams. This part, much like inactive teams, is specified further down in the text. In case ECL Amateur sees an extraordinary amount of registrations, the staff will then decide if the division can be split up into two “conferences” (like ECL 3) or if registrations will have to be closed for the tournament in question. As a rule of thumb, we always do our best to include all registered teams in our leagues, as long as it’s reasonable. Q: How many games will there be in a season? The amount of games will, as per usual, be 2 games against each opponent – meaning 30 games (15 opponents) each season for ECL Elite & ECL Pro and somewhere around the same for ECL Amateur depending on the amount of teams. This ensures lean, hard-fought seasons with what we hope is the perfect amount of games – you get a sense of both the regular season grind while at the same time reaching the playoff threshold in just 5 short weeks: this by playing 3 opponents per week, just like during the last few seasons. Q: How will promotion and relegation work? First off, we will have promotions and relegations. Having closed divisions is not something we are considering at the moment so we are going with the European hockey model where teams can be both promoted and relegated in the different divisions. For ECL Elite: 8 out of 16 teams will make the ECL Elite Playoffs where the Top 8 teams start off in quarterfinals, then proceed to semi-finals and finally the ECL Finals where the league winner will be crowned. The teams that finish #15 and 16 in ECL Elite will instantly be relegated and play in ECL Pro the following season. Teams that finish #13 and 14 will not be instantly relegated, but will have to play two teams (one each) from ECL Pro in a Best of 7- ECL Relegation/Promotion Round. Teams that finish in places 9-12 will not play in the playoffs nor be subject to relegation. In summary, this means a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 teams are relegated each season. It also means 10 out of 16 teams will see some form of post-season play and ensure that every team will be fighting all season, either to make the playoffs or avoid elimination. For ECL Pro: 8 out of 16 teams will make the ECL Pro Playoffs where the Top 8 teams start off in quarterfinals, then proceed to semi-finals and finally the ECL Pro Finals where the league winner will be crowned. The top two teams (finalists) of ECL Pro are instantly promoted and will play the season after in ECL Elite. The teams finishing in spots #3 and 4 (the losers of the semi-final round) will then move on to face teams #13 and 14 (one each) from ECL Elite in the Relegation/Promotion Round (7 games). As far as relegations go, teams that finish #15 and 16 will be instantly relegated to ECL Amateur for the following season. Teams that finish #13 and 14 will follow the same model mentioned earlier and play two teams from ECL Amateur (one each) in a best-out-of 7 battle. In summary, this means 10 out of 16 teams in ECL Pro sees some form of post-season play. For ECL Amateur: 8 out of 16 teams (depending on the size of the division) will make the ECL Amateur Playoffs where the Top 8 teams start off in quarterfinals, then proceed to semi-finals and finally the ECL Amateur Finals where the league winner will be crowned. The top two teams (finalists) of ECL Amateur are instantly promoted and will play the next season in ECL Pro. The teams that finish in spots #3 and 4 will then move on to face teams #13 and 14 from ECL Pro in the Relegation/Promotion Round (7 games). In summary, this means a total of 4 teams in ECL Amateur will be given the chance to advance to ECL Pro, something that we hope will be a welcome addition for all our new members looking to make their way up. Q: What teams will play where when the Divisional system starts up in ECL Season 4? We said before ECL 3 that the new format (bigger conferences, more games) was mainly for two reasons; 1. To try out the format and see what the benefits and disadvantages were and 2. To make sure all teams truly got the opportunity to distinguish themselves over a long season before we introduced divisions. Therefore, the teams that finish this long, grinding regular season in the Top 4 in each of the ECL 3 conferences will have guaranteed spots in ECL Elite, locking up the first 8 spots. The next 8 spots will be decided by the ECL 3 playoffs. This gives the remaining 24 playoff-bound teams (seeds 5-16) a chance to – outside of battling for the title in our biggest tournament yet – use the playoffs to get their hands on the final 8 spots. The deciding factor will be wins. Out of the 24 teams who make the playoffs but are not directly qualified for ECL Elite, the 8 who manages to collect the most playoff wins will be the ones to claim the final spots. In a situation where two or more teams have the same amount of playoff wins, the regular season rank will act as a tie-breaker. The third tie-breaker is PPG in the playoffs and the fourth is PPG in the regular season. This naturally means the 8 teams who aren’t directly qualified to ECL Elite and make it the farthest in the playoffs are the final 8 to be added to the top division. This could theoretically mean that, if there is an upset and a #16 seed beats a #1 seed right away in the first round – they could both be playing in ECL Elite the following season. The teams that made the playoffs in ECL 3, but didn’t make the cut for ECL Elite, will start ECL Season 4 in ECL Pro. Teams that do not qualify for the ECL 3 playoffs will start in ECL Amateur next season. Q: Can a team pause/be inactive for a season? In ECL Elite and ECL Pro, teams can apply to “pause” for one season (in ECL Amateur this is not necessary). This turns them into an inactive team, and they will not participate during that season. They cannot be promoted nor relegated. An inactive team is however expected to play during the following season, otherwise they will lose their current divisional spot. A need for a longer inactivity would have to be brought up with the NHLGamer staff and will be handled on a case-by-case basis. To fulfill the inactive status, the team needs to keep at least their captain and one assistant captain, as well as 2 other players (for a total of 4) on the inactive roster – these players are not allowed to participate with another team in said season, where the team is marked as inactive. Special cases where, for example, 6-7 players outside of the captaincy squad cannot play and will stay inactive but the Captain wants to play for another team and still keep the divisional spot will be handled on an individual basis by the staff. If an inactive team is not able to keep the amount of necessary players on the inactive roster (4), they will lose their inactive status and drop to division 3 for the next season. Q: What if teams split up? Who keeps the divisional spot? On NHLGamer, just like in real life, drama is to be expected. Sometimes it even finds its way into individual teams. But if teams split up, who keeps the spot? The staff will look at each individual case but, as a rule of thumb, the captain is considered the owner of the team. If a team has disagreements where, for example, the captain has lost the faith of his teammates and kicked most of them – he will have to explain his case to the staff. If both assistant captains and at least 3 other members that played for the team the season before applies ownership of the team, they will have a strong case to claim the team (however not the name of the team, unless agreed on with the captain). If a team is completely dismantled, they will not keep their spot in the division. Q: What about newly created teams that consist of established ECL players from several different teams? Do they have to start in ECL Amateur? To have highly skilled, established, experienced EASHL players form a new team only to play in ECL Amateur and be unevenly matched with completely new teams goes against what we’re trying to accomplish with this system. That said, we are aiming to create an environment where longevity, stability and consistency are some of the key factors moving forward. What follows is an attempt to balance these mindsets. Let us use a team from this season as an example; Laser HT. Laser, for those of you who don’t know, has been an established franchise in EASHL tournaments for years. Yet, they had not played in either ECL season 1 nor 2, but the players that today form Laser had. Many of them had even been a part of teams that made the finals, even won the tournaments. Now, ECL 3 was not based on divisions but if it had been – like in the future – Laser could have applied for Exceptional Team Status. This term is drawn from the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) where certain special players (lately John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid) have been granted Exceptional Player Status where they were allowed to “skip” one year of waiting to be drafted and were approved to be drafted to the OHL at age 15 instead of age 16. Similarly, new teams can apply for Exceptional Team Status in the ECL where they will be allowed to skip ECL Amateur and start in ECL Pro. At this point, new teams cannot apply directly for ECL Elite as it would undermine the idea of working your way up the divisions and staying there based on ECL results. Anyway, back to Laser. Had Laser applied the Staff would have granted them this status due to a few factors; Longevity and reputation (Several top tournament finishes in their history, always considered a top team when participating) Quality of players (most, if not all, players on the current Laser squad have been leading members and top point producers of teams that finished in the top-4 of both previous tournaments) EASHL 6vs6 ranking (they are ranked in the Top-10 of all European teams) When deciding Exceptional status, there will always be a subjective factor involved but bullet points like the ones in the example above will form the basis of any decision made on whether to grant exceptional status or not. Finally, the term “exceptional status” is there for a reason. These applications will only be granted under very special circumstances. Q: Will there be an ECL Season 5? Will it be played during NHL 17? When will the leagues start for NHL 18? The below are subject to change, but provide an overlook of our plans and what our suggestions are for the upcoming leagues: NHL 17: ECL Season 3 ends by 29.1.2017 ECL Season 4 starts 13.2.2017 and ends 2.4.2017 ECL Season 5 starts 24.4.2017 and ends 18.6.2017 Summer Cup specifics to be determined. (This is a draft-type league) NHL 18: releases 14.9.2017 (estimate) ECL Season 6 starts 16.10.2017 and ends 10.12.2017 ECL Season 7 starts 8.1.2018 and ends 4.3.2018 ECL Season 8 starts 2.4.2018 and ends 27.5.2018 Summer Cup specifics to be determined. (This is a draft-type league) Q: Are you guys out of your minds? This concept/detail x will never work! First of all, this is a proposition that we have set up for the community and we look forward to hearing your feedback. While we have a strong belief in that the plans we propose will be a good step for the community, we don’t blindly believe our plans to be perfect (nor that there is a perfect one-solution-fits-all solution) and we are open to discuss the subject as a whole or the smaller details as long as the discussion and feedback is constructive and respectful. Please elaborate on your own ideas. Verbally attacking the staff, or other community members will not be tolerated and may lead to disciplinary actions. That is all for now. Please feel free to share any and all thoughts you might have in the comment section below. On behalf of the NHLGamer.com Staff,