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ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Few teams hold the distinction that Written in the Stars are able to claim; playing in all ECL Elite seasons and making the playoffs throughout is certainly an impressive feat. Despite this continued regular season success, Written has run into some quite serendipitous matchups in the playoffs. In ECL 4 they faltered to Dynasty who would go on to make the finals and lose to Laser HT. ECL 5 was an improvement as they dispatched Dynasty in the 1st round, however they came unstuck against SJK (previously Laser HT) who went on to make the finals and lose to Aapon Taikasauva in a five game series. In both of these seasons Written finished in 4th place, so when they punched their ticket to the ECL 6 playoffs with a nigh on perfect record of 27-2-1 (30GP), it was beginning to look like it was finally ‘their’ year. However, fate is rarely so simple. After quashing Northern Stars’ run in convincing fashion in the 1st round, Written moved on and was knocked out by, you guessed it, the eventual runner up Northern Ascendancy. IN: Dominointi <-- SJK eSports VesKuLiNe <-- SJK eSports Hansulinho <-- SJK eSports willekunq <-- Red Machine topikeranen <-- Evolution Bugimir <-- Military service OUT: ADETIKKI --> Symphony joukki13 --> Radical eissi83 --> Butterfly Effect Totalii --> Radical Current Roster: Forwards Dominointi (A) @Dominointi FlyerKungen (C) @FlyerKungen Bugimir @Bugimir topikeranen @topikeranen Defensemen jtorro1234 (A) @jtorro1233 willekunq @willekunq JOHTAJAVIRTANEN @JOHTAJAVIRTANEN VesKuLiNe @VesKuLiNe Goaltenders JANURI98 @JanneK. Hansulinho @Hansulinho With this is mind we’ll segue into our short but sweet interview with @FlyerKungen: With such great regular season showings but post-season results that perhaps leave little to be desired, what changes have you made over this past off-season in an attempt to hopefully propel your team deeper into the playoffs, and what were the motives behind said moves? After a disappointing playoffs, we didn't have any plans to change things too much. When ADETIKKI made an early decision to leave us, we were forced to start looking for a new center. After hearing a rumor about the SJK eSports "re-building" thing, I immediately asked Dominointi if he is leaving SJK eSports and maybe interested to join us, and he was. He wanted me to start playing the center position, so he can play right wing for the first time in his career and it was a fine deal for me. That's why I played Summer Cup 3 as a center. Our next thing was when Bugimir called me and said, "My Army is almost over, I want to play Hockey again!". He has played here for ECL 3 & 5 and he is my good friend so that's why I wanted to take him back. Last four signings, VesKuLiNe, Hansulinho, willekunq and topikeranen wanted to join here after seeing our current team and we know all these guys very well from the past and each of them are great teammates. We also agreed that a bigger amount of players could be better for us now. In continuation of the last question, are you done tooling with the team now or are you still looking for some extra pieces? Our team is now ready for the ECL 7 and we are not looking for players anymore. With all of this in mind, what are your expectations for the upcoming season? And who do you think are the current favourites to win it all? The Elite division seems to be tougher than never before. So many potential and skilled teams. Battle between playoff-spots will be fun to watch and it's very hard to predict which eight teams will be playing in playoffs. It's also hard to say who is the favourite to win it all but at least FILADELPHIA, Symphony & Dynasty will be tough teams to beat if you face them in playoffs. Thanks for your answers FlyerKungen, good luck with the starting season! You can follow Written In The Stars during the ECL Elite season and live at the eSM finals 3.11. at GameXpo. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: (Links to each team article) 1. Written In The Stars 2. FILADELPHIA 3. Radical 4. Symphony 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. Butterfly Effect 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty So, NHLGamers.. The Elite season is on it's way and we've counted down to the very start with this 16 in 16 series! What do you think about the season that is around the corner? Who will be the top scorer? Who prevails as the champion? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more amazing action to come!

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. The second to last part of our 16 in 16 focuses on a young team with experienced players who can be considered as some of the best in the business. This team is certainly one of the strongest contenders in ECL 7 Elite. It’s going to be the first Elite season for the team, but the players are no strangers to top tier competition. FILADELPHIA was created by @Patzlaf before the start of ECL 6, where they took a part in our Pro division. The team was then considered a new "super-team", as it was formed out of established and very skilled players, much alike what Patzlaf had done earlier with Carlsberg HC. FILADELPHIA had a dominant showing in the regular season, and were surely favourites going into the playoffs too, however they ended up hitting a brick wall called Monarchs in a 7-game final series. FILA had a large player turnover after last season, but they made some of the biggest acquisitions of the offseason, signing not two, not three but FOUR ECL 6 Elite champions and young prodigy @PleeMaker. IN Zande95 <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) PleeMaker <-- Gotham Knights Finkonna <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) Vatalisti <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) Janzuh <-- Radical (Ex Carlsberg HC) OUT Swagx88 --> Gotham Knights Hazard-laser --> Saints xDoumi --> Radical (ex Carlsberg HC) VsVs_58 --> Free Agent ac_tiska --> Free Agent Current Roster: Forwards Patzlaf (C) @Patzlaf I_Eki_I (A) @Eki PleeMaker @PleeMaker mikaasi @mikaasi FIN_Potilas @FIN_Potilas Defensemen vatalisti @vatalisti Janzuh @Janzuh oGBioLan @oGBioLan Goaltenders FinKonna (A) @FinKonna Zande95 @sibeelius I managed to get a hold of assistant captain @Eki for a short interview, the guy also known as "goat" kept it short and sweet: What are your expectations going into the 7th season of ECL competition? We expect nothing but to win ECL 7 Elite. Do you guys have one player you'd like to showcase as a potential difference maker? Yes, we have couple of them, but I think @vatalisti is going to be a game changing player. He is the best D-man in the game. Would you like to share your thoughts on the ECL Elite License? It´s a step in the right direction. Who would you say are the favorites to take home ECL 7 Elite? FILADELPHIA. Who's the hidden gem in your team? Patzlaf's new internet. Thank you for the interview Eki and good luck in the upcoming season season. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. FILADELPHIA 3. Radical 4. Symphony 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. Butterfly Effect 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Stay tuned for our 16 in 16 about the predicted #1 team of ECL 7 Elite, Written In The Stars! The article will be released over the weekend.

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. As we all know by now, ECL 6 Pro-winning Monarchs decided to call it quits after a tough offseason. The team decided to join forces with the Elite established Sjukstugan. This put the NHLGamer League Administration in a tough spot and we were forced to promote a new team, which based on ECL 6 Pro playoff wins is Butterfly Effect. The team formerly known as Red Machine have made some big changes to their roster over the summer, with only 3 members left from last season. Butterfly Effect has a rather successful ECL history already, as they won ECL Lite in their first campaign in ECL 5, after which they experienced a tough 2nd round exit in ECL 6 against the eventual Pro champions Monarchs, who we already briefly introduced in this article. With some of the new signings @Vilupoika, @After8 (will_yo7), @eissi83 (do I even need to go on!?) they will have a strong season ahead of them. A negative was losing some of their key players but on the other hand adding Elite quality and a cool new logo and name will make up for that. IN Vilupoika <-- Carlsberg HC (Now Radical) will_yo7 <-- Unlucky Boys HC eissi83 <-- Written In The Stars Nassustelija <-- Shameful Knights Crisu_Rottis <-- Evolution OUT erholtzi --> Gotham Knights Mommi --> Wasps Gaming kojowaa --> Wasps Gaming willekunq --> Written In The Stars JaKurrii --> Wasps Gaming Chafak --> Almost Famous Stylez-Hades --> Free Agent Current roster: Forwards jergelii (C) @Jere Jortama RutonMosse (A) @RutonMosse Vilupoika @Vilupoika Defensemen Nassustelija (A) @Nassustelija will_yo @After8 Crisu_Rottis @Crisu_rottis Goaltenders eissi83 @eissi83 Roisto999 @Roisto999 I managed to have a short chat with captain @Jere Jortama: As a (very) fresh face in the upcoming Elite season how have you approached this past offseason? I.e. What were the main areas that you felt needed addressing after your last season in Pro? We hoped all offseason long that we can get that elite spot, our team had a lot of changes in the roster leading up to this season. We wanted to get more active players in our team, since our roster last season didn't show the level of activity I desired. Our team has been grinding daily ever since NHL 19 was dropped. In continuation of the last question, are you done tooling with the team now or are you still looking for some extra pieces? We made some good acquisitions and our roster is now ready for what ECL7 throws our way. With all of this in mind, what are your expectations for the upcoming season? And who do you think are the current favourites to win it all? Our expectations for the upcoming season are pretty high, I think that our team will surprise a lot of teams on the ice. I think Written In The Stars is a viable candidate to win ECL and if I had to name another one it's definitely FILADELPHIA. Thanks for the quick chat jergelii and good luck in your inaugural Elite season! ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. Radical 4. Symphony 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. Butterfly Effect 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Only two ways left we can go! Who will be #1?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. It seems like quite a few Elite teams have experienced a larger type of overhaul this offseason, right? Remains to be seen if that will affect the power rankings at all when the season starts. So far, the captain vote has been rather predictable, and next in our 16 in 16 series that has now been slightly prolonged - we're taking a look at a team that's been known to finish close to the top of the standings, they've also made some drastic changes over the summer, they're former Carlsberg HC now turned Radical. Radical, led by scoring powerhouse @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_), experienced some devastating losses in the early summer as arguably the best defensive pairing in the game @Janzuh - @vatalisti headed to FILADELPHIA and scoring winger @Vilupoika joined Butterfly Effect. Admirably, Radical didn't rest on their laurels and got right to action. They made some high level acquisitions and the team includes some interesting comebacks, so they're surely a team to watch out for once the season gets going. IN Joukki13 <-- Written In The Stars xDoumi <-- FILADELPHIA F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_ <-- Break from NHL s_W1ld_Rus <-- Break from NHL Juizki <-- Evolution MAYZIIX <-- Arctic OUT Vilupoika --> Butterfly Effect vatalisti --> FILADELPHIA Janzuh --> FILADELPHIA Zande95 --> FILADELPHIA FinKonna --> FILADELPHIA Current roster: Forwards KingOfApes_ (C) @Tuukka.R Joukki13 (A) @Joukki Penatski (A) @Penatski Defensemen xDoumi @xDoumi Terasniska @Pontus T F-B-I__A_N-D-Y_ @Andy90 MAYZIIX @MAYZIIX Goaltenders s_W1ld_Rus @s_w1ld_rus Juizki @Juizki Interview with captain @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_) We've heard a lot of criticism about the new game, mostly the tuners and patches have got quite a negative reception. What do you guys think? The game was brilliant before the patch, although the poke check was completely useless. I think the patch broke the game, though. I'm very much against taking away the toolbox for individual skill and domination on the ice. This year it seems like everyone has the chance to play a winning type of hockey. Worst NHL ever. Alike many other Elite teams, Radical has experienced a well.. radical player turnover over the summer. At times there were speculation if the team will even continue. With this in mind, how has the team been able to prepare for ECL 7? To be honest, the preparation hasn't been easy at all. First of all it wasn't even easy to put together a team after we had so many players jump ship after the season. We were close to calling it quits a few times, but now as we've managed to establish a core group again, it's been easier. Radical experienced some significant losses (see: @Vilupoika and @vatalisti to name a few) during the summer. What kind of acquisitions have you made to make up for your losses? How will the roster changes affect your style of play for the upcoming season? Well, in reality you can't talk about 'making up for our losses'. We lost the best d-pairing in the game and a top scoring left wing. How do we come back from that? Luckily we managed to get players like @Joukki, @xDoumi and @Andy90 (F-B-I__A-N-D-Y_) so I think our future is bright! What kind of thoughts do you have about the ECL Elite license? Definitely positive. Personally, I think it will increase interest towards the league. I'd like to extend a special thanks to @FlyerKungen for firing up the discussion! ❤️ We've got about a month of NHL19 behind us now, who's been yout toughest opponent so far? Why? Frankly, almost every game has been like an ECL Final game 7. The new game has evened out the skill gap so much, it doesn't really matter who you're facing right now. It's going to be a difficult season. Let's finish off with a short one, who do you think will be the top scorer of ECL Elite this season? @PleeMaker surely has the skill set and strong linemates to win. Thanks Ape, good luck with the upcoming season! ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. Radical 4. Symphony 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Only two teams left to choose from, which way do you think it'll go?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. New name, new roster, new style, new captain… you get the picture. After winning ECL 4 there were perhaps mumblings about how likely Laser HT would be able to repeat such a feat, especially considering the quite frankly preposterous numbers that @Dominointi was able to put up (94pts in the regular season and 39pts in 17 for the playoffs). Obviously, there was some truth to the speculation as they made the finals for a second straight season but could only manage to win one game against a very dominant Aapon Taikasauva. They then went on to whimper out in 5 games to Dynasty in the first round of ECL 6. These lacklustre results paved the way for an exodus of players from SJK over the summer, leaving but 5 players behind. After the dust had settled, @indi969, @ICappeI, @Ilmari_30, @Selarit and @Lauri were faced with the daunting task of putting together a team that, at the very least, could compete in Elite. As such, unlike a lot of teams in Elite this season, Symphony has a quite uncommonly high player turnover, so with that in mind to help us gain an understanding of who has joined and left the team, we have contacted their captain indi969 and new addition @vSilenttio to give us a snapshot of how they are coming along in their preparation for ECL 7. IN ADETIKKI <-- Written In The Stars Puantso <-- Dynasty Tbnantti <-- Northern Stars Entii112 <-- Nordic Stars nylanderi <-- Break from NHL vsilenttio <-- SIKA OUT Dominointi --> Written In The Stars Hansulinho --> Written In The Stars VesKuLiNe --> Written In The Stars OriginalPumaz --> Dynasty Leksa94 --> Dynasty Current roster: Forwards ADETIKKI @ADETIKKI indi969 (C) @indi969 Puantso (A) @Buantso tbnantti @tbnantti Defensemen vSilenttio @vSilenttio nylanderi @nylanderi Ilmari_30 @Ilmari_30 Entii112 @entii112 Selarit @Selarit Goaltenders ICappeI (A) @ICappeI Laurilion @Lauri As the “old but new” team in elite (with plenty of top tier elite talent to boot) how are you approaching your debut season and what was the logic behind your offseason moves? @indi969: I think we have a really good team at the moment, consisting of lots of old SJK players and lots of new guys also. I think we can go really far in this next tournament. In continuation of the last question, are you done tooling with the team now or are you still looking for some extra pieces? If you are indeed finalised, what will your starting line-up look like? @indi969: At the moment, I'm not 100% sure are we done yet and i don't know about the starting lineup. It'll remain to be seen! With all of this in mind, what are your expectations for the upcoming season? And who do you think are the current favourites to win it all? @indi969: There are many good teams in Elite this year, i think its gonna be harder than ever to win this next tournament. We are of course trying to do it. For favourites it's too lame to say your own team so I'm gonna go with Written In The Stars Symphony had probably the largest player turnover in Elite this offseason, surely many players knew each other from before, but how have the guys started gelling and building chemistry? As a new guy, how easy was it to join the team? @vSilenttio: I joined the team in April, so there's been some time to get to know the guys. We've been working on our chemistry hard all summer, you know, defensive positioning and all that stuff. I'll be blunt and say that it was a bit tough coming into a totally new team where the game speed and overall expected level of play was at a totally new level. However now as things have started rolling, I'd say I haven't had this much fun with this game since maybe NHL 14 and ECL 3. I'd like to extend a massive thanks to the team captains for making it so easy for the new guys to join the team! You're making your first strides on the Elite ice after quite a while this season, for the first time in a team with somewhat high expectations. What kind of thoughts does that bring to mind and how do you expect Symphony to handle this season? @vSilenttio: That's something I've thought about myself too. What kind of impact am I going to be able to make after a few seasons spent in Pro, and I didn't really play as much as I've wanted during NHL 18. At least the expectations are very different than ever before, and the IS Cup has started very well, so mine are high too. In the ECL, our only goal is the championship. Every guy is zoned in and gives a 100% every night, the work ethic and the morale within the team is what I've always wanted, so I'm sensing good things. Thanks indi & Sile for your answers and good luck with the upcoming season! ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. Symphony 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty What do you guys think the top 3 will look like?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Today we're taking a look at a team that has the skill, has the grit and has the vision to take it all home, they just haven't had the luck so far. The team that's next in line has found the way to stay at the top and be continuously successful, but despite that they haven't managed to win anything yet. You could say they've built a Dynasty around core players like@jumalpeku, @Snapster, @Tehh and @Sandr0hh. Might have given it away already, but yeah.. we'll be checking out Dynasty. Personally, I've been in the scene for a far shorter time than many of you other guys around, but I've always found Dynasty to be an annoyingly good opponent. Be it unorthodox breakout plays by @DieCutterMC or seeing the game ten steps ahead of the opposition like the tactician Ahola - they've always been one of the toughest teams to beat. They're not only really skilled players, but also seem like a great group of guys. I managed to get a hold of captain jumalpeku for an interview, which you can read at the end of this article. IN MukiMaisteri <-- Northern Ascendancy OriginalPumaz <-- SJK eSports Leksa94 <-- SJK eSports OUT Lukkolinho --> Break from NHL Puantso --> Symphony Current Roster: Forwards jumalpeku (C) @jumalpeku MukiMaisteri @hpkfani Filariou @Filariou Leksa94 @Leksa94 TehhAhola @Tehh Defensemen DieCutterMC @DieCutterMC Snapu48 (A) @Snapster JParola @Jorma Parola Goaltenders Sandr0hhh (A) @Sandr0hh OriginalPumaz @Hiiruh Dynasty has been a difficult opponent based on some occasional games played against you guys on the offseason. How did the guys spend the summer and what kind of reception has the new game had among the Dynasty boys? Your mind must be playing tricks on you! I'd say we're possibly the worst offseason team in all of Elite. I don't think we've had a single night where we've won two or more games in a row. Most of our guys pretty much took the summer off from NHLGaming. Other teams might have kept practicing hard all summer, our guys were out chasing tail and gassing beers. The new game has taken some getting used to. Feels like we've had to adjust our game a bit after every update as things we used to do didn't work all of a sudden. I think it's quite well known that we like to spend time in the penalty box and ath least that hasn't changed for the better with the new game. However, I think we all agree that NHL19 is a better version than the previous iteration. You guys acquired notorious goal-scorer MukiMaisteri early on, did you guys make any other moves during the summer? Our youngster @Buantso made a deal with @indi969 at his confirmation camp last summer, so we decided to honor their contract and ended up letting Puantso go. MukiMaisteri was acquired to fill the gap left by Puantso and I believe we hit the jackpot on this one. Luukkonen is probably the best goal scorer in the game, he's also a very competitive and vocal teammate. Exactly what we needed. Other acquisitions we made were @Leksa94 and OriginalPumaz @Hiiruh. Leksa is an excellent all-rounder in the offensive end of the ice, he will certainly see some ECL time if he can hop off Fortnite every once in a while. @Lukkoukko(Lukkolinho) decided to take a step back so we needed another goaltender. That's where OriginalPumaz stepped in and we're happy to have such an experienced and trustworthy guy behind our defenders. I think we still have the best goalie tandem in the league. How do you guys feel about the ECL Elite license? Of course we're happy about it. To start off, we were wondering if we're going to be active enough for it to pay off for us. However, I think this might have been the incentive needed for us to start taking it more seriously and get excited again. The license fee isn't bad and the return is decent, I'd surely like to have that in my wallet. We're moving in the right direction and props to @Kenu & the rest of the staff for that. Several sources have mentioned ECL Elite being tougher than ever this season. Which teams have been your toughest opponents and who do you think has potential for a surprise? SIKA is probably the only team we haven't managed to win in the preseason so I'd call them our toughest opponent. It's no joke, the SIKA roster right now seems so much better than before. I think they could also provide one of the potential upsets this season. Finally, are there any players in the league you would like to highlight for the upcoming season? Not on our team, that's for sure. I'd say keep your eyes on @vSilenttio. Thanks jumalpeku! Good luck for Dynasty with the upcoming season. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. Dynasty 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty The options are running out! Who do you think is number four?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Salute, gamers! Riddle me this: I am partly Scandinavian, Nordic and Western European while not actually being any of them entirely. I'm old but young, well respected but not the most liked one, very successful but still slightly underrated. What I am? The lads in Northern Ascendancy got to stamp another finale performance on their resume as they fought their way to the ECL 6 finals last spring. After a strong regular season (19-5-6) NOR showed why they've been at the top for so many seasons now. On the first round of the playoffs they faced the hungry Elite debutants in Unlucky Boys. UB led the series a few times as they won the first two games, and after couple more games they were so close beating NOR as UB had the matchball in Game 6. However, "Because it's the Cup" - MukiMaisteri scored the game winning goal 38 seconds before overtime and the game ended 1-0 for NOR. He didn't stop there as the veteran winger scored four goals in Game 7 and NOR went ahead to the second round to face the big bad regular season champions, Written in the Stars. Four one goal games, three overtimes, 37,5 minutes time on attack for the losing side and 25,5 minutes for the winning team. NOR surprised most of the community by beating "Written" 4-1 in games. There's some Ascendance for you. In the ECL 6 finals NOR faced Carlsberg HC and couldn't repeat their trick, as CAR dominated the finals with a game result of 4-1. We saw three tight one goal games and only 14 goals combined in the whole series so hats off for both teams - it wasn't walk in the park to win the championship even though the numbers might tell a different story. IN s_a_k_i_s95 <-- Break from NHL OUT MukiMaisteri --> Dynasty Current roster: Forwards Anrh17 @anrh17 MartindalexC (C) @MartindalexC Foppatofflan (A) @Foppatofflan s_a_k_i_s95 @jeppiz18 x27ScottieN27x @ScottieN27 Defensemen eyebiz @eyebiz Haldeem @Haldeem Goaltenders Poliskontroll @poliskontroll The one and only British captain of our NHL gaming scene continues in his role as he leads his ship towards the ECL Elite finals once again. What does the Englishman @MartindalexC think about his team & their future? With another season and long a playoff run behind - how does life and the new game taste for Northern Ascendancy? To me it looks like you guys have continued with your usual strategy - being annoyingly good in two way hockey. Hmm, where should I start? I suppose the game is probably a good one to tackle first. Especially since, well, truth be told we think the game is pretty much complete and utter garbage, although that hasn’t exactly been a secret of ours. Just the way that games can easily be decided on random drops that evade a bunch of people really rubs us the wrong way. Regarding strategy though we’re still rolling with old faithful so to speak, although compared to years past we are seeing more time on attack which is something we’re not exactly accustomed to shall we say? So, we’ll just have to see how that dynamic plays out. As a veteran member of our NHL gaming scene, how do you see "the new era" after playing tons of games in the old gen era? Licenses are being paid, new teams and players are becoming more familiar to the scene - you know, lots of stuff has changed and evolved - what do you think about all this? Honestly, I’m mostly ambivalent to it all. I suppose the idea of making money off of playing this game is exceptionally enticing to some people but for the most part I play this game because I like it, despite all of its faults, plus lord knows I’ve got nothing else to do :joy:. In addition to this, you could say I have a pretty pessimistic view of this game ever becoming an ‘esport’ (see here for evidence #204505317: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVRZxEhBJFg) and that kind of feeds into my ambivalence, or even vice versa. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to support Kenu and the site as best I can but I’m not gonna push the boat out so to speak. By the way, where did Martindale's career start from? It's been a joyfyl ride for sure! I'm a little fuzzy on the precise date but I think it was the very start of NHL 13 when NOR was 'founded' officially under that banner. Before that me, Poliskontroll, Juizki and Tacklecontrol played mostly 4s in NHL 12 under a different team name, and prior to that it was just me and Polis in NHL 11 under, yet again, a different name. In terms of tournaments I've played in 8 across both NHLGamer and Consolehockey under NOR, with 1 season where the team was named Unknown (but the franchise underneath remained the same I guess). What kind of checklist did you set for this summer? Is there any new fresh blood in NOR, or was there any lazy employees so to speak to get rid of in order to make your team an even scarier cup contender for ECL7? Is it corny to say that we wanted to get better (who doesn’t after all)? As for acquisitions, the team is practically the same except for -Mukimaisteri, although hopefully there’s a decent chance we’ll be adding someone to the roster, perhaps before this article even comes out. Regarding making the team an “even scarier cup contender” I believe that self-reflection is more important than blind faith, and I personally feel that we went to the finals last year because a couple key players amped up their game at critical times, for instance Poliskontroll really exhibited how good of a goalie he is when we played Written and Carlsberg, meanwhile Eyebiz played nigh on flawlessly when he came in mid-way through the Unlucky Boys series. Having players that can elevate their game is perhaps a consistent element that all winning teams have in their repertoire, however getting hot at the right time does not mean you can replicate it without fail, so we’ve been trying to get back to our basics and strengthen them, so that we don’t have to rely on players getting ‘hot’ to win. What Elite teams have been the most fun to face so far - and the word "fun" here can mean anything between easy to hard - you decide! I suppose Dynasty have been involved in some of the more entertaining games that we’ve played but apart from that I’m not sure. Our games against Written have been a tad underwhelming but it’s ‘fun’ playing a team with an abundance of skill since you know you’ll truly be tested, I know for instance that Flyerkungen has completely decimated me in faceoffs every time I’ve gone against him. I'd like to ask the same question that NOS was asked in their 16 in 16 - How much do you guys have left in the tank? For example, one of the best players of all time, Foppatofflan, is surely not getting any younger! I think, like most things, it’s a matter of perception and how you approach things. It’s easy to dismiss others skill as luck, or their emergence as your downfall. Me personally? I feel I can be better and perhaps that I should be since if we (NOR) want to win we’ll need a full team playing well, as I don’t think it’s possible nowadays for a player to ‘hard carry’ a team like you could on old gen. Besides, at the end of the day it’s not like I’m 50 years old, I’m maybe not going to pick things up as quickly or as easily as I could 7 years ago but as far as I’m concerned it should barely be a discernible difference since your brain doesn’t just start degrading once you’re past 20, 30, or even 40 years of age. In summary though, if we keep putting in hours each and every game and learn from any mistakes, then I feel (barring anything major) that there’s no real reason to expect a rapid decrease in skill. Huge thanks for your extensive answers, MartindalexC! See you on the ice and good luck on another long playoff push to NOR! ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. _______________ 6. Northern Ascendancy 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty We've got only five teams left to pick from for the next article.. Who would you think is going to finish 5th?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Sjukstugan, Carlsberg (now Radical), Kattiautomaatti, Silver Sword Griffins, Unlucky Boys, Evolution, Falun Coal Miners, Pata Hellalla, Monarchs, Filadelphia, Almost Famous, White Trash (now Team Frosty), Rusty Blades, Nordic Stars, & Gotham Knights. What do all of these teams have in common? The more astute of those reading will undoubtedly already know, but for those not always keeping up to date with the to-and-fros of Elite, the list details each and every team that has been promoted to the highest division over the past three seasons. Of said teams only five have remained in Elite after their initial inclusion, four have made the playoffs at least once, and only one has progressed past the first round and won the division title. What this shows is the true difference in skill between Pro and Elite, and that getting promoted does not mean that you can rest on your laurels or that your job as a captain or as a team is done, as in order to stay up and be competitive every game you need to constantly improve and identify areas that need practice. Sjukstugan is a team that perfectly embodies this concept due to their consistent results. As such, to hopefully key us in on how Sjukstugan are approaching their third season in Elite we would like to introduce 112s captain @Bjono who has answered some questions for us at the end of this article, enjoy! IN I-Maise-I <-- Break from NHL Tacterz <-- Monarchs Edhoolm97 <-- Monarchs PajenC32 <-- Monarchs juniorzalaz <-- Monarchs IFKPEKING2k15 <-- Monarchs OUT Patovic_ --> Stories will be told, banners will be raised - a legend retires JaikenK --> N/A Nampa77 --> Almost Famous Current Roster: Forwards IbjonoI @Bjono PajenC32 @pajenc Tacterz @Tacterz juniorzalaz @Zalaz Edhoolm97 @Edhoolm97 Norpee @Norpee Defensemen Klingen45 @Klingen45 Gustafsson7 @Gustafsson7 I-Maise-I Goaltenders I-Pippo-I @Pippo IFKPEKING2k15 @IsakTuvesson Hullued @Hullued Since joining Elite two seasons ago Sjukstugan has been on a slow, but nevertheless upward trend, moving up from 11th in ECL 5 to a very respectable 6th place finish in ECL 6. Do you feel like your team can reach loftier heights for the upcoming ECL 7 and if so, how have you gone about trying to achieve it? We can absolutely do it better but we need to be patience and give this new game some time. And also give time to play all New players in to the team. But the team is more motivated than we have been for a long time. We are also delighted that we have l-Maise-l back and motivated for this game. Also it warms my heart that JAIKEN is back at home. *Jaiken has since left the team. In continuation of the last question, are you done tooling with the team now or are you still looking for some extra pieces? If you are indeed finalised, what will your starting line-up look like? Time will show, but as you know we've made quite a few acquisitions and I believe all of our players are capable of handling responsibilities at the Elite level. There will be some rotation for sure. Make a guess With all of this in mind, what are your expectations for the upcoming season? And who do you think are the current favourites to win it all? Our expectations this season is to get to know the game and make it to the semi finals, from there on we just hope for the best :) Really hard to say anything at the moment because it's still such a new and different game than the previous one. We haven't even played half of the teams yet so it's hard to say anything about who would be favourites, but The SKY People in Written In The Stars have looked really dangerous. Thanks Bjono and have a nice one! Good luck for the upcoming season! 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. _______________ 6. _______________ 7. Sjukstugan 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Starting tomorrow, we'll be getting into the real top teams, votes were very tight among the top contenders and come the season, anyone could take the title. Can you guess who's next? (HINT: They're not Finnish)

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. What's up my NHL gaming friends and foes? This time in our 16 in 16, we're talking about Swedes - those beautiful, blonde haired people who seem to be talented at everything they do. You know, they're almost like Finns but instead of being grumpy, anti-social, pale and generally weird - Swedes are happy, social and tanned people who are mostly easy to like. Does that sound even close to Northern Stars - perhaps the most victorious Swedish EASHL club in history? At least for me they have always been easy to like - and even though I haven't heard anyone else than their captain talk out loud during the last eight years, they surely seem like happy bunch of good guys! Their ECL 6 was solid once again as they fought their way to the playoffs after an intense battle between them (8th with 35pts) and Evolution (9th with 30pts). While NOS ended their regular season with the record of 5-3-2 (12pts), Evolution failed to challenge NOS for the 8th spot as they ended their ECL 6 with the record of 3-5-2 (8pts). The problem is, when you enter the Elite playoffs from the last possible place, you will more likely than not meet the best team of the regular season and that's what Written In The Stars undisputedly were after losing only three games in a 30-game regular season. Written knocked out NOS from the playoffs after beating them 4-1 in a series where every game except the fifth were one goal games. However, another NHL game is here once again and ECL Elite seems to get tougher season after season. This entails more work for the "old guys" in a team alike the Northern Stars. IN KattenJansson <-- Quality MZK-Trophyhunter <-- Quality ma0niii <-- "retirement" mullweiser <-- Break from NHL OUT Tbnantti --> Symphony MajLeN-Gaming --> N/A Kibenibe --> N/A Current roster: Forwards cHIIMEERa (C) @cHIIMEERa Floor17 (A) @Floor17 KattenJansson97 @KattenJansson97 mullweiser @Mullweiser Defensemen ma0niii (A) @ma0niii Rullstolskalas_ @Rullstolskalas Goaltenders MZK-Trophyhunter @Mike Zigan I_BUM3R_I @BUM3R *Correct PSN of #92 at right defenseman is ma0niii. I had the pleasure of interviewing captain & founder @cHIIMEERa: As one of the oldest ECL teams out there, how have the Northern Stars prepared for the upcoming ECL7? With the amount of games under your belt you must be taking it a bit easier than most guys out there - have you been playing at all during the last months? At least I've seen some shiny logos being made by you! You are right, we took the summer off. I think it has to do with for how long we have been playing together. Back in the days, like in NHL 09-11, I'm pretty sure we were still going strong well into the summer months, but the motivation to grind games in the off season is not there anymore. As long as we are putting in the hours when the new game drops I don't think we'll put ourselves at a disadvantage by being inactive during the summer. I'd say your roster has remained very close to unchanged, right? Is that the secret behind the everlasting success of the Northern Stars? I believe it's a long lost skill to gel with guys and keep grinding together for more than just a couple of months. I think there are many different reasons why the team has mostly remained the same all these years. The two strongest reasons have to be our prior success on the Xbox 360 and our Swedish nationality. As some people know, Northern Stars won a bunch of EHL titles on the 360. As we haven't been able to win anything on the PS4 yet, I guess we're still hoping to win one more title with this team. Also with the community having an abundance of Finnish teams I would say it's easier for the Finns make roster changes and create new teams left and right. We are doing some changes to our roster compared to the previous ECL. Antti (@tbnantti) left the team and @KattenJansson97 replaces him. With Antti being as skilled as he his, it's obviously hard to replace him with a player with same skill set, but Katten is offensively talented and we are happy that he wanted to join the team. With the release of NHL 19 we have been working hard to find set plays in the offensive zone so we can repeatedly and continuously get to the dangerous areas. At this moment it's looking promising and we are optimistically looking forward to ECL 7. On the defensive side of things, @kibenibe decided that he wanted to go back to being a forward in a new team, which resulted in the RD-spot being open and @ma0niii making a comeback. No real explanation needed here. People that have been in the scene for a while definitely know who ma0niii is. Goalie-wise we are seeing some changes. Törna aka @MajLeN-Gaming/Mr Magic (who the F knows what his PSN is, honestly) has moved overseas and we brought back Mike aka MZK-Trophyhunter (@Mike Zigan). We have experimented with @Floor17 on center and @cHIIMEERa on the right flank in EASHL. That doesn't mean that we are planning on doing that in ECL, but don't be surprised if that is the outcome. Whatever works best in EASHL the upcoming weeks will determine our starting roster. It's also worth noting is that thanks to EA we haven't been able to use @BUM3R at all due to the dressing room errors, but we plan on using both Bumer and Mike in ECL. It's been a few years since you guys won the European championship the last time. I'm gonna be blunt and ask how much do you think there's left in you? Is it already time for those "one more year" chants inside your team or do you still see yourself as one of the best contenders for the championship now and for years to come? I slightly touched on the subject above, but to dive a bit deeper I think that if we were to win ECL 7 I wouldn't be surprised to see us call it quits, once and for all. That is sort of keeping us going. The motivation to win another European championship. It has been a great run, but at this moment we are taking it a tournament at a time. We don't have any long term goals so it's hard to predict the future of our team. Who knows, maybe Northern Stars don't play in ECL 8? Maybe we are still chasing that title two years from now? Lastly - who do you see as the biggest threats for you this season due to their style of play - are those the same teams that could be the biggest championship contenders this season as well? What advice would you give to teams that might struggle this season? Because of the dressing room errors we haven't been able play many of the ECL Elite teams yet so it's hard to say who will be competing for the ECL 7 title. All we can do is look at the rosters and their past accomplishments. A safe assumption is that the best teams from NHL 18 will be just as good this year. All we can say is that ECL Elite is only getting tougher for each iteration. There are no bad teams and that is going to make the standings real interesting. As for any team that might be running into a slump mid-season, I would say that at least give yourself the chance to win the game. Play tight defense and put the puck on net. It may sound cliché, but it works to some extent - even in Elite. It's been a pleasure and huge thanks to cHIIMEERa for the extensive answers and insight of a veteran player. Good luck for the upcoming season to the team! ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. _______________ 6. _______________ 7. _______________ 8. Northern Stars 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Tomorrow we'll take a look at another Swedish team, who made a lot of changes during the offseason. We're excited to share it with you, can you guess who's up?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. In the third part of our 16 in 16 series we are going to take a look at a team that's been along for quite a while already. During the three seasons of ECL divisions, this team has already suffered one relegation and had the joy of one promotion. You could say it's been a rollercoaster. The team under our close investigative eye is Gotham Knights. Gotham Knights hasn't always been around as it is currently. The team started off as Refuse To Lose when EASHL made the transition to the new gen consoles in NHL 16. Refuse To Lose competed without any mentionable accomplishments until the summer of 2017, when @ReDMisTi, and @Kefleri decided to join forces and create Gotham Knights as we know it. ReDMisTi brought @Hanssonni and @MKivinen95 with him from RTL and the team recruited some new faces to bolster their ranks. Since the beginning, Gotham has wanted to prove that they can compete at the Elite level. It's something that will be even more of a theme now in NHL 19, as the team goes into their first consecutive season at the top tier. IN Nieppii <-- Sypperstaars erholtzi <-- Red Machine swagx88 <-- FILADELPHIA OUT PleeMaker --> FILADELPHIA Serg1vratar --> Free Agent ktewjh --> Rusty Blades jyrkkis_ --> Team Frosty EemilK02 --> Raccoon Rampage Sweaty__99 --> Unlucky Boys Current roster: Forwards ReDMisTi (C) @ReDMisTi Kefleri @Kefleri Hanssonni (A) @Hanssonni Puteli88 @puteli88 Defensemen Mkivinen95 @MKivinen95 Nieppii @Nieppii Goaltenders swagx88 @swagx88 erholtzi @Erholtzi After this introduction of the team, I'd like to get into some questions to team captain and former teammate of mine, @ReDMisTi: What are your expectations going into the 7th season of ECL competition? Our expectations are that we can play a good season. We're trying to keep the playing level high and minimizing the amount of bad days. Staying in Elite is an absolute minimum, but reaching the playoffs is our goal. Do you guys have one player you'd like to showcase as a potential difference maker? I can’t name just one key player, we will play as a team and therefore every player is a big part of our success. Would you like to share your thoughts on the ECL Elite License? I guess the idea is good for sure. Remains to be seen who will pay up and who won't. Can you talk a little bit about the moves Gotham made during the summer? We had a few players leave, and a few players joined so it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of impact the transfers have on our game and the league. I guess we still play the same kind of hockey we did last season. Who would you say are the favorites to take home ECL 7 Elite? FILADELPHIA has easily been our toughest opponent for now, I’m surprised if they are not in finals. Do you have a "Hidden Gem" in your team? Yes, @Nieppii is one of the best versus players in Europe and now he wants to be one of the best 6vs6 defensemen too. We're talking about a really skilled player and he can easily become one of the best D's after a bunch of training and facing the worlds best players in ECL Elite. Are you going to play offensive or defensive hockey? Hard question, a good defense is the key for sure, so we want to defend hard but at the same time keep the puck as much as possible. We don't want to be just a counter attack team. We're staying versatile, so I'd say we're 50/50. Thank you for your interview and good luck with the new season! Ranked to finish 13th by our ECL Elite captains and making a comeback to the Elite level, we'll have an exciting one for you guys tomorrow. You'll be given the pleasure of seeing two long-time NHLGamers having a chat about the upcoming season and the return of a dearly missed writer. Check back tomorrow evening for more of the goodness we've called ECL Elite 16 in 16!

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Perhaps one of the more non-descript teams in Elite, Unlucky Boys HC are rare in that they do not seem to do anything fancy or step on anyone’s toes, instead they just go about and do their thing without making much of a racket so to speak. Do not dismiss their quiet nature as weakness however, as they harbour a team that perhaps works together more efficiently than any other team in Elite. This is exhibited quite nicely by their results in Pro and Elite over the years that they have been active. In ECL 4 (Pro) they finished mid table in a strong group which Carlsberg, Sjukstugan & Rusty Blades all called home before they moved up to Elite. In ECL 5 (Pro) UB upped their play after not clinching promotion to Elite in the previous season and stamped their ticket to the playoffs with a very strong 52pts in 30 games; ultimately achieving automatic promotion to Elite for the next season. Finally, in a rare feat for newly promoted team, they made the playoffs in Elite (ECL 6) and even went to a game 7 before ultimately falling to Northern Ascendancy. Throughout all of these seasons their captain @anhel_kuru was in and around the top point scorer for his team. With no signs of slowing down being seen throughout their roster one can only imagine what the ceiling is for Unlucky Boys HC, so with that in mind then we’ll switch over to the interview part of this report and see what thoughts their captain has about their run to elite, as well as what the future holds for them. IN Crimson_XX <-- TIKI TALK Sweaty__99 <-- Gotham Knights Viltzup <-- Club de Caballeros OUT Will_yo7 --> Butterfly Effect Ramboviking88 --> Monarchs/Free Agent Current roster: Forwards Anhel_Kuru (C) @Anhel Crimson_xX @Crimson re_Wenger (A) @Wenger Sweaty__99 @Sweaty__99 jm__98__ @JimBoo Defensemen Jugeh_ (A) @Jugeh_ Friilander @Frilander Goaltenders Danielcadabra @Danielcadabra Viltzup @Viltzup I had a short discussion with team captain @Anhel about the upcoming season for Unlucky Boys: As one of the new additions to Elite last year you captained the team towards a very successful debut season, not only making the playoffs but pushing the eventual ECL 6 runner up to 7 games. With that in mind, how did you approach this off-season, namely how were you looking to improve the roster to push your team further in the upcoming season’s playoffs? (For simplicity sake could you list all transactions for the team this past off-season?) Firstly we believe that playing with the same roster gives a better chance to be succesful. So keeping that in mind, we tried to make as few transactions as possible. Obviously there were going to be some new faces on our roster and I'm happy about our off-season. Overall we tried to get more depth on our squad and I'm confident that we made the right moves. In continuation of the last question, are you done tooling with the team now or are you still looking for some extra pieces? If you are indeed finalised, what will your starting line-up look like? We are still looking for a backup goalie and a all-rounder but our first lineup is quite clear currently. With all of this in mind, what are your expectations for the upcoming season? And who do you think are the current favourites to win it all? Our only goal is to qualify for playoffs and I'm confident in reaching it. Imo Elite is now much tighter and the mid-table placements are impossible to predict. We believe Filadelphia is the strongest team and are going to win it all. Thanks for your answers Anhel, see you on the ice and good luck to UB for the upcoming season. ECL Elite 16 in 16 so far: 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________ 5. _______________ 6. _______________ 7. _______________ 8. _______________ 9. Unlucky Boys 10. Rusty Blades 11. Almost Famous 12. _____________ (To be released) 13. SIKA 14. Gotham Knights 15. Falun Coal Miners 16. Team Frosty Join us again tomorrow, as we take a look at a very prestigious and traditional club from up north. Who do you think was predicted in place #8?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Hello, gamers! As October is now here, I think it's time for all of us to shake the rust off and get prepared for ECL7. Get it? Rust? Rusty Blades? No? I'll get my coat. Rusty Blades are known as one of the grittiest teams of ECL Elite. Atleast that's how they stepped into the Elite division a few seasons ago in ECL5 when they surprised pretty much everybody by ending the season with a good record of 15-11-4, leaving teams like MUKIMIEHET, Kattiautomaatti, Sjukstugan, Silver Sword Griffins and Nordic Nightmare behind them. The Blades scored only 2.00 goals per game during that season, but still they found their way to the playoffs. Not bad for a debut Elite season. What happened for them in ECL6, though? Were the few overtime losses the difference? The Blades scored a few goals more than they scored in ECL5 and even conceded fewer goals but still, the separation to 8th placed Northern Stars, was seven points. Harsh. Once again, a fact which proves that ECL Elite really is an elite level virtual hockey league. IN ktewjh <--Gotham Knights Migo_boo99 <-- Shameful Knights OUT Kikiukko --> Almost Famous Epelis --> Club One Wuorio --> Tiki Talk Current roster: Forwards Lamsa @Lamsa koojiikoojii (A) @koojiikoojii Migo_boo99 @Migo_boo Defensemen Tanski87 (C) @Tanski87 kinnune @kinnun3 ktewjh @Janikka Goaltenders Supreex (A) @Supreex I managed to snag an interview with team captain & founder @Tanski87 for this piece, let's get to it: Last time Rusty Blades played competitive hockey on NHLGamer was on the 2nd of April, so that's about five months ago. Still from what I've seen and heard it seems like you guys managed to keep practicing all summer long. What has Rusty Blades been doing all this time - any new signings or losses perhaps? Is there any rust left for ECL7 after a long, hard working offseason? We just love to play this video game together. We have a nice group who are fun to play with. That is why we play so much and often. There was a couple of changes during the long offseason. First we lost @Fuhrer Vuorio to Tiki Talk. @epelis kinda took original member Wuorios LW spot during the season and Wuorio thought it was his time to find some new wind. Good luck to Tiki Talk and thanks for your time with us. We later lost the well seasoned Epelis while we tried @imosi on our roster. That didn't work out sadly, but we acquired a talented youngster in @Migo_boo to fill the empty spot. @kikiukko went to Almost Famous to get some more ice time at his main position RD. I'd say NHL19 will probably be the best game in the history for NHL gaming, as the game itself seems a little bit better once again and money will be involved on the highest level as well. How does all this new stuff feel for you guys - NHL19's gameplay and the ECL license? It's really nice that the game is going forward and this community is growing. We've seen a lot of growth with this as some esports organisations have already backed up a few teams and a few individual players have signed legit contracts. Rusty Blades has been known as a hard competing, never waivering team that plays a simple and some might say ugly game. What is your direction from now on - any new game plans? Will the Rusty Blades compete in the upcoming ECL7 playoffs and if so, with what teams? A simple and ugly game does not keep you in Elite. I think we have something more. As a team we are hard as nails and we do not do drama, no matter how hard it gets. We keep it together. This season I believe we will be better than ever. I have high faith in these guys. Thanks for your time Tanski! Hope you can shake off the rust and compete hard this year! Stay tuned for more ECL Elite 16 in 16 later today, as we take a look at a fringe playoff team, who has been fighting it out in Elite for some time now. Can you guess who was predicted to finish next in line?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. Hi there, NHLGamers! Almost Famous is next in line for our 16 in 16 series as the team was voted to finish 11th by the captains in the division. It is their inaugural season in Elite, but despite that, the roster doesn't consist of complete rookies at this level. They have a few players who possess some experience of playing in Elite. One of these is captain @Aze, who I'll have a short discussion with at the end of this article. Almost Famous is quite a young team, as the team only has two seasons under their belt. Despite this, they have already accomplished a great feat, being the first ever ECL team to gain promotion in consecutive seasons, progressing through the divisions framework from Lite to Elite. The team was played it's first season in ECL 4, but didn't start to reach it's form as we know it until ECL 5, when the project aF really took off. MUKIMIEHET (RIP) disbanded and captain Aze took control of the team, which had originally been his brainchild already in the early spring of 2017. Unofficially, the team has maintained their core throughout their short history, as captain @Aze, although seeing things through in MUKIMIEHET still ran things in a background role during their first season in Lite. IN SepiDN <-- Evolution kikiukko <-- Rusty Blades SadaPoika <-- Evolution Chafak <-- Free Agent Nampa77 <-- Sjukstugan OUT DevilFish14 --> Break from NHL Realpulunen --> Etelan Vetelat Rimpe37 --> Gotham Knights Current Roster: Forwards Ikavalko (A) @Ikavalko SadaPoika @SadaPoika Chafak @Chafak Nampa77 @Nampa77 Defensemen AzeStiNE (C) @Aze jahajaha93 (A) @jahajaha93 kikiukko @kikiukko Goaltenders Vaporik @Vaporik SepiDN @SepiDN taiguri9 @kasper.kampe What do you expect from ECL 7? I'm hoping for a lot of tight games during the season. If the preseason is anything to judge from, that is what we'll see too. There's been a number of transfers and several new teams in the division, so it'll be exciting to see who will make the biggest impact. Who would you name as a key player from your team? Well, goalies are never too overrated so I could say our goalie trio @SepiDN, @Vaporik and @kasper.kampe will be the ones we either live by or die by this season. There will be tough games for sure, so you will need a good goalie in order to give you a chance to win everyday. What are your thoughts on the ECL Elite license? I think it's a step in the right direction, so yes, it's brilliant. I don't think it's a sustainable solution as it is but a fine middle-ground for now. Talk a bit about the moves Almost Famous made during the summer and recently. We ended up having quite a lot of turnover as SadaPoika and Nampa77 joined our offense, kikiukko joined our defense and we brought in Elite proven goaltender SepiDN. We needed additions to our offense, depth for defense and a goalie who adds more activity in net and has shown ability to play at the Elite level. They have fit in very well, great players and great guys. Who would you say is a favorite to win it all in ECL 7? FILADELPHIA and Written. Both teams have top versus players in their teams, so it'll be interesting to see which mode they will invest in more, 1v1 or 6v6. I believe FILA made some amazing acquisitions in the offseason and is arguably the strongest team on paper. Written also made some moves and will undoubtedly perform at the top-level as expected. Who'd you say is the "Hidden Gem" in Almost Famous? @Ikavalko is one of the most entertaining players in the scene and has a lot of potential. It'll be nice to see how he will utilise it all and perform in Elite. Thanks Aze for your time and good luck to Almost Famous for the next season! Our second Sunday article will be taking a look at a team that's trying to shake off the rust accumulated over the summer, can you guess who we're talking about?

What's up, gamers? Do you know that feeling when you have missed something you used to do some time ago, but for certain reasons you haven't been doing that thing for a long time. It can be writing articles for NHLGamer, it can be some old hobby, listening to some childhood favourite band or you know - playing virtual hockey on the very highest level in ECL Elite. I happen to know a few guys who can certainly agree with me on this one. I used to be one of them for a long, long time. Can you guess who I'm talking about? SIKA - one of the oldest competitive EASHL teams in Europe is back in ECL Elite! Very few teams can say that they've been out there for almost 10 years, but SIKA is truly one of those teams. Obviously their roster has changed during that long 10-year road but hey - how many teams actually manage to keep their core players and team itself together for that long? They've seen lots of ups and downs, different players, friends and brothers, leagues and tournaments during that long road. Personally, I can say that it takes a lot from you. It was like a family, and to be honest, it still feels like one. *Wiping a tear* In ECL6, SIKA played in the Pro division. Their regular season was solid as they finished with a record of 22-6-1. Arctic was SIKA's first round opponent in a series that SIKA managed to win in six games. In Round 2 they lost a thrilling 7-game battle to White Trash where the winner was decided in overtime after SIKA failed to convert their two powerplays before conceding the season ending goal in double overtime. However, anything can happen in life and due to some off-season transfers and teams disbanding, SIKA managed to find a backdoor entrance to Elite. IN Rankaisija <-- Old Farts MrNipsuli <-- Free Agents OUT imosi1 --> Break from NHL vSilenttio --> Symphony Current Roster: Forwards yrjoo (A) @yrjoo Albatrooss @Albatross Naikou88 @Naikou88 Defensemen MCH_98 (A) @MCH_98 MrNipsuli- @MrNipsuli Rankaisija_ @Ranksu Goaltenders SpiderRoyal (C) @SpiderRoyal RingDaKing30 @Ylijumala Alright, lets get to business. I had the honor of interviewing my long time friend and former teammate - the man, the myth, the old but gold in its true meaning: @SpiderRoyal Shall we start with an easy one - how are you and the lads? What does SIKA think about the new NHL-game? Me and the lads are doing just fine, thanks for asking! Ready to go after a nice warm summer, quality time with our families and a needed break from the hockey scene. We all purchased the pre-order version of the new NHL 19, so we've been grinding the new game from day one and we like the game a lot. Not sure about the new patch, but more games are needed before jumping to conclusions. The game feels fresh, for me at least. Can't wait for the new season to begin! It's been over a year now since SIKA was last seen in ECL Elite. What kind of thoughts does the comeback bring to you personally? Is it time for some changes in the schedules and work ethic maybe? Yes, finally SIKA is back! SIKA in my opinion is an Elite team and finally we're back where we belong. Still I'm haunted by the fact that we got relegated after a season of many disasters, and even more shocked that we couldn't get back up to Elite, as we're always shooting ourselves in the foot in the playoffs. Getting promoted isn't easy even if you have a very solid team. For me personally getting back to Elite is a huge boost, not that I wouldn't be motivated playing in Pro, but playing in the Elite this upcoming season brings an extra flavor to the dish! As the founder of SIKA I'm in it for the ups and the downs. Being on the bright side of things this time makes me very happy and hungry for success. Schedule wise of course we have to play even more and prioritize that 6's is the #1 game mode for us if we want to gain success. Less HUT and FUT, that's for sure We all have pretty similar schedules as to when we can play, so that won't be an issue. The work ethic definitely needs to be stepped up a notch. We are discussing learning our style, studying opponents, how to play in different situations, minimizing the differential between the good day and the bad days...all that comes with when you take a step up in the work ethic aspect of the game. SIKA has seen a lot during the recent years so obviously terms, such as "rebuilding" or "re-tooling" are not new for you. With dozens of seasons and offseasons behind, how did the team do this time around - could you tell me about how well you accomplished your goals set this offseason? The terms "rebuilding" and "re-tooling" aren't new to us at all. That might very well be the reason we fell off our course for the past 2-3 seasons. Too many new faces who weren't loyal after all and not having that solid #1 lineup to go with. The offseason started with a couple of bangs! vSilenttio, our captain and GM, went to play with Symphony. imosi1 retired. So you could say that we were in a little bit of a shock at the beginning of the offseason. Losing two of our full breed SIKA's was a pity, but we understood why they left. Saying that, losing two of our brothers might be actually the best thing that could have happened to us. We all stepped up a lot, everyone got more involved in team matters and the atmosphere is more united and relaxed than maybe ever before. Everyone has their own role now and the workload is spread very evenly. We're all a part of rejuvenating SIKA. Two new signings needed to be done after vSilenttio and imosi1 left. Rankaisija and MrNipsuli- came to the rescue. Rankaisija being a highly skilled veteran defender, "a leader" if you will and MrNipsuli- being something of a "gods gift". Especially MrNipsuli- has surprised us all, not often you find an Elite defender from the 1vs1-scene lingering around among the free agents. I'd also like to shoutout MCH_98 for elevating his game to a totally new level! The growth of MCH_98 skill-wise after vSilenttio left the defense has been mindboggling. The forwards are now locked in their own positions and they get to play their own favorite position. Forwards: Albatrooss, Yrjoo and Naikou88 have all been in SIKA for a while now so they are no strangers to each other. Not forgetting the goalies: Me[insert old guy joke here] and RingDaKing30 sharing the playtime 50-50 and LOCKING UP! So to sum it up: Offseason went way better than expected From there it's easy to jump to one of the most exciting subjects. ECL7, Elite division, it's license and the season in itself. What is SIKA planning to do in the next three months? We aim to get better everyday and show everyone why I earlier stated that SIKA belongs to ECL Elite. SIKA has never been shy to show games to the viewers and we'll stream EASHL and ECL on a daily basis. Everyone can come see us grow as a team and see why we believe in ourselves so much! The license for this upcoming season is huge! This is exactly what we as a community needed and SIKA supports it all the way. Finally, the last burning question - will SIKA play in the ECL7 playoffs? And how do you see the other teams out there - what teams do you see as the biggest championship contenders? Our minimum goal is the playoffs, our dream is to win it all! Why play if you don't believe in yourself?! Of course we are aware of the reality, but there is no reason we can't achieve the biggest price if everything clicks. Also I think almost any team in the Elite can win it all, if everything goes as planned. I'm hopeless optimist I know Soooo many good teams in Elite, but if I had to say top-3 teams and I couldn't name ourselves, I'd say: FILADELPHIA because of Eki "The Champ", PleeMaker (wrap-arounds me to death every year), Zande95... Are you kidding me?! Written in the Stars: Favorite status every year. Now with Dominointi and Hansu... Lord have mercy! Dynasty: Gets better every year! Thanks for your time, SpiderRoyal. Good luck for the upcoming season! Unfortunately we received some sad news coming from the Monarchs camp last night - Monarchs will not be participating in ECL 7, as the team will be folding. Some of the Monarchs players will transfer to Sjukstugan and represent them in ECL 7. More news regarding this once Sjukstugan is up! In tomorrow's ECL Elite 16 in 16, we will be looking at another team that made a rapid climb through the divisional ladder.

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. In the second edition of our 16 in 16 it's time to take a look at a team that's been around from the very start of ECL as we know it. This team is a close-knit group of friends and and even brothers. They are the ones who dug coal together. I'm talking about your favorite Swedish pickaxe wielding warriors - Falun Coal Miners. When it comes to ECL, Falun has pretty much seen it all. The team has battled through hard times in Lite, grinded it out in Pro and proven their skill in Elite. They're still missing one thing, though - a playoff run at the highest level. Now as they're starting their second season in Elite, the Miners are sure hungry for more success. The team has made some promising acquisitions during the offseason, but as we know, the players brought in won't be the strength of Falun - their strength lies in the chemistry built over time. IN BiggestEight <-- Arctic Aschebas4hor <-- EV Duisburg Panserhagen <-- Bucketeers OUT iscojr94 --> Break from NHL IFKPEKING2k15 --> Monarchs minokin --> Sektion K Current roster: Forwards PatzyDrake BiggestEight Pentsaa (A) Berger-I88I Panserhagen Defensemen The_Alpha_Furyan (C) LastMandalorian (A) Meeertz Goaltenders Onecorner95 Aschebas4hor For the interview part, I managed to get a hold of assistant captain and founding member @LastMandalorian. Enjoy the extensive answers and great insight provided by him: Let's start off light. How did the summer treat you guys? You played some NHL with the boys, did you come up with anything else? Summer was good! Personally I was able to enjoy my first paid vacation, so I could really lean back and charge my batteries. As far as team activities goes, FCM actually ended up winning the OEHL tournament early in the summer - our first 6v6 title so far! We also put a lot of hours into FIFA 18 Pro Clubs after the game went on sale during the World Cup. Joining forces with some boys from Synergy Hockey on our created squad "FC Miners", we were able to get some good 11v11 sessions together. Also, some guys from our team that hang out regularly outside of gaming went to Spain together for vacation. I know Falun has a nice background to it and there have been a bunch of brotherly ties and close friendships within the team. Can you give me a condensed version of how the team has grown and what the road has been like to come this far? Well, the Coal Miners were originally founded by me, my brother and a bunch of his classmates from University. We were all studying in Falun - a former mining city - at the time... hence the name. In the early days, only me and my brother had any experience at all from 6v6 league play, but through the years we've all grown to become experienced "veterans". As the level of play, commitment and seriousness has increased, some of the founding members have retired from their lineup spots (which is okay, we all have our own level of dedication) but we've picked up some really good signings along the way to fill out those spots, most of whom we met during the different Summer Cups. But the major part of the team still consists of IRL friends. @PatzyDrake, me, @Meeertz, @iscojr94 and @The_Alpha_Furyan were all there right from the very start, @Onecorner95 - a former bandmate of mine - joined just a few weeks into the first season and last seasons signing, @Berger l88l, is a childhood friend of mine. As we made the transition to the divisions system after ECL 3, Falun started off in ECL Lite, with a less successful season. You weren't a part of the team then, but as a founding member, did you have any concerns that it might be the end of your beloved club? After a tough ECL 3, both me and my brother felt we wanted a new challenge. I remember that specific season was an extra long one and it really took a toll on those of us who handled the captaining - keeping everyone motivated and getting people to every game. Right then and there, I think we were all kind of exhausted and it felt like different levels of dedication amongst the guys had begun to appear - it seemed like we wanted different things out of the game. So, joining Sjukstugan (112) for ECL 4 Pro was a mixture of relieving ourselves of the responsibilities of the captaincy and stepping up to a higher level of competition. Everyone on FCM were very understanding. Me and Alpha were both really, really happy when the guys decided to carry on without us in Lite though, and I know my brother followed most - if not all - of their games through Twitch, filling in as an "assistant coach" of sorts during that season. What was the thought process like when you rejoined FCM after a short stint in Sjukstugan? It was a mixture of me wanting to switch back to the skater position (I spent ECL's 3 and 4 playing goalie) and us finding that passion/energy for doing our own thing again. Reaching the Pro finals with Sjukstugan really energized us to try and do the same thing on our own terms. It also helped motivate us that Falun was, at the time, actually set to fold and not continue for ECL 5 - we had a streak to keep alive! Most of the FCM player group had already signed with other teams closing in on the start of ECL 5, but they didn't need much convincing to come back. It was a genuine feeling of "getting the old band back together". It created a really strong spirit in the team that season in Pro, and I think it is what has helped us get this far. You guys had a difficult start to you first Elite season, as you went on a bit of a losing streak. Did some frustration set in or did you guys know you were going to turn it around? What will you change going into your second season at the top tier? I think the biggest reason for the 1-9-0 losing streak at the start of ECL 6 was the tough schedule: our five first opponents were considered top teams. But I would be lying if I said it didn't affect us. After a solid pre-season (probably our best one so far) I think we considered ourselves to be better than our results ended up showing. So we decided to make changes. Major changes. Core players switched positions, Berger-I88I (a former point-scoring dynamo from the EHL days) was brought in and our upcoming schedule showed teams projected to be more on our level. It worked out! Berger-I88I ended up playing most of the remainder of the season: scoring 13 goals in 14 games. PatzyDrake found another level in his game stepping up as our new #1 centerman and me and my brother could make the most of our chemistry playing together on the main defensive pairing. This year I think we are just overall more prepared for the level of competition. First season was about learning and surviving, this season is about taking the next step. We have high ambitions going in. Lastly, did you guys have any transfers happen in the offseason? In that case, who left and who joined? This offseason has seen quite some movement, especially for us. @minokin left to go back to his old team of IRL friends (Sektion K), backup goalie @IsakTuvesson(IFKPEKING2k15) went back to Monarchs and co-founding member @iscojr94 decided to hang up the skates (at least for now). But we're really excited for the pickups we've made. BiggestEight (@selänne8), a guy me and my brother played with during the EHL, is one of the purest goal scorers in this scene, IMO. He's been in the top tier of goal scoring for the Pro division multiple times and I'm really excited about what he could do at the Elite level - especially since we already built some chemistry together this summer in the OEHL. Other than "Bigi", we've recently brought in a reliable Norwegian all-round player in @Panserhagen from our OEHL finals opponent Bucketeers and an experienced German goaltender in Aschebas4hor (@Asche) - both of whom has fit in nicely with the team. Thanks to the duo @LastMandalorian and @The_Alpha_Furyan for taking the time to answer my questions! Good luck to FCM in the upcoming season, see you out on the ice! Tomorrow we'll be taking a look at another team going into their second consecutive Elite season. It's a team that had a large player turnover this summer, so we'll be in for something exciting and fresh to watch this upcoming ECL season. Can you guess which team is up next?

ECL Elite 16 in 16 is a season preview series we're implementing ahead of ECL 7. The idea was conceived by @chavelski, but due to time constraining the man himself, the project is now being carried out by the rest of our Elite writing team. The series will be released in 16 parts, one article for each team. The teams have been ranked by all team captains, and articles are being released in order from predicted last place finish to predicted champion of ECL 7. The objective of this series is to give an idea to the community of who is representing which team, added by a small insight into the team with an interview of the team captain. We're starting off our 16 in 16 with a team that is new to competing at the highest tier. The team has been battling and establishing themselves in the Pro division for a few seasons now, and after a successful campaign in ECL 6, they managed to gain promotion. I'm of course talking about the former White Trash, now turned Team Frosty as the NHL team signed a deal with an esports organization bearing the same name (We'll address this in a later article, no worries!). This is a squad that has been grinding it out for several seasons now under the lead of captain @Zip player. Some of the men alongside him have changed, but the strive for success has remained relentless. The team didn't get a lot of confidence from the captains, being predicted to place last in Elite at the end of ECL 7. They surely have a steep hill to climb, but if the form they have shown in some of their preseason games continue, I believe these guys could surprise. IN KenuFHR <-- Monte Carlo Obagol <-- Arctic Chaostive <-- Ea Logic xXSinCosTanXx <-- Nordic Stars IiSvampI <-- Monarchs Jyrkkis_ <-- Gotham Knights OUT Kaltsone --> N/A rGinnu --> N/A plymalkin --> N/A pro-m99 --> Military Service Current roster: Forwards ZipPlayer (C) Kaneyh KenuFHR Chaostive Toukoo01 Defensemen TheFakiiR1 (A) jyrkkis_ IiSvampI xXSinCosTanXx Goalies Mehiiss (A) Jahuuu88 Obagol Interview with captain @Zip player: The team experienced something of a makeover during the summer, what are the underlying reasons and how would you describe the Team Frosty we'll see on the opening night of ECL 7? I suppose that statement is true. In my opinion, the main reason is that we advanced to the very highest level in the ECL. When doing so, a team needs to comply with the level of play in the highest tier. Some of our older players are less active nowadays so we decided to take action immediately. The goal was to renew the team while maintaining the old foundation. On the opening night of ECL 7, you'll see a Team Frosty that trusts their process and we hope to bring our very best to the ice each and every night! Talk a bit about the aggressive recruiting process you guys had going during the summer. Was it a conscious decision to try out so many players? We wanted to be vocal and catch the attention of players. We saw a lot of players along the course of the summer and at some point even our own players were confused about the situation as we were constantly bringing in new guys. I'd say it was our conscious decision to try players who were interested and now I think we have a good group of guys put together. How do you expect your starting lineup to look? I'd like to emphasize that we play as a team. I wouldn't want to speculate on the starting lineup yet, but we're going by the principle that the players who can help the team will play and of course activity will be rewarded. Each of our players have different strengths and one of our main objectives were to build a versatile team that can adapt to any situation. ECL 7 will be the first season with an actual prize pool. What are your thoughts on this? I'm really excited about the growth of the community, both in-game and back office developments have been very positive lately. It would certainly be something, if we one day could have anything even close to a professional league. I believe that money will increase the competitiveness, but currently we aren't talking big numbers so no one will be getting rich yet! It is good for the community regardless. For my final question, I'd like to ask you for a prediction of ECL 7 in the eyes of Team Frosty. What do you think? I'm notoriously bad at predictions, but I'll set some objectives for us. Our first and most important objective is surely to maintain our spot in the Elite division. We'll do everything we can to prove that we belong. Our dream is to make the playoffs on our first season. The road will most likely be long and difficult, but we're up for the challenge! Big thanks to ZipPlayer for his short interview and the best of luck to Team Frosty in their first Elite season! Stay tuned for our next article in the series, in which we showcase a team coming from a very different situation, but according to our Elite captains, are fighting for the same positions as Team Frosty!