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NHLGamers, We know you've got that competitive itch and it's time to get the action started! The total of 196 teams signed up shows that we are growing at a rapid pace. The tenth iteration of our longest-running league will be bringing you that high-level competition you've been longing for, but this time we wanted to up the ante - in bringing you a historical 6s prize pool of 15 000 €! This is made possible because of the several steps forward that we've taken in the past few months, but first and foremost due to our cherished partners Ilta-Sanomat Esports & Prisma Gaming. We'll also be seeing an unprecedented number of professional teams present in our league, with the Elite division alone featuring a total of ten teams representing esports organizations as well as traditional sporting associations. Among the newest additions, we have recently welcomed JYP Jyväskylä, SJ Gaming, hREDS, and KOVA Esports, whereas teams such as HAVU Gaming and Farjestad BK have already been sporting their colors for an extended period of time (and done so in successful fashion!). These organizations joining in brings an added level of interest and some existing rivalries to the scene, where for example the Finnish organizations are battling between themselves and our Swedish eSHL teams surely want to be able to call themselves kings of the hill in their own neighborhood. Continuing the tradition that began in ECL 8 when NHLGamer introduced NHL 18 World Champion Erik "I_Eki_I" Tammenpää as the first-ever cover gamer in the NHL 6v6 scene, a torch that was carried further by HAVU Gaming's star goaltender Hannes "Hansulinho" Kettunen in ECL 9, we are proud to present our ECL 10 cover gamer. None other than two-time ECL Elite champion and Linköping HC goaltender, Casper "ICappeI" Lundgren! Meet the ECL 10 cover gamer - Casper @ICappeI Lundgren You're the third ECL cover gamer and in good company at that, what are your thoughts about your selection? I'm proud to have been selected obviously and it's even more special to be the first Swede having the honor. I have tremendous respect for both @Eki and @Hansulinho and think they are the embodiment of sportsmanship, being in this club with those guys feels humbling. Your team Linkoping HC had a rather perfect run over the winter months and you walked away with two trophies to stack your shelf with. How motivated are you to defend that top spot and how does it feel to be the team everyone is gunning for? Yeah, it seemed like everything clicked and we really got our game going so there definitely was no stopping us. We're all competitive people and having established that winning culture makes us want to keep that momentum going, rest assured we will do everything in our power to keep that top spot. I know a lot of teams are out to get us and especially HAVU Gaming must be looking for a rematch after last season's finals. I also see hREDS as a prime candidate in the championship battle and Symphony has looked stronger than ever during the preseason. The COVID-19 pandemic has put the world on halt, but with the absence of traditional sports, that has opened up the opportunity for esports to shine. What are your thoughts on that and what do you think we can do to best utilize that opportunity? It's a shame to not have traditional sports, especially in a time where a majority of leagues would have been in the decisive times and the biggest games of the season would have been starting. With all of these esports orgs and traditional sports clubs joining, this is our chance to develop the NHL gaming scene and the interest around our league. I think the best we as players can do is to stay active on social media, get your Twitter, Twitch or Instagram going and support all the teams and people putting content out there! Check in on each other's broadcasts to get those viewer numbers up. It is up to us as a community to take care of this opportunity and growing the scene. Now is our chance to show all other sports fans how exciting esports really is! ECL Elite Finals and prize pool Due to the COVID-19 situation, the ECL 10 season is currently planned to be played online. The semifinals are played May 25th-28th and the finals on June 4th-5th. More details about the playoffs will be shared closer to the playoffs. The Elite division of the prize pool will be as follows: #1. ECL 10 Elite Champion: 10 000 € #2. ECL 10 Elite Runner-Up: 3 000 € #3.-4. ECL 10 Elite Semifinal losers: 1 000 € *Prizes are subject to tax as per Finnish law and the tax is withheld before payment. Prizes will be paid out within 90 days of the ECL 10 Finals. When? ECL 10 Elite kicks off on Wednesday, April 8th at 20:00 CEST. Our broadcast of the night features heated battles between Unlucky Boys vs JYP Jyväskylä, followed by JYP Jyväskylä and GHETTO FIREBIRDS. Where/how to follow? ECL 10 Elite will see a whole new level of coverage and with traditional sports out of the picture for the time being this is our time to shine. The top division will feature two weekly broadcasts on Mondays and Thursdays at 20:00 CEST with our very own Cody @Tougie24 Tougas and Paul @CynAnderson being the prevalent voices over the course of the season and for those of you that have tuned in for some of our NACL broadcasts, you know that we've been working on the production a lot over the last few months, so you can expect us to have a few tricks up our sleeve. All broadcasts can be seen live at our Twitch-channel, but due to our fresh partnership also now on IS TV and Ruutu.fi. To clarify - while our regular scheduled broadcasts are on Mondays and Thursdays, the season will kick off with a Wednesday broadcast tomorrow, on April 8th at 20:00 CEST! About our main partners Ilta-Sanomat Ilta-Sanomat is Finland's largest digital media measured by unique daily readers. The tabloid is distributed in traditional form, but thrives online, prevailing as one of the main daily news outlets for Finns alike. Prisma Gaming Prisma Gaming is a carefully picked assortment of consoles, computers, and other gaming gear. The selection has been built together with the professionals at HAVU Gaming and can be found in all Prisma locations and online at Prisma.fi. Prisma Gaming wants to support Finnish esports and through the ECL, now also supports esports internationally. About our partners HockeySverige.se Hockeysverige.se is the biggest independent hockey site in Sweden, covering everything from the NHL to women's hockey and E-sport

NHLGamers, ‘Tis the season... the season for world class NHL gaming once again! After an unusually long break for the ECL franchise, we return with a bang as we kick off FOUR divisions this season. Yes, you read that right, this season we’re introducing ECL Neo into our framework. The newcomer will be exactly that - a division for new NHL gamers to get adjusted to playing in a league and the requirements that it has on a team and its players. See it as an incubator for future potential. ECL Neo will also be suitable for players who want to play games at a less stressful pace as this division only has two suggested weekly game days. Alongside Neo, we will run Lite, Pro and Elite as usual. If you don't know what I'm talking about by now, here's a briefing of what ECL is; ECL is a competitive EA Sports NHL League. Games are played in the EASHL game mode in a 6vs6 manner. Since ECL 4, we have implemented a divisions framework with Lite (and now also Neo) being entry level, Pro being our mid-level and Elite holding the best 16 teams in Europe. A season in each division consists of a group stage/regular season and playoffs. Here is the planned divisions structure for ECL 9: ECL Elite: 16 teams Sign up: ECL Elite eligible teams Gamedays: Monday, Wednesday & Thursday Regular season: One group Playoffs: 8 teams Best-of-7 7 days per round ECL Pro: 32 teams Sign up: ECL Pro eligible teams Gamedays: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday Regular season: Two groups Playoffs: 16 teams Best-of-7 8 days per round ECL Lite: 48-64 teams (TBC) Sign up: Anyone can apply for ECL Lite Teams will be decided by Franchise history, Roster composition and EASHL record ECL Lite registrants are also allowed to apply for a spot in ECL Pro Teams signing up for ECL Lite that don't make it into ECL Pro or ECL Lite will be automatically placed in ECL Neo Gamedays: Tuesday, Wednesday & Sunday Regular season: Four groups Playoffs: 32 teams Best-of-7 8 days per round ECL Neo: 32+ teams Sign up: Without restrictions Gamedays: Wednesday & Sunday Regular season: Four groups Playoffs: 16 teams Best-of-5 7 days per round Basic information/requirements of ECL: Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players. 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL Challenge Club game mode in NHL 20. Individual requirements: Each player needs to have an account at NHLGamer.com and create their personal player card. Roster requirements: Teams in ECL Elite need to have at least 7 players to sign up. Teams in ECL Pro, ECL Lite and ECL Neo need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players. ECL Elite license: Teams in ECL Elite will be required to pay for an ECL Elite license in order to play (more details to follow). Rules: The ECL 9 ruleset will follow the same foundation as in season 8. We will fine-tune the rules a little bit, but more information is to follow. Meanwhile, you can find the ECL 8 rules here. Meet the Cover Gamer of ECL 9: Hannes "Hansulinho" Kettunen Hansulinho is well-known for his all-round abilities and success in the NHL-series. In the 6vs6 mode, he's stopping pucks. Photo credit: SEUL ry / Arttu Kokkonen Having started a tradition of featuring cover gamers last season with Erik @Eki Tammenpää, we needed to bring equal heat this season. With that being said, we are extremely happy to announce that the second ever ECL cover gamer is one of the pioneers in this community. We are happy to have multiple Finnish 1vs1 champion, FCL Champion, ECL Champion, NHL GWC Finalist and overall nice guy Hannes @Hansulinho Kettunen serving as the ECL 9 cover gamer. His team HAVU Gaming managed to win the ECL 8 title at LanTrek under their old name Written In The Stars, after which the veteran gamer went on to make an appearance in the NHL GWC Finals in Las Vegas together with friend and occasional rival Eki and finally capping off NHL 19 with a Finnish FCL title in the crease for his HAVU Gaming. Hansu is a true veteran of the sport and rightfully so has been selected to be featured as our cover gamer. “It’s an honor, I guess it means I’ve done things right and I’ll continue trying to set an example in the future too.” says the man himself about the selection. Broadcasts ECL 9 Elite will be regularly broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel. Broadcasts will feature miscellaneous talent, such as fan favourite caster Arttu @OLVARI Hämäläinen along with other familiar faces, such as Adam @esdor Ericson, Joonas @SUPERVIRTA Virta and Jani @Janikka Tuominen. Be sure to follow our channel at twitch.tv/NHLGamer. ECL Elite Finals and prize pool The ECL 9 season is planned to culminate in a final event in Finland in early January (currently penciled in on Saturday the 11th - to be confirmed). All the details of this event are not finalized and will have to be confirmed at a later stage. At this event the two best ECL Elite teams will clash for the most respected title in 6vs6 NHL gaming and a share of the total prize pool of 5000€. The Elite division of the prize pool will be as follows: #1. ECL 9 Elite Champion: 3500€ #2. ECL 9 Elite Runner-Up: 1000€ #3.-4. ECL 9 Elite Semifinal losers: 250€ *Prizes are subject to tax as per Finnish law and the tax is withheld before payment. Prizes will be paid out within 90 days of the ECL 9 Finals. When? ECL Elite will kick off already next week, while the other divisions will have some more time to sign up for this season: ECL 9 Elite will kick off on Wednesday, 13th of November, signups end on Saturday 9th of November 23:59 CET ECL 9 Pro will kick off on Monday, 18th of November, signups end on Friday 15th of November 23:59 CET ECL 9 Lite will kick off on Tuesday, 19th of November, signups end on Friday 15th of November 23:59 CET ECL 9 Neo will kick off on Wednesday, 20th of November, signups end on Friday 15th of November 23:59 CET Where to sign up? Sign up for ECL 9 Elite here Sign up for ECL 9 Pro here Sign up for ECL 9 Lite here Sign up for ECL 9 Neo here Please note: If you are currently in negotiations with an organization and have plans to change your team name, but are uncertain if you will make it until the start of the season, please contact @Kenu with this information as soon as possible. If you are a free agent looking to be picked up, please head over here. If you are representing a team looking for players, please head over here. What can I do to help out? If you feel like you want to do more for the project, head over to this article for some examples on what sort of staff we are looking for and where to get in touch. As for the small things everyone can do, follow our different channels and spread the positive word of our community and your fellow players and teams - together we can make a difference! NHLGamer on Facebook NHLGamer on Twitch NHLGamer on Instagram NHLGamer on Twitter Hopefully that covers most of the questions you might have. Without further ado: Welcome to the ECL!

Hey NHL Gamers, We hope you're as excited as we are about talking about the plans for divisions, which will be introduced in ECL Season 4. We will be releasing a news story tomorrow - Monday the 5th of December, at 21 CET - where we cover our proposed division system in as much detail and covering as many of the frequently asked questions as possible. Can't wait to let the cat out of the bag and get your feedback about our future plans. Until then - good luck on the ice! On behalf of the NHLGamer.com staff,

Hey NHLGamers, Be sure to check out our big ECL 3 Twitch live stream tonight (October 9th) at 22 FIN/21 SWE time! Our charming website owners KenuFHR and Lurkins will host the stream - announcing the groups, presenting the tournament structure and above all, providing some quality entertainment. The tournament is starting tomorrow (check out the Welcome to ECL 3-post here) so be sure to check out the stream tonight to know all the details before you start setting up games tomorrow. This is the link, be there in two hours time; NHLGamer Official Twitch Channel