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NHLGamers, The next championship to be crowned in the 9th iteration of ECL is the most prestigious of them all - Elite. Two teams entered. And once the dust had settled, only one was left standing. We present to you the ECL 9 Elite champions in Linkoping HC. This marks the third title for this franchise, and the second in three seasons - no doubt solidifying them as one of Europe's finest. Linkoping HC 🏆 Group stage record: 27-2-1 (1st) Round 1: vs Symphony (8) 4-2 Semifinals: vs Lulea Hockey (5) 4-0 Finals: vs HAVU Gaming (2) 4-3 GOALIES #72 C. Lundgren @ICappeI DEFENSEMEN #27 A. Loimuvirta @loimmu #40 J. Torro @jtorro1233 #88 J. Virta @SUPERVIRTA FORWARDS #25 E. Tammenpaa @Eki #44 P. Arontie @PleeMaker #86 J. Paatiala @Juunas The finals between HAVU Gaming and Linkoping were 7 incredible games, that no doubt treated the viewers to what NHL EASHL 6s looks like at the highest level. All games were broadcast on the NHLGamer Twitch-channel. @Tougie24 and @Cyn once again blessed us with their presence and put forth a great effort in the commentator booth. If you missed that action, you can watch it again here: Games 1-3: Games 4-7:

NHLGamers, The next championship to be crowned in the 9th iteration of ECL is the second highest tier in our divisional system - Pro. Two magnificent teams faced off in the finals, but only one could call themselves champions at the final buzzer of game 6. We present to you, the ECL 9 Pro champions - Delusion, who had an unstoppable campaign and were only defeated an astounding four times! Delusion will certainly be looking forward to the next season of ECL, as because of their win Delusion are now promoted into the highest division - Elite. Vesa Pompa HC will continue their season with one more matchup - perhaps the most important one of their season, as they will face off against BRAYCE Phantoms in a battle for promotion to Elite. Delusion 🏆 Group stage record: 29-0-1 (1st) Round 1: vs Pata Hellalla (8) 4-0 Quarterfinals: vs Black Horse (8) 4-0 Semifinals: vs GHETTO FIREBIRDS (4) 4-1 Finals: vs Vesa Pompa HC (2) 4-2 GOALIES #98 J. Nobes - @uhNikke DEFENSEMEN #63 Ilmari Töyrylä @iilmarii #82 Janne Nyqvist @Janzuh #93 'N. Svetsjenko' @Prom99 FORWARDS #92 Joakim Nyholm @Joukki #94 Tuukka Röpelinen @Tuukka.R #96 Perttu Kemppainen @Beniittto #97 Santeri Niemi @sannteri The finals between Delusion and Vesa Pompa HC were 6 games of exciting play and a great showcase of the new influx of skill that Elite will surely see in ECL 10. All games were broadcasted at the NHLGamer Twitch-channel. @Tougie24 and @Cyn once again blessed us with their presence and put forth a great effort in the commentator booth. If you missed that action, you can watch it again below:

LA Rulings - December 3rd, 2019 Case 1 (Freddy Mercury Institute vs. Rakish): FMI contacted League Administration about Rakish not responding to communication, nor showing up for their games at the default time. FMI contacted Rakish hours ahead and the captain of Rakish later admitted to making a mistake by not staying on top of the schedule. LA has come to the conclusion that Rakish failed to keep their end of what's considered good communication and as such rule 10.8 would be pertinent to this case. LA has thusly decided to award FMI with WO's from both matches. Case 2 (Virtuoso vs. Kesaloma): Late in the second game (less than a minute remaining in the 3rd) between Virtuoso and Kesaloma, there was a disconnect prior to the center ice faceoff taking place after Kesäloma scored and was only one goal behind. Neither team managed to stop play and the game ended with a CPU player on the ice for the last minute. Virtuoso suggested to Kesaloma to play the game from the start because of the disconnect. Kesaloma didn't agree with that and instead asked League Administration for technical defeats, due to Virtuoso having connection issues earlier in the matchup and Kesaloma suspecting an intentional disconnect when they had good momentum in the game and believed they would tie the game up. LA could not confirm that the disconnect would have been intentional and thus could not give out technical defeats and told Kesaloma to either agree to replay the game or the number of seconds that were remaining at the time of the disconnect. At this point, Virtuoso was reluctant to replay the games though and while LA believes they should honor their own suggestion, LA couldn't force Virtuoso to do so as per the current ruleset. As such, when teams can't agree on how to resolve things, rule 11.11 dictates that games should be continued from the point of the disconnect, thusly LA rules that the two teams shall play out the remainder of the game from where it left off. Additionally, we have now amended rule 11.11 with the following: Case 3 (EBR eSports Official vs. Syntax Error): EBR eSports Official contacted the League Administration about Syntax Error not showing up at the agreed time, instead, they showed up one hour late when they finally realized they were due to play. The issue was caused by miscommunication by the Syntax Error captain. LA has come to the conclusion that both teams agreed to play on Friday 29.11 at 20 CET - as such rule 10.8 would be pertinent to this case. LA has thusly decided to award EBR eSports Official with WO's from both matches. Case 4 (Alliance HT): Alliance HT has been using a player with more than one registered NHLGamer account in multiple games this season (namely, Oo_hazzey_oO / AntiHoma). Additionally, the captain (MAYZIIX) was fully aware of this and still continued to use said player. This is in direct violation of rules 2.4 & 6.1, as shown below. After hearing the explanation for the new account, the whole ordeal seems very unnecessary. Reportedly Oo_hazzey_oO played for Nearbird Fighters in the RCL 5 season and didn't want to use the same account to join Alliance HT in ECL 9, so a new account was created for this purpose. To our knowledge, the player has neither played RCL since joining Alliance HT with the second account and also hasn't played ECL with another account. In other words, had the player just used his regular account to join Alliance HT in the first place - there would be no problem here. The aforementioned circumstance, combined with captain MAYZIIX assuming liability for this situation has been taken into account as a mitigating factor when making the decision. After careful consideration, LA has decided to ban Alliance HTs captain MAYZIIX and Oo_hazzey_oO for the rest of the season (ECL 9 & RCL 5), as well as institute a ban on them being the captain of a team until the end of NHL 20. Furthermore, MAYZIIX will be stepping down from the admin role within the RCL. Additionally, any games involving Oo_hazzey_oO / AntiHoma will remain and not be removed from either respective league. Due to this case, however, LA would like to add the following rule in order to cover scenarios like this in the future: “8.3 Void Games” If a game is played where one (or more) of the players involved was deemed to not be legal, then LA reserves the right to potentially void all games played with the said player(s), and award WOs victories to the non-offending team. The rulebook has been updated with the above-mentioned rule amendments. We would like to remind the ECL Pro teams that the transfer deadline is coming up on Thursday, December 5th. Despite this disappointing news, NHLGamer would like to thank MAYZIIX for all of his hard work with the RCL during the years. We are looking for some new staff members for RCL roles. Good communication skills in English and Russian are important. Please contact @Kenu via private message if you're interested.

Hey NHLGamers, Due to a recent case that LA was tasked with, we have decided to tweak section 14 (transfer regulations) of the rulebook. The amendment reads as follows: "14.11 Transfer Rule Exemption In the event that a player has not played a game in the current ECL season, they are allowed two transfer opportunities, provided that any transfer does not violate the rules outlined in section 14." The rationale behind this addition is so that players who, for whatever reason, have not played any games, are afforded the chance to find another team and play by being able to potentially transfer to a team one more time than they would have previously. The rulebook will now have been updated to show this change, but if you wish to view it directly from here a link will be attached below. ECL 9 Rulebook

NHLGamers, Below is the complete list of the teams participating in our Neo division this season and in which groups they will play. ECL 9 Neo - 4 Groups ECL Neo will be played in four groups consisting of 8-9 teams each. With 2 games against each opponent, this results in a 14-16 game regular season for each team in which the top 4 teams out of every group will go to the playoffs (16 teams in total). Please note that due to Group 1 having an extra team and thus an uneven number of teams, we've added a double-header for most teams in group 1 on Wednesday 27th of November. You are free to move these games to another time in mutual agreement with your opponents - just remember the last day of the regular season is the 15th of December. Group 1: Augsburg Panther Detroit Big Hinks Mustangs Olympia Tanssii TuhtienKansa THE MIGHTY SKUNKS Titan HC United Ryminae Varissuon Toverit Group 2: Bauer Rangers GmbH EIS Force Hockey HC KOROBKA Kuutamokiekko Motherfreakerz Russian Lightning Surte Sisu HC Team HulluPullo Group 3: Bonusambers Dompa Poppers Fat Burritos Fire Knights HC BISONS Seinajoki Noms SUNTRIP Uudenmaan Oilers Group 4: Czechoslovak Legends Eliel Kings HC Kotiin KulmalaHengaus Made in Russia MAD Knogmackers HC Oulunsalon Pallo ZG ICE Tigers Playoffs A total of 16 teams will make the playoffs The top 4 teams from each group will progress to the playoffs Playoff Seeding Group winners are seeded #1-4 Group runners-up #5-8 Teams that finished 3rd #9-12 Teams that finished 4th #13-16 The seeding of the teams within these levels will be decided using the usual tiebreakers, found in the ECL 9 rulebook section 11.3. Season schedule: Regular season: 20.11-15.12 Round 1: 16.-22.12 Quarterfinals: 30.12-5.1 Semifinals: 7.-13.1 Finals: 15.-21.1 Team management tools All teams have been created, the team management tools on the main page have been unlocked for the team captains* (find the Team Tools dropdown in the top right corner of the menu). All players need to be invited to the team rosters ahead of your first game. Please note that all invited players need to accept the invitation (there will be a popup alert on the main page for them) before they show up on the team roster and can start playing! * Some team captains are being fixed in the morning and may currently be displaying legacy information. ** Due to the number of new logos - it may take a while before your logo is updated. Please be patient for a couple of days before asking if you already submitted your logo. Please find the schedule here. Have fun and see you on the ice!

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!

NHLGamers, It's time to kick off the ECL season for our Pro, Lite and Neo divisions this week. With that being on the agenda, there was a need for some promotions for vacant spots in ECL Pro. These vacant spots have been left by teams who have either disbanded or simply not signed up for ECL Pro in ECL 9. After promoting the expected four teams (Oton Letkutemppu, Vesa Pompa, Cheers Hockey & We Kings) at the end of the ECL 8 Lite season, a total of eleven spots were open in the division for this season, out of which two were filled with automatic promotions based on performance in ECL 8 Lite (Quarterfinal losers). The two teams promoted based on these criteria are Prowlers Esports (formerly Prowlers) and Virtual Horizons eSports (formerly Blackdawgs). After that, nine spots remained to be filled. The selection of teams receiving promotions has been made based on team history, previous merits and perception of skill and recent performance. Without further ado, here are your ECL 9 Pro groups (promoted teams in bold): Group 1: Cheers Hockey Children of Ice GHETTO FIREBIRDS HC Wildcard Horror Hockey Me Carvoset Nightmare Nordic Stars Oton Letkutemppu Pata Hellalla Resurrection Shooting Stars Silver Sword Griffins The Syndicate Vesa Pompa HC Virtual Horizons eSports Group 2: Alliance HT Bellizzi Black Horse Cowabunga Hockey Delusion Freddie Mercury Institute Gotham Knights Kaupallinen Yhteistyo Nordic Lightning Prowlers Esports Rakish Reality Check Sandstorm Vaxjo Lakers HC We Kings ZSC Lions The schedule has been generated and games will be ready to begin on the evening of Monday, 17th of November.

Hi, NHLGamers! ECL 9 Elite season is just around the corner and you might have seen there were only 15 sign ups in ECL Elite. There is a need for one extra team in Elite and regarding this matter we leaned towards the rule book. The following rule was used to solve this matter: ”… If after this there are still spots to be filled in Elite, the best two teams from either pool (Elite relegates & Pro quarter-finalists) will play each other. These teams will be seeded based on points during the last season and wins in the most recent playoffs respectively. If, however, there are more spots to be filled than just one, a mini tournament can be announced, if there is enough time for it to be played out in full. In the latter case, League Administration will decide on the method best suited for the time available.” We contacted teams by order and the two best seeded ECL 8 Elite relegated teams (Resurrection and Synergy Hockey) accepted to play for the spot. Next we moved to the ECL 8 Pro quarterfinalists. We contacted the two best seeded teams (Gotham Knights and Mentula SKA), out of which Gotham Knights were up for the challenge, whereas Mentula SKA unfortunately had disbanded. The Next Gen was next in line but they were disbanded as well. The last option was SIKA but they did not respond to our communication. Thus the Wildcard Series will be organized between three teams. Tournament format The Wildcard series will be determined by a best-of-three double elimination tournament: 1) We start with two teams meeting up 2) Winner of that match-up faces the third team 3) Loser of the first matchup faces the loser of the second matchup 4) Winner of the loser matchup faces the winner from matchup 2 5) If the above is won by the undefeated team, it's all over and we have our winner. 6) If the loser in the pair above is a team who only lost for the first time the teams play another BO3. 7) At the latest, we have our winner here. Schedule Sunday 10.11.2019 21:00 CET Synergy Hockey vs Resurrection BO3 2-0 ------------- Monday 11.11.2019 19:30 CET Synergy Hockey vs Gotham Knights BO3 2-1 21:30 CET Losers' finals BO3 Resurrection vs Gotham Knights 0-2 ------------- Tuesday 12.11.2019 20:30 CET Finals Synergy Hockey vs Gotham Knights BO3 22:00 CET The 2nd Final if needed BO3 The first BO3 series between Synergy Hockey and Resurrection was streamed and can be viewed below: