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On Tuesday, April 14th an issue in the NACL was brought to our attention regarding an illegal player on the roster for the Phantom. As accustomed, we gathered information and gave those involved an opportunity to present their side of the story before making a ruling. The issue: Phantoms played games with player @G lR ii M x (from here on out 'Grim') on defense, who is not listed on their NACL roster. Gathering of information When asked about it, Grim responded that he had been on their team all season. The Phantoms captain @Groulxz responded that the website (NHLGamer.com) is bad and does not work. According to the captain, Grim paid his share of the entry fee to team member ‘Heroic Duck’ and reasoned that he should be allowed to play. First, we took a look at the claim that he had been on the roster all season. By looking at the Phantoms roster, you can tell that was not the case. We also checked the team’s original sign-up post where they listed all of their members. Grim was not on this list. This is an important detail, because a week or so ago, the same issue came with player @Mxtayer who was not on the Phantoms roster. At that time, we did, however, find him on the original sign-up post showing the intent of having him on the roster, and we found an expired invitation for him to the team that was never accepted. We chalked it up to a user error due to unfamiliarity with the website, making sure he was added to the roster correctly and let it slide. In a similar situation in the ECL in Europe, the captain would have received a two-game suspension for this mistake. Next, we checked within the team invite history to see if a team invite was ever sent to Grim's account. We also checked Grim's user history to see when he last logged onto his NHLGamer account, thinking maybe he received the invite but never accepted it. These were possibilities that needed to be checked. Upon our research we saw the list of all players that were invited to the Phantoms roster - Grim was not one of the invited players. After checking Grim’s history, we discovered that - aside from the night of the violation - he hadn't logged on since March 2019. The user not logging on for over a year does not align with the claims of an issue with the website. Additionally, had Groulxz sent an invite to Grim (which was already proven false), it is his responsibility as a captain to follow up and remind all players to accept invites and make sure they are on the roster. No signs to support the claim of the website malfunctioning could be found, hence we find the claim false in regards to this case. If something was genuinely wrong with the website invite system, it is the player's/captain's responsibility to inform NHLGamer staff so we can be of assistance and fix any issue as soon as possible. The ruling Based on this evidence we are using rules 4.2, 6.1, 8.1 and 16.5 to assist with our ruling: The ruling is as follows: Both Phantoms vs Vertigo games will be overturned as wins for Vertigo, due to illegal use of player The first game of Phantoms vs 6th Sense will be ruled as a win for 6th Sense, due to illegal use of player The second game of Phantoms vs 6th Sense will be played as soon as possible on a mutually agreed date Player ‘Grim’ is ineligible to play this season as it is past the transfer deadline Phantoms captain ‘Groulxz’ receives a 2 game suspension for neglecting his duties as a captain on more than one occasion. The suspension will be served in the first game against the next opponent + the remaining game against 6th Sense. Failure to complete the season will result in a 12-month captaincy ban for Groulxz Failing to finish the season may impact all team members’ eligibility to participate in future seasons Final word We do not like issuing forfeits as we would always prefer to have everything settled on the ice. That being said the rules regarding roster eligibility were broken and we did not see any effort from the Phantoms captain to get the so-called 'site issue' resolved. We ask that the community respect and learn our rulebook to avoid future issues. Being a captain is demanding and if you haven't been one before, you might not realize that it can be very taxing to build a team, communicate with the 6+ members, agree on game times with the opponents and so on. After all, this is often done in addition to our everyday life. We ask every community member to keep that in mind when your captain asks you for availability or other information; replying is easy - chasing 6+ people isn't always that. We also want to bring up the importance of sharing the workload between the captain and the two assistants. Delegating different tasks is the key to keep things running smoothly and keeping things fun. And even if you're not a captain - why not ask your captain if you could help out with something. The article has been edited: Corrected how the serving of the suspension will be handled in point 5 of the rulings.

Welcome to the North American Championship League! The league will feature some of the best 6v6 teams in North America, hence the very accurate league name. This season of NACL has a $4,000 prize pool and featured an individual team buy-in of $200 USD. Before starting it’s important to give some information on the current structure of the league. There are 15 teams participating in this season, and each week we’ll be publishing a power ranking featuring our top 8 teams going into that week. This week we’ve highlighted some key additions, removals and a particular player to watch. This article was written before the season puck drop, but released just after the first round of action. 1) Entourage Key Additions: @Revv, @l JLP l, @Briere Key Removals: None Week 1, Player to Watch: @JClaus33 Notes: The CapsGaming Showcase Champions! Entourage was able to win the first-ever NHL 6s tournament hosted by an NHL affiliated team. In doing so they take home the top spot on our NACL Pre-Season Power Rankings, despite their championship hangover in S13 of ESHL. Adding backup goalie Revy will give the team some stability if / when @Scheckel29is unable to make games, and adding utilities JLP and Briere will give the team both depth and versatility when needing substitutions during the season. 2) Vertigo Key Additions: None Key Removals: None Week 1, Player to Watch: @P t P 10 Notes: Vertigo has been no joke early on, as they’re off to a hot start in S13 of ESHL and look to carry that success over into NACL this season. This team is a former shell of the team Legacy and is led by both @ScaryJoeyyand @Gwan. Several rostered players were featured in the dramatic overtime of the first-ever Game 25 of the annual CanAm tournament (Gwan and P t P for Team Canada, and @CaLL Me Jakoo, @Soy los 19 and ScaryJoeyy for Team USA). 3) Hidden Potential Key Additions: @YungGren, @r0tes, and @Thibodd Key Removals: @Dings16 Week 1, Player to Watch: @Auggy Notes: Hidden Potential came home from the CapsGaming Showcase, but not as champions. HP got swept in the finals by Entourage in convincing fashion but took an incredible leap forward from S12 ESHL. The core of the team for this tournament remains the same for the most part, with the only change being YungGren replacing Dings. Key members of Resilience (Rotes and newcomer Thibodd) have also joined the roster along with Dangs and Remi to serve as utilities throughout the tournament. 4) Phantoms Key Additions: Second Roster Key Removals: None Week 1, Player to Watch: TBD Phantoms will serve as a combination team consisting of members between The Underdogs and Phantoms. Both teams had great runs in the CapsGaming showcase, and their roster will definitely benefit from being able to pick and choose which lines play each opponent throughout the duration of this tournament. The Phantoms were able to make the final LAN as one of the remaining four teams in the tournament, and The Underdogs were one game shy of reaching themselves. We don’t expect to see many mix and match style lineups, but do look for this team to match opposing teams lineups, and play the ‘hot line’ down the stretch and through playoffs if they make it. 5) Composure Key Additions: @Hart x l79l, @TheCreasePolice (ESHL), and @Trobs Key Removals: @Foote Week 1, Player to Watch: @officialmark07 Composure picked up two of the best free-agent goalies available after a disappointing finish in the CapsGaming Showcase. Adding both JMoney (ESHL) and Hart (ESHL and NACL) added more stability and has created some healthy goalie competition between the pipes. Although early returns have been questionable at best in ESHL - look for both goalies (particularly Hart for NACL) to come into form in the upcoming weeks as the team works through a funk. 6) BBB Key Additions: @Bert, @Bass, @desyd19 and @Foote Key Removals: @Grim Week 1, Player to Watch: @Bones BBB did a great job reuniting with former teammate Bert (FlowMaster Joe). Bert was a key part of the core that won several ESHL championships with BBB in NHL 19. The team also did a great job adding reliable utilities in acquiring forward Bass19, defenseman Desy, and goalie Foote (S12 ESHL winning G). Foote and Perri both played for Composure just a few short months ago, and now both find themselves on BBB sharing the net once again. 7) 6th Sense Key Additions: @TheGreatMP7 , @Vaporize 17 and @Seb TopG (General420) Key Removals: None Week 1, Player to Watch: Vaporize 17 6th Sense has been retooled for success in the upcoming NACL by adding both GreatMP7 (Dahlia) and Vaporize (Infinity). On top of that, they’ve added one of the better free agent goalies in General420, who has already captured an impressive early record of 6-1-1 featuring an 83.3 S% and a GAA of 1.36 in S13 of ESHL. 8) Montage Moment Key Additions: @NugeTV, @OFs, and @Girgss Key Removals: None Week 1, Player to Watch: @Nasher Here we are with the most ambitious pre-season ranking on this whole list! The new image Montage Moment is here, but are they here to stay? Out of the gate with an impressive start of 8-1-1 in S13 of ESHL, this team has already caught many by surprise by splitting a two-game series with Vertigo (NACL: Pre-season Ranked 2nd) and a two-game sweep of Composure (NACL: Pre-season Ranked 5th). Montage Moment made a huge splash this off-season by signing three players with top-end 6s experience, headlined by streamer Nuge. Nuge and Girgs were also teammates in the CapsGaming Showcase as members of Infinity. Did we get the TOP 8 right? How does your ranking look? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Welcome to the North American Championship League - NACL! The North American Championship league is making its long-awaited return and It's time to find out who's the best 6v6 team in North America. There is plenty of reason to get excited for this season of NACL as the same principles seem to apply with NACL as on our European endeavors - great broadcasts, prize pools and the fiercest of competition! We are also excited about our new playoff format, which was well received by the community. Below you will find all the information you need before the tournament. Game mode: 6v6 Console: Xbox One Rules: Download here NACL License: In order to play, the team must purchase the NACL License at $200. Buy the NACL license here. Prize pool: The NACL prize pool will amount to a minimum of $4000*. 1. $2,400 2. $1,200 3-4. $200 *Prize pool is guaranteed at 10+ registered NACL license owners. With the exception of PayPal fees, all of the NACL license costs will be going towards the prize pool. NHLGamer does not take a cut. Schedule & Gamedays: Our schedule will consist of Tuesday and Sunday evenings with our main times being 9-11 pm, however, the "Featured Games" for casting purposes will be from 8-10 pm. Teams will also have the freedom to reschedule games within reason. Every team will face each other in a two-game series alternating home and away. Weekly Broadcasts: One thing NHLGamer takes pride in is our top-notch broadcasts and we aim to have the same standards in the NACL as we do in our European casts. We are looking forward to working with the players to make this possible. The NACL will have a featured stream each week, cast by @Tougie24 and @Cyn. More information to follow. Meet our staff: @APsychicTaco (Support) @DirtyJerrz (Support) @HowtoChel (Support) @Kenu (Admin) @MartindalexC (Writer) @Oohwayy (Support) @TheCreasePolice (League Lead) @WingelsDGC (Writer, Support) *roles are simplified for convenience and aren't limited to the above title Support: While it's totally ok to ask for help on Discord and you might get a quicker reply from fellow community members to some of the simpler questions, when you actually want to get help with an issue from our staff, please contact support. While sending PM's to staff members may be tempting, using our ticketing system is the best way to go. The tentative schedule for what's coming: The sign-ups for the NACL will kick off now and end on March 3rd. The sign-ups are followed by a media week, where everything is set up and we look forward to learning about your team. The season starts on March 10th. The regular season is estimated at 4-6 weeks, followed by BO7 playoffs. The NACL season will begin on March 10th and registrations kick off effective immediately, so please CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP RIGHT NOW! Discord: Our communication with the teams is done through articles on the website and through our Discord server. You can join the NHLGamer Discord server by clicking here. In the NHLGamer Discord, add the NACL Elite role as well as the role for your team to help with league communication. This can be done in the #role-commands-entry channel (see #role-commands-guide for instructions). Last but not least, a very warm welcome to the community! About NHLGamer NHLGamer.com first saw the light of day over a decade ago, somewhere around 2004. What started as a website platform for friends to arrange NHL leagues against each other has since grown exponentially into what is today the largest community for NHL gamers in Europe. In late 2015, NHLGamer launched a new platform for a larger audience by introducing the first-ever European Championship League (ECL) - a league where all the best European NHL gamers create teams and compete against each other in the game mode EASHL (6vs6) for the title of Best EASHL Team in Europe. We took another big step forward by launching the NACL and welcoming North American teams into a league hosted on our site. This launch was also a monumental step in bringing together all the best NHL gamers on one platform. Our new found venture into the North American NHL gaming scene is looking to follow in the footsteps of what we have done with the ECL. While proud of our achievements and the success we've had in creating and maintaining such a great community of talented gamers, we are not done yet. Our long-term goals include growing the community, hosting larger leagues with larger prize pools and working together with organizations at the cutting edge of gaming and esports. Remember to stay up to speed with all our leagues by following our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can find our broadcasts on our Twitch channel.

Hey NHLGamers, In an announcement two weeks ago, we presented the long-awaited return of our North American Championship League. NHLGamer has achieved tremendous success in Europe and we hope to bring the same level of excitement and success for NHL esports to North America. We've been getting a ton of questions about the new season of the NACL. In this article, we aim to answer some of those questions short and sweet. Here we go! Game mode: 6v6 Console: Xbox One Prize Pool: The final prize pool is still under consideration but at this point, we can say it will be at least $4000. The plan is to reward the top 4 teams. NACL License: In order to play, the team must purchase the NACL License at $200. Schedule & Gamedays: Our schedule will consist of Tuesday and Sunday evenings with our main times being 9-11 pm, however, the "Featured Games" for casting purposes will be from 8-10 pm. Teams will also have the freedom to reschedule games within reason. Every team will face each other in a two-game series alternating home and away. The tentative schedule for what's coming: The sign-ups for the NACL will kick off on February 19th and end on March 3rd. The sign-ups are followed by a media week, where everything is set up and we look forward to learning about your team. The season starts March 10th. The regular season is estimated at 4-6 weeks, followed by BO7 playoffs. Expect more information closer to sign-ups. About NHLGamer NHLGamer.com first saw the light of day over a decade ago, somewhere around 2004. What started as a website platform for friends to arrange NHL leagues against each other has since grown exponentially into what is today the largest community for NHL gamers in Europe. In late 2015, NHLGamer launched a new platform for a larger audience by introducing the first-ever European Championship League (ECL) - a league where all the best European NHL gamers create teams and compete against each other in the game mode EASHL (6vs6) for the title of Best EASHL Team in Europe. We took another big step forward by launching the NACL and welcoming North American teams into a league hosted on our site. This launch was also a monumental step in bringing together all the best NHL gamers on one platform. Our new found venture into the North American NHL gaming scene is looking to follow in the footsteps of what we have done with the ECL. While proud of our achievements and the success we've had in creating and maintaining such a great community of talented gamers, we are not done yet. Our long-term goals include growing the community, hosting larger leagues with larger prize pools and working together with organizations at the cutting edge of gaming and esports. Remember to stay up to speed with all our leagues by following our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can find our broadcasts on our Twitch channel.

The North American Championship league is making its long-awaited return. Would you like to help us come back in a big way? We are looking to bring the most exciting competitive format to the community by proposing a major playoff system change. This will be the first of its kind in NHL esports and we are looking for your feedback. With the new season of NACL, we want to make the regular season more meaningful and the playoffs more exciting. Keep reading to learn more about our proposal and what we plan to achieve by doing this. Proposed Playoff System: Challenge System To illustrate the proposed Challenge System, we will use a 16 team league format where 8 teams make the playoffs. However, this system can be adjusted depending on the number of team signups. In traditional playoff formats the 1st seed will play the 8th seed, the 2nd seed will play the 7th seed, and so on. While this format can still produce high quality matchups and excitement, we believe the proposed Challenge System will give teams more incentive to finish the regular season on top and will add a layer of anticipation to the first round of the playoffs. The proposed format will separate the playoff teams into two groups; group 1 will be teams seeded 1-4 and group 2 will be teams seeded 5-8. Example Standings: Team A Team B Team C Team D --------- Team E Team F Team G Team H Group 1 consists of teams A, B, C, and D, while group 2 consists of teams E, F, G, H. How the Challenge System will work: Team A will pick their first round opponent from any team in group 2 (team E, F, G, or H) Team B will then pick from the three remaining teams Team C will then pick from the two remaining teams Team D will match up with the team that wasn’t picked by the top 3 seeds To make this even more exciting, it is our goal to have the selection process broadcasted live on Twitch with one representative from the top three teams. The key benefits of this system: Additional content and added excitement during the first round of the playoffs Potential for new rivalries Completely eliminates any benefit of seed manipulation This new system is a fantastic way to build excitement and hype for a potential series. For starters, there will be a lot of anticipation to know which teams get matched up. There is also potential for drama during the draft: a team can fake out the stream, playfully trash talk their opponent, or present their case why they think they're number one. All of these factors can create an even more intense atmosphere, which will give viewers and the community more reasons to tune into the broadcasts. With this system, anyone who is looking to gain an advantageous first round matchup by intentionally underperforming won’t be able to, as the control of the pairings is in the hands of the top 3 performing teams. The rivalries that build up during the regular season, especially the rivalries that have been building up for years in other leagues, will be put to the test. Will the high seed play it safe? Will they challenge a familiar team to flex in front of an audience? The possibilities! The inspiration for this format comes from the Southern Professional Hockey League which has also inspired rule changes for the NHL. The most recent change being the implementation of 3-on-3 overtime. We are hoping this will bring a fresh, highly competitive format to NHL 6v6 in North America. Let us know how you feel about this new format in the comments section below.

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of NACL Pro (XB1) we are rolling out a recurring segment that has been a feature of our ECL Elite coverage for the past two seasons. To put it simply, this weekly article looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Pro over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will generally end up being a week 'late' so to speak. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Season preview Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 - 1. Code of Conduct (6-0-0) [+2] 2. Heroes (6-0-0) [-1] 3. Epicenter (3-2-0) [+3] 4. Quality Control (4-2-1) [-2] 5. Problematic Esports (3-1-0) [-1] 6. Complex (1-1-2) [+1] 7. GT R (1-3-1) [-2] 8. True North (0-0-4) [+5] 9. Fox Squad (0-0-0) [+1] 10. Kangaroo Court (0-0-6) [-2] Standings timeline That's our power rankings after the third week of action in Xbox NACL Pro! We're looking forward to see which teams can keep their form running and who might be crashing. As always, if you want to see yourself at the top - keep working hard, win some games and check out the standings again next Monday! Until next time, @MartindalexC

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of NACL Pro (XB1) we are rolling out a recurring segment that has been a feature of our ECL Elite coverage for the past two seasons. To put it simply, this weekly article looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Pro over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will generally end up being a week 'late' so to speak. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Season preview Week 1 Week 2 - 1. RAG RATS (7-1-0) [+4] 2. No Limits (3-0-1) [=] 3. Barbajous (4-2-0) [+4] 4. Cross Crease (2-1-0) [-1] 5. Best 4 Business (2-3-1) [=] 6. Br0 Unit (2-3-0) [+2] 7. Prestige Worldwide (2-4-0) [-1] 8. Expect Many Errors (2-3-1) [=] 9. Gr8ness Awaits (0-2-2) [+2] Standings timeline* Due to a bunch of games being deleted and re-uploaded due to stat errors the timeline of the standings will be postponed until next week's article. Until next time! @MartindalexC

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of NACL Pro (XB1) we are rolling out a recurring segment that has been a feature of our ECL Elite coverage for the past two seasons. To put it simply, this weekly article looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Pro over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will generally end up being a week 'late' so to speak. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Season preview Week 1 Week 2 - 1. Heroes (6-0-0) [+2] 2. Quality Control (2-0-0) [+8] 3. Code of Conduct (3-1-0) [-2] 4. Problematic Esports (2-2-1) [+4] 5. GT R (3-2-0) [+1] 6. Epicenter (3-1-0) [-4] 7. Complex (2-1-1) [-3] 8. Kangaroo Court (0-2-0) [-1] 9. Chicago Mafia (0-1-0) [+3] 10. Fox Squad (1-6-0) [+4] 11. PREDATOR (0-4-0) [-6] 12. Chaos Esports (0-0-0) [-3] 13. True North (0-0-0) [-2] Standings timeline* Due to a bunch of games being deleted and re-uploaded due to stat errors the timeline of the standings will be postponed until next week's article. Until next time! @MartindalexC

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of NACL Pro (XB1) we are rolling out a recurring segment that has been a feature of our ECL Elite coverage for the past two seasons. To put it simply, this weekly article looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Pro over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will generally end up being a week 'late' so to speak. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Season preview Week 1 - 1. Code of Conduct (5-0-1) [+2] 2. Epicenter (5-1-0) [-1] 3. Heroes (4-2-0) [+2] 4. Complex (6-2-0) [+2] 5. PREDATOR (3-0-1) [+5] 6. GT R (4-1-1) [+1] 7. Kangaroo Court (2-3-1) [+1] 8. Problematic Esports (4-1-2) [-6] 9. Chaos Esports (2-2-1) [+2] 10. Quality Control (2-3-1) [-6] 11. True North (2-4-2) [-2] 12. Chicago Mafia (2-0-0) [=] 13. NACL 2nd Battalion HC (0-6-0) [=] 14. Fox Squad (0-6-0) [=] Standings timeline That's our power rankings after the first week of action in Xbox NACL Pro! We're looking forward to see which teams can keep their form running and who might be crashing. As always, if you want to see yourself at the top - keep working hard, win some games and check out the standings again next Monday! Until next time, @MartindalexC

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of PS4 NACL Pro we are rolling out a recurring segment that has been a feature of our ECL Elite coverage for the past two seasons. To put it simply, this weekly article looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Pro over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will generally end up being a week 'late' so to speak. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Season preview Week 1 - 1. Best 4 Business (8-0-0) [+1] 2. No Limits (7-0-0) [+2] 3. Cross Crease (5-1-2) [+2] 4. Smell My Cup (3-0-0) [-1] 5. RAG RATS (4-2-0) [+1] 6. Prestige Worldwide (4-2-0) [+1] 7. Barbajous (3-3-0) [-6] 8. Br0 Unit (2-5-0) [=] 9. Elegant Elgins (0-4-0) [+1] 10. Expect Many Errors (0-6-1) [-1] 11. Gr8ness Awaits (0-10-0) [=] Standings timeline That's our power rankings after the first week of action in PS4 NACL Pro! We're looking forward to see which teams can keep their form running and who might be crashing. As always, if you want to see yourself at the top - keep working hard, win some games and check out the standings again next Monday! Until next time, @MartindalexC

NHLGamers, Welcome one and all to the opening season of NACL on PS4! Almost a month has passed since we first announced the NACL league structure as a whole, and thanks to the interest of the 11 teams below, we were able to extend the NACL to PS4, as well as the XB1. As NHLGamer up to this point has been almost entirely EU based, we were somewhat at a loss in regards as to what to say about the players and teams taking part in this league. As such, prior to this season starting we asked all teams to submit a prediction of how the table will shape up, once all the games have been played in the regular season. So, without further ado, here is your NACL PS4 season prediction: 1. Barbajous 2. Best 4 Business 3. Smell my cup 4. No limits 5. Cross Crease 6. RAG RATS 7. Prestige Worldwide 8. Br0 Unit 9. Expect Many Errors 10. Elegant Elgins 11. Gr8ness Awaits Of course, these type of predictions tend to fall into irrelevancy as the season goes on, with many teams going on hot streaks, and many falling by the wayside in the attempt to win it all. Despite this, we hope that this rather brief breakdown of NACL PS4 gives you a good enough idea of who the favourites are going into the season! As always, we wish all teams the best of luck and we hope to provide the high quality league experience that NHLGamer is associated with. Anyway, now that the formalities and boring stuff are out of the way we can get down to the important stuff - so in other words, let the games begin! NACL Writer, @MartindalexC

NHLGamers, It's been almost a month since we announced the NACL, and finally we have arrived at the doorstep of the inaugural season of what we hope will be as successful of a ride we've had with the ECL in Europe. The signup phase is over and after a short break in order to get everything set up the time has come to play. For NACL Pro on Xbox, we have a total of 14 teams participating. Due to all of the teams being new on our site and a majority of NHLGamer staff being EU based, we have very limited knowledge about participating teams so far. For that reason, we reached out to the players and asked each team to submit a prediction of the final standings for NACL Pro. Based on all of these predictions, we've generated a prediction ranking: 1. Epicenter 2. Problematic eSports 3. Code of Conduct 4. Quality Control 5. Heroes 6. Complex 7. GT R 8. Kangaroo Court 9. True North 10. PREDATOR 11. Chaos Esports 12. Chicago Mafia 13. NACL 2nd Battalion HC 14. Fox Squad As we've seen over and over. Predictions don't always mean much when it's all said and done, but we hope that this ranking will give you guys a snapshot into what we can expect from these teams. We're very excited to have so many teams participating in the Pro division and look forward to delivering the high quality league experience NHLGamer is associated with. As it is now, our knowledge of these teams is limited, but as the action takes off and we get to see some games, we'll be able to provide better and more detailed reports and previews about the ups and downs this upcoming season. Let's get the hockey underway! Your NHLGamer Editor, @jahajaha93

NHLGamers, Almost two weeks ago, we announced our venture into the North American NHL gaming scene and we received a warm welcome! Registrations have come along nicely, but there's still some space both in our Elite and Pro divisions. The Elite division is aimed at teams who are looking to play at a highly competitive level and fight for the prize pool of $3000*. The Pro division on the other hand is aimed for teams that are looking to introduce themselves into more competitive play and enter the world of 6vs6 leagues. An excerpt from our NACL announcement: We're really excited to have two as experienced guys as @Scheckel29 and @TheCreasePolice running our league. They will provide lots of knowledge and will work together with existing pieces in the NHLGamer staff in order to bring our new NA players an excellent first season to build upon and strive for bigger things. In order to kickstart the NACL 1 season, I got in touch with @Scheckel29 for a short interview: Please introduce yourself to the community My name is Scheckel29, most commonly known by my last name Scheckel or Scheck. I am one of the original players of EASHL. I fell in love with the game mode in NHL 09 and haven't looked back. I have been around the competitive community since then and mostly play goalie, although my secret that I can actually play forward decently well was let out of the bag recently in another league. I am the current goalie for Entourage, a new team, but filled with players that have been around the scene for a few years and have won some money leagues in the past. I was born and raised in Wisconsin and proud to be a cheesehead! Currently getting my masters, my full time job has me working lots of weekends and starting up NACL is really all I have time to do besides playing video games in my free time. What do you expect from the first season of NACL? I hope we have a good amount of familiar top NA teams that can put on a competitive season. I hope we can have some great broadcasts to show NHLGamer and the world, that 6s can be very entertaining. Also would like to see a successful PSN league as there really isn't much out there for PS players on the competitive side in North America. A successful season is one with few forfeits and lots of great games! Any team/players to look out for especially? I may be biased but I think our team (Entourage) is definitely one to look out for. In another league we have been playing well and should make the playoffs. If we keep riding this streak we are on, I think we will do very well in the NACL. We definitely have our eyes set on being crowned NACL champs in season 1. I see some newer teams sign up as well (Next Question and Natty Light Knightz) and this should be a real test to see how they compete in more traditional season format. It is exciting to see new teams try to compete against the best. Anyway, I think we have some of the best teams signed up right now and some more should be signing up soon. Any greetings for new fans of the league or players coming across a stream or the site for the first time? Welcome to NHLGamer! They have been doing amazing things for the 6s scene in Europe and I am extremely excited to be working with them on NACL. If everything goes to plan, we should have some fantastic broadcasts and some really great games of NHL being played. I look forward to continuing to help 6s esports grow in North America with NHLGamer! Keep your eyes wide open, as we'll be bringing you some prime NACL action on our Twitch channel very soon! Yet again, welcome to NHLGamer, North America. Your NHLGamer Editor, @jahajaha93 * The $3000 (USD) prize pool is confirmed when NACL Elite has 16+ participating teams.

Hello All, NHLGamer has had many requests to provide a league for our fellow North Americans and we are very excited to announce our newest league, the North American Championship League (NACL)! We will be modeling a majority of the NACL after our very successful European Championship League (ECL), which is now in its 8th season. Our main objective with adding the NACL is to be able to attract competitive 6s players from around the world and have them interact all on one site, creating the biggest competitive 6s scene in the world! We are very excited about this new opportunity and happy to have @Scheckel29 (USA), along with @TheCreasePolice (USA), leading the way for the NACL. They have experience in running other 6s leagues and will bring a wealth of knowledge to NHLGamer, using their experience combined with ours to help the NACL in the right direction. NHLGamer’s goal for the first season is to provide an Elite and Pro division for the North American players on the Xbox console. The Elite division will have the best NA teams competing for a monetary prize consisting of buy-ins ($200) from the teams, while our Pro division will be a free division, where teams will have the chance to compete for promotion spots to play in the Elite division. There will be promotions and relegations between the two divisions. The sizes of both divisions will be determined by the total amount of teams that sign up. The NACL Elite prize pool will amount to a total of $3000. NHLGamer will be withholding 8% of each buy-in as a handling fee. This 8% will be used for the development and running of the site directly. The prize pool of $3000 will be divided as follows:* 1. $1,800 2. $800 3-4. $200 NACL will begin its first season on March 11th and registrations kick off effective immediately, so please head over to: NACL Elite registrations - Xbox One NACL Pro registrations - Xbox One We are also looking at how much interest there is for a PS4 NACL. Please head to the below link for us to gauge if a PS4 NACL is viable. Thank you! NACL registrations - Playstation 4 Last but not least, welcome to the community! About NHLGamer NHLGamer.com first saw the light of day over a decade ago, somewhere around 2004. What started out as a website platform for friends to arrange NHL leagues against each other has since grown exponentially into what is today the largest community for NHL gamers in Europe. Currently, the member count of our site is nearing 6000 strong! Since its inception, NHLGamer has continuously strived to offer the best possible experience for any and all gamers who have come to enjoy the competitiveness of playing the EA Sports series of NHL games. We made our biggest stride forward yet when we in late 2015 introduced the first ever European Championship League (ECL) - a league where all the best European NHL gamers create teams and compete against each other in the game mode EASHL (6v6) for the title of Best EASHL Team in Europe. Our new found venture into the North American NHL gaming scene is looking to follow in the footsteps of what we have done with the ECL. We've learned some important lessons from our success in Europe and feel that now is the time to also expand across the pond. The ECL has taken massive steps forward and now that we have that action plan in place, we will be able to kick off the NACL and improve it step by step in rapid succession. While proud of our achievements and the success we've had in creating and maintaining such a great community of talented gamers, we are not done yet. Our long-term goals include growing the community, hosting larger leagues with larger prize pools and working together with organizations at the cutting edge of gaming and eSports. Remember to stay up to speed with all our leagues by following our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. *The calculation is based on a 16 team NACL 1 Elite. NHLGamer withholds the right to alter the ruleset regarding the prize pool if the need should arise to change the size of the NACL 1 Elite division. Edit: Here's a couple useful links that will answer some of your questions: Link to rules NACL Fast Facts On behalf of NHLGamer, Kenneth