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You've played NHL 18, but never like this. This spring, the National Hockey League is organising the biggest EA Sports NHL-based tournament yet with the 2018 NHL Gaming World Championship. The tournament is a versus competition, where the very top players of the world are going head-to-head first in regional qualifiers and finals, ending up with the top 6 players in the world battling it out at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada for the title of 2018 NHL Gaming World Champion. To make it even more exciting, the stakes of this tournament will be significantly greater than ever before in NHL gaming as the top 6 competitors will be fighting over a $100,000 prize pool. This is surely a massive announcement for all us NHLGamers as the tournament has so many major players involved. Some of the games will be broadcast on Viasat, Sportsnet and NBC digital channels as well as the NHL's official Twitch-channel. Details are still to be announced regarding the broadcasts, but a major boost in visibility for the NHL gaming community is expected. To qualify, you have to enter an online regional tournament for your console. Qualifiers are held each Saturday from March 24th thru April 14th. Each regional qualifier will determine two top players who will advance to the regional finals. The eight European finalists will compete at the Viasat Studios in Stockholm, Sweden; the eight Canadian Regional finalists will compete at Sportsnet Studios in Toronto, Ontario; and the eight US Regional finalists will compete at NBC Studios in Stamford, Connecticut. Check out the official video here, brought to you by NHL.com: You can see the full schedule for the tournament below: March 9th Registration opens at Faceit.com March 24th-25th Online qualifiers (Xbox One) March 31st-April 1st Online qualifiers (PS4) April 7th-8th Online qualifiers (Xbox One) April 14th-15th Online qualifiers (PS4) May 6th European Regional Finals (Stockholm, Sweden) May 11th Canadian Regional Finals (Toronto, Ontario) May 20th US Regional Finals (Stamford, Connecticut) June 19th World Finals (Las Vegas, Nevada) June 20th NHL Awards (Las Vegas, Nevada) In order to be eligible for the tournament you need to be a legal resident of the US, Canada or EU. You also need to be 16 years of age or older. So, what do you guys think? Will you be signing up? The thing that's for sure is that history is in the making and this is a tremendously positive thing for our community. Keep your heads up for more amazing news alike! Source: NHL.com

Well, well, well... There's been lots of talk about how the NHL series lacks the "Weekend League" game mode the FIFA series is blessed with. As of today, your prayers appears to have been answered with the brand-new introduction of HUT Champions. HUT Champions will be a high-stakes, high-rewards mode for those looking to play HUT on a whole different competitive level. What? HUT Champions is the NHL equivalent of FIFA Weekend League. It is esentially a "hardcore mode", where you play the best opponents in a tight timeframe. The objective is to accumulate as many wins as possible within the given time frame and restrictions. Wins earn the player points which in turn will lead to higher rankings. Rewards are given at the end of the season based on the leaderboard standings. When? The first season of HUT Champions will go live today, February 16th at 2:00 PM PT. The week will hold three qualifiers on February 16th, 20th and 22nd. The champions weekend itself will take place on February 23rd 2:00 PM PT until February 25th 2:00 PM PT. Results will be processed by February 27th. How? Qualification for this special league requires possessing a HUT Champions Season 1 Qualification Collectible, which can be obtained by earning a Div 1 title in online seasons between Friday February 16 2:00 PM PT and Friday February 23 2:00 PM PT. The other option is placing within the top 1250 in one of the HUT Champions Season 1 Qualifiers. Rewards Rank 1: 99 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 250,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 2: 98 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 200,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 3: 97 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 150,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 4: 96 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 100,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 5: 96 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 50,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 6-10: Choice Pack with a choice of 2 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 4 Ultimate Packs, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 11-20: Choice Pack with a choice of 2 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 3 Ultimate Packs, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 21-50: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 2 Ultimate Packs, 1 Rare Players Plus Pack, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 51-100: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 2 Ultimate Packs, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 101-250: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 1 Ultimate Pack, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 251-500: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 1 Ultimate Pack Ranks 501+: 1 Ultimate Pack HUT has been the topic of some controversy this year in regards to the card market and such, but this is certainly a welcome addition. HUT Champions adds a new level of competitiveness to the game. It remains to be seen how the mode will be welcomed in the NHL community. On the FIFA side of things, Eurogamer.net have previously reported on the brutality of the Weekend League, as players were grinding out 40 games a weekend, meaning closer to 20 hours of gameplay in a single weekend. In HUT Champions, the minimum amount of games to receive a rank is 5, which is a relief, for those familiar with the 20 game minimum in FIFA. The maximum will be 40, just like in the FIFA Weekend League. The first qualification round is only a few hours away at the moment of writing this. What do you think about this new way to play HUT? Will you be participating? Let us know in the comments below.

Hey NHLGamers, Finland’s largest news media Ilta-sanomat, Playstation Plus, SJK eSports, Kamppi Center, NHLGamer and SEAMK collaborate in creating the event in Kamppi Shopping Center on 17th to 18th of November. The sixteen best players compete for the prize pool on the most popular console platform in the country - Sony Playstation 4. The IS Cup 2 final event is currently being played on the fourth floor of the Kamppi Center. You are welcomed to join in and spectate the event live or follow the stream on www.is.fi/esports. The 6000€ prize pool will be distributed as follows: 1. 2000 € 2. 1000 € 3.-4. 500 € 5.-8. 250 € 9.-16. 125 € Short facts: You can watch the stream here (audio in Finnish): https://www.twitch.tv/streamcorner Finns can follow the action here in Finnish: https://www.is.fi/iscup Group stage schedule and scores: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/schedule.php?leagueID=4&lang=en Group stage standings: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/standings.php?leagueID=4&lang=en Top 8 go to the knockout rounds (best-of-3) and you can eventually find the playoff tree here: https://nhlgamer.com/iscup/schedule.php?leagueID=4&lang=en

Hey NHLGamers, When you start your game today, you might notice that there's a new patch. There isn't that much information about it, just the note "General stability and bug improvements". What could this mean? Well, we can simply speculate at this point, but there are a couple annoying things that have been happening in the game lately: At times, the game would get stuck in a weird camera angle with the frame being stuck, while you can only hear the game audio: Quite often, during an online game the game would jump back to an earlier faceoff, sometimes resulting in the loss of an already scored goal. We certainly hope the above two have been fixed with this patch and that we won't suffer from these problems again. According to the buzz in several Facebook groups at the moment, the so called "slider glitch" has been fixed now, so you're not able to make the HUT challenges super easy anymore. How are you finding the patch? Are the above mentioned things gone? Let us know in the comments below. Below you can find the Patch 2 notes and in case you missed it earlier, the notes about what Gameplay Tuner 1.01 actually did: Source: https://forums.ea.com/en/nhl/discussion/146691/nhl-18-patch-tuner-notes#latest

Hey NHLGamers, EA SPORTS has released the first content update (also known as patch) for NHL 18 and the list of improvements is quite extensive! The list of improvements is very versatile and includes both small tuning and larger pieces, ranging from camera fixes to adding the new leagues (EBEL, HockeyAllsvenskan and the CHL) to the Season mode. There's also been quite a lot of tweaking to the online experience and from this patch forward there is no longer a 1 minute grace period in HUT (oh boy, could I have used this patch yesterday)! We have yet to confirm exactly what it looks like, but according to the notes we can now see more information about the opponent (including connection quality) before the game starts. You can see the full list of updates (including also the updates between the beta and the released game) below: Overall, looking at the list it feels like a lot of my complaints have been addressed. What about you? How do you like the update? What would you like to see in the future updates? Please let us know in the comments. I'll see you on the ice! Source: https://forums.ea.com/en/nhl/discussion/146691/nhl-18-patch-tuner-notes

Evening NHLGamers, Yesterday (September 5th) turned out to be a big day for fans of the game mode Hockey Ultimate Team, HUT. As one of the core game modes in EA SPORTS' series of NHL games, HUT usually draws a heavy interest from fans in the weeks leading up to release. What then could be better than suddenly finding out who all the new "HUT Heroes" are for NHL 18? Maybe getting to experience over 15 minutes of exclusive gameplay from the new edition of HUT? Here at NHLGamer we say: why not both? Before we get to the gameplay, lets start off with the announcement of all the new HUT Heroes. Yesterday, EA SPORTS released this article presenting all 30 NHL 18 HUT Heroes: https://www.easports.com/nhl/hockey-ultimate-team/hut-heroes To break it down for us and provide a proper NHLGamer analysis, we enlisted one of our resident HUT experts and hardcore gamers: @esdor . Take it away Adam! NHL 18 HUT Heroes - Analysis Gamers, I have been asked to give you my thoughts on the new HUT Heroes for NHL 18 so, here we go! In total there are seven new HUT Heroes that differ from the roster we had in NHL 17. As a first impression, I must say that I was hoping for a few more new Heroes. Three of the "new" ones were actually already in the game for 17 but only obtainable from packs as "legends". These players are Cam Neely (Boston), Jeremy Roenick (Chicago) and Wendel Clark (Toronto). Personally, the card I am looking forward the most to trying in the new game is new San Jose Sharks hero Owen Nolan. Those who have seen me play HUT know that I am a big fan of strong righties in the vein of Ovechkin. Sadly this means the previous hero from San Jose (Doug Wilson) is out. He will be sorely missed seeing as he was one of my favorite defenders that I used all year in 17. Another missed hero for me is going to be Red Wings hero Brendan Shanahan that I used a lot in the begining of NHL 17. It will be very interesting to see how good Rick Nash (Columbus) will be as a HUT Hero. The last two HUT Heroes that are new this year are Shane Doan (Arizona) and Tampa Bay defender Dan Boyle. In the start of the game I believe that the Heroes will be very effective cards even though their overall got reduced from 94 to 90. I would actually say that a few of the new Heroes will be used the entire game, like in NHL 17 with Heroes Ron Hextall and Olaf Kolzig. In my opinion, both those goalies were among the best goalies in HUT throughout NHL 17 and might continue to be in 18. Last but not least I want to really praise EA for the design on the cards in HUT, they have done a great job on making the new cards look fresh and exciting. Exclusive NHL 18 HUT Gameplay Footage Lets pick this up by thanking esdor for an excellent breakdown of all the new HUT Heroes. When he is not contributing content for NHLGamer, you can find him at https://www.twitch.tv/esdor. Finally, as I hinted at in the beginning of this article, yesterday also saw the release of over 15 minutes of exclusive HUT gameplay footage on the NHLGamer YouTube Channel. This content was captured during NHLGamers recent visit to the NHL 18 Producers Tour in Helsinki and was then edited and produced by our very own @Kenu - just like the NHLGamer On The Road video from Helsinki. It is with great pride and joy we can say that this video has been watched almost 5.000 times since it was released less than 24 hours ago. Wow! Without further ado, here it is: That is all for now. Until next time, later skaters. @The_Alpha_Furyan, @Kenu and @esdor for NHLGamer.com

With only two weeks until the launch of NHL 18 and fans eagerly curious for details surrounding the game, let us recap some recently announced good news for the fans of European Hockey. EA SPORTS decided to blow up the doors with first introducing that the Champions Hockey League will be in the game. Shortly after that, it was announced that HockeyAllsvenskan and the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga also will be included. In case you’re wondering what the CHL is, we’d describe the Champions Hockey League as a tournament where the top teams of Europe play against each other in a fashion that we are used to in the football scene. Although it’s still not followed even remotely in the same magnitude as on the football side, we can hope the interest towards this league grows on the hockey side as well. The including of HockeyAllsvenskan was a really exciting thing especially for Swedish NHL-gamers as they can once again play the famous Stockholm Derby, Djurgården vs AIK with friends. Or why not give Leksand another chance in the famous Daladerby and face off against their bitter rivals, the team that knocked them down from the SHL: Mora IK. The press releases didn’t specify whether these leagues are actually included in the game as full playable seasons with schedules, or if they are mainly to be used in individual games or replacement teams in the franchise mode, as we’ve seen done before. At this stage we can only speculate, but whatever the approach is, we welcome these new teams to the game with open arms! The features of HockeyAllsvenskan might add something to the mix in the ECL scene as well; It has been rumoured that the ECL Elite team Synergy might reveal a Björklöven jersey What do you think about the inclusion of these leagues? Will you play with this teams, or perhaps just use their jerseys for HUT or EASHL? Let us know in the comments below. -chavelski

Hey NHL Gamers, It was a good run, but we all knew this day was coming: The NHL 18 Beta has ended and it's time to start waiting for the final product, releasing next month. Should you try accessing any of the modes of the beta, you will be met with the following screen: While waiting for the full version of the game, we would like to ask you to send us your thoughts on the beta - what did you like and what didn't you? We would also like to see your best video clips! Whether they are cool, incredible, funny, pointing out a bug in the game or just plain stupid - just share them with us! Here's our small example, recorded by @gzell60, showing off the exploitation of the L1/LB-button, which is especially effective around the boards, doesn't really slow you down when spamming, and doesn't result in penalties: By submitting our videos and feedback directly to EA SPORTS, we hope to help shape the game the way we - the community - want to see the game develop in the future. You can choose to discuss in the below thread, or post your thoughts and clips in the comments of this news story - both will be followed closely by our staff. So without further ado, submit your stuff in the comments section and let's get this thing going! On behalf of the NHLGamer staff,

Hey NHL Gamers, Many of us were hoping for it, most of us were certainly speculating about it - scratch your head no more! EA SPORTS has confirmed that the NHL 18 Beta is in fact now open for everyone - no beta code necessary. Just jump into the Playstation or Xbox store and you should be able to locate the beta for download. Chances are, you've already been enjoying the beta for a week. In that case, just continue enjoying - no further action necessary! As you can see from the below image we snagged from their Instagram post, the beta will now end on the 8th of August. Without further ado, pick up those controllers and see you on the ice! On behalf of the NHLGamer staff,

Hey NHL Gamers, we hope you are enjoying the NHL 18 Beta to the fullest by now! If not, be sure to check out our Beta Code Giveaway below: As you probably know, a beta of a game is more than just a demo for the consumers. Sure, it can be used as a marketing tool to get people excited for a game and I believe in the case of the NHL series it doubles as a demo, but it also usually serves a bigger purpose, such as: Getting general feedback from the customers before the game release. Introducing the beta to a bigger amount of people will certainly bring out some technical issues that hasn't been noted before and it can then be fixed before putting the game on disc (or at the very latest in the form of a day one patch). Testing the online server capabilities. Collecting data about customer behavior within the game for multiple purposes. We here at NHLGamer are playing the NHL 18 beta at least as much as the next guy and are very passionate about discussing our findings as well. We created a discussion thread for this purpose and we will also be sharing our key points with EA SPORTS as well (we're also pretty sure they are lurking around the forums this time a year to read about what us gamers have to say ). So please, join us in the discussion and vote on our poll by going to this forum thread: EA is also looking for direct feedback from all us, in the form of "General discussion and feedback", "Technical issues" and "Bug reporting". You can read more and participate in their official discussion by following this link. That's all for now folks, I'll let you get back to your beta gaming! On behalf of the NHLGamer staff,

Hey NHL gamers, We hope you are already enjoying the NHL 18 Beta! Our staff is committed to streaming the beta almost non-stop, so why don't you stop by for a chat. Our first stream is already underway and the first host is @vSilenttio, who is playing with his team SIKA. He is talking to his team in Finnish, so someone please go and tell him "English please". Other confirmed hosts include @OxtreeLAT, @gzell60 and @Dominointi. Without further adieu, please jump in: https://www.twitch.tv/nhlgamertwitch On behalf of the NHLGamer staff,

A new game calls for new features and one of the announced additions to NHL 18 is that of HUT ROOKIES. In accordance with the direction EA has decided to go - the special focus on the young stars of today in both marketing and developement – these player cards puts the spotlight on the brightest shining youngsters in each of the 31(!) NHL teams. Having taking some liberties with the term ”Rookies”, the players in this set of special cards range from 3+ years pros like Matt Dumba, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Barkov, to players like Patrik Laine, Jimmy Vesey and Zack Werenski who made their debut last year. Having a set of cards like this, with a chosen player for every team is nothing new in this game mode that everybody loves to hate, but still play anyway. Last year it was called HUT Heroes and revolved around the legends of yesterday. What is different this time around though is the availability of the cards and the ratings they got. While HUT Heroes could only be unlocked through collecting an entire team of cards (players, jerseys, arena etc.), HUT Rookies seems to be dealt out for free when first starting your team. The team you choose as your favorite at the start of the game – the young star of that team will be added to your roster. Anyone thinking about choosing Toronto just to get that shiny special edition Austen Matthews to dangle around your opponents with? Not so fast! While HUT Heroes pushed the limits on how good a rating could reach (all of the cards boasted at least 93+) – these cards seems to be nerfed down versions of the players in question, since all of the cards have a rating of 85 (with player specific variations on the sub categories). With HUT ROOKIES including players like Draisaitl, Laine and Calvin Pickard – it is not hard to assume that the base cards of said players have different values (reasonable thinking places Draisaitl and Laine with a way higher overall than Calvin Pickard). For anyone familiar with the game mode a 85 overall does not impress – players of that calibre goes for 500-1000 coins on the open market, and usually leaves the line up after less than 50 games. That being said, EA recently announced that they are doing a big overhaul on the ratings system – meaning that 85 overall could have a bigger impact on your lineup than previous years. This would be a thankful change from 17 where the amount of 99 rated cards reached inflation levels making everything below 90 less than useless. Only time will tell how big of an impact this new feature will have on the HUT gameplay – but we can sure agree that them cards are lookin’ shiney! Which card will you be snagging up? Let us know in the comments! Follow this link for a list of all of the players: https://www.easports.com/nhl/news/2017/nhl-18-hut-rookies

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