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Greetings NHLGamers, In the last few days the League Administration has had to make multiple rulings. Here's a quick summary of the most critical cases. PRO REGULAR SEASON DEADLINE On Wednesday evening, at around 22 CET, EA PSN servers went down. Due to this multiple teams weren't able to play their games. Since this server downtime wasn't part of a scheduled maintenance, we gave teams one day more to play their games by extending the Pro regular season to Saturday, 24th of March. That said, there won't be any delays - the Pro playoffs are still scheduled to start on Monday, 26th of March. Expect a news story about that shortly. SYPPERSTAARS DISQUALIFICATION Sypperstaars have been disqualified and removed from the ECL 6 tournament. The team had massively fallen behind the default game schedule and their captains weren't responding to inquiries by their opponents, nor by the League Administration. As such, the team is disqualified and its captains (@Artuzio, @Nieppii and @PekkoWP) have received a ban covering the end of ECL 6, Summer Cup 3 and a 10 game suspension in ECL 7 in addition to a full season ban from being able to take a role of a captain/assistant captain during ECL 7. PRO RELEGATION Due to three Pro teams dropping out (aforementioned Sypperstaars, disqualified Inter Iceland and The Beagle Boys who are disbanding after having finished this season) we are forced to adjust the Pro relegation system for this season. The current rules state that each season 8 teams participate in a relegation series out of which 4 teams from the Pro division are relegated to Lite. For this season only 1 team from Pro division will be relegated to Lite. As such, here's the adjusted rule: GOAL POST COLORS Our rules have previously defined that the color of the have to be dark red. We have seen some teams use other colors and our options were to punish these teams or to adjust the rule. After further consideration, we have decided to only ban white post colors and from now on officially allow other colors besides red. As such, here's the adjusted rule: - League Administration

Good afternoon, NHL Gamers! League Administration finalized it's ruling on 3 cases which happened during the last week. 1)Valta15: Irresponsible behavior Player valta15 decided to leave his old team and join Dynamo Danglers, where he played one game and partially finished a second one(the game was quit midway through by both parties after several connection issues). Afterwards, he wanted to go back to his old team, which is not allowed according to ECL rules: ------------------ 10. Recruitment and transfers "Players are not allowed to transfer to a team they had previously left during a league/tournament." ------------------ In a desperate journey of sending messages to League Administration, he suggested several options to circumvent this rule, which is also prohibited: ------------------ 3. Code of conduct "Members are not allowed to try circumventing the rules." ------------------ On top of that, valta15 now refuses to finish the second game for his team and also announced he was not going to play any more games for Dynamo Danglers. This is considered a breach of the Fair Play rule. Taking all the issues into account, League Administration is going to ban valta15 for the remainder of ECL 4 as well as the first 10 games of ECL 5. Furthermore, valta15 won't be allowed to act as a Captain or Assistant Captain during ECL 5. Because of this, the second game between Dynamo Danglers and Bone Breakers will need to be replayed. 2)Totalii: Personal attack against another NHLGamer member Community member Totalii made a shameless and very personal attack against another NHLGamer member in the forums. This is a violation of the following rule: ------------------ 3. Code of conduct "Registered members are required to treat each other with respect and not divert to overly abusive language. This applies to all league/tournament related conversations conducted on NHLGamer.com" ------------------ League Administration has decided that player Totalii will be banned for the remainder of the ECL 4 regular season (a total of 10 games, including today's games). 3)NYTSAKENEE: Second account It has come to our attention that player NYTSAKENEE(Huppati HC - Pro) is using two accounts, second account Ei_Baas(Teletapit - Lite). This is a clear violation of the ECL rule: ------------------ 1. Member registration "No player may have more than one account on NHLGamer.com." ------------------ After further investigation we learned that the captain of Huppati HC, Samzoni, was fully aware of this situation. League Administration has decided that player NYTSAKENEE/Ei_Baas will be banned for remainder of ECL 4 as well as the first 50% of the ECL 5 games. Samzoni will be banned for remainder of ECL 4 and won't be allowed to act as a Captain or Assistant Captain during ECL 5. @Samzoni @KerttulanKarlsson @Fobba71 @Totalii @SadaPoika @Tuukka.R @rotta__roteva @Lupachuk @Xx-Kane-X @lycki10 @Givystar @Anenthran @valta15 @Nytsakenee @Ei_Baas - League Administration

Good evening, NHL Gamers! League Administration finalized it's ruling for a case involving the teams Refuse To Lose and Silver Sword Griffins and the player Kefleri. Kefleri left RTL without agreement from the captain Hanssonni, and joined SSG to immediately play 2 games with them against HC Checkmate. This violates the following rule: --- 8. Recruitment and transfers "Team assistant captains are allowed to transfer in case the team captain agrees to a transfer. In case the team captain disagrees, an assistant captain is not allowed to be transferred to another team." --- After discussing the case with both teams and the affected player, League Administration decided on the following outcome: Both games between Silver Sword Griffins and HC Checkmate will need to be replayed without Kefleri Kefleri will receive a 2 game ban for SSG's games against Kattiautomaatti pelimies80 will receive a 2 game ban for SSG's games against Kattiautomaatti due to transferring the player, even though he was aware of the above rule pelimies80 will of course be allowed to participate in the two rematches against HC Checkmate At the time of this news story, Refuse to Lose agreed to the transfer, so Kefleri is allowed to join Silver Sword Griffins after all. We would also like to include a general reminder to all captains: You are the team leader, and you have the power to decline an Assistant Captain's transfer. However if there are personal differences involved, and the captain tries to abuse this power by tying the player to the team after damage was already done (purposefully), the Fair Play rule comes into play. Benching a player in this scenario is strictly not welcome and League Administration will investigate. @Kefleri @pelimies80 @xLVxRitchey @ProMinx24 @OxtreeLAT @Hanssonni @ReDMisTi @TackleControl @Juizki @selänne8 - League Administration

Good afternoon, NHLGamers! At 14:11 of the first period in the ECL 4 game between Aapon Taikasauva and Dynasty, indi969(Sven Tuuba) initiated a challenge for a fight with Dynasty's jumalpeku(EVGENI BULJUJÄRVI). This happened right before the face-off and as such is in violation of the following rules: --- 8. Game rules "Players are not allowed to challenge for a fight before a faceoff nor against a player who is either in possession of the puck, or would be the first one reaching a loose puck. Note, however, that if a player delivers a big hit, gets the puck and the fight challenge comes up, the opposing team is allowed to take the fight, because the player delivering the hit is regarded as initiating the fight challenge." --- 6.Fair Play ""Fair Play" is the most essential rule in regards to any games carried out within a tournament on NHLGamer.com. In general, "Fair Play" describes the act of treating your opponent the way you would like to be treated. This includes communication, but also any actions which are directly or indirectly related towards on-ice action. To give you an idea of what to avoid to comply with this Fair Play rule, here are a few examples: Do not attack your opponent with abusive language Do not exploit game mechanics or bugs to put your opponent at a disadvantage (e.g. do not make use of any player stats exploits, de-sync glitches, freezes or similar) Do not distract your opponent from playing the game (e.g. do not spam messages, do not call your opponent while he is in-game or similar) Disregarding the Fair Play rule will lead to disciplainary action depending on the kind of infraction. Less severe infractions like distractions may lead to point suspensions or game bans, while actually exploiting the game can also lead to a ban for all activities carried out on NHLGamer.com, in case the user is not interested in sharing this knowledge with League Administration. If this kind of issue comes up, League Administration will share this knowledge with EA SPORTS." --- After hearing indi969's explanation, the League Administration has determined that his intentions weren't malicious and issues him a two game suspension. As a result, indi969 won't be able to represent Aapon Taikasauva in their next two scheduled ECL games against Limitless on 27th of February. The ban is valid for this match-up only, so in case Aapon Taikasauva decide to play another opponent beforehand, the ban is not valid for that game. League Administration reminds everyone that all registered members are required to carry themselves and behave in accordance to the ECL Season 4 rules found here: - League Administration

Hey NHL Gamers, As most of you probably have noticed, there's been some controversy between the teams Synergy Hockey and Silver Sword Griffins. We will start this post off by laying down the information and staff ruling in this case and finish off with the round 2 matchups. The NHL Gamers staff was approached yesterday (3.1.) with Synergy Hockey (from here on SYN) asking what to do, when it's the last day and Silver Sword Griffins (from here on SSG) can't play. We instructed that the games need to be played yesterday. SYN was available to play, while SSG replied to them "I told you yesterday that we can't. We don't have to play with a suboptimal roster just because you couldn't play at all last two weeks" and adding "We could've finished yesterday but see Pelle I think it was who called it a night at 10pm. And now we have to adapt to that?". Here are the bullet points that we gathered from talking to both teams: The teams were supposed to play their first games on the 20th of December. SSG cancelled at the last minute due to "problems with personal relationship between our RW and G". SYN had before these games communicated to SSG that they can't play until the 2nd of January due to Christmas and New Years plans. As the games on the 20th were cancelled, SYN was able to offer another opportunity to play on the 22nd of January, where they played (according to their description) with a non-optimal line-up, in order to get the series started. SSG won both of the two games that were played. Series 0-2. The second batch of games were to be played, as agreed, on the 2nd of January. SYN asked before the games "How many games today (at most). 3?", to which SSG replied "yeah, something like that". SYN won the first game, SSG won the second game (making the series 1-3), after which SYN asked "One more?" and SSG replied "yeah". After the third game of the evening (SYN won and made the series 2-3), SSG asks "can you keep playing?", but SYN says that they can't and asks if SSG can play the next day. It is also explained that one of their players has already went to sleep. 13 minutes later, at 22:07 Swedish time, SSG says that they can't play on Wednesday, which is the last day of the first round. Neither teams are directly asking for WO's, but as time has run out and we're past the extra allocated day, we can not continue to give out more time for the series. The criteria on which we made our decision: We do not believe either team to have purposefully ended up in this situation. SYN was unavailable to play for a lot of evenings, however they did communicate this very clearly and were available to play on 4 occasions (20th, 22nd, 2nd and 3rd). SSG says they were ready to play on all default days. SSG didn't at any point contact the staff about any issues with the series. Only after being asked to play on the last day (3rd of Jan), they started communicating with the staff. Their explanation is that SYN was largely unavailable and that they are to be blamed for the situation. SSG claims they thought the 2nd of Jan was the correct date, as communicated earlier (before adding the extra day). Their point is valid about the clarity of the staff's communication and it is noted, but doesn't validate their unclear communication. As mentioned above, SSG made a comment about not agreeing to play with a "suboptimal" roster on the last day of the playoffs. They later commented to the staff that this was said out of frustration and wasn't accurate, and that they actually didn't have the appropriate amount of players to play. SSG did not communicate to SYN on time that they won't be able to continue the series on Tuesday. They only communicated this after some of SYN had left after the games on Monday. SYN asked up front how many games will be played and "one more" and not at any point was it mentioned that the series will have to be finished on Monday. After hearing both sides and investigating this case thoroughly - we have made the tough decision that Synergy Hockey advances to the second round of playoffs with WO's against the Silver Sword Griffins. We would like to remind everyone that the staff works as a team and there are votes on the difficult matters. The vote in this case was not unanimous, but this decision was supported by the majority. Walkovers at this stage are unfortunate but all teams need to be aware of the deadlines and due to the extra time already allocated, for the greater good, the NHLGamer Staff is forced to make this decision so the second round can start as promised. We've done our best to describe above, that we do believe both teams have made mistakes in this series. With better communication, these issues could've been avoided. The staff would've been happy to step in and do our best to help at an earlier stage. Bringing things up on the last possible day is not the approach that we want to encourage. Below are the second round pairings. Second round of playoffs is to be played 4. - 10.1. Laser HT - TIKI TALK Aapon Taikasauva - Fat Cats Northern Stars - Northern Ascendancy Written in the Stars - Nordic Nightmare Synergy Hockey - Mukimiehet X Factor - Dynasty SIKA - Nordic Lightning Finnish Roosters - Nordic Blizzard The schedule and playoff tree will reflect this as soon as possible. In the mean time, feel free to start playing. Respectfully, The NHLGamer Staff

Hey NHL Gamers, The playoffs are here! It’s time to look at our last batch of rulings during the end of the regular season. Again, we do apologise for taking more than a week to process some of the decisions. As mentioned previously, we aim to streamline this process to be more efficient in the future. In fact, we are looking for more staff members that are able to contribute to our website. If you feel you have what it takes to bring some value to our website – feel free to send me a PM and tell me what you bring to the table. This installment of NHL Gamer Staff rulings covers the following topics: Walkover requests a. HC Checkmate – Silver Sword Griffins b. Fat Cats – Silver Sword Griffins c. No Guts No Glory – Nordic Blizzard d. AK47 – Nordic Nosebleeds e. Nordic Nosebleeds – Bare Knuckles Hockey f. No Guts No Glory – La Suède g. Northern Ascendancy – Terrific Tigers h. Nordic Blizzard – HC Soittorasia The case of the glitched player: Silver Sword Griffins – Finnish Roosters Missing game stats 1. Walkover requests Boy, oh boy did we have a lot of walkover requests. I will mention that the below cases have been simplified for the reading (and writing) pleasure and may give more of a black and white picture of the case than the reality of things. 1a. Northern Ascendancy – Terrific Tigers Terrific Tigers weren’t responding to communication from Northern Ascendancy and even staff thought the Terrific Tigers had left the league, until we got a response at the last minute. Northern Ascendancy was awarded the walkover wins. 1b. Nordic Blizzard – HC Soittorasia The teams were communicating actively in order to get the games going, but as HC Soittorasia failed to get their full 6 on ice despite several attempts, they eventually decided to hand out the walkovers to Nordic Blizzard. 1c. No Guts No Glory – Nordic Blizzard No Guts No Glory asked about the possibility to get walk over wins due to issues with agreeing on a functional date to play vs Nordic Blizzard. Both teams were communicating actively, but what worked for the other, didn’t work for the other team. The NHLGamer staff didn’t see a reason to award either team with WO’s, as both have been active and Nordic Blizzard had been available to play on the default date. Instead, we gave the teams an extra day to play the games. Sadly, No Guts No Glory was unable to play on that day and decided to give walkover wins to Nordic Blizzard. 1d. AK47 – Nordic Nosebleeds A member of Nordic Nosebleeds was having problems with his internet connection during the last day of regular season and despite several attempts they weren’t able to get the full 6 men on ice. Nordic Nosebleeds suggested playing with 5 against AK47’s 6, but AK47 refused, as it is against the rules. Nordic Nosebleeds handed AK47 the walkover wins. 1e. Nordic Nosebleeds – Bare Knuckles Hockey This one is pretty much a carbon copy for what we have ruled on before. Neither team had communicated with each other before the default game date and time and 9 minutes before the default game time Nordic Nosebleeds approached Bare Knuckles Hockey asking if they are ready to play. See "On the matter of the games that were scheduled between Rusty Blades and Refuse To Lose (October 27th)" in Staff Rulings, Part 2 for the previous ruling: While we do agree that Bare Knuckles Hockey didn’t do their part, we want to remind everyone, that we will not accept walk over requests of game times that are simply based on assumption. That is not to say that the schedule isn’t to be honored, but if you plan to play on the scheduled day and time, please let your opponent know. If not, also let them know. After their mistake, Bare Knuckles Hockey asked Nordic Nosebleeds to play on another day, but according to BKH, they were told they can’t play for two weeks. Due to these circumstances, we allowed the teams the extra day to battle it off on the ice. Nordic Nosebleeds immediately refused this decision, so we had no other option than to give the walkover wins to Bare Knuckles Hockey. 1f. No Guts No Glory – La Suède We were told that La Suède can’t play and they will give the walk overs to No Guts No Glory. We approached La Suède to confirm and made sure both teams understood a) what an important matchup this is for the overall standings and b) that we can allow them one extra day to finish this matchup. La Suède informed us that they can’t play, so we had no other option but to honor the walkover requests. 1g. HC Checkmate – Silver Sword Griffins These two teams had been trying to find a matching game time for quite a while (with HC Checkmate being more available) and they finally did. Sadly, about an hour before the first match was supposed to take place, the Silver Sword Griffins informed HC Checkmate that one of their players had been banned from PSN and that they are looking for a solution. Despite their best efforts, and after confirming that this was a console ban and not a profile ban, SSG was unable to get 6 men on the ice. Both teams were actively communicating in this case and SSG was trying their best to offer alternative game times for the match, but they did not work for HC Checkmate. Also, the fact that HC Checkmate had cancelled job shifts and important hobbies to be available for this game time made the cancellation extra hard for them. As both teams were active and the cancellation of the games last minute was unintentional, we wanted to offer the teams the possibility to play on the extra day. Sadly, HC Checkmate couldn’t make it at such short notice. The staff, however, had to rule in HC Checkmates favour in this case, as they had been the more available team and were not responsible for the original games not being played, so the walkover wins were given to HC Checkmate. 1h. Fat Cats – Silver Sword Griffins The games between Fat Cats and Silver Sword Griffins were to take place after the above game. These games were cancelled due to the same circumstances as that game. This game was even more late due to problems agreeing on scheduling and Fat Cats had been the more available party. As with the above case, we tried giving the teams the option of settling the games on the ice, but Fat Cats were unable to make it on such short notice. Again, as in the above case, Fat Cats had been the more active and available team, so we awarded them with the walkover wins. 2. The case of the glitched player: Silver Sword Griffins – Finnish Roosters This case has been discussed widely throughout the community in the last few days and as far as we know, the teams have put this behind them, so please feel free to comment your opinion on the matter itself, but let's not attack either team over it. As this case is quite extensive and @ProMinx24 from Silver Sword Grinnis wrote his thoughts about the case in quite a well formulated manner (including also one of the Finnish Roosters in the PM thread), I have decided to embed his view of the case, the opponents reply and our verdict. Please note that the quotes are released as both teams were ok with this being public. PM's in general are treated as personal communication and are not shared under normal circumstances. Let's start off with the quote from SSG: The reply from FR: There was some irrelevant posts in-between, and below you have the staff verdict: In the end, Finnish Roosters wanted to continue the game from the 3-2 FR lead and chose not to follow our recommendation. As far as I understood, after some debate, the teams agreed to play the entire 1st period (as the 3rd period) starting from the 3-2 lead. No further goals were scored and FR won the game. As you can see in the quote, the staff is planning to introduce some changes to the rules. The question of course is, where do you draw the line - where should we step in and where not? There's a good discussion going on at the moment about how community users think these sort of issues should be handled: It's a very good topic to discuss and we hope to hear as many of our members voicing their opinions about the topic. 3. Missing game stats There are quite an amount of games still missing stats. In some cases, it is the staff’s fault for not fixing issues that have been reported. But in cases where it hasn’t been reported and a game is missing stats, please fix it immediately. If you need assistance, please let the staff know. Failure to comply with adding stats for every game may (after warning) lead to team diqualification. We thank all the teams for their efforts in making the long regular season successful and wish the playoff teams good luck! On behalf of the NHL Gamer staff,

Hey NHL Gamers, It’s once again time to take a look at some of the discliplinary actions and requests that have been sitting on the staff’s table for a while. Apologies to the parties that have had to wait for a ruling for a while – we aim to streamline this process to be more efficient in the future. In fact, we are looking for more staff members that are able to contribute to our website. If you feel you have what it takes to bring some value to our website – feel free to send me a PM and tell me what you bring to the table. This installment of NHL Gamer Staff rulings covers the following topics: Teams that have left the league Trades a. Trade deadline b. The requests for captains to be allowed to be traded c. Trading of players that have already been on two teams this season Walkover requests a. Mpire - Silver Sword Griffins b. Murohoki - Terrific Tigers Amount of games played a. Too many games played b. Too few games played 1. Teams that have left the league Sadly, we have to add to the list of teams that have decided to leave the league. At least four new teams have decided to leave and that brings our total up to seven. It is important to remember, that in order to keep the league active and all teams active despite their success, we need to discipline the teams that decide to leave. That being said, we’re always interested in hearing why a team choses to leave, so we can – if within our power – do something to prevent this from happening in the future. The below team have decided to leave ECL Season 3: Ganja Bonanzas (Group 1) We’ve been unable to get a confirmation from the captains, but this seems to be the case. We will edit and take action once we get the confirmation. Rising Phantoms (Group 1) Among other issues, the team has been suffering from connection problems, making the gaming experience far from enjoyable and this is why the team has decided to leave. BraZZers (Group 2) We’ve just received news that the ”team broke and cannot play anymore”. HC Solhem (Group 2) The short explanation that we’ve received is that players have left and the team can’t continue in the league. VC Hockey (Group 2) This is a team that has had its issues throughout the season, but the captains worked hard to keep things going and it was looking like they would pull through. The final blow was, though, when an unknown team (outside the ECL, apparently) recruited two of the VC Hockey players, leaving the team below an active roster of eight players. 2. Trades a. Trade deadline The trade deadline is Wednesday the 7th of December and we will allow trades to be done until 23:59 GMT on the 7th. Please remember that the standard rules for trades apply (including the ones discussed below). The trade deadline is also the deadline for aquiring free agents – in other words, no player movement is allowed after the deadline. b. The requests for captains to be allowed to be traded There has been a handful of questions and requests about being allowed to being traded as a captain (this includes assistant captains as well). The rules are very clear about this, but as always, we took the time to look at the raised question together with the staff, as there were some valid points brought up by the players in question that escalated the issue. The reasoning behind this rule is to make sure the players that take the captain role of a team are committed enough to finish the season with the team, as the captains are often the driving force of a functioning team and making everything click. Even an active group of people can struggle, if you remove the person in charge of organizing the schedules. The NHL Gamer staff stands behind this rule and its core idea, which is why we have decided to make no exception to it. One of the issues brought up is the ability to make a team member a captain or assistant captain on the website without this being accepted by the user. While we strongly believe that every user should be informed about the rules and therefore aware of the captains’ responsibilities, we see this as an opportunity to improve our website and you can look forward to users being prompted to accept the captain position in the coming seasons. c. Trading of players that have already been on two teams during season This is a very rare issue, but we’ve had a case where an active player has changed teams at an early stage during the ECL 3 season and wishes to be traded again. As the above discussed case, this is also something that is clearly defined in the rules. While we symphathize with the player in question, the rule is in place to prevent team hopping during a season. We do not suggest that there is anything fishy with the players request, but we want to underline that we wish for players not to switch teams lightly and this is why we are sticking with the rulebook on this. 3. Walkover requests This is an area where we want to thank the majority of teams for excellent communication – both when communicating their possible issues with agreeing on scheduled games and with negotiating with the fellow captains. There has been some true sportsmanship there – thank you! However, there will always be some cases that don’t go as smoothly for one reason or another. I’m happy to say that one of the problems that was supposed to be listed below was actually solved by the teams on their own and the games have now been played. a. Mpire - Silver Sword Griffins In this matchup, it’s Mpire who have requested the walkover wins. The reason is that SSG has asked to reschedule the default date and then rescheduled that date as well. SSG offered a good explanation for why the rescheduled date didn’t end up working. SSG has also been very active at offering new dates and based on their explanation, Mpire has been slow to reply to these and eventually came to request WO’s instead of agreeing on a new date. SSG has in fact offered to play the games against Mpire on any date they wish to play. We think this is more than a reasonable offer and ask for the teams to finish the battle on the ice. b. Murohoki - Terrific Tigers Terrific Tigers were unable to get their goalie online and had other games (in another league) scheduled for later. They offered the WO’s themselves, so in this case the staff has chosen not to interfere, while we of course prefer to see the games played. 4. Amount of games played a. Too many games played In order to keep the league as even and interesting as possible, we have added restrictions to the re-scheduling of games in the rulebook. We have noticed that not all teams have followed this rule as strictly as others and in the process has slightly more played games than other teams. As a benchmark, we used 36-38 games at this stage. That being said, the total amount of played games for each team that is over is still reasonably even – with game amounts that can be expected to be played within a week. At this stage, we will not punish teams that have played some extra games, as the outcome at this stage is within the parameters that we designed the rule for in the first place. While it’s of course important to follow the rules under all circumstances, the staff would prefer too many games played opposed to too few. However, we ask teams to still respect this rule and the below listed mentality: o Prioritize the default scheduled games first. o Don’t race to finish the regular season just because you have nothing better to do. If half of your team is unavailable for the upcoming week – that is a better excuse. o When playing games earlier than your default schedule, always target the nearest opponents – we want the majority of teams to finish the regular season on the same date. b. Too few games played On the other side of the spectrum, are teams that are behind on their schedule. We want to give the teams a chance to redeem themselves and catch up, as I’m sure we can all agree we don’t want any more teams dropping out. We kindly ask that the below listed teams contact the NHL Gamer Staff with an update on their situation; are there any problems? Do you need help? Are you committed to finishing the season? Please send a PM here on the community forums to @Kenu, @Lurkins, @The_Alpha_Furyan, @gzell60 and @Ranksu. Thank you. Bone Breakers – Group 2 – 25 games played Free From Rodents – Group 2 – 29 games played ICE BROS – Group 2 – 28 games played EN HUND – Group 2 – 28 games played (The teams leaving and thus having their games nullified might be the reason for the low amount of games played, and if that is the case, that is a valid excuse,) So there you have it! A whole lot of things have been on the staff desk and honestly, the above is just the tip of the ice berg. We’d like to reiterate that we’re very happy about the initiative that many teams have taken in the past few weeks to handle issues on their own. This is much appreciated and the way we want the community to develop. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully we can make it shorter next time. On behalf of the NHL Gamer staff,

Hey NHL Gamers, Another week, another disciplinary post. We would like to once again remind all teams and captains to try and work with each other as much as possible and use the rules combined with a heavy dose of common sense. We understand sometimes rules are simply broken and some situations cannot be resolved… but again, it would be much appreciated if every team and captaincy squad could make that extra effort to not only respect the rules, but also respect their opponents. This is especially true for the scheduling of games. Set a standard of professionalism and your opponent will learn from you. Anyway, let us get to the rulings. On the matter of incorrect arena configuration for Warriors of Kongo vs. HC Checkmate (Scheduled for October 13th) You might remember this case from last weeks post, if not read about the situation here. Turns out Warriors of Kongo were not able to play at the time that was agreed upon as the replacement game time. Rule #6 of the NHLGamer rulebook states that: ”If a team is more than 15 minutes late to a game, the opposing team has the right to request a walk-over win. These requests will be looked at by the NHL Gamer staff.” Warriors of Kongo did not show up to play on the agreed upon replacement game time, therefore the staff has come to the following conclusion: - Both teams accepted the ruling of a re-scheduled game. HC Checkmate were ready at the correct time. Warriors of Kongo were not. The staff rules that HC Checkmate is awarded a walkover win for the game in question. On the matter of TIKI TALK not showing up for the games vs. HC Marilyn (Scheduled for October 26th) The staff was made aware that TIKI TALK were not available at the scheduled time for the games against HC Marilyn on October 26th. TIKI TALK did communicate that they would not be able to play on the default game time the day before (the 25th) at around 7 in the evening, and instead suggested that same day at 9 as a replacement time. Naturally, HC Marilyn had some difficulties rallying the troops on just a two hour notice and were unable to play. HC Marilyn then suggested multiple different time for the teams to play that TIKI TALK were unable to comply with. TIKI TALKs suggestion in return was that they would play at an unspecified time the following week and that “there would be time to play, no worries”. Rule #6 of the NHLGamer rulebook states that: ”If a team is more than 15 minutes late to a game, the opposing team has the right to request a walk-over win. These requests will be looked at by the NHL Gamer staff.” Now, it is to be made clear that HC Marilyn has NOT requested a walkover win, but instead turned to the staff for further advice on the situation. On that basis, the staff has come to the following conclusions: - HC Marilyn were available at the default scheduled game date and time, TIKI TALK was not. - TIKI TALK did communicate that they would not be able to play at the default game time and did produce an alternative, albeit a very difficult one for HC Marilyn - HC Marilyn is to be considered having gone to greater lengths than TIKI TALK in their attempts to schedule the games Based on the above mentioned information, the staff rules that these games will be played during the following 7 days - meaning no walkover losses are to be handed out to TIKI TALK. That said, TIKI TALK showed a lack of respect for both their opponent and the default game day in not making a greater effort to be available on time. The default game time is to be considered the offical time to play and is to be respected. The staff furthermore rules that TIKI TALK is to be considered warned for their conduct and will be subject to harsher punishment if similar situations occur where they do not make an effort in regards to the game scheduling. Finally, the games are to be scheduled by HC Marilyn the following 7 days, at a reasonable time. Failure from TIKI TALK to respect this, will result in further discipline. Attempts from HC Marilyn to book games where they ”know” TIKI TALK are not available (like when they already have games) will not be accepted. On the matter of the delay of Origins vs. No Guts No Glory (Originally scheduled for October 12th) The staff was made aware of difficulties in the booking of games between Origins and No Guts No Glory. Issues first arose when No Guts No Glory were unable to play at the default scheduled game day. Both teams did decide on a replacement date though and things appeared to be fine. On that day though (the 21st), the PSN network was completely down - something we here at NHLGamer.com cannot influence. From here, the stories vary with regards to who was available to play and when. These teams are now missing the deadline by quite a bit but considering the circumstances, the staff rules that a date for these games needs to be decided within 24 hours. This date needs to be in the next 7 days and it needs to be communicated to the staff by message. If a game has not been scheduled within 24 hours, the staff will set a game time that both teams will have no choice but to accept. If one team is not available at this time, this team will be given walkover losses. Both captains have now received messages regarding this. On the matter of the games that were scheduled between Rusty Blades and Refuse To Lose (October 27th) The staff was made aware by both captains of these respective squads that a situation had arisen between these two teams on the default scheduled game day. The teams did not have any communication at all before the default game time (which in itself is highly unusual and is not to be recommended) at 20 CET. Rusty Blades at this time were available in the dressing room and made Refuse To Lose aware of this fact. Refuse To Lose had taken the lack of communication as an indication that the games would not happen that day and were not ready at 20 CET. RLT then indicated they could make some calls and have players ready at 21.15 CET at the very latest and did produce a lineup at that time but Rusty Blades had gone to great lengths to be ready at 20 CET (calling in players that were sick) and did not accept this, instead opting to request walkover wins. Rule #6 of the NHLGamer rulebook states that: ”If a team is more than 15 minutes late to a game, the opposing team has the right to request a walk-over win. These requests will be looked at by the NHL Gamer staff.” After plenty of discussion, numerous screenshots and various other communication – the staff has come to the following conclusions: - First of all, both teams are to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror with regards to communication. Even though it is not part of the official rulebook, it is still custom in the ECL world to atleast contact your opponents before you have games scheduled. The fact that this did not happen here is highly unusual and should be improved upon in the future. If nothing else, to keep us from having to settle matters like this that could have been decided by a quick message here at NHLGamer or even the PSN Network. Bad all around. - That said, Rusty Blades were ready in the dressing room at the appointed time (with sick players even!) and Refuse To Lose were not. - Refuse To Lose did adapt quickly to the situation and could produce a lineup within roughly an hour. Rusty Blades claimed to have been exhausted from waiting in the dressing room for 45 minutes and opted to play “relaxing” 6v6 club games with their ECL roster for the rest of the night, instead of having to re-apply focus more than one hour after they were first ready. Based on all this information, the staff rules that these games shall be played within the 7 days. This means that, just like in the earlier case with TIKI and Marilyn, WO wins are not to be handed out. Both teams are to be considered negligent in regards to communication. However, Rusty Blades did produce a lineup at the appointed time and is therefore cleared of any wrongdoing within the boundaries of the rulebook. Refuse To Lose, like TIKI TALK, is given a warning with regards to scheduling where any further matter involving them and games unattended could result in heavier discipline. Rusty Blades should be commended for being ready on time but should also be reminded that we are all in the company of fellow NHL Gamers here. Refuse To Lose did show a lack of respect in this situation but Rusty Blades had the opportunity to pay this back by applying sportsmanship and chose not to. If the case had been that they were simply unavailable that would have been one thing, but as they kept on playing regular EASHL games with the same lineup that would have been used for ECL, that is another thing entirely. Finally, Rusty Blades are to decide when the game is played during the following 7 days, at a reasonable time for both teams. Failure from Refuse To Lose to respect this, will result in further discipline. Attempts from Rusty Blades to book games where they ”know” Refuse To Lose are not available (like when they already have games) will not be accepted. Individual warnings An individual warning is handed out to @Viiktor, captain of Kattiautomatti, for making his team leave their game against Muruhoki when one of Kattiautomattis players were dropped. This decision is to be made by the opposing team, Murohoki in this case, per the rulebook. Additional Info - Game Reports (as of 2016-10-31) Finally, the following games need to be reported immediately as they are well outside of the 24-hour reporting rule. Continued negligence will result in warnings and/or possible bans. (Bone Breakers) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1622 (October 19th) – 2ND REMINDER. FIX IT! http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1770 (October 26th) (ICE BROS) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1723 (October 24th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1729 (October 24th) (HC Checkmate) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1798 (October 26th) (Knight Aces HC) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1819 (October 27th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1825 (October 27th) (Los Bombers) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1534 (October 14th) – 2ND REMINDER. FIX IT! http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1535 (October 14th) – 2ND REMINDER. FIX IT! http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1686 (October 21st) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1829 (October 27th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1830 (October 27th) (Mpire) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1820 (October 27th) (Nordic Lightning) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1814 (October 27th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1813 (October 27th) (Nordic Nightmare) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1718 (October 24 th) (Sektion K) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1840 (October 28th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1841 (October 28th) (TIKI TALK) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1818 (October 27th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1818 (October 27th) http://nhlgamer.com/match.php?matchID=1832 (October 27th) Thank you for your time. Sincerely, The NHLGamer Staff