NEW ECL FORMAT IDEA

[Eki]

Hey everyone!

I've always been bothered how the ECL is called the "European Championship League", But there's always 2 winning teams per year? Doesn't quite feel that much like a European championship, at least for me. I've talked about this for many years but I feel like the community is getting bigger and naming 1 European Champion per year would be smart thing to do, for the players + for the people watching. 

My suggestion:

- 1 ECL every NHL. But make the season last 2x longer. So For Elite let's change the 30 games to 60 etc etc..
- In the middle of the season: Have the same promotion/relegation system in place as we do now, so It still takes the same time to get promoted/relegated between divisions. 
- After the promotions/relegations let's have a cup type tournament for every division, let's call this the "ECL Cup". Where we have a BO5 playoffs for each divisions playoff teams at that moment to determine the "ECL Cup" winner for each division. OR this "Cup" could also be split into 2, so combined playoff bracket from let's say Elite/Pro divisions best teams and making 1 big playoff bracket (of course more teams from the higher divisions would be added). and 1 cup for lite/neo/core (you could go into a lot of different directions with this).
- After we have the "ECL Cup" winners, all the standings in the divisions are reset, and the divisions continue the same as we have now. And at the end of it all, we have all the divisions champions in place for that NHL, Elite's winner can call themselves the European Champion. 

Similar system is in place in Finland's junior leagues (without the cup thing) 😀
Let me know what you think. Would love to get feedback + opinions. 

[iSvamp]

What about
3 ECL per year. (Make them shorter) Bo5 in the playoffs etc.
Most ECL titles -> Champions. 
If there is 3 teams with 1 title each -> Play a mini-cup --> Winner, new Champ. 

Or, let's go full CS:GO 
https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Majors
 

[PSchibra]

I think the thought itself (having one champion per year) is a good one, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to go about it.

I'm not familiar with the Finnish junior league system, so all I have to go off is the description you've provided here, but at first glance it seems like it's pretty much what already happens with the exception that the first ECL of the game's cycle is renamed to give it less meaning/value? Seems to me like if you have one long season with a halfway point that includes a promotion/relegation series, divisional playoffs for the top teams, resetting of the standings after said playoffs, presumably re-opening of the transfer window, etc., then isn't that what we have currently?

As mentioned before, it would certainly mean a lot more if there was only one champion per year, and that would also resemble the system that takes place in most traditional sports leagues, but my guess is that it would be hard to fully make the transition to a single, year-round tournament due to the nature of nhl 6v6 esports. Some of the reasons being that teams are formed by the players themselves, which tend to change rosters/ownership at much higher rates; some teams being in a division that does not match their level, thus causing the need for somewhat frequent promotions/relegations; the fact that this is just a casual pastime for the vast majority and not everyone can or should be forced to engage in something like that for a whole year. Perhaps there is a way to make it work, though, and I would definitely be interested to see how that works out.

[Eki]

10 tuntia sitten, PSchibra kirjoitti:

I think the thought itself (having one champion per year) is a good one, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to go about it.

I'm not familiar with the Finnish junior league system, so all I have to go off is the description you've provided here, but at first glance it seems like it's pretty much what already happens with the exception that the first ECL of the game's cycle is renamed to give it less meaning/value? Seems to me like if you have one long season with a halfway point that includes a promotion/relegation series, divisional playoffs for the top teams, resetting of the standings after said playoffs, presumably re-opening of the transfer window, etc., then isn't that what we have currently?

As mentioned before, it would certainly mean a lot more if there was only one champion per year, and that would also resemble the system that takes place in most traditional sports leagues, but my guess is that it would be hard to fully make the transition to a single, year-round tournament due to the nature of nhl 6v6 esports. Some of the reasons being that teams are formed by the players themselves, which tend to change rosters/ownership at much higher rates; some teams being in a division that does not match their level, thus causing the need for somewhat frequent promotions/relegations; the fact that this is just a casual pastime for the vast majority and not everyone can or should be forced to engage in something like that for a whole year. Perhaps there is a way to make it work, though, and I would definitely be interested to see how that works out.

Yea definitely get where you are coming from, my feedback will always have a bit off competitive player bias😅

Big point in my suggestion was that it is very similar to the format now. I think the division system is super cool. Like you said the only change would be to make the 1st playoffs the "ECL cup" while making it quicker and kind of rebrand it, so I don't think it would change that many things. Teams could still be promoted/relegated as quickly, transfers would probably be similar. 

To your last point if teams can't commit for the longer season that is the biggest issue with this. Maybe we could even have a different format in Elite compared to the rest 🤷  

[Claudi27]

Personally I don't see that much of a benefit to be gained to re-work the schedules and competition format.

Might be an odd example but some football leagues in south america do have a champion for the "apertura" and a champion for the "clausura", they basically play 2 seasons each year.