Player Ability Bans - ECL '25 Season Discussion

[Pawetzki]

1 tunti sitten, tkantola kirjoitti:

Without X-factors thats feels like a crap. 
If you want ban something to ECL, ban golden abilities and keep silver open. 
 

1/10 1T goes in now -> you can just play passive def. Idk and don't care about it but can't understand who feel that's " fair " or "good" gameplay now. Only nice part of the gameplay is the hitting so....
 

 

Well is that fair and good example onetee factory has feature that freezes goalie so he cant move when you shoot onetee?without xfactory we can move so nowdays goalies can save better onetimers.

Edited March 12 by Pawetzki

[Akunkku]

I've been reading this conversation—if you can call it that—for a while and have been thinking about writing, so now's the time. There have been some good arguments for both sides and some really uneducated ones that I want to comment on. If you're only going to read the TL;DR and get mad, please also read the paragraph about it before losing your marbles.
 

TL;DR:

• BS goals close to the net happen with or without close quarters, and defenses should be punished for allowing someone to shoot from that close.
• It is easy to defend one-tees if you're playing actively and not just standing in front of the net.
• Goalies will make saves they shouldn’t, with or without traits on the shooter or the goalie.
• The game auto-aims poke checks ridiculously well, with or without stick 'em up, though stick 'em up does improve aim slightly especially from awkward positions.
• Truculence makes the "rhino" playstyle too effective, and you can't counter hit after making a play.
• Banning everything would make passive defending more effective than aggressive defending.
  -> Let's just stand in front of the net and counter attack, yay free points.
• A large portion of goals already come from counter attacks, and it's much harder to score in 5v5 offensive zone situations than it is to defend them. Banning traits would only enforce this more.
• Golden one-tee and golden close quarters don't cause goals against well-structured defenses—they just punish defensive mistakes.
• Poor communication on SportsGamer's behalf is a major issue in this situation as well.

 

A lot of people have claimed that close quarters (CC) causes BS goals. It's true that you can score BS goals close to the net with or without CC, and it probably happens slightly more often with it. However, it's also a fact that goalies can absolutely rob you, even when sliding away from the shot and exposing an open net—something that, in my experience, happens more often than CC goals. Since CC only activates at close range, I don’t see how it’s unfair for those shots to sometimes go through the goalie. If you allow someone to take a shot from that close, they should have a higher chance of scoring. It's even realistic that shots from close range occasionally trickle through the goalie, and in my opinion, it's a good thing for the game that these shots are rewarded.

For the one-tee (1T) trait, I have similar thoughts. As a defender, it's incredibly easy to position yourself in the passing lane and prevent your man from getting 1T shot off. The 1T trait only makes a difference if you're standing right next to the attacker—then golden 1T might allow a shot that otherwise wouldn’t happen. More importantly, it's fun and rewarding to play active defense rather than just standing in front of the net, especially when there’s a risk-reward balance in benefit of playing aggressively. Yes, golden 1T allows for some unrealistic shots, but without the 1T threat, defenses tend to clog the middle of the zone, making offensive play more dull and predictable. When scoring becomes too difficult, defenders have no reason to spread out and/or take risks, leading to a game based more on luck than skill, for example, when forcing the puck towards the goal with passes or outside shots.

There's also been a lot of discussion about stick 'em up (SEU). I think poke checks in this game are already unrealistically good, even without SEU. For example, if you press R1 while an opponent is mid-deke, the game automatically aims at the puck, regardless of whether you have SEU equipped. With SEU, poke checks can connect slightly better espcially from worse positions, even behind your back, and the manual poke moves a bit faster. I’ve played with both elite and casual players, and I’ve heard complaints about SEU from both—often from players who skated straight into a poke check. That’s why I think SEU is too often used as a scapegoat for own mistakes. Personally, I don’t care whether it’s banned or not, since it doesn’t drastically alter gameplay like banning 1T would. Some people have said they’ve seen even elite defenders struggle without SEU, but if you’ve used a trait for nearly six months, it makes sense that it would take time to adjust even if the change is small.

Another hot topic this year has been truculence. Personally, I’ve always preferred gameplay without it. Without trucu, you can still land hits when it's realistic—and even when it's not realistic. But with trucu, you can too often hit someone just by making contact, even if they’re skating at full speed past you or you're trailing behind them at the same speed. I don’t think it’s overpowered or game breaking, but it does make the rhino playstyle too effective. As for counter hitting, sometimes it works against trucu, and sometimes it doesn’t—but in many situations, counter hitting isn’t the best move anyway. Often it's smarter to take a hit to make a play rather than trying to counter hit. Also you get penalised too rarely from boarding, charging or interferences after touching the puck so running aroung hitting people with trucu is not my preference of gameplay.

I think the biggest issue in all of this is the skill gap, which affects how gameplay feels across different leagues. I’m speaking from an elite perspective (I'm not above anyone. I'm not the best, nor am I even close, just a nerd about this stuff), where defensive mistakes—like allowing a wide-open 1T shot or letting someone walk in front of the net—should be rare. When these mistakes do happen, they should be punished. I don't really know how the gameplay is in lite or core division so I can't really speak on that but for me defensive mistakes should always be punished. The challenge is that elite and pro divisions need to have the same rules, and ideally, every division should follow the same ruleset.

One reason elite players are "whining" about this situation is the unbelievably poor communication surrounding these bans. When the first national leagues started, it was easy to predict that traits would also be banned in FCL, and it was likely decided early on—but why wasn't there an announcement as soon as the decision was made? And if the decision was made at the last second, why wait that long? This could have been decided right after the elite finals, giving players at least two and a half weeks of notice. Communication has always been a huge problem here and I don't understand how it still is after many many years.

Banning everything would make passive defending more effective than aggressive defending, leading to fewer quality scoring chances and more skating and passing around the corners. Large part of goals already come from counter-attacks, and it's much harder to score in a structured 5v5 offensive situation than it is to defend one. If scoring becomes even harder, it will lead to more goals from lucky bounces. BS goals will always happen, with or without traits, so banning everything for that reason alone is shortsighted. The one exception in scoring traits, in my opinion, is tipper. Golden tipper can create a meta where players just fire pucks on net from anywhere, making it the most effective strategy.

I don’t see why we should ban all golden traits just for the sake of gameplay balance. Doing so would shift the game toward a more passive playstyle, as silver 1T is significantly worse than its golden counterpart. Even with banning golden traits, traits would still be used as scapegoats, and people would still complain and gameplay would swift towards a more passive one—so no one would actually be happy. That’s how compromises work, though, so I understand it. That said, golden 1T and golden CC aren’t causing goals against well-structured defenses—they’re just punishing defensive mistakes.

[sopulii_]

Just gonna say it here - thanks LA, for making a decision on the spring seasons ability bans now instead of right before the season starts. 

The decision itself is a pretty interesting one, but some decision had to be made. Hopefully this is the compromise between banning everything vs nothing that most people can get behind 👍

[Kenu]

7 minutes ago, sopulii04 said:

Just gonna say it here - thanks LA, for making a decision on the spring seasons ability bans now instead of right before the season starts. 

The decision itself is a pretty interesting one, but some decision had to be made. Hopefully this is the compromise between banning everything vs nothing that most people can get behind 👍

Thanks, this was important for us to get done as early as possible after deep diving into the conversations here. Thank you to everyone who contributed!

For context, you can read the League Administration statement here:

 

[Hamlokepete]

Limits the number of good scoring chances your goalie must face.

[Poistin]

@Kenu I think we need same topic for NHL26

[Saviinainen]

I hope like we will play first ecl season with all abilities and then lets think bans if needed

[Edgard_gcn]

@Saviinainen bro truculence and big tipper banned again.. The rest no!

[Baranizer]

Let’s play some hockey first, then decide 

[Datsyykki13]

Wheels truculence ja tipper out plz

[iSvamp]

this is probably the first time ever that you’ve actually written something that makes sense

[kungenkirwa]

I suggest that all speed-boosting abilities, as well as the Truculence ability, should be banned in ECL. Speed-boosting abilities give players an unrealistic advantage, creating bursts of speed that disrupt the natural flow of the game and reduce the importance of positioning, strategy, and overall hockey IQ.

Similarly, Truculence provides an unfair physical advantage by making body checks excessively powerful, leading to unbalanced gameplay. Together, these abilities reduce competitiveness and make matches less enjoyable.

By banning both speed-boosting abilities and Truculence, gameplay would become more balanced and fair, rewarding skill, passing, and teamwork instead of relying on overpowered x factors. This change would greatly improve the competitive integrity and overall experience of playing this game.

As for tipper, there is currently not enough data available, so no stance will be taken on it at this time.

Edited yesterday at 01:25 PM by kungenkirwa

[Beniittto]

1 tunti sitten, kungenkirwa kirjoitti:

I suggest that all speed-boosting abilities, as well as the Truculence ability, should be banned in ECL. Speed-boosting abilities give players an unrealistic advantage, creating bursts of speed that disrupt the natural flow of the game and reduce the importance of positioning, strategy, and overall hockey IQ.

Similarly, Truculence provides an unfair physical advantage by making body checks excessively powerful, leading to unbalanced gameplay. Together, these abilities reduce competitiveness and make matches less enjoyable.

By banning both speed-boosting abilities and Truculence, gameplay would become more balanced and fair, rewarding skill, passing, and teamwork instead of relying on overpowered x factors. This change would greatly improve the competitive integrity and overall experience of playing this game.

As for tipper, there is currently not enough data available, so no stance will be taken on it at this time.

I wouldn’t advocate for banning elite edges since the players aren’t even near as agile as last year but i would be open to banning wheels

100% agree with the truculence thing, it takes like 10 seconds to get up even with full stamina, hitting is way too strong in general even with 70 body checking without truculence

I don’t expect tipper to be any different than last year although i haven’t seen it in action yet

Goalies seem way too overpowered atm but i don’t know if abilities have anything to do with that

[FINSeRe]

Truculence seems obvious ban as it’s stupidly OP. 

 

Not sure about banning skating X-Factors tho since their AP makes them expensive as hell. Elite Wheels and Elite Edges are 70 AP so you can have one of them and almost nothing else. X-Factors across the board seem to be more impactful so by doing this they are handicapping themself.  And if you are paying for example 70 AP, yeah it should be pretty powerful and in that case it’s on defenders ability to read this like they have to do with McDavid in real life.

 

In the old X-Factor system this was different as there was no AP tied to the perks. So ofc you would take Elite Edges which was the best single perk of them all as you can see how much AP it costs in NHL 26.

 

I also agree about big tipper as I haven’t had much experience with it but one alarming thing is that some X-Factors are A. locked behind season pass or B. coming in future seasons (who knows when) and will be locked behind battle pass. Goalie X-Factor Show Stopper which is suppose to counter deflections and screens isn’t even in season 1 pass, who know when we will get it.

 

And man Season Pass XP gains are fucked, unless they buff it, I can’t see people reaching higher tiers where X-Factors are locked without paying real money which is fucked up. They are kinda doing FOMO here as no1 seems to know what happens if you are not able to unluck them, will they be locked from you forever?

 

Basically you are getting ~300 Season Pass XP per game and it takes 10 000 XP to reaxh next level (I’m lv 12). And objectives aren’t helping much as I’ve done most of then already. So it’s around 30 games times 50 levels = 1 500 games which in real time takes 500 hours. So yeah fuck EA.

[Janikka]

11 tuntia sitten, FINSeRe kirjoitti:

Not sure about banning skating X-Factors tho since their AP makes them expensive as hell. Elite Wheels and Elite Edges are 70 AP so you can have one of them and almost nothing else. X-Factors across the board seem to be more impactful so by doing this they are handicapping themself. And if you are paying for example 70 AP, yeah it should be pretty powerful and in that case it’s on defenders ability to read this like they have to do with McDavid in real life.

I don't know about that. There's one McDavid in the NHL. Meanwhile, if Wheels becomes the meta, that's where everyone allocates their AP. So this idea about it being a strategic tradeoff is kind of an illusion, and everyone's build ends up looking very similar. On defense, it's not so much about needing to keep an eye on one guy with the extraordinary ability to blow past you when you're not paying attention. It's simply about adjusting to a meta where everyone uses the ability, so through sheer repetition (because you're facing it in every single game against almost every forward), you adjust your routine to skating back earlier or whatever.

Whether players like the meta (whatever the meta becomes) is the only real factor in whether specific abilities should be banned or not.

[Yoloberg]

me no like trubulunk becus me skating circles... elite edge ok keep.

[Poistin]

1 tunti sitten, Janikka kirjoitti:

I don't know about that. There's one McDavid in the NHL. Meanwhile, if Wheels becomes the meta, that's where everyone allocates their AP. So this idea about it being a strategic tradeoff is kind of an illusion, and everyone's build ends up looking very similar. On defense, it's not so much about needing to keep an eye on one guy with the extraordinary ability to blow past you when you're not paying attention. It's simply about adjusting to a meta where everyone uses the ability, so through sheer repetition (because you're facing it in every single game against almost every forward), you adjust your routine to skating back earlier or whatever.

Whether players like the meta (whatever the meta becomes) is the only real factor in whether specific abilities should be banned or not.

So u really think that this is ok?

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdb8572W/

[Janikka]

59 minuuttia sitten, Poistin kirjoitti:

So u really think that this is ok?

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdb8572W/

I'm having a bit of trouble connecting the dots between my post and this question. But no, I don't think that's ok.

[iSvamp]

Honestly, it’s quite simple if the upcoming season is meant to be played primarily on player and team skill. The logical approach would be to only allow Elite Edges, regardless of tier, and perhaps Endurance.

A lot of people here are reacting to X-Factors that provide speed boosts, and I agree with Jani on this: the META is something we inevitably force into existence. If forwards use abilities like Wheels, then defensemen are essentially forced to counter with the same, which ultimately leads to everyone running identical builds when ECL begins. This can be avoided by simply removing Wheels and any other X-Factors that create unnatural speed boosts, because there will always be ways to exploit them, as shown in the clips shared earlier.

Elite Edges, on the other hand, provides a natural improvement to movement. Allowing the most mechanically skilled players to use it doesn’t give them free offense, it simply rewards skill in terms of what each player can execute. That’s fair, because it’s available to everyone. Different players have different ceilings, and that’s how it should be.
In the end, championships are won by the best team play (Last Dance), not by one individual dominating like in the lower divisions.

The criticism of Truculence is also completely valid. It’s broken in this game and frustrating to face, whether you’re a forward or a defenseman. Even body checking in general feels overtuned, no matter the attribute. But that has always been the case since NHL 09: with speed and timing, hits land.

At the same time, there’s this strange culture where everyone insists on using 72.5 kg builds while expecting to be physically unbreakable. That contradiction is part of the problem. Players choose to sacrifice weight for speed, yet still expect to be rock-solid in physical battles.

What strikes me most is that very few forwards in this discussion even consider banning anything other than speed boosts or physical dominance. What about Quick Release or other shooting-boosting abilities? Do we really need them? Season after season, we’ve shown that scoring rates don’t actually drop when we remove those perks. I analyzed last season to see which teams lost offensive production after losing their gold abilities in NHL 25. Only one Elite team saw a noticeable decline, and it was significant. Every other team performed better, likely because they played a different type of hockey that leaned more on team play.

If the goal is to create hockey that resembles the real game and rewards teamwork, then the best model is what we had in NHL 21 and 22: let the meta be Elite Edges, not a collection of boosts to speed or shooting.

I understand this will cause a reaction. Scoring goals is fun, and some players probably feel they’ve become better scorers in this version of the game thanks to Quick Release. But if forwards are allowed such handicaps in front of the net, then perhaps we should allow Truculence for defensemen—and for defensemen only.

The defensive side of the game is being overlooked too. Poke checks are weak, and NHL 26 enables extremely fast passing tempos. Yet we accept that forwards can run abilities that literally reduce a goalie’s save percentage. Shouldn’t that be just as important to discuss? Too often, these debates focus only on offense, when they should be about the whole game.

In a tournament played for money, at the highest level of eHockey, we should aim for as few handicaps as possible. Games should be decided by team play and individual skill, not by artificial advantages baked into the game. I genuinely don’t understand why a top player would need a shooting boost in the first place. Using Quick Release is the equivalent of running an aimbot in CS, and Truculence is like wearing reactive body armor.

We should strip it back and run tournaments where the only X-Factors allowed are Elite Edges for natural movement and Endurance to maintain tempo. Everything else should be removed. That would allow players to once again use any length or weight they want without being locked into a narrow meta. It would force people to think deeply about their builds, and success would come down to skill and hockey IQ, exactly as it should.

[localhefe]

22 tuntia sitten, kungenkirwa kirjoitti:

I suggest that all speed-boosting abilities, as well as the Truculence ability, should be banned in ECL. Speed-boosting abilities give players an unrealistic advantage, creating bursts of speed that disrupt the natural flow of the game and reduce the importance of positioning, strategy, and overall hockey IQ.

 

Trucu ban, keep the rest. There are like 5 different xfactors that give speed/acc boost. No point to ban them all. 
 

at least these give speed/acc boosts:

no contest, send it, ankle breaker, joukkueen sytyttäjä (Team energizer?? dunno whats it in english), wheels

[Axelsson]

I think you can play completely without perks. Because EA keeps making broken perks with super speed or you die from a tackle (Truculence). So play without perks every year so we dont have to have this discussion every year.

[pakjiz]

The following are the abities that should be banned, in my opinion:

- Truculence (and Hipster). Both have the possibility of constantly knocking off opposing player’s sticks. That leads to more rng and less skill. Hitting is already strong enough.

- Wheels (and Elite Edges, No Contest). There’s enough (skating) speed in the game already. These abilities take away from the passing aspect of the game and ephasize a single player carrying the puck too much.

And these abilities (at least Wheels) - if not banned - also are a must-have, because you need to match up with the meta. To me, if any ability is so op that it’s basically a must-have to keep up, then it should be banned.

Makes the game a lot more interesting imo if we see people using different kind of builds. Having Wheels available does the opposite: it just makes everyone pick between the two remaining abilities instead of picking three. 

- Big tipper. Ephasizes rng, and less skill. I know getting tip shots is a skill in itself. But this ability still puts too much focus on luck.

- Ankle Breaker. Going to need more updates on this. But IF it activates the ”panic reactions” (like it says on the description) on defending human players it should be banned. It’s the same kind of mechanic than the flying sticks with Truculence: it doesn’t promote actually being good at the game.

- Unstoppable and Big Rig (and maybe Warrior). If we ban Truculence then these abilities should be banned as well. And like with banning Wheels, banning these abilites promotes passing and team play instead of just carrying/holding on the puck.

In addition to restricting hits Big Rig is really broken as it makes you immune to poke checks while carrying the puck with the hustle protect or L2 protect.

—————

It might seem like a long list of bans compared to the past. But I think the big difference this year is that you can unlock any ability with any kind of build. Where as in the past for example if you wanted Unstoppable Force you had to sacrifice your speed among other things to meet the requirements for that.

 

edit: Also I didn’t comment on goalie abilities at all as I haven’t done any research on them. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some that should be banned there as well.

Edited 45 minutes ago by pakjiz

[Toivo]

I vote for only ban truculence because it’s to op and the other perks is not in my opinion and perks is a part of the game. If we ban all perks everyone are just gonna play with exactly same length and weight.

[pakjiz]

Just now, Toivo kirjoitti:

I vote for only ban truculence because it’s to op and the other perks is not in my opinion and perks is a part of the game. If we ban all perks everyone are just gonna play with exactly same length and weight.

The abilities don’t have anything to do with player’s height or weight in this version.