ECL 5 - Elite Playoffs

ECL 5 - Elite Playoffs

A week after the ECL 5 Lite playoffs kicked off, Pro and Elite are now heading into the most exciting time of the season too! The Pro playoffs will be covered in a seperate post, so if you are a Pro team be sure to check that out. Time to cover Elite! 

FRAMEWORK

• Each pairing, championship or promotion/relegation faceoffs, must be finished within 7 days of the series' start date. Don't expect any extensions!
• All pairings are to be played in a best-of-7 series (teams on the left side below play home first)

ELITE PLAYOFFS

The very best 8 teams are about to enter the final stages of the most exciting 6 vs. 6 competition NHLGamer has to offer! It's where everlasting stories are written (no pun intended) and true heroes are born. The ECL Elite playoffs starts off with these 4 pairings:

• Aapon Taikasauva vs. Rusty Blades
• Carlsberg HC vs. Northern Stars
• SJK eSports vs. Northern Ascendancy
• Written In The Stars vs. Dynasty

ELITE RELEGATION FACEOFFS

The teams that finished 13th and 14th in the standings will pause for a bit until two ECL Pro semi-final losers are determined. Thus, while two Elite teams are relegated instantly (see below), a strong ECL Pro representation could potentially open up two more Elite spots:

• Nordic Nightmare vs. ECL Pro semi-final loser 1 (series starts when ECL Pro semi-finals are finished)
• TIKI TALK vs. ECL Pro semi-final loser 2 (series starts when ECL Pro semi-finals are finished)

ECL RELEGATIONS

Synergy Hockey and Nordic Lightning weren't able to get it done in Elite this season and are relegated to ECL Pro for ECL 6. However, there's no time for frustration - charge the batteries and come back strong in ECL 6!

THE (UN)LUCKY FEW?

MUKIMIEHET, Kattiautomaatti, Sjukstugan and Silver Sword Griffins finished the season ranked 9 to 12 and will remain in ECL Elite for ECL 6. While MUKIMIEHET came very close to making the playoffs, the other teams were in danger of being relegated but managed to evade it. With new Pro teams entering the ring, things are only going to get tougher in the future, so stay focused and keep building those rosters to not share the fates of Synergy Hockey's and Nordic Lightning's next season.

Best of luck to everyone and see you on the ice!

@The_Alpha_Furyan & @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com