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    ECL 5 Has Arrived: Register Now!

    Good day NHLGamers,

    Hope you enjoyed our ECL 5 trailer - it has been in the works for quite some time. Be sure to share it and spread the word if you liked it. We can tell you that a lot of effort went into making it and while a great many people have been involved in its execution from start to finish (including of course our featured talent @Bjono, @pnordetun, @cHIIMEERa, @Hansulinho & @Dominointi who couldn't have been more professional during the shoots), no one more so than @LastMandalorian

    From developing the concept months ago, to setting up the film shoots, to traveling around Sweden and Finland to actually film it - all the way through editing the material and picking the right music. Hats off to you, sir - a job well done.

     

    Hockey returns

    133. That is the exact amount of days since the European Championship League was last in action. 133 days (or more than 3000+ hours) of waiting for this next shot at virtual ice hockey glory. It is true that while this years Summer Cup did satiate some of the community need for competitive gaming, there is nothing quite like ECL hockey.

    The fourth ECL season was a season of change for many reasons. A new system featuring divisions was implemented. Instead of one lone winner, three champions were to be crowned. As a result more teams than ever before chose to sign up; a trend we hope (and expect) to continue as the ECL continues to expand its reach.

    When the dust settled and the smoke had cleared after ECL 4, the NHLGamer "Hall of Champions" that already featured Nordic Blizzard (ECL 1), MUKIMIEHET (ECL 2) and X Factor (ECL 3) had been expanded to include Laser HT, Carlsberg HC and J P T J who managed to bring home the titles for Elite, Pro and Lite respectively.

    Furthermore, we got to see the first ever Xbox ECL with OHO SORI winning the title in 5 games against The Black Jacks. We think it was a good start and would like to support this community initiative of bringing more competitive tournaments to the NHL landscape on Microsoft's console. That is why we will also give you the opportunity to sign up for Xbox ECL 2!

     

     

    ps4.png.2e45c0fea90fa7ec1767237449ee50e3.png

    ECL 5 - PS4

    While ECL 5 will be bigger and hopefully more competitive than ECL 4 it will not feature the same amount of change to our structure, something we hope will offer a welcome sense of continuity with regards to how much things changed last season. In short, this means the rulebook, the divisions and most of the things that worked really well in ECL 4 will continue to be implemented in ECL 5 as well.

    This also means that, while we did find the ongoing discussion and community vote concerning the ECL point system - mostly a debate between the merits of employing a 3-point system versus a 2-point system - interesting and balanced, we will not change from the current 2-point format at this time. We welcome continuous discussion on this topic as the ECL continues to evolve.

    Furthermore, we are sure that one of the biggest questions for some teams and members at this stage is "where will we play this season?" as the poll concerning if you should be able to apply for Pro or not turned out to be quite divisive. This has perhaps been the biggest question faced by the staff ahead of this season.

    The baseline we are working from is this: if you earned your place in either the Pro or Elite divisions last season, you still have the right to it. We will not be employing any type of forced demotion in either of these two divisions. In a vacuum, this means we already have our 16 Elite teams and 32 Pro teams ready to go.

    Outside of this "vacuum", the truth is that many of these Elite and Pro teams have experienced significant changes during the off-season between ECL 4 and 5.

    Therefore, if you are either a Pro or Elite team (based on how ECL 4 ended) - you need to confirm your participation in the division you ended up in last season. If you do not confirm your spot before the last sign-up date, that spot will need to be filled by the Staff. Read on to find out how to sign up for ECL 5 and how to apply for these open spots.

     

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    Framework

    • Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players.
    • 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL challenge game mode in NHL 18.
    • Individual requirements: Each player needs to create an account at NHLGamer.com and create his personal player card.
    • Roster requirements: Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players.
    • Sign-up period: Teams can register until October 13, 23:59 CEST.
    • ECL 5 Kick-off: ECL 5 is set to start on October 16.
    • Rules: TBA

     

    Sign-up procedures

    There will be different ways of signing up to ECL 5 this time - the procedures are explained in detail in the section below. Generally speaking:

    • New teams that did not participate in ECL 4 at all or teams that were relegated from ECL 4 Pro: Please read the "ECL Lite" paragraph below.
    • Teams that were able to stay in ECL Pro, were relegated from ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Lite during ECL 4: Please read the "ECL Pro" paragraph below.
    • Teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 4: Please read the "ECL Elite" paragraph below.

     

    59b93b5d349e2_LITE-FSsmall.png.a2c93dcf98bf8afc24c639404d606223.png

    ECL Lite

    ECL Lite welcomes any and all teams that did not participate in ECL 4 as well as the teams that were relegated from ECL Pro during ECL 4. As last season, there will be no limit to the amount of registrations! We will flexibly adjust group sizes to accomodate all teams that are looking to participate.

    To sign up your team for ECL Lite, we ask the main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Lite registration thread: ECL 5 Lite Registration
    You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes.

    Due to the fact that only 31 teams are ECL Pro qualified at this time - and other teams may be folding -  we also offer teams the opportunity to apply for ECL Pro during the sign up process. However, ECL Lite quarter-finalists from ECL 4 will take first priority when filling up spots in the Pro division, which means only a few or no spots at all might be available for completely new teams.

    When looking at Pro applications, we will choose applicants depending on their player strength and other factors such as in-game 6 vs. 6 leaderboard results. Below is the list of prioritized teams:

    Quote

    HC Ancient Warriors
    Banterfield Battalion
    EN HUND
    Dynamo Danglers

     

     

    59b93b5dc1fdb_PRO-FSsmall.png.b230dad9b3946639882b3f0fc4a70010.png

    ECL Pro

    ECL Pro is our 2nd division and will consist of all the teams that were able to stay in ECL Pro, were relegated from ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Lite during ECL 4. ECL Pro has a fixed size of 32 teams, divided into two groups. All the qualified teams are listed below:

    Quote

    Moved down from ECL Elite:
    Finnish Roosters
    SIKA
    Rynnäkköviikset
    Refuse To Lose

    Made playoffs:
    Rusty Blades
    Unlucky Boys HC
    Shameful Knights
    Nocturnal Hunters
    White Trash
    ORIGINS
    Nordic Stars
    Alliance HT
    Germany's Finest
    Royal Club
    HC Checkmate
    Huppati HC

    Mid-table:
    Baltic Sea Eagles
    Free From Rodents
    HC Magic Zone
    AK 47
    Pata Hellalla
    Inter Iceland
    Bellizzi

    Survived relegation battles:
    Bare Knuckles Hockey
    murohoki
    Showtime
    Nemesis

    Moved up from ECL Lite:
    Lavetten
    DEAD END KINGS
    Hawks Hockey Club
    J P T J

     

    To sign up your team for ECL Pro, we ask the team's ECL 4 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Pro registration thread: ECL 5 Pro Registration
    You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes.

    In case ECL Elite teams are folding, we will automatically ask the best ECL Pro qualifiers from ECL 4 to fill these spots, according to their playoffs progress (criteria #1) and regular season PPG average (criteria #2). You are not required to apply for these spots. However, you are required to confirm your attendance for ECL Pro to be considered for selection.

     

     

    59b93b5c41fc2_ELITE-FSsmall.png.fd1c48f99900be776964b36c4c8e0c85.png

    ECL Elite

    ECL Elite is our 1st division, housing the very best 16 European teams in a single group. It will consist of all the teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 4. All the qualified teams are listed below:

    Quote

    Made playoffs:
    Dynasty
    Laser HT
    Limitless
    MUKIMIEHET
    Nordic Nightmare
    Synergy Hockey
    Unknown
    Written In The Stars

    Mid-table:
    Aapon Taikasauva
    Nordic Lightning
    Northern Stars
    TIKI TALK

    Moved up from Pro:
    Carlsberg HC
    Kattiautomaatti
    Silver Sword Griffins
    Sjukstugan

     

    To sign up your team for ECL Elite, we ask the team's ECL 4 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Elite registration thread: ECL 5 Elite Registration
    You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes.

     

     

    xbox.png.b79effa518d97cfce011f62c81b445d9.png

     

    Xbox ECL 2

    To help in building a larger competitive Xbox community, we will host the second edition of Xbox ECL. The first season was based on a community initiative that started off with few individuals asking for a NHLGamer branded tournament taking place on Xbox One. Thanks to these members who contacted other teams on their platform of choice to spread the word, interest was starting to pick up, and the first season ended with a total of 5 teams.

    While this is undoubtedly a small number compared to the amount of teams on PS4, we know that plenty of players joined NHLGamer during recent months. And thanks to the dedicated players that were doing their best to set up the first season, we expect participation to grow in the long run.

    Xbox ECL 2 won't be based on the divisions format that is taking place on PS4, and instead will instead offer a league format used in Xbox ECL and ECL 1-3 on PS4 - however, our long term goal is having divisions on Xbox One as well.

     

    Framework

    • Regional restrictions: ECL is a European tournament format, however we do not necessarily exclude North American or Russian players. North American players are not allowed to host matches / be captain in the lineup, which means all games need to take place on European servers. This also applies to Russian players - please evaluate your previous connection experience against some of the teams participating in the ECL, especially if you live in eastern parts of your country (which likely connects you to US West servers). In case of severe connection issues, we reserve the right to exclude teams or players.
    • 6 vs. 6 tournament: ECL is played 6 vs. 6 only, using the EASHL challenge game mode in NHL 18.
    • Individual requirements: Each player needs to create an account at NHLGamer.com and create his personal player card.
    • Roster requirements: Teams need to have at least 8 players to sign up. The roster cap is 14 players.
    • Sign-up period: Registrations will be open indefinitely until 8 teams have agreed to participate. Afterwards, sign-ups will be open for another two weeks to make for a larger competition.
    • Rules: TBA

     

    XBOX-FS.thumb.png.d67aec05c3e177787b5b70f7e5b0cb0c.png

     

    Sign-up procedure

    To sign up your team for Xbox ECL 2, we ask the main captain (C) only to go to the Xbox ECL 2 registration thread: XBOX ECL 2 Registration
    You will find in-depth instructions on the procedure, including all the necessary details you need to provide - such as team name, abbreviation, EA SPORTS team page and possible name changes.

     

    Final notes

    ECL and its divisions format is in a process of continuous evolvement. When NHLGamer.com first announced the switch to setting up three skill-based divisions, our main goal was to transform the diverse EASHL landscape to encourage the development of true franchises.

    Thanks to all the dedicated players out there, this is already bearing fruit:

    Established teams are building a core roster while also paying attention to the plenty of ambitious newcomers in the NHL community.
    We see social media channels popping up on a weekly, if not daily basis.
    We see lots of new streamers on Twitch and other platforms, showing off ECL to all the NHL fans out there.
    We see allies supporting our project more frequently than ever before.
    We see how the community is evolving and shaping up to be a professional and organized force in the gaming landscape.

    This is something we will continue to support in the future. We believe that, even though we might see a few teams folding this or even next season, which potentially requires us to restructure some of the divisions, in the long run we will see a healthy and fluid framework for the greatest 6 vs. 6 experience that's out there.

    It's not our achievement. It's your achievement. We welcome everyone to continue this road of success. We welcome everyone to play with the best.

     

    @The_Alpha_Furyan & @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com


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    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    Nice! 

    just one valid question according to the "Pro applications". 

    Now when the "6 player rankings" in-game are broken (the rankings shows us 4000 teams at rank 1.) 
    How are you going to decide what team that will get a free-spot in PRO? 
    6's rankings? rankings that actually includes 2vs2, 2vs6, 3vs6 bot-games? 
    or are you going for win/lose ratio in 6vs6 by checking every team manually, now when the 6-player ranking shows every team at 1000 cr and at the same rank? 

    What I mean is: on a 6-player ranking that works can actually a team with a 40-11-0 record be ahead of a team with a 162-40-0 record, just because you lose more points against a team with a bad record and you gain more points against a team with a "good" record. But we can't see the ranking points in-game atm. 
     

    A valid question for us who will be a team that will try to get a spot in PRO for the next tournament. What are you going to do if EA don't fix the leaderboards before the next tournament starts? cuz they didn't in the last patch. 

    Thx

    Svamp 

    • Like 2

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    As described in the text, we will look at various factors such as in-game leaderboards (6 vs. 6 of course), specifically win/loss ratios and recent games against contenders in the three divisions, but also player composition, history and other factors that allow us to determine whether a team is a good fit for a sustainable division system.

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    thx (y)

    But as I wrote, the 6vs6 leaderboard is broken. 
    And U can only see the last 20 played games. 
    But I think u will solve it in some way. 
     

    Edited by iSvamp
    • Like 3

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    Who produced that trailer? Jesus?

    Awesome work nonetheless. Guess Chiimera really wants NOS to win again, seeing those frustrating screams repeated three times!

     

     

    Edited by Jesus
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    Admins - If EA doesn't fix the bug with goals disappearing before the start of ECL5, how will you handle this, with an new rule or postpone the start?

    What are your thoughts on this?

    Btw, awesome video.

    • Like 2

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    On 26.9.2017 at 3:48 PM, tokFan said:

    Admins - If EA doesn't fix the bug with goals disappearing before the start of ECL5, how will you handle this, with an new rule or postpone the start?

    What are your thoughts on this?

    Btw, awesome video.

    There will be a rule covering this scenario.

    • Like 3

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