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Hey NHLGamers, we witnessed what some would describe as upset wins in the Lite playoffs. We definitely have to mention that there is only one team out of the top six regular season teams remaining. At this stage, there are no teams left that don't belong there, though. The level of competitiveness is very high and all teams want to pick up their spots for the Pro division. The winner of the series earn their guaranteed spot in the higher division in ECL 7. So the price is high, the fall is near endless. Let's have a look at the upcoming matchups: (2) Cowabunga Hockey vs MotherPuckers (19) (7) GHETTO FIREBIRDS vs Sektion K (15) (8) EV Duisburg vs Pohjoista Voimaa (13) (11) Style vs Freddie Mercury Institute (12) The quarter final round is going to be played from 30th March until 7th April 2018 (Saturday). No extra time will be given! We hope we can cover some playoff action via our NHLGamer Twitch channel. At the very least you will be able to follow the action by following the respective team channels. Stay tuned on the NHLGamer.com front page to stay on top of the action. Best of luck to all of the remaining teams!

Hey NHLGamers, I hope you're as excited as we are about the ECL Playoffs that are underway in the Lite and Pro divisions at the moment. Tonight, starting at 19:30 CEST, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as we start things off with some ECL Lite action, as GHETTO FIREBIRDS and Korpens Finest finnish their battle to figure out who will move on to the quarter finals. We anticipated an even series between these two and so far that prediction has been spot on, as the teams start from 2-2 in wins, going into game 5. You can read our prediction below: See all Lite Round 2 predictions here. After these two have decided their series, we will jump into some ECL Pro action, as Alliance HT and Deadly Phantoms HC play their first Playoff games of the season. The teams have agreed to play a total of four games tonight and the action starts at 21:00 CEST. You can read our prediction about the series below: See all ECL Pro Round 1 predictions here. The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. The games will be broadcasted by @Kenu, @nylanderi and @Panarinz. Check out the starting line-ups below:

Hi there NHLGamers, The playoff spring is starting to heat up as the sun shines brighter and we close in on the really important games of the season. For some, the season ends and a break from hockey ensues, but there is still a lot of action to keep your eyes peeled for. Our Lite division is going on to it's second round of playoff action. This means that the best 16 teams in this division remain to compete for the title and promotion to the Pro division come ECL 7. Let's have a look at the upcoming matchups: (1) Bare Knuckles Hockey vs MotherPuckers (19) Much like their last series, Bare Knuckles Hockey has all the pressure in this one. Once again, we will witness a David vs. Goliath-matchup. Although MotherPuckers have some experienced players in their lineup, their game hasn't really translated to the scoresheet this season. The outcome of this series will very much depend on the performance of Bare Knuckles top scorer Teroe94 (@Tero Paikkari). If the MotherPuckers up the level of their team defense, this series could definitely be up for grabs for them. Prediction: 4:3 Bare Knuckles Hockey (2) Cowabunga Hockey vs Bucketeers (17) Cowabunga Hockey is one of my personal favourites as a title contender. A high-scoring offense (84 goals in the regular season) complemented with excellent team defense and a strong goaltender in @Jonitski makes them one of the best teams in the Lite division. In the second round, they will be facing Bucketeers, who rely heavily on a good neutral zone trap and simple decisions in the offensive end. Bucketeers isn't a team that will present the most beautiful hockey, but it surely is effective in winning the games. Prediction: 4:1 Cowabunga Hockey (3) SGWEER United vs Sektion K (15) SGWEER United picked up right where they left after the regular season. Being the highest scoring team in the regular season, they scored 33 goals in 5 games during their first-round matchup against Kaksikymmentaseitseman. @Gregson91 and riNBF3 (@rene hackberger) are responsible for most of their production, so it will be crucial for Sektion K to shut down this dynamic duo. Sektion K will be relying on @Tauri in net to be a brick wall and @Edhoolm97 to produce for them in the offensive zone. Prediction: 4:2 SGWEER United (4) Hippo Rangers vs Pohjoista Voimaa (13) Both teams swept their first round opponents. In other similarities, both teams finished their regular season in 2nd place in their respective groups. Both teams also have very strong goaltenders in @Perkkari for Hippo and @meiha for Pohjoista Voimaa. This will be a tough series - expect low scoring games. Prediction: 4:3 Hippo Rangers (5) Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat vs Freddie Mercury Insitute (12) I'm expecting a tough clash in this series. Both teams are solid defensively, backed by good goaltenders in @hulkamaania and @TheSpeedo, who will be having their own battle of the goalies. The other significant battle in this series will be between the more experienced members of each team. @Samzoni on Hinkkaajat's end will need to elevate his game to match Kickingapollo (@kApollo) in what I see as the other pair of players that will make an impact on this series. Prediction: 4:3 Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat (6) Suomen Sonnit vs Style (11) Personally, I saw Suomen Sonnit as one of the strongest contenders before the season. Inconsistency in the regular season might have lead to a surprisingly low seed for the playoffs, but I'm expecting this team to pick it up a bit the further we go into the important games. On the other side we have Style - a team in their first ECL season after dominating the Swedish OEHL. I'm expecting to see a tightly contested series as both teams know how to put the puck in the net and defend in their own end. Prediction: 4:3 Suomen Sonnit (7) GHETTO FIREBIRDS vs Korpens Finest (10) In this series we have GHETTO FIREBIRDS who are looking to redeem themselves after a tough last season in Pro. The regular season didn't go as well as they maybe would've hoped, but the birds still easily made the playoffs and managed to overcome their first-round opponent 4-1. This series isn't going to be as easy, as Korpens Finest is hoping to put up a good fight. Although seeding 10th into the playoffs, we must not forget that Korpens topped their regular season group. Prediction: 3:4 Korpens Finest (8) EV Duisburg vs Etelan Vetelat (9) Duisburg is one of the most experienced Lite teams. Having been close to promotion for a few seasons, this might be the time to shine for them. We know they won't be stumbling on goaltending with @FoxGoalie standing tall in net. Can they produce enough to move on to the next round? We're expecting to see great things, especially from @ShawnMcNeil and @GreatOne139 up front. The Germans will be facing an inexperienced Etelan Vetelat, led by @jouni29 on offense. Etelan will hope to cause an upset, but it is hard to see as they were struggling a bit in the first round against 5th Line Heroes. Prediction: 4:0 EV Duisburg We're expecting tight matchups and an exciting time. Be sure to post your streams on the frontpage so we'll be able to follow along! The second round is going to be played from 23rd March until 29th March 2018 (next Thursday). No extra time will be given! Special thanks to @Panarinz for assisting in the creation of this preview.

NHLGamers, The playoffs have arrived also for our Pro division. We've got the best 16 teams remaining to fight it out for the Pro title and promotion spots for ECL Elite. This spring we have some very interesting matchups set up for us and we're excited to be able to preview them for you guys. Let's get going with the matchups: Monarchs (1A) - Raging Monkeys (8B) The Monarchs were a team many around the community knew about even before the start of the season due to Captain and goaltender @chavelski's brutally honest forum series "Life of a General Manager". Toes were stepped on, certain amounts of drama was created - but the unit of players that ended up representing the Monarchs was a strong one. Going into the playoffs, the lineup will be led by veteran Swedish center @pajenc, known for his terrific puck control and excellent vision. Flanking him to the left he'll have @Tacterz, and to the right @Zalaz, one known for his excellent dangling skill and the other for his smart two-way play. On defense they'll ice point-producing machine @Philip Strom with smart defensive defender Bortalaget covering up in home field. In net Chavelski has yet to be defeated this season, going 18-0-0 during the regular season. That will be put to test versus the Raging Monkeys where Swedish captain @Buffy has assembled quite the foreign legion. @DangledYouOut and Akin71 from Germany and @Birkedal96 rumoured to be from Denmark. Furthermore, word around the community says Group 2 was the tougher overall group, which could have left the Monkeys battle-hardened and ready for a challenge. Raging Monkeys excel by playing an up-tempo, fast attacking style when they have the puck while remaining patient without it. It will likely come down to a battle of captains here as BuffyTBH was Monkeys' leadings scorer while chavelski's undefeated tenure in net is certainly impressive. Prediction: Monarchs win 4-3. FILADELPHIA (1B) - Quality (8A) We knew going into the season that FILA was a heavy favorite contender. They surely lived up to the hype by surfacing as the number one seed into the playoffs with an astonishing 27-1-2 regular season record. They were by far the highest scoring team in the Pro division, outscoring the second best team in this category by 29 goals in total. Defensively we know these guys can hang with the best in the game. It should be all about motivation and focus for FILADELPHIA in this series. Will they keep powering on in the playoffs or can the underdog Quality put them back in their place? Quality was the lowest seed into the playoffs, a team that underwent several roster changes before the deadline and almost the whole starting lineup was changed at some point. However, the team managed to find their game a bit closer to the end of the regular season. The addition of @KattenJansson97 seemed to boost their offensive production, but the defensive play is still a concern. Can they match the dominant FILA offensive trio of @mikaasi-@Erkki-@Joonas Paatiala who put up a combined point total of 239 points in the regular season? Prediction: FILADELPHIA win 4-1. Almost Famous (2A) - Monte Carlo (7B) Almost Famous was the runner-up last season in Lite and they also came 2nd in group 1 this season in Pro. They are used to finishing in 2nd place and will want to show that they can reach for that gold this playoff. With last Lite season’s best point and assist producer and also ECL 6 Pro’s best faceoff taker, @Ikavalko, and their mentor/coach in the own zone @Aze, they know how to play strong in both ends of the ice. Monte Carlo has been a team flying under the radar this season with a mid-table finish, playing even matches throughout the season. But if you look at their team you see that it is full of former top players, see @Lage, Octobussy (@Masapunda) and @J0HTAJA for example. With ECL Leader @Kenu by their side, anything can happen. The series has already begun and Monte Carlo have a 2-1 lead so far. Although I see Almost Famous turn it around, being a consolidated group of guys and knowing each other’s playstyle in and out may be the difference in this series. Prediction: Almost Famous win 4-3. Alliance HT (2B) - Deadly Phantoms HC (7A) In this series we'll have the clash at the Iron Curtain with a really strong Alliance HT against the Deadly Phantoms HC, who performed well in their inaugural season in Pro. Alliance finished their season with 7-3-0 in their last 10 games as they started to click and find their game. They scored 20 goals in their last four games of the regular season, led by @Awptim as their top scorer. @JaikenK was solid in both ends of the ice, proving to be a tremendous off-season signing and an important addition to the team. The German team Deadly Phantoms HC will certainly have their work cut out for them, but an upset is not completely out of the question in this one. The Phantoms are a solid defensive team who will go for the simple solutions offensively, but tend to be very effective despite that. The most dangerous element in this team is the fact that they can ice five scoring players in any game. There isn't one obvious scorer and one obvious playmaker so it'll keep the Alliance defense on their toes. Prediction: Alliance HT win 4-2. SIKA (3B) – Arctic (6A) Oh boy - two veteran teams here going at it. Or, let me re-phrase that: two groups of veteran players going at it. While SIKA is a storied franchise in the halls of NHLGamer, Arctic is a fresh team but it does consist of veteran players like captaincy trio @selänne8, @TackleControl and @MAYZIIX. Expect SIKA to carry the play and defend well through well balanced defensive pairing @vSilenttio and @MCH_98. While vSilenttio is the more offensively gifted of the two, both bring strong two-way sensibilites to the game and can help you win regardless of opponent. The attack will be led by SIKA stalwart @imosi and new aquisition @yrjoo, likely flanked by @Naikou88. On Arctics side, a lot comes down to captain BiggestEight - the primary offensive threat on Arctic. This "Hidden Gem" is a goal-scoring machine but will be relied upon to make plays and defend as well, if Arctic is to come out alive from this one. Mayziix and YouShallNotPass (@swe best sniper) form a strong D block and TackleControl is the primary dishmaster for "the Cold Ones". Look for this one to go 7. Prediction: SIKA Win 4-3. Shameful Knights (3A) - Red Machine (6B) The Knights had a decent regular season. They didn't quite perform as well as some might have expected, but certainly did enough to get the job done. Their roster performed evenly and the scoring worked well in every way. The problem I can see Shameful running into is not being able to provide the "wow"-factor. The lineup hasn't changed much and their game hasn't quite evolved to the level it probably should have. As their playoff series start they will surely hope to prove this preview wrong and put on a show for us viewers. On the other side of the ice we'll see a team in their second ECL season after a Lite title run in ECL 5. Red Machine acquired their top scorer @RutonMosse just before the start of the season and although there have been rumours about an upper body injury, the youngster has kept producing. As long as his linemates can continue feeding him the puck we might see an upset provided my RED. Prediction: Red Machine win 3-4. White Trash (4A) - Clowns On Ice (5B) White Trash have a lot of ECL experience, as they have played 4 ECL seasons. Watch out for Kaneyh (@Kane), White Trash top scorer with 34 goals and a 53.1 shooting percentage during the regular season. Clowns On Ice have former ECL experience too, playing in 3 seasons and also having just started GCL Season 2. Clowns On Ice had the worst PP% of all teams that made it to the playoff, but their forward @Tim_FlyersFan was 2nd in goals, 3rd in points and 1st in shots taken during the regular season in Pro. Both teams are fairly comfortable in high scoring games and you will probably see that in this series as well. Prediction: White Trash win 4-2. Synergy Hockey (4B) - Baltic Sea Eagles (5A) Two games have already been played and the series is tied 1-1. Synergy finished the season in a very strong manner, with six wins and grabbing points in nine consecutive games. Synergy is a very experienced team that has played all six ECL seasons, two of them in Elite. After being relegated last season they would look to get promoted back up again. Baltic Sea Eagles have been consistent throughout this season and have a very stable and reliable defense. They also have players at the top of the hits leaderboard. When you face them you need to stay focused throughout the whole game, cause if you don't, you will get mangled in the boards. These games will probably be very defensive and don't be surprised if a couple of the games goes to OT. This prediction is highly relying on Synergy's form at the moment. Prediction: Synergy win 4-2. There's a lot of playoff hockey to be played and anything can happen. The beauty in this time of year is that any game can go any way and in a tightly contested series we can expect to see some exciting turns of events. Be sure to check the NHLGamer front page for streams to tune in to! Thanks to @Panarinz and @The_Alpha_Furyan for creating this preview in co-operation with Yours Truly.

Hey NHLGamers, an eventful regular season in ECL Pro is behind us. We saw tough battles for the playoff spots and teams fighting for their life to avoid the relegation battles. Unfortunately LA had to disqualify two teams (Inter Iceland and Sypperstaars) because of several rule infractions. Pro group 1 therefore had only 26 games to finish their regular season. All of our predicted favorites who were mentioned in our season preview by @jahajaha93 are qualified for the best time of the year. The so called underdog Monarchs actually turned out to be the strongest team in Group 1. As expected, FILADELPHIA showed their skill by winning group 2 and are still on their path to get to the Elite division as soon as possible. The first round in the Pro playoffs is cross-seeded, which means the top seed of group 1 will face off against the lowest seed of group 2. After the first round, the seeding will be set by PPG. Below are the matchups for round 1: (1) FILADELPHIA vs Quality (16) (2) Monarchs vs Raging Monkeys (15) (3) Almost Famous vs Monte Carlo (14) (4) Alliance HT vs Deadly Phantoms HC (13) (5) SIKA vs Arctic (12) (6) Shameful Knights vs Red Machine (11) (7) White Trash vs Clowns on Ice (9) (8) Synergy Hockey vs Baltic Sea Eagles (10) All series will be played in a best-of-seven series from 26th of March 2018 until the 4th of April 2018. The first round is a little bit extended to account for the easter holidays. Below you can find the exact dates for the ECL Pro playoffs: First round 26.3.-4.4. Second round 5.4.-12.4. Semi-finals 13.4.-20.4. Finals 21.4.-28.4. After the loss of 3 teams for the relegation battles, League Administration has decided that there will only be one relegation battle in ECL Pro this season. The teams with the lowest PPG are going to fight to stay in the Pro division. The relegation matchup is: J P T J vs Nordic Nosebleed The teams Free From Rodents, Murohoki, Banterfield Battalion, Speedy Bros Hockey, TIKI TALK, Bellizzi, OG Royals, Penalty Box, Old Farts, EN HUND and Breakers of the Bone managed to stay in Pro. We thank all participants and hope you will return next season! Best of luck for all remaining teams, have fun!

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Elite All-Star Week has reached its pinnacle, as we head into the semi-finals and final tonight! In case you have no idea what we're talking about, please see the below two articles and you're all set. We would like to thank all the players and viewers involved in this All-Star week and congratulate the teams that made it this far. We will be streaming both semi-finals and the final tonight, starting at 20:30 CEST on our Twitch-channel: https://www.twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch All games will be BO1, meaning the winner of the semi-final game moves to the final and also the final is determined in one game. In other words, we will be streaming a total of three games tonight. The matchups in the semi-finals are: VS Team ICappeI vs Team FlyerKungen 20:30 CEST Team ICappeI was the best team during the regular season with 3 wins in 3 games. With their captain @ICappeI leading the lines with his strong netminding skills and @The_Alpha_Furyan guarding in front of him, they will be very hard to score on. Team FlyerKungen on the other hand is more known for high-scoring games and will punish the defense of Team ICappeI if mistakes were to be made. With 2 of the best forwards in ECL Elite, KingOfApes_ (@Tuukka.R) and @FlyerKungen himself, they can be deadly on the counter attack. Prediction: Attack wins games, but defense wins championships, I predict Team ICappeI to win 3-2. The top 10 skaters in the All-star group stage, sorted by points VS Team vatalisti vs Team cHIIMEERa 20:50 CEST With 20 goals scored in a very tight group, Team vatalisti succeded in clinching 1st place. Team vatalisti know how to play good defense but offensively, that's where they shine. With stars like @anrh17 and @SadaPoika you just know they will score several times a game. "Wait, what? SadaPoika? Wasn't he on Team Norpee?", you may ask. Yes indeed. Due to the fact that Sjukstugan apparently didn't read the requirements for the players taking part in the All-Star Week before sending in their players for the darft, we seem to have lost @Nampa77 to a real life activity called work. In order to fix this, SadaPoika, who represented Team Norpee in the group stage, will be putting on the Team vatalisti uniform tonight. Fellow Sjukstugan player Norpee would have replaced his teammate Nampa77 by default, but was unavailable. Team vatalisti had, by far, the best offense during the group stage with 6.67 GF/GP. Can SadaPoika keep up with Nampa's big point production? Team cHIIMEERa, on the other hand, was more of a strong defensive team during the group stage with only 1.33 GA/GP. Will the previously mentioned statement of "attack wins games, but defense wins championships" take factor in this game? Team cHIIMEERa has a strong all-round team and with players such as former ECL 5 winners @indi969 and @jtorro1233 they will put up a strong fight. This one could go either way. Prediction: Team cHIIMEERa to win 4-2. The top 5 goalies in the All-star group stage, sorted by wins Predicted final: Team ICappeI VS Team cHIIMEERa. With Team ICappeI finishing higher than Team cHIIMEERa in group 1 and Team ICappeI with a win in their game against each other, I predict Team ICappeI to win this tight defensive matchup with a nail-biting 2-1 score. We hope as many of you as possible tune in to watch this top games. It's not often you get to watch the best of the best play together and face each other in 3 on 3 action!

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

Hey NHLGamers, right now there is so much great stuff going on in this community. We have been enjoying a very entertaining All-Star Week, Pro teams pushing for their playoff spots and last but not least, the first round of the Lite playoffs. Nearly every favorite won their series, but they had to fight hard to get to the next stage. David alias EaLogic nearly crushed the dreams of Goliath alias Bare Knuckles Hockey. Will there be a big surprise in round 2? If your team lost your series, keep your head up, learn from it and come back even stronger next year! Did you win? Great, you advanced to the next level, but don't think it's gonna get any easier. Keep the momentum going, there will be no cakewalk to the finals! Let's have a look at the upcoming matchups: (1) Bare Knuckles Hockey vs MotherPuckers (19) (2) Cowabunga Hockey vs Bucketeers (17) (3) SGWEER United vs Sektion K (15) (4) Hippo Rangers vs Pohjoista Voimaa (13) (5) Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat vs Freddie Mercury Insitute (12) (6) Suomen Sonnit vs Style (11) (7) GHETTO FIREBIRDS vs Korpens Finest (10) (8) EV Duisburg vs Etelan Vetelat (9) The second round is going to be played from 23rd March until 29th March 2018 (next Thursday). No extra time will be given! There are many interesting matchups and it will be fun to watch. Stay tuned on the streams which will be featured on our main page. Best of luck for all the remaining teams!

The All-Star Week Gameday 2-stream is live NOW at our Twitch-channel! Stream is hosted by @Kenu and @ICappeI The schedule of tonight will be as follows: 20:30 CET Team MartindalexC - Team vatalisti 20:45 CET Team FlyerKungen - Team Norpee 21:00 CET Team vatalisti - Team FlyerKungen 21:15 CET Team MartindalexC - Team Norpee 21:30 CET Team FlyerKungen - Team MartindalexC 21:45 CET Team Norpee - Team vatalisti See you there!

Hey NHLGamers, You may have noticed that there is a break in the ECL Elite schedule next week and there's a reason for this. We hereby want to present to you, the ECL Elite All-Star Week! We asked every ECL Elite team to submit a list of 4 players from their team that they wanted to nominate for the event, consisting of: 2 Forwards 1 Defenceman 1 Goalie There were some requirements for the players, in order to be eligible for the All-Star Event: The nominees have to had played in at least 50% of the teams games this season. At the very least, one of the nominees has to be able to stream. Nominees have to be available to play at the following times: Wednesday the 21st 20:30 CET Thursday the 22nd 20:30 CET Sunday the 25th 20:30 CET Most teams submitted 4 players per team, some were unable to. In the end, we ended up with a pool of 54 players. From this pool the ECL Staff selected 8 captains, who will draft their own teams from the pool of remaining players. How does the ECL Elite All-Star week work? 3-on-3 hockey (+ goalies)! Out of the 54 players that we were presented with by the Elite teams, the staff have picked 8 captains. These 8 captains will draft from the pool of the remaining 46 players to form teams of 4 players, including: 2 forwards 1 defenceman 1 goalie The remaining 22 players that were not picked won't be in the All-Star event, unless something unexpected happens and a team needs to substitute a player. These restrictions apply to the captains selecting the teams: A minimum of 1 player from each Elite team needs to be represented in the All-Star event In the first round of picks, players for the remaining 8 teams that aren't represented through the captains have to be picked. Two players from the same ECL Elite team should not play on the same All-Star team. The players that are available in the draft pool must be selected for the same position as they are in the pool. A goalie should not be selected to play forward, etc. The 8 teams will be randomly split into 2 groups: Group 1 plays on Wednesday the 21st, starting 20:30 CET. 3 games will be live streamed with commentary - the exact details will be agreed between broadcast team and teams. Group 2 plays on Thursday the 22nd, starting 20:30 CET. 3 games will be live streamed with commentary - the exact details will be agreed between broadcast team and teams. The best two teams from each group will make it into the semi-final stage, best-of-1. All three games (2x semis and 1x final) will be streamed. The semi-finals and finals will be played on Sunday the 25th, starting 20:30 CET. The All-Star Draft As mentioned above, the captains will draft their team from the remaining pool of players, meaning there will be a total of three rounds in the drafts in order to fill out the teams. The draft will be a snake draft, meaning the captain that goes first in the first round, will pick last in the second round and then first in the third round again. The draft order was randomly picked and it looks as follows: cHIIMEERa vatalisti FlyerKungen Norpee ICappeI SepiDN TehhAhola MartindalexC The first round of picks is from the teams that are not represented by a captain. Below you can see the full list of the players in the All-Star player pool. The captains are marked in bold and with a grey background and the available picks in round 1 have a blue background. In the two following rounds, captains can fill out their empty spots from any team, except the team they represent themselves. What an exciting list of talented players! Who would you pick on your team? Let us know in the comments. We kick off tomorrow (Sunday) with the All-Star Draft stream at 17:00 CET at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch and we hope to see you there! You can see the full All-Star Week schedule below: Art by @cHIIMEERa

Hey NHLGamers, we hope you are excited as we are to get the playoffs started. As we mentioned in our post about the playoff-pairings, it’s now time to step up or step aside. Can an underdog step face-to-face against a goliath, or are there going to be dreams crushed by the recent favorites? In this article we give you our predictions about every match-up and mention possible factors for every team. VS Bare Knuckles Hockey (17-1-0 / L10: 9-1-0) vs EaLogic (9-7-2 / L10: 3-6-1) David vs Goliath or EaLogic vs Bare Knuckles Hockey. Is it even fair? Bare Knuckles Hockey finished with the best record in the regular season, coming up short of a perfect regular season with a loss in the last game. EaLogic had an upside down season: they failed to compete against the top guns of their group and were the last team to jump on the playoff train via a nail-biting tie-breaker. We don't mean to be harsh, but this sounds like a pretty obvious outcome. The cornerstone of this high scoring offense (78 goals) is right winger Teroe94 with 60 points, finished #2 among skaters. Their man in the crease Geqee also had a strong regular season, gaining 15 wins with only 1,81 GAA by 4 shutouts. On the other side of the field center Chaostive has to lead his team offensively and get their defensive tight to reduce scoring chances. Prediction: 4:0 Bare Knuckles Hockey VS Cowabunga Hockey (15-2-1 / L10: 8-1-1) vs Slapshot Club Germany (9-6-3 / L10: 5-4-1) Cowabunga Hockey can tear apart opponents with their high-scoring offense (84 goals), which is lead by #1 top scorer Fin_torsp90 (63 points). As if that wouldn’t be enough, they have the best goaltender so far in this season. Jonitski managed a 1,44 GAA average with an outstanding save percentage of 88%. Cowabunga Hockey's whole defensive game plan worked so far, with only 26 goals against in 18 games. Slapshot Club Germany had a bad start, strong mid-season and an even worse finish. Despite managing to get the necessary wins to make it to the playoffs, the team struggled to find their game all season long. Their defensive core has to step up and needs to keep clear shots for their netminder NHLDennis86. As they won’t get that many scoring chances, they have to be very effective in the offensive zone. Prediction: 4:1 Cowabunga Hockey VS SGWEER United (15-2-1 / L10: 7-2-1) vs Kaksikymmentaseitseman (8-7-3 / L10: 6-4-0) SGWEER United had the top scoring offense (86 goals) of this past regular season, but their defense is one of the weakest among the top teams. The top offensive duo Gregson91 and riNBF3 (both over 55 Points) needs to keep scoring to keep their hopes of moving on to the next round alive. The Germans also have the best defensive pairing measured in points, but they need to step up in the defensive zone. Their lack of effectiveness could bother them as you can see in the first two results (7:3 win, 2:1 loss). Kaksikymmentaseitseman had a sloppy start, but gaining 6 out of their 8 wins in their last 10 games. They need to keep their net clean and score on the chances they will get. Prediction: 4:2 SGWEER United VS Hippo Rangers (15-2-1 / L10: 10-0-0) vs KulmalaHengaus (8-7-3 / L10: 4-4-2) Hippo Rangers had the best possible record in the last 10 games, finishing strong with 10 wins. Their strong defensive core around their goaltender Perkkari - who managed a 1,50 goals against average with a save percentage of 84% - needs to play as they're used to. They are strong in faceoffs (57%), which could be the factor in tight match-ups. Their wingers lilchippah and Jii84-- (nearly 100 points in 18 games combined) need to keep their path going and hype their team up. Kulmala Hengaus struggled all season long, but won all important matchups against their evenly skilled opponents. They need to power up their offense to score against their opponents really good defense. Prediction: 4:0 Hippo Rangers VS Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat (14-3-1 / L10: 8-2-0) vs Rusty Bulls (10-7-1 / L10: 7-3-0) Rusty Bulls is a experienced team with a lot of tournaments under their belt. Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat had one of the best goal differences in the regular season. Rukoilevat have a well merited LW/C in Samzoni and he knows how to play the tough games and get out with a win. Prediction: 4:1 Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat VS Suomen Sonnit (14-3-1- / L10: 8-2-0) vs Cancun Pirates (10-7-1 / L10: 5-4-1) Suomen Sonnit has a lot of really experienced former ECL Pro players. Cancun Pirates is a sponsored French team in their first season. In this series the Bauer sponsorship will not matter. Sonnit would want to make an early statement and sweep Cancun. Prediction: 4:0 Suomen Sonnit VS Ghetto Firebirds (14-3-1 / L10: 7-2-1) vs ICEBREAKERS EAGLES (10-6-2 / L10: 6-3-1) Ghetto Firebirds have been pendling up and down between Pro and Lite. This time they will try their hardest to get up to Pro and stay there. With a faceoff percentage of over 58% they can build a little momentum in tight matchups. ICEBREAKERS EAGLES is a fusion of three old OEHL teams. Eagles can surprise quite a few people. They have a good mix of players and it's worth keeping an eye on Willander97, if he gets playtime in this series, as I'm sure he will score some goals. Prediction: 4:1 Ghetto Firebirds VS EV Duisburg (14-4-0 / L10: 8-2-0) vs Soldiers of Odens (11-7-0 / L10: 7-3-0) EV Duisburg has a lot of experience in ECL Lite, having played 3 seasons in Lite. However, this time their roster looks strong and deep, so they will look to get promoted. Their decent power play (30%) could take them a little step further into the next round. Soldiers of Odens have a couple Lite seasons under their belt, but they barely made it through to the playoffs with a negative goal difference. Odens improved their game towards the end of the regular season, are they able to continue? Prediction: 4:2 EV Duisburg VS Etelan Vetelat (14-4-0 / L10: 8-2-0) vs 5th Line Heroes (11-7-0 / L10: 6-4-0) Etelan Vetelat had a good regular season throughout, from a good beginning to a strong finish with 8 wins in their last 10 games. Their decent defense, backed up by their goaltender AcED719 with a 84% save-percentage, has to prevent the scoring chances of the stacked up offense of 5th Line Heroes. Their key to success will be to build up from their offensive outcome and reduce their turnovers. 5th Line Heroes key player will be Ale_012 with an incredible shot percentage of 56,4% by 22 goals in the regular season. Prediction: 4:2 Etelan Vetelat VS Korpens Finest (13-3-2 / L10: 9-0-1) vs The Black Jacks (11-6-1 / L10: 4-5-1) Korpens Finest topped a very tough ECL Lite group - some would say the toughest this season - and played very evenly throughout the season. The Black Jacks played in the same group and could have finished top of the group if two or three results had gone their way. Expect this one to be a tough fight until the very end, maybe with a small advantage for Korpens Finest, as they won both games in the regular season, but it could go either way. Prediction: 4:2 Korpens Finest VS Style (13-4-1 / L10: 9-1-0) vs Roistot (10-4-4 / L10: 8-1-1) Style struggled at the beginning of their season, but got their things together trough mid-season. Their positive trend shows up in their last 10 games, where they won 9 out of 10 games. Roistot's key to success will be to shut down Styles' top scorer Panarinz with 48 points in 18 games. Roistot has a nearly similar path to the playoffs. Their dynamic duo of altsu123 and taikuri8_0, with over 100 combined points, can easily outscore every opponent when they are on fire. They might be the best 5th seed of this season. Prediction: 4:3 Style VS Freddie Mercury Institute (13-4-1 / L10: 6-3-1) vs Elämäm Kiekko (11-5-2 / L10: 6-4-0) In this match-up pair between Freddie Mercury Institute and Elämän Kiekko we find two well experienced teams with several ECL seasons in the bag, both as a team and as individuals. This is a hard matchup to predict. The key duel could be the FMI defense with only 1,5 GA per game versus EMK's right wing Markogirl87, who is ranked #9 in the division with 53 points (23G, 30A). Prediction: 4:3 Freddie Mercury Institute VS Pohjoista Voimaa (13-4-1 / L10: 7-2-1) vs DELIRIUM (12-6-0 / L10: 8-2-0) Pohjoista Voimaa's games may not be spectacular to watch (38 Goals, 25 Goals against), but they are highly effective. Their key to success is to build from their very decent defense around their netminder Meiha (88% save-percentage). DELIRUIM had a strong push towards the end of the regular season and have to be very effective on the few scoring chances they will get, in order to move forward. Prediction: 2:4 DELIRIUM VS Club de Caballeros (12-3-3 / L10: 7-1-2) vs Motherpuckers (12-5-1 / L10: 6-3-1) Also a big matchup with teams from a really tough group. Motherpuckers is an old top team and consists of multiple old Elite players and also a few old EHL winners. Their special teams with a 35% power play could be the key factor in this series. Club de Caballeros have a good mix of new talent and former Pro players. It's also worth mentioning that they have MovaaN, a big name in the community who played for both several Pro seasons and one in Elite. This will be the toughest matchup in this round. Both their mutual regular season games went to OT and you might see these teams needing some extra time a few times this series as well. Prediction: 3:4 Motherpuckers VS Sektion K (12-4-2 / L10: 6-2-2) vs Finnish Hockey Legends (12-5-1 / L10: 6-3-1) Sektion K has players with Pro experience that know what it takes to win against top teams. Honorable mention goes to Edhoolm97, a former Lavetten (ECL Pro) player that knows how to score goals. Finnish Hockey Legends has played well throughout this season but Sektion K have the edge in this series due to their experience. Prediction: 4:1 Sektion K VS HokiDogit (11-3-4 / L10: 6-1-3) vs Bucketeers (12-5-1 / L10: 7-3-0) The regular season records don't not tell you much in this matchup. Even though HokiDogit finished in a higher position in their group and with more points than Bucketeers, Bucketeers is a strong team that played in a tough group. They shouldn't be underestimated here. Bucketeers may not be very well-known in the ECL community, but when you face them in EASHL games that would not be noticeable. With a high paced attack and a strong defence, they will give HokiDogit some tough games. Prediction: 1:4 Bucketeers We are sure that there will be tons of highlights in this years Lite playoffs and they will be very fun to watch, so be sure to save them and send them our way! Credits to @Panarinz and @iRSPe for their help with this article Best of luck to all the teams, play fair, respect your opponent and have fun!

Hey NHLGamers, finally it’s here, our most loved time of the season – playoff hockey! While all real hockey leagues around Europe are about to kick off their playoffs as well, the ECL Lite Division will start things off for NHLGamer and it will be pleasant to watch. Many skilled teams will be working hard to make their way to the ECL Pro Division. Are they able fulfil their own expectations? Will there be any upsets in the first rounds? Or are the favorites gonna have a cakewalk? Furthermore, we would like to thank all teams that were participating in ECL 6! If your season is already over, try to learn from it and become even stronger next time when we call for ECL 7. That being said, if there are still some regular season games with missing stats, be sure to take care of your duties before heading off to the off-season. For the remaining teams, it's time to get things straight. Put all your heart, will and skill together and prove yourselves to be the ones who have to be beaten down the road! The regular season in ECL 6 Lite had 6 groups with 10 teams each. The first 5 teams out of every group as well as the two best teams ranked 6th in their group are qualified for the playoffs. These two additional spots are decided by our usual tie-breakers, which were also used to seed all of the 16 playoff pairs in a "best-against-worst" procedure. These factors are listed below: 1. PPG (points per game average) 2. Wins (regulation and overtime wins) 3. H2H (head-to-head results) 4. Goal differential 5. Goals scored This leads us to the following playoff matchups: (1) Bare Knuckles Hockey vs EaLogic (32) (2) Cowabunga Hockey vs Slapshot Club Germany (31) (3) SGWEER United vs Kaksikymmentaseitseman (30) (4) Hippo Rangers vs KulmalaHengaus (29) (5) Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat vs Rusty Bulls (28) (6) Suomen Sonnit vs Cancun Pirates (27) (7) Ghetto Firebirds vs ICEBREAKERS EAGLES (26) (8) EV Duisburg vs Soldiers of Odens (25) (9) Etelan Vetelat vs 5th Line Heroes (24) (10) Korpens Finest vs The Black Jacks (23) (11) Style vs Roistot (22) (12) Freddie Mercury Institute vs Elämäm Kiekko (21) (13) Pohjoista Voimaa vs DELIRIUM (20) (14) Club de Caballeros vs Motherpuckers (19) (15) Sektion K vs Finnish Hockey Legends (18) (16) HokiDogit vs Bucketers (17) All matchups will be played in a best-of-seven series and the higher ranked seed gets home ice advantage. Due to the schedule becoming available quite late (due to late game reports), we have decided to not count the 15th as one of the Playoff days. Thus, every series has to be finished and reported by March 22nd, 2018. Here is the complete list of Playoff dates for ECL Lite: First round 15.3.-22.3. Second round 23.3.-29.3. Quarter-Finals 30.3.- 7.4. Semi-Finals 8.4.- 14.4. Finals 15.4-21.4. No extra time will be given - be active! Grow a beard, take a beer and let’s get started!

This is a reminder for all ECL Elite and ECL Pro teams to finish any player transfers or free agent pickups before midnight tonight.

Fathers and sons tend to have a certain amount of resemblance. A father or mother is often a personality that the offspring looks up to and wants to mimic in a way. Then again, there might be some characteristics the younger generation is trying to stay clear of. Where am I going with this? Well, I have gotten word that we will be experiencing a very special 'first' today at NHLGamer as ECL Lite division team Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat will feature father @Aitis and his 10 year-old son @viba2008 in their lineup in their games against Burns Beardy Bastards. This will be the first ever father-son duo playing ECL games and is certainly something we at NHLGamer respect greatly. The three founders of Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat - Aitis, @Matti Parviainen and @ninnanunna share godfather responsibilities for each others children and now are also equally responsible for this newest family member, their ECL team. After being established in early 2016, interest in 6v6 games grew quickly. Aitis recruited his cousin @samppa1995 and some other players joined. The club's first ECL tournament was ECL 5, which ended in a second round playoff exit against Raging Monkeys. This season the squad hopes to prove they can compete in the playoffs too and have fared well so far, holding a 4th place spot in their group with 7 wins in 10 games. Aitis describes the team as follows: "Hinkkaajat is a team where most players lack soft hands and hockey sense, but we are a group of guys who believe in the strengths of team play." "The kid has been begging for ice-time since last season" Aitis is your average 37 year-old Finnish guy. His son Viljo, who is 27 years younger, has recently started showing interest towards gaming and a natural step to take is obviously following his father into the ECL scene. What better than joining the team his father is leading in their second ECL season in Lite. "Viljo started playing the NHL-series in NHL14, but first played with our team in NHL17, when Beaverskin asked him to step in for one of our players. Viljo quickly impressed skill-wise and has been in a tough hockey school ever since.", Aitis comments about his son playing for the team. "The kid has been begging for ice-time since last season and thinks it's no wonder we aren't doing better as he isn't playing yet.", he adds. The games tend to start late at night, so that's the main reason Viljo hasn't been in the lineup yet. Come puck drop we will be witnessing dad Aitis81 playing left defender, feeding his son Viljo on the left wing with quick and smart breakouts you only see from a blood-related duo. When asking the youngster about tonights games, he replied that a regular spot in the opening lineup will be obvious after these two clashes. We'll see how it turns out in the evening. We will be watching with excitement and most definitely rooting for the 10 year-old in black and green. You can also join in at the Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat stream at 21 CET.

Hello and welcome everyone! Let's start off by saying that we are both really happy to see so many new teams and it's also great to see a bunch of older teams sticking together! Not too many seasons ago we used to have one big league with teams from all skill ranges. This resulted in some games ending 20-0 and it was not fun for the less skilled or new teams. Divisions were created to give you some good matches with even teams, as well as building sustainability to the whole league and it has been a great success as we now have over 60 teams participating in the Lite division and over 100 teams in the whole league. It's great to have you all here, potentially fighting for that Pro promotion and eventually trying to reach the Elite division and win the grand prize. For other teams, the goal might be to do well in Lite and whatever your goals are, we hope you have a good and fun season with us this season. We will have best coverage of any season so far with streams, hot/cold mid-season reports and many other news stories coming up. There's also a dedicated staff members this season for each division and for the ECL Lite it's @miisolegend, @Mannheimer1938, @ramseyy2 and @Snapster. The official ways to contact your League Administration and get your cases solved as easily as possible are: - For all cases that needs to be solved you can open a ticket in the league administration section here. - If you make a mistake in the match report you must report it at the match report section. Failure to report match report mistakes might lead to disciplinary actions. Please refrain from sending private messages as a way to reach the staff whenever you can use the above mentioned Helpdesk, as we are putting our efforts into handling your messages as a team effort. Moving on to the Lite preview. There are so many new teams that there's bound to be lots of surprises along the way so if you are not mentioned in the preview, please surprise us and put your teams name on the map during the season and prove us wrong! Here are @miisolegend's top predicted teams in every Group: Group 1: Ghetto Firebirds Former ECL Pro team Ghetto firebirds are back in Lite but are hungry to get back to Pro and prove they are worthy of the spot. Last season didn't really go as planned but I think this firebird will rise from the ashes and show that they still have the fire in them. Section K is a good runner up in this division but I still think that GF will rise on top with their good roster package and gained experience in the previous seasons. Player to watch: Vilze92 Group 2: Freddie Mercury Institute This team beats Pro teams consistently and has won pretty much every Lite team they have faced in recent games. When we (Korpens Finest) have played against FMI it has always been tight games because of their solid defense and skilled forwards. Definitely a team to watch out for! Player to Watch: Kickingapollo Group 3: Style Two time OEHL champion (5vs5 scene) Swedish team Style plays aggressive hockey along with a good tight trap and they have that skill to make those 2 on 1 situations count. In my opinion Style will be one of the top contenders for a Pro promotion. Player to watch: Panarinz Group 4: Bare Knuckles Hockey This group was very hard to predict in terms of which team is going to go to the playoffs but there's one that stands out on top. I'd put my money on Bare Knuckles Hockey. Solid team with many seasons of experience in the ECL. If they can keep their game together they will definitely stand on top of this group Player to watch: GoDe45- Group 5: Cowabunga Hockey This group seems to be the toughest on paper, having teams such as Saucer Hockey Ab and Soldiers of Odins in addition to Cowabunga Hockey. Cowabunga Hockey has been crushing some of the Lite teams like cockroaches and has beaten Pro teams and Elite teams alike during the off-season. Cowabunga is probably the number one contender for Pro. Offensively this is a really skilled team and they have one of the best, if not the best goalie in Lite. Player to watch: sokkelo__ Group 6: Suomen Sonnit This was also a hard group to predict with several skilled teams like HokiDogit and Finnish Hockey Legends, but I'm gonna predict Suomen Sonnit coming out on top here. We (Korpens Finest) have faced this team many times and they are good at playing high pressure hockey, leaving little to no room for your defenders to clear the puck. Easy plays by defenders and great goaltending on top of that and we can expect a good result. Pro team in ECL 7? Remains to be seen. Player to watch: tseikei Underdogs/Teams to watch 1. Saucer Hockey Ab (Group 5) 2. The Black Jacks (Group 3) 3. EaLogic (Group 5) 4. Korpens Finest (Group 3) 5. Roistot (Group 2) 6. Club de Caballeros (Group 3) Feel free to comment and give your own opinion on the the subject in the comments section. Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone in the following season. Let the games begin! Best Regards! @miisolegend

Hello Gamers! It's that time of the year again that we are proud to present you the preview of the upcoming Elite season and more importantly it's time to start playing ECL again! We are going to have the best coverage of any season so far with not yet published additional content on the way to make the season even more exciting. A slightly slower pace this season will ensure that the pinnacle of ECL will be the ECL Elite finals that will be played 25.4-3.5. The off-season has probably been busier than ever with some teams breaking apart, high profile players such as @Erkki, @Joonas Paatiala and @mikaasi forming a new team Filadelphia, that will be playing in the Pro division for next season and there has been lots of trades and struggles in the other Elite teams as well. Silver Sword Griffins having some degree of overhaul in their team and so on. There's also quite a bunch of teams being promoted from Pro: Evolution, Unlucky boys HC, Pata Hellalla, Falun Coal Miners and in addition to these four, also Nordic Stars and Gotham Knights are being promoted due to Aapon Taikasauva and Mukimiehet falling apart. ECL Elite will work, as usual, with 16 teams and all battling for the top 8 playoffs spots, #9-12 being safe, #13-14 will face the Pro semifinal losers and positions #15-16 will be relegated straight away. As a reminder, the rules have had some modifications, so be sure to check those out as well. "I did not know" is not going to get you off the hook. Rather than doing a preview of just a few top teams, we decided to go trough each and every one of the Elite teams. There's no "players to watch" this time, as I think this extensive preview gives you most of the answers. With the bigger staff we have been able to do more and @chavelski has done small interviews with all of the captains for our reading pleasure. @nylanderi,@ICappeI, @SepiDN, @Crisu_rottis, @The_Alpha_Furyan and @pnordetun have made us previews of all of the Elite teams. So without further ado, here are the captains' thoughts and previews. Let's start with our prediction of the standings after the regular season: Carlsberg HC Without a doubt the best team at the moment. After they got rid of their captain @Joonas Paatiala and star winger @Joukki, they acquired one of the best centers in the game, two time ECL champion @Penatski. Is this the season they can hoist the cup? For sure they have all the right players to do it. After reigning champion Aapon Taikasauva disbanded, they only have a couple capable contenders in their way. Taking a closer look at their team, no team should be able to match their offense. The best playmaker in the game (when he wants to) @Penatski, one of the most dangerous snipers in the game @Vilupoika, and the two-way workhorse @Tuukka.R. Also, the best players in their positions, defensive duo @Janzuh and @vatalisti who can provide depth in the goal-scoring if the other teams defense can stop their forwards. If we take a look at Carlsberg's potential weaknesses, could it be a problem that both of their defenseman are so offensive-minded? What about their goalie duo? @Zande95 and @FinKonna are known for not shining the brightest in tight situations. Can the older players of the team calm down the younger players if the things get tough? vatalisti What are your expectations going into ECL 6? To have a tight season and my personal expectation is to make it into playoffs with Car. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? We got lucky to add a 2x champion Penatski to our roster, who brings a lot of skill and hunger. which hopefully helps us go far in ECL 6. Top 3 teams this season? Written In The Stars, Northern Ascendancy Dynasty Guess who's back? Well, @Buantso is. Because of that, we're pretty sure Dynasty is as well. In ECL 4, Puantso and TehhAhola formed a deadly duo causing all sorts of problems for everyone. If Dynasty wants to make it back to the finals and possibly even lift the cup, what do they need to do? They somehow need to get Puantso motivated, because he truly is the best left winger in the game. If they cant do it, they can't make it too far. Dynasty also added @DieCutterMC, who is a solid addition to their defense. He and @Snapster might not be the flashiest partnership in the back, but they surely can handle their own in the defensive zone. DieCutterMC does not contribute with offense, but we all know that Snapu48 does have some tricks in his sleeve, mainly Kyle Turris dekes. They also don't need to worry about the goalie situation, since @Sandr0hh is one of the better goalies in the game. Snapster What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Championship What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? We had a couple players leaving but also a couple players who returned from ECL 4. So to answer your question, we have pretty much the same team as we had in ECL 4 and we did pretty good that season. Top 3 teams this season? I'm assuming you don't want us to name our own teams so here's my top3: Carlsberg HC, Written In The Stars, SJK eSports Evolution This team was labeled as the black horse in ECL Pro last season and that's what they were. They ended up winning Pro in ECL 5 and their offense includes @Jageksi and @topikeranen just like last season, however they lost @Erkki which is a huge loss for Evolution. He was one of the main reasons why they won Pro in the tight final games. With the addition of @SadaPoika to the roster, Evolution is going to be really interesting to watch. SadaPoika knows how to produce points. In addition to him, @Pair4You and @Juizki joined the team as well to keep their roster at a healthy size. This team can surprise many this season and if they get everything together it would not surprise us to see them in the playoffs. Crisu_rottis What are your expectations going into ECL 6? We are gonna push hard for playoff spot, and of course you can always dream about winning the title, but we're taking it one step at a time. Holding the Elite spot is an okay season while getting a playoff spot being a great one. We need to be awake in every single game from the start to the end if we want to succeed. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? Eki leaving and SadaPoika coming in, this kid has got some talent I tell you. He's the best bet for the player that is going to be the most important for us. Top 3 teams this season? SJK eSports, Carlsberg HC and Dynasty Falun Coal Miners Promoted to Elite following a great campaign in ECL 5, Falun Coal Miners are no strangers to getting their hands dirty at work. It’s in the Coal Miners DNA to dig deep and go where not many a man wants to go in order to get the job done, surely one of traits they are going to take advantage of this season. On the ice FCM is showing off their grit and hard work mixed with the soft hands you only get after years of cold, dark weekends digging deep in the mines. Falun can put the perfect defense on display with all 6 guys working as a unit covering up for each other to shut down their opponents. On the other end of the rink they can hurt any team if their creative offense is clicking. Now in Elite they need to prove themselves against the best of the best. Led by the Band of Brothers they are as lethal as Easy Company with @The_Alpha_Furyan setting up and pacing the plays and our favourite rockstar idol @LastMandalorian uses his Mike Richards-like center abilities reading the game and creating something beautiful. This first Elite experience for Falun is amazing considering they have had almost the same roster since the very first ECL. These guys really prove consistency and hard work can in fact pay off. Entering ECL 6 they have added a few new faces to strengthen the team, chief among them @IsakTuvesson in net from Lavetten, but also free agent Berger-I88I. @minokin is now in his second season with Falun and has been building some amazing chemistry with @The_Alpha_Furyan at defense. The new season will be really interesting to see if Falun can dig deep enough in order to find that extra boost that will push them to a fight for the playoffs. Either way, they are looking forward to this season to prove that they really belong at the Elite level. The_Alpha_Furyan What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Our expectations with the Falun Coal Miners are primarily that our team quickly adapts to the level of play in Elite. As a newcomer, you don't want to set the bar too high, but at the same time - its not like we're just tourists who are happy to be here. We might not contend for the title, at least not this season, but we do expect to be able to establish ourselves in Elite. If so, we might finally find ourselves on the super secret list of "Elite-level players" that some of the big stars in the community seem to have collected. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? There really isn't a difference. We believe in continuity, chemistry and developing our players to enhance their skills. You'll never find us in contention for the big names in Free Agency, but thats fine with us. In the Mines of Falun, we like that homegrown feel to our game. We've added Berger88 for depth and also a terrific goaltender in IFKPEKING2k15 who'll be a nice complement to our long-time G @Onecorner95. Otherwise, its all the same. Four forwards (@PatzyDrake @pentsaa, @iscojr94 & Mando), three defenders (@Meeertz, me & Mino) and the two goalies. Top 3 teams this season? With the amount of transfers this season, this becomes a hard question to answer. If I had to guess, I'd say Written In The Stars, SJK eSports and Northern Stars. All three look really, really strong. Kattiautomaati Experienced Kattiautomaatti will be looking to deliver this time after being left out of the playoffs last season. Their roster is almost unchanged with only @sumppi90 returning to Kattiautomaatti, and @eyebiz leaving to Northern Ascendancy. These guys will have a word to say when talking about real games, don't underestimate these guys, they hold a lot of experience & skill in their hands and definitely are not afraid to use it in ECL. Their tight roster with a long history will help them thrive towards the playoff spot, but will it be enough this season? The battle for a playoff spot is going to be so tight that only time will tell, but the worst thing you can do is think that these guys are on the way to the Pro division, because these guys are hungry for glory and happy to prove you wrong. Slaivone What are your expectations going into ECL 6? In ECL 4 Kattiautomaatti got promoted to the Elite division. In ECL 5 we finished 10th in Elite. In ECL 6 our goal is to get into the Elite playoffs. We improved our game a lot during the last season. I believe we have good chances to reach our goal and hopefully get as far in the playoffs as possible. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? We have just one player-change in our roster compared to ECL 5. eyebiz wanted to join NOR for next season and we got Isumppi90I back from Sjukstugan. Both defenders are really good so not a big change in the roster. We believe that we can improve our game by playing with the same guys as long as possible and minimizing roster changes. Most of the guys have played together for years. janbonator is our 'new guy' entering his second season with us and I think we are still improving chemistry with janbo all the time. I feel like we are well prepared for next season. Top 3 teams this season? Car, SKY and DYN. Northern Ascendancy: It's gonna be really interesting to see how NOR plays this season, since they've acquired two really good players in Haldeem and MukiMaisteri. Northern Ascendancy is known for their offense, especially their deadly counter-attacks. What was their biggest weakness? Defense for sure, so thats why @Haldeem is such a great player to have. You can rely on him in the defensive zone and he's really good at breakout passes as well. MukiMaisteri on the other hand is a great add to any offense. His playing style might not be perfect match NOR's style of quick passes in the offensive zone, but he can score. Also if NOR wants to make it far, their goalie @poliskontroll needs to step up his game. For sure these guys can score, but the big question mark is whether or not their defense and goalie hold in the tight games? MartindalexC What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Semi finals appearance What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? A better LW and D core Top 3 teams this season? SJK eSports, Carlsberg, NOS Northern Stars: Last season Northern Stars suprised almost everyone, after eliminating Carlsberg HC and going to game 7 with Aapon Taikasauva. NOS lead the series 3-1 against Aapon, and even had a one-timer hit the post in game 5 OT. So when Aapo came back and won the series, im sure @cHIIMEERa and his squad felt like the season ended in disappointment. But now it is time for a new season and new chance to hoist the cup for one of the more legendary teams in this league. One of the biggest question marks is how much @plee999 can play since we've heard that he has less time for NHL these days. He has formed one of the deadliest duos for many tournaments with @tbnantti, and it worked perfect last season, since rest of NOS is more defensive minded. tbnantti is really important to this team since he is one of the best to break down the opponent's neutral zone trap, and also setup PleeMaker for a deadly one-timer in the offensive zone. They have an experienced duo on the blue line with @Rullstolskalas and @ma0niii. They don't contribute much in the offense, but especially Maonii is one of the best defensive defenders. They also have a great replacement for Plee in @Floor17, who is a beast in every zone of the ice. Watch out for NOS this season, as they are capable of going far and doing great things! cHIIMEERa What are your expectations going into ECL 6? It will be tough of course, but we're well prepared and have the tools we need to go far. You need to have luck on your side in the playoffs and we're hoping to reach further than last tournament of course, but expect to reach the semis at least. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? No difference at all really, same lineup. Top 3 teams this season? Written In The Stars, Carlsberg HC, Northern Ascendancy, SJK eSports Pata Hellalla I think everyone agrees, when we say this team 'blew the bank' last season. Who would have thought that a team that is unknown to many and has imago like a newly started Lite team would have made it into Elite? Eliminating teams like Lavetten and Gotham Knights and finally losing to Pro winner Evolution. In order to secure their Elite spot, Pata Hellalla managed to beat TIKI TALK in an incredibly even relegation series that was decided in the second overtime period of game 7. We saw how good their defense was in the playoffs but can their offense get to a next level and keep scoring like they did in Pro? The opponents just get tougher so @kungenkurwa needs to get his team to produce 110% in every game if they want to survive in Elite. kungenkurwa What are your expectations going into ECL 6? I expect a tough season, there are so many good teams and our pre-season was "farssi saatana" (=a farce) cause one guy disappeared after Christmas and came back online maybe 50 days later. Some other guys spent every night in Lonely Lodge and the rest spent a well deserved holiday. But we are confident we can manage to come back and fight for spots where we don't have to play relegation games with Pro teams. Pata is ready like always and fight for the win every game! What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? This is an easy one. One name: Sebusakari. We're so happy that there is some team which wants him. We're so lucky! Of course this is joke and whole Pata wishes him good luck in this season! Second difference is that we know who is our goalie number one, last season it took almost the whole regular season and three goalies which all failed until we found our number one goalie closer than we thought. It is unbelievable how first timer goalie is better than Sebusakari who had played maybe 500 games in goalie! The third difference is that at the very beginning of last season we knew we are going to get promoted, but now I am sure that almost everybody "knows" we are not going to be champions. Fourth and maybe the funniest thing is that our left defender Carlos "Laraque" Havanna, who never made any mistakes, is now lost all of his limitless confidence even then he is so good in his defensive plays and calm with the puck in every zone on the ice, maybe sometimes too calm. Player to watch out for in Elite: I would not like to name just one guy, there is so many good players in Elite. But if i have to name one I would say an easy one so it's @Dominointi. Top 3 teams this season? Car, SJK, PTH Rusty Blades A team that always seems pretty harmless but still gets those wins one after another. @Supreex is one of the best, if not the best goalie in the whole scene. This guy has been keeping the goal horn from buzzing more than one could wish for. Rusty has always been about simple hockey, has never had the guys with the most elastic hands and this season is no exception to that. Running with pretty much the same roster as last season but with even tighter team play, we will likely see them rise above the playoff line again. @Tanski87 leading the defense with his hard hits and RB's offense doing the hard and tireless work to score those goals. Don't forget @koojiikoojii who's one of the main reasons why their defense works as well as it does. Great defense needs a great center and that is what Koojii is. Rusty is a true representation of the fact that you don’t need the best hands to rise to the top - you just need good teamwork and training! Tanski87 What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Our goal is to be even better as a team than in ECL 5. Position does not matter as long as we are able to give the best possible from us. Championship would be a nice bonus. I do expect a tight battle for playoff spots. There's been a lot of changes in Elite for this season. Many new teams, hungry teams. And some losses in form of well seasoned and highly rated teams. No more last years champion Aapon Taikasauva. No more Mukimiehet, no more Nordic Nightmare. These are saddening losses for ECL. I do expect us to keep our spirit and teamplay as high level as it has been for over two years now. We might not be the most skilled danglers out there, but damn we enjoy being on the ice, playing together, doing our all and chatting while doing it. This is what EASHL is supposed to be. Oh yeah, you guys will see us in the playoffs again. No getting rid of us. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? We have not had lot of changes, Epelis being only new recruit. I'd have to say that I believe us to be even harder to score against. And our offensive tools are sharpened. Top 3 teams this season? This is a hard question. I have strong faith in Dynasty this season. Last season was a dissappointment for them, but they will come hard for ECL 6. Carlsberg has been in beast-mode lately, and probably will continue to be. SKY offense is as good as we are used to, but their team defense has seen an improvement. Even thought Dynasty got a special mention I would have to say top three to be Carlsberg HC, Written in the Stars and SJK eSports SJK eSports Last season's runner-up has made bunch of interesting signings in the offseason. They acquired @indi969, @ICappeIand @Ilmari_30from last seasons winner Aapon Taikasauva. Indi969 and Ilmari30 will add needed skill and passing ability to SJK's game. Compared to last season, SJK has bunch of new weapons to break opponents down. Their neutral-zone trap is also one of the best, and they are really good at defending in their zone aswell. Addition of Ilmari30 is huge for SJK since breakout passes are one of his strengths. In the previous seasons, SJKs defenders have a hard time sometimes breaking the puck out, so it will be easier for Dominointi to play as well when he does not have to take care of breakouts himself that much. Indi969 is also a great two-way forward who has a high hockey IQ and he finds open space in the ice. Goaltending was in no way SJK's problem last season, but now there's even less reason to worry since they have ICappeI between the pipes. SJK is a team who is really good in every zone of the ice, so expect them to be Carlsberg's number one challenger this season. If their offense can create good chemistry, they will be really good, as they can't just rely on low shots from the point and throwing passes in front of the net. Against these top-level teams they need to create good quality chances and quickly adapt their game if their normal game plan is not working. Dominointi What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Playoff spot as always What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? It is the same team with different type of players. OUT: @hooneli& @esajorma IN: @Lauri, @ICappeI, @Ilmari_30 and @indi969 Top 3 teams this season? Dynasty, Written In The Stars, Carlsberg HC Silver Sword Griffins Remember Nordic Lighting last season? The team that had many players from different teams and it barely had a team assembled before the start of the season? Well that seems similar to SSG this season. They have some veteran players but it feels like a mix of everything. They will struggle at the start of the season but if @xLVxRitchey can keep his guys motivated and if they keep training and building that synergy they might be able to keep the team in Elite but it definitely won't be an easy season for SSG, as they have lost a chunk of their players in the off-season. xLVxRitchey What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Plan is try to stay in Elite but if we get spot in playoffs it will be good bonus main thing is to have fun What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? Lot of new players maybe thats good or maybe bad will see. Top 3 teams this season? Written In The Stars, SJK eSports, Dynasty Sjukstugan As per usual, 112 Sjukstugan has experienced a bit of a roster turnover in between ECL seasons. The foundation of @pnordetun, @Bjono and @Gustafsson7 remains though and as long as that core trio remains intact - you can be sure Sjukstugan will remain competitive. Key additions to the roster feature highly skilled, former Synergy leading scorer @Norpee and up-and-coming goaltender @Hullued, who looks poised to evolve into a premiere Elite goaltender. What makes Sjukstugan stand out is their unreal chemistry. The "112 Bros" Pato and Bjono know each other on the ice so well, it is almost like they know what the other one is thinking. One of the more skilled Swedish teams at cycling the puck around the offensive zone, they can strike at the net from anywhere, at any time. Long known for their motto of "grind and score", this classic Swedish franchise will be sure to fight tooth and nail for every single point! Bjono What are your expectations going into ECL 6? We want to play in the playoff and during the road towards that get our game to the level we want, because we know it has been struggling lately. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? Well, we have made some big changes both after ECL 5 and before ECL 6. We are only 3 guys on the team from last season: @Pippo, Patovic & Bjono. Top 3 teams this season? 1) Written In The Stars 2) SJK eSports 3) Carlsberg HC Unlucky Boys HC They are skilled young guys with a hunger for more. They finished 2nd in Pro last season and they lost only by inches to Evolution. I would label them as the black horse of Elite - not for the win, but for a playoff spot. @Anhel is the heart of this team and this guy needs to keep the strings in his hands. They lost @sweatyfathoe99 but they still got their core roster pretty much the same as last season. @Jugeh_ is their LD who is a very skilled offensive-minded defender that nets some points and has the potential to surprise in the offensive zone, and that's what they need if they want to advance to the top 8. @Danielcadabra is a great addition to their goaltending and he should be, as they lost @eissi83 to Written In The Stars. Anhel_Kuru What are your expectations going into ECL 6? I think we are a an underdog team. Our goal is to fight for the last playoff spots. Also we want to grow as a team. I think that we are capable of making our goals. I do anticipate that the season will contain ups and downs. Either way, I have faith in our team. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? We got Danielcadabra and @RamboViking88 to fill the void made by Eissi and @Petihino1 in the goalie department and we lost @Ilmari_30 and Sweatyfathoe99 as well. We gained @Frilander in return. Top 3 teams this season? Written In The Stars, Carlsberg HC, Northern Ascendancy Written In The Stars A team that is in the top 3 in almost every team's prediction. They have one of the best defenders in Elite with @jtorro1233 on the blue line. You can pair him up with either @Totalii or @JOHTAJAVIRTANEN. One of the question marks with SKY is their other defensemen. Totalii can sometimes have a hard time dealing with high pressure, which can occasionally lead to dangerous turnovers. We will see if they let Johtajavirtanen have a go at proving his place amongst the Elite defenders. Their offense is good with @Joukki, @ADETIKKI and @FlyerKungen but it can be a little too predictable at times. Their biggest question mark is their goaltending situation. Can Januri98 and @eissi83 step up when it matters the most? Jtorro1233 can take their game to another level, but we will see how he handles the pressure. We know that the entire SKY team is really hungry, and they are for sure one of the top challengers for the title. FlyerKungen What are your expectations going into ECL 6? Good question, maybe I'm expecting the toughest battle ever between the last playoff spots in Elite. The season is going to be as tight as usually, so many teams with solid rosters and it's really hard to say who's gonna make it and who's not. Our goal is to reach the finals and win the last game. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? Less Ulla, less penalties, haha. We were forced to make changes after "retirements" and other stuff. Two new goalies, eissi83 & JANURI98, new D-man, jtorro1234 and also LW joukki13 came to SKY. In my opinion, we have the chance to be even better as a team than last season. We have top guys in every position, now we just need to have some fun and play hockey! Top 3 teams this season? This is also hard one. I can't say SKY, it would be too boring. I need to bet here a little bit. Top 3 "toughest opponents": Carlsberg HC is one, very strong team, nuff said. Other two teams are not so easy though, but I need to say SJK eSports - it's never easy to win them. Third one is Dynasty, using runner-up lineup from ECL 4. Their rock solid defence is not a joke... Not sure about Ulla though... Gotham Knights After last seasons disappointing loss in the quarterfinals in the hands of Pata Hellalla, Gotham will be looking to establish themselves as an Elite team after gaining a promotion due to disbanding teams. They have a new goaltender @Serg1vratar for this season, who played in Nordic Lightning last season in Elite. He is pairing up with @Kefleri between the pipes. Gotham lost @Frilander to Unlucky boys, but acquired @Janikka, oh boy that's a good signing to your blue line. They also acquired @sweatyfathoe99from UB - that's two good players from UB for Gotham - so they do have offensive firepower with the power trio of @Nakkertoni, @ReDMisTi and @Hanssonni staying in the offense. While holding on to @jyrkkisand @MKivinen95 they managed to keep the core of the team intact whilst acquiring some new players. Expect these guys to give their all and fight for a playoff spot in the tight midtable in Elite. ReDMisTi What are your expectations going into ECL 6? We don't have much expectations, we just try our best and play a balanced season. Of course the playoff spot would be really nice and it's our goal for season 6 What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? We are stronger, we play same kind of hockey as last ECL, but after our "main" guys stayed and we got couple really good players more, I'd say we are better for sure Top 3 teams this season? CAR, SKY, NOS Nordic Stars Being up 3-0 thinking you are in the semifinals in pro, but getting defeated 3-4 in the hands of Falun Coal Miners can be disappointing. Not because of the opposing team being Falun, but getting so close must be heartbreaking. Either way, these guys are up and at it again - this time in the Elite division after disbanding teams making way for Nordic Stars. They lost key players such as @FakiiR1, @Devilfish14, @TackleControl, @vilperi90 and Finbarkov after the season, but acquired @Jauho, @entii112, @taemtaem, @Kookasi and @Amigo. Seems like they're on the way to Pro? While there is basicly no bottom teams this season, this team belongs in the lower part in our prediction. The big question here is, can these guys find the synergy that they need to fight in Elite? Expect them to get better round after round, and give their all to keep their spot in the division. Lead by experienced defender @Seahyena they will hold their own in the defensive zone, but can they produce enough in the offense? Excellent goalie @RaNtA will give them a fighting chance game after game to take the points. Seahyena What are your expectations going into ECL 6? We try to make it to the playoffs and i think after re-signing our top goalie Ranta83 we now have all the tools for that. What is the difference in your team this season compared to ECL 5? Big difference. I knew we have a chance to head into Elite and we prepared this team for that. Almost the whole crew have changed and we try now to play more "Elite type" skill hockey than in the Pro div. Much work to find the perfect chemistry with an almost new crew, but i think we're gonna grow closer and closer to that during the season. Top 3 teams this season? Written, SJK and CAR Personally, I have to say that this is the most exciting ECL season yet. The Elite playoff fight will be so intense and there is so many amazing things happening in our community, such as getting new long waited features thanks to @Lurkins, @Hennisch and @Kenu. Best of luck to all of you and see you out on the ice! Let the games begin! ECL Elite lead, @SepiDN

NHLGamers, ECL 6 is already on the roll and lots of changes have happened during the off-season, the buzz has been ramping up in the last few weeks. It’s all part of the game and that’s what keeps us coming back for more. We’re all looking forward to yet another competitive season of virtual hockey, only this time, it will be the most competitive, most well-covered season yet. Mark my words. As teams have scrambled together their squads for the upcoming season, one question still remains: who will falter to the ground, and who will prevail as the victor? The Pro preview for this season will follow the same formula as for ECL 5. I will be highlighting a top 3-list of contenders for each group (teams will be in alphabetical order) as well as three players to watch from each group. This ECL is the first one we are operating with the extended staff and in Pro we will have @Crisu_rottis as the lead, assisted by @Mannheimer1938, @Snapster and Yours Truly. Without further ado, lets get on with the preview: Top 3 contenders in group 1 Baltic Sea Eagles BSE was one of the highest seeding teams going into the playoffs in ECL 5, but fell short in the first round against Evolution. They will surely look to redeem themselves this season. The roster underwent some minor changes during the offseason with G @Mehiiss and defenseman @Prom99leaving for White Trash. They countered by adding established pro players @FakiiR1, @vilperi90 and @otto aaltonen from Nordic Stars. The biggest question mark right now is their goaltending, can new addition pablojardinero step up to the challenge? Click here to see team page Shameful Knights The Knights roster remains close to the same as last season, with the only mentionable loss of goalie @Hullued leaving for Sjukstugan. Much like Baltic Sea Eagles, Shameful Knights have an inexperienced goaltender in @Stilando. This is a stellar chance to show what he is capable of in the crease. The very consistent offensive trio of @Tapparafan - @Migo_boo - @Ollizhki looks to keep on producing and pushing the Knights far into the playoffs, maybe this is the season they make a run for an Elite spot? Click here to see team page White Trash The roster of White Trash experienced something of a cleanse during the off-season as the roster size was reduced greatly. None of the core players left and it seems like White Trash aims to complete the season with a minimal squad rotation. The most notable addition in the off-season was promising goaltender @Mehiiss. It remains to be seen if this established Pro team can take the next step in ECL 6. Click here to see team page Players to watch in group 1 @selänne8, Arctic Playoff round 2 this time? BiggestEight is back, now as the captain of newly established team Arctic. He is surely hoping to click with his teammates and being able to elevate his game to the next level. Is this the season he will develop into an Elite-level scoring player? Click here to see player profile @vilperi90, Baltic Sea Eagles This experienced, high-scoring forward was added to BSE during the off-season after completing a successful push for elite with Nordic Stars in ECL 5. He has been a very consistent point producer during the last three seasons, all with different teams so I would expect Vilperi to elevate the game of BSE to the next level. Click here to see player profile @Stefan_397, Inter Iceland Scoring power for days in this prolific German winger. Can he repeat his Pro scoring title from last season? Click here to see player profile Underdog Monarchs I've heard that the Monarchs have been practicing hard during the off-season. Taking Lavetten's spot they certainly have their work cut out for them in living up to that name. The team is rather inexperienced, but by adding @pajenc before the season start they certainly make up for that a bit. Expect these guys to clinch a playoff spot. Click here to see team page Top 3 contenders in group 2 Alliance HT Alliance dominated the first season of RCL and played a decent ECL 5. In the off-season they lost @MAYZIIX but added @JaikenK, who is definitely one of the most exciting transfers regarding defensemen in Pro. The Russian team is now looking to be a serious contender and push far into the playoffs. Click here to see team page FILADELPHIA FILADELPHIA is yet another super-team, alike Carlsberg from ECL 4. They are a fusion of players from the disbanded Elite teams Aapon Taikasauva and MUKIMIEHET, accompanied by captain @Joonas Paatiala, who is no stranger to pushing one of these super-teams into Elite. Anything but a promotion will be a disappointment. Click here to see team page Synergy Hockey These guys have been playing this game for a long time and after a disaster season which led Synergy to be relegated from Elite last season, they look to make a push back in ECL 6. During the off-season, Synergy merged with DEAD END KINGS. Are they truly stronger in union? To be continued... Click here to see team page Players to watch in group 2 @Chafak, Red Machine Heart and soul of Red Machine. Known for his skills on the versus-side, he had a tough time last year. However, in ECL the season ended in a Lite title with a dominant scoring performance only matched by a few individuals, now also competing at the Pro level. We follow with excitement as he hopes to continue producing in ECL 6. Click here to see player profile @Erkki, FILADELPHIA Come on, is it even fair? This guy was one of the biggest factors in winning the Pro title for Evolution in ECL 5. Eki will look to keep taking face-offs, sniping biscuits and being what he is - an Elite level player, come ECL 6. Click here to see player profile @JaikenK, Alliance HT One of the most reliable two-way defenders in the game. After a difficult season with Sjukstugan in ECL 5, he is hoping to improve this season with the ultimate goal of earning Alliance HT a promotion. Click here to see player profile Underdog Red Machine Last season Lite champions made some minor adjustments to their roster with the most notable addition being @RutonMosse right before the season start. The youngster spent last season on a hiatus, but man does he have natural skill. However, the team lost goaltender and ECL 5 playoff MVP James_Bontage to OG Royals. Click here to see team page Personally, I have to say that this is the most exciting ECL season yet. There is so many amazing things happening in our community right now that this is a time to be grateful, stay hungry and wait with excitement for things to come. I left many good teams out of this preview and I hope those teams will prove me wrong during ECL 6. Best of luck to all of you and see you out on the ice!

Meet Kenneth, aka KenuFHR, boss of the ECL since its inception. He expresses his pride in seeing the league exceed the key figure of the one hundred teams and announces that several innovations are approaching. Hi Kenu! Tell me, how many hours a day do you spend managing ECL? « Hey! That’s a great question and the answer really depends on the day. Recently anywhere between 4-12 hours per day, taking into account general NHLGamer related tasks, but of course I take some days off here and there. The time leading up to the new seasons and the events, such as the Finnish Championships (eSM) and the IS Cup are the most time consuming projects and often require a big push. » The symbolic number of the hundred teams has been crossed. Is it a pride, or on the contrary an anxiety because of the management that it will impose? « There’s definitely a big feeling of pride for myself and the whole staff to reach this milestone. We were close with ECL 5, where we reached 96, so we were very hopeful to do it this time around. Of course the large amount of teams brings with it a big responsibility for us to run things smoothly, but let’s call it a inspirational and motivational boost rather than anxiety at this stage. » With so many teams and players, do you think about dealing commercial agreements with hockey brands or video game industry brands or other? « I definitely see a great opportunity in commercial co-operation and we had a good experience with Webhallen and our Summer Cup last summer. We’ve also seen our first eSports contracts for a few players in our league and the Cancun Pirates sponsorship by Bauer Hockey France is an excellent display that there is an interest in our community, teams and players. That being said, we have nothing to announce at this time. » « New and long-awaited features are coming » You called out to the community for help in January, was this call heard? « Absolutely! I was blown away by the amount of people that reached out, the quality of their applications and their work mentality later on. We have over 20 new members to our ECL Staff and the guys have done a great job so far preparing for the season. The challenge is of course to keep this positive spirit and activity going throughout the season and beyond, so let’s all do our best to make the new team feel welcome. We are still looking for more people interested in video production/editing, so if this is something you’d be interested in, please get in touch. » Well, let's talk about the upcoming season. A first surprise with the absence of Aapon, Elite champions. Do we know the reasons of their absence when they had announced to be back trough Facebook some weeks ago? « That was indeed a big disappointment for myself and many others, but these things happen. I believe some key players had decided they wanted to play elsewhere and in some cases this means taking away the glue that was making the team stick together so well in the past. » In your opinion, are there favorites already visible in Elite, Pro and Lite? « The divisions keep getting more and more talented each season and ECL 6 is no exception. I do think there are a few teams in each division with favorite status, but I prefer not to have an opinion about this. My goal besides running the website is to help my team, Monte Carlo, go as far as we can in ECL Pro. » Can you tell us some new things to come this season? « We have got a new member, @Hennisch, to join us and work on the code of NHLGamer and you can expect to see some new and long-awaited features rolling out during the ECL 6 season. With the new bigger ECL Staff we are putting a lot of work into producing more material during the season and seeing the most ECL streaming coverage we ever have before. Of course we are also putting a big emphasis on the very basics, such as reporting and replying to any team enquiries as quickly and accurately as possible. Last season we did that with roughly three active people and the new staff should make things run much more smoothly. It’s only logical to expect a small learning curve at the beginning of the season, so please have some extra patience in the first days, if there’s something. » « ECL 7 on NHL 19? » Finally, will ECL 7 take place on NHL 18 or rather on NHL 19? « As it looks right now, due to a lot of players wanting to take some time off in the summer, we believe it’s in the interest of the community to play ECL 7 on NHL 19. We do, however have a couple other 6vs6 tournaments planned for the time in between. Feel free to disagree with this and let us know if you think ECL 7 should take place during NHL 18. » Anything else to add? « On behalf of the team and myself, I am super excited about how many people and teams are finding their way onto our website and into ECL and we thank you for your interest and support! I would also like to thank my new (and old) staff members for their efforts in the off-season and the coming months - this is only the beginning. » Interviewed by Virtual_Saku

NHLGamers, We’re closing in on the deadline for registrations and the excitement is ramping up. Currently we stand at 90 teams, so we’re nearing the 100-team-mark with two days still to go. Tonight we will be hosting a preseason stream featuring a number of staff members, including @Kenu, @MartindalexC, @nylanderi and @SepiDN. The stream will be a forum for all new and old members to ask anything that comes to mind from our staff. We have a couple of things on the agenda, such as introduction of our new expanded staff and obviously discussing the new season about to start, along with all the fuzz and transfers going on in the community right now. We will be showing some preseason gameplay during the stream too, an opportunity to scout your opponents here! Tune in on our Twitch channel today at 20:00 CET, get your questions ready and put us on the spot! Last but not least, here is a listing of our new ECL Staff members, along with their approximate responsibilities. @Angepaoli - Social Media Representative, Forum Moderator @Bantubox - Forum Moderator @ICappeI - Forum Moderator @chavelski - ECL Elite Assistant, Journalist @cHIIMEERa - Streamer/Broadcast Crew @Crisu_rottis - ECL Pro Lead, ECL League Administrator, Streamer/Broadcast Crew @iRSPe - ECL League Administrator, Journalist @jahajaha93 - ECL Pro Assistant, Journalist, Social Media Representative @Kookasi - ECL League Administrator @Mannheimer1938 - ECL Pro Assistant, ECL Pro Assistant @MartindalexC - Streamer/Broadcast Crew @miisolegend - ECL Lite Lead @nylanderi - Streamer/Broadcast Crew, Journalist @Panarinz - ECL League Administrator @pnordetun - Journalist @ramseyy2 - ECL Lite Assistant @SepiDN - ECL Elite Lead, Streamer/Broadcast Crew @Snapster - ECL Pro Assistant, ECL Lite Assistant @Stylez-Hades - ECL Elite Assistant @Virtual_Saku - Journalist, Streamer/Broadcast Crew @Veikkonator - Social Media Representative In addition, @Hennisch has also joined our NHLGamer team as a programmer. Give our new staff members a warm welcome and stay tuned for more great stuff to come!

Good day NHLGamers, It is time for NHLGamers second edition of ECL action on the NHL 18 iteration of EA SPORTS hockey games: ECL 6. While I am sure most of you can't wait to get going - I know I am - as usual I'd like to start off the official registration post by taking a quick peek in the rearview mirror to remember what came before this sixth championship on the Playstation 4: ECL 1 Amount of teams registered: 50 Format: Four groups of 12-13 teams, 22-24 regular season games, shared playoffs Winner: Nordic Blizzard ECL 2 Amount of teams registered: 48 Format: Eight groups of 6 teams, 10 regular season games, shared playoffs Winner: MUKIMIEHET ECL 3 Amount of teams registered: 47 Format: Two groups of 23-24 teams, 44-46 regular season games, shared playoffs Winner: X Factor ECL 4 Amount of teams registered: 78 Format: Three separate divisions of 16 (Elite), 32 (Pro) & 32 (Lite) teams, 28-30 regular season games, divisional playoffs Winners: Laser HT (Elite), Carlsberg HC (Pro), J P T J (Lite) ECL 5 Amount of teams registered: 96 Format: Three separate divisions of 16 (Elite), 32 (Pro) & 48 (Lite) teams, 30 regular season games (Elite & Pro) - 16-18 (Lite), divisional playoffs Winners: Aapon Taikasauva (Elite), Evolution (Pro), Red Machine (Lite) Registration - ECL 6 Now that we've taken a trip down memory lane and witnessed the evolution of the European Championship League, it is time to get down to brass tacks in terms of ECL 6. It will be our third straight ECL featuring the divisional system implemented at the start of ECL 4. For ECL 6, the divisions will continue on in the same format as they were for ECL 5. This means all three divisions - Elite, Pro and Lite - are coming back, more competitive than ever. If you are completely new to the ECL and are registering for the first time, I suggest you check out this news story, detailing all the basics of ECL in a sort of "who are we and what to we do around here"-type post. So far we have seen the initiative to introduce divisions pay huge dividends and we are constantly seeing more and more teams around Europe discovering what the ECL is all about and what a fun challenge it can be to join. While it is too soon to make any predictions in terms of team registrations, we hope to match our excellent numbers for ECL 5 and perhaps even surpass the 100-team barrier. Which division to register for For both new and returning players and teams, the matter of registrering for the correct division might become a little confusing. At its core, it is quite simple, but we are of course here to explain what you should do. The following statement is taken from the ECL 5 registrations post but has been slightly edited to match the purposes of ECL 6: 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 from now until February 15th, 23:59 CEST [2018]. ECL 6 Kick-off: ECL 6 is set to start on Februrary 19th. Date may vary between divisions. To be confirmed. Rules: TBA before season start. See ECL 5 rules for reference. Sign-up procedures There will be different ways of signing up to ECL 6 - the procedures are explained in detail in the section below. Generally speaking: New teams that did not participate in ECL 5 at all or teams that were relegated from ECL 5 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 5: Please read the "ECL Pro" paragraph below. Teams that were able to stay in ECL Elite or were promoted from ECL Pro during ECL 5: Please read the "ECL Elite" paragraph below. ECL Lite ECL Lite welcomes any and all teams that did not participate in ECL 5 as well as the teams that were relegated from ECL Pro during ECL 5. 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 6 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 a few teams from ECL Pro could potentially be folding and/or not want to claim their spot - we also offer teams the opportunity to apply for ECL Pro during this sign-up process. However, ECL Lite quarter-finalists from ECL 5 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 should they apply. 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, history of ECL success and others. Below is the list of prioritized teams from ECL 5 Lite should there be spots available in Pro: ECL Pro ECL Pro is our second-tier 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 5. ECL Pro has a fixed size of 32 teams, divided into two groups. All the qualified teams are listed below: To sign up your team for ECL Pro, we ask the team's ECL 6 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Pro registration thread: ECL 6 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 5 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. ECL Elite ECL Elite is our top 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 5. All the qualified teams are listed below: To sign up your team for ECL Elite, we ask the team's ECL 6 main captain (C) only to go to the ECL Elite registration thread: ECL 6 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. @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com Facebook (NHLGamer) Twitter (NHLGamerCOM) YouTube (NHLGamer Official) Instagram (NHLGamerOfficial) Twitch (NHLGamerTwitch)