State of the EASHL

Taken from the official EASHL forums

It's my hope that GM's/Players of teams that are looking to compete in this year's EASHL Championships read this.

I want to be clear that the NHL development team and I are passionate about making the EASHL the premiere sports gaming league in all of sports video games. I have seen what other titles have done with their single player tournaments and I've seen both the good and the bad. The good is the competitive spirit which brings the best players together for Live and Online events culminating in annual major events to crown winners. The bad is what some of these players will do to get to the top whether it be by exploiting the game or playing in a manner that is unrealistic to the real game to win at all costs. Usually this comes by way of taking advantage of AI as users learn to master games and finding go-to plays that work more often than not.

Using exploits in games is common though that does not mean that they are welcome. Which brings me to the EASHL, currently the only sports gaming league that offers gamers the opportunity to play without AI teammates thereby eliminating opportunities for opponents to use exploits. It's been a common theme that teams that play without a full complement of players will be open to teams looking to exploit AI. It was our belief that if teams played with a full squad there would be fewer complaints about this.

We also took into account teams that would create numerous teams to win-trade against and have adjusted the points structure to allow diminishing returns for teams playing the same teams repeatedly and possibly winning games unfairly. We understand that some teams will attempt to climb the leaderboards using whatever means necessary and we do our best to deter teams from playing the same team by allowing few points for repeated wins over the same team. We still see that teams attempt to win this way, though we've also noticed that teams are catching on realizing that the points are just not tallying as much as they hoped.

The one issue that we didn't take into account and would like to address here are teams that "lie down" to other teams to help those other teams receive wins. There has been some discussion with top teams receiving wins unfairly and please know that we have looked at all the teams involved that have been accused of this. Whether it's teams that are colluding behind closed doors or players that are playing for teams they don't normally play with, there isn't much that we can do on our end to prevent that given the current system. That does not mean, however, that we will just sit by and allow this to happen.

My first question is, why would any team lie down for another team? Why would a player play for another team in order to help that team get ahead of another? My first challenge is to the community and all teams/GMs/players is to have good standing within the community. It's easy to come onto the forums and blast other players and teams for whatever reason but this behavior only lends itself for others to attack back. I would ask that teams make an effort to be more mature and to take responsibility for their behavior in game and on the forums.

For those players and teams that do give "free wins" to other teams, know that we are keeping a very close eye on you. The main reason we call our annual championship an invitational is to invite only the best and respected teams in the league. Over the past few months with our season champions we've received numerous PM's and emails about teams that have colluded, players that have jumped to other teams, and possible wins that were questionable. Please know that we do track this information and when it comes down to selecting the teams for our championship, as we did last year, we will make tough decisions to not invite teams that have been repeatedly called out. Bottom line, again, it comes down to whether or not you have the respect of your peers in the community and if you don't, you possibly leave yourself open for others to target. Though we do not condone such behavior and plan not to reward such behavior, I would say that it's much better to have the respect of the community so teams wouldn't want to prevent your team from winning.

Where I'm going with this, and I appreciate those that have taken the time to digest this, is that it's the human factor we are dealing with and not the AI as with other titles. I challenge all top teams/GMs/players to take responsibility for your behavior in OUR league. In any league, there are ways to cheat the system, but does that mean you must? The community will always speak loudest and call out those that do attempt to cheat the system as we've seen last year and this year. For those that come on the forums, play 'dumb', and think they can get away with being involved in unfair wins...you need to think again as you definitely risk an opportunity to take part in what is looking to be an incredible Championship this year.

Just remember that we didn't wipe suspected teams until late in the year last year and we do not intend to "show our hand" early this year at all. Though we do want to reward teams that have been successful in our monthly seasons and teams that have played well overall, we will not reward teams that may have gotten there unfairly or teams/players that have colluded with teams that may have moved up unfairly. A trophy or medal is one thing...an invite to the Big Dance at the end of the season is another.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments here though please refrain from calling out any team or individual here. If you must, please PM me directly. Also, please don't copy/paste post as it's fairly long and will clutter the thread.