Congratulations to the Montreal Canadiens for making it to the finals.  Owner Liqara22 and his various General Managers over the season had some trouble with activity and attitudes, but they persevered in the home stretch securing a playoff spot at the end of Week 6.

This was a great first season of the GRHL.  For a brand new League the amount of drama, forfeits, no-shows, etc were kept to a minimum, which is unprecedented for a new League.  Special thanks to all the Executive Committee members for helping to make this season the success that it was.  NellDBI for being a great Commissioner, keeping all us boys in check.  Emraith for taking on added responsibilities on top of creating our own internal stat tracking system after LeagueDaddy went down.  GamingNinjah for investigating releases/complaintsand accepting his role as the least important Executive.  ValKnight for being part of the creation process of the League and having valuable input in some ideas, and Liqara for stepping down as an Executive to take on a team at the last minute and taking his team to the finals.

Thanks to all the Owners this season for being the biggest reason for this success.  You guys did a great job, communicated with fellow Management and the Executives to keep things running smoothly.  We hope to see most of you guys back as returning Owners for Season 2.  We’ll be getting in contact with all of you soon.

Season 2 Signups are open and we’re always looking for New Owners.  Everyone have a great holiday and see you in Season 2!  Look forward in the near future for Season 1 Awards.

The post GamingRendo Hockey League – Season 1 Champions! first appeared on GamingRendo - News, Reviews, and Videos of all your favourite games.

Season 2 Planning is underway.  Ownership and Executive Applications are available to be filled out in hopes of getting a meeting. Season 2 Signups are open.  If you’re interested in an NHL 13 6v6 League that is ran by mature adults, that has their own Stat System, that enforces their rules and has a structure that reduces forfeits and people waiting to play or get on teams, check us out.  We’re aiming for a Mid-January Season 2 start date.  We welcome any and all players regardless of League experience or League reputation.  Hope to see you on the ice!

The post GamingRendo Hockey League – Season 2 Signups Open first appeared on GamingRendo - News, Reviews, and Videos of all your favourite games.

Hey everyone,

There has been a lot of good discussion about the EASHL recently so let’s keep that up. I recently realized that I forgot to mention that we did a few small tweaks to the EASHL Pro regarding player types and how you can spend your XP. NHL is always tuned using NHL players and teams and we do not have separate gameplay for EASHL specifically. This year we have decided that you can no longer be better than an NHL player in any stats for EASHL, that way we don’t see 99 wrist shot accuracy and power being able to blow shots past goalies as easily. You will no longer be able to have 99 of any stat. We tuned the values based on real life NHL players within their respective player types. For example, for snipers, we have a hard cap at 95 for wrist shot accuracy. The cap depends on the player type and what they “Should” be good and bad at. A Playmaker for example, would be able to get up to a 95 passing, but not up to a 90 rating shooting. We feel that by adding a cap for each stat based on player type does remove some of the freedoms you once had, but also forces people to choose a player type that more or less suites their style of play. We want NHL 13 to feel different with the new skating system, and we do not want people to have unbalanced players by being able to have 99 speed and agility for example.

You will also notice the player overall ratings will be much lower. This is somewhat of an unwanted result of the offline player rating separation that happened, but really the EASHL Pro’s overall rating doesn’t mean anything. The individual stats are the most important.

Also note that these caps were set while using the Boost Slots applied so we ensured that even while using boosts you could not go over an unwanted level. This will result in some people thinking some of the caps are set too low, but you must factor in the +8 boost you would apply to your pro.

This is an absolutely fantastic change.  For those of you who play Online Team Play, EASHL, or online 6v6 Leagues this will help bring some balance to player builds.  With the present system, there are “broken” builds.  Stacking certain attributes to 99 in conjunction with some A button and dangling skill, a lot of players could magically avoid body and stick checks, stick lifts would be ineffective, it made playing the game frustrating and not enjoyable.

Whenever I play offline or versus, which uses NHL players with realistic attributes, the gameplay better emulates realism opposed to the arcade-like nonsense most people experience.  Bringing this to EASHL, OTP, and the 6v6 Leagues that exist will greatly improve gameplay and make the experience that much more enjoyable.

Typically, I’ve been very critical of EA on how the NHL Series ends up.  There’s always gameplay breaking issues/exploits, glitch goals, server issues, et al.  I’ve got to give a lot of credit to EA for actually addressing a major issue that existed in NHL 12, though I still remain skeptical that the game will be without at least one major issue.  Here’s hoping I’m wrong, and here’s to actually looking forward to NHL 13, a welcome change from my annual gamer angst.

The post NHL 13 – EASHL Attribute Change first appeared on GamingRendo - News, Reviews, and Videos of all your favourite games.