Lets Settle This EASHL Drop-in Debate

The only time I join drop-ins with my club buddies is when there are no other clubs to beat up on regular leagues - I don't know how any of you enjoy with randoms - 1 is painful enough! I'm sure we'd bugger off to 3's eliminator if they didn't make drop-ins ranked...

Might be because I haven't had my coffee this morning but I still don't understand why you guys don't just make a club with 20+ people - you can basically play whenever you want and if 6's is your go-to, there are dedicated leagues out there with sportsmanship rules and XFactor limitations. 

@TTZ_DipsyJust speaking for myself, I don't know 20 people to make a club with, everyone I know quit because the game hasnt changed. I try to play drops to meet people, you cant even tell if someone is "good" because half the games you get a troll or 1-2 players you gotta cover for all game which pulls you out of position and makes YOU look bad. My job doesn't allow for me to be on at specific times all the time so I'm not sure how leagues work or if they're able to work around a sporadic schedule.

The game just has no tools that offer ways for people to link up or find guys to get in a club with. The forums do but it's almost a ghost town at this point. I started playing a bit again lately because I'm waiting to get an ablation (had to be cardioverted in Qatar) now I get random SVT so just laying on the couch after work most days.. I def don't think drops should be ranked haha the only people who get ranked high are people who play with their club i'm at the point now that I consider quiting before puck drop if i see 3+ diamonds.. Best you can get is gold if you actually play with randoms (unless super lucky) because you're bound to get trolls, or people who have NO idea what is going on. Usually I only play drops if I have at least 1 friend on.

I really wish players had to do a mini camp or something before entering WoC so that they knew their responsibilities. Puck chasers make dropins nearly unplayable..

I def get playing drops if you can't find a club game. I've done that late at night when it would take 10-20 min to find a game.. but some clubs aren't even trying to get club games haha they just want easy wins and easy rank. When my club used to get 1-2 friends from home who have never played before we would play a game or two of drops just to teach them.. of course now they have club practice which helps a lot in teaching them.

With club it becomes way more difficult now to gather even 5 people to play. We used to recruit throughout community lobbies after developing chemistry there. Now the way drop-in 6's is built the environment is different and not even close to what club is. We spent years giving people chances on our club just to have them troll later. If it wasn't for lobbies the club I was on wouldn't have even started. Community lobbies we all knew one another and could play together which made it a great time. Best part was when say when the National Tournaments, All-Star or Stanley Cup playoffs were on we could select jerseys and have fun with it. Now we can't unless we sign up for LG as the jersey's are locked until we progress. Many of us rather play a quick game of OTP than match up with some E-sports kids who are in Div 1 playing against a D8 club...

@BIGRlTCHY"Many of us rather play a quick game of OTP than match up with some E-sports kids who are in Div 1 playing against a D8 club..."

Ah so it's ok if you be the dominant team against randoms. It's literally so easy to get 6 for random club games. The LG Shoutbox can take like 5 to 10mins to round up a group towards the night time and weekends. And I'm sure some of you have 1 or 2 friends around to help also fill a slot. It's a great way to actually make gaming friends and expand instead of staying with a group of inconsistent people who aren't around when you want to game. My Xbox friend list has over 100+ people from LG so there isn't a shortage of people to find games for.

You also won't run into majority of the E-sports people because they are usually doing private games as the best type of practice. And anyone that uses the I just want to relax and have fun needs to stop right there and play drop-ins. EASHL Club is a competitive mode that isn't meant to be a Sunday drive thru the park.

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Let's take my Apex Legends gaming for example.  I play a bunch of ranked in Apex Legends but it was only me and my friend so we would always get a random 3rd for matchup.  If they were good and such we ended up becoming friends.  After awhile our friend list got bigger and bigger and we eventually found a group with 50+ members who also use a discord.  They range from all ages and such and it's a nice community to find games.  Point is find the methods and put in some effort to expand yourself.

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@rsandersr47 wrote:

@TTZ_DipsyJust speaking for myself, I don't know 20 people to make a club with, everyone I know quit because the game hasnt changed. I try to play drops to meet people, you cant even tell if someone is "good" because half the games you get a troll or 1-2 players you gotta cover for all game which pulls you out of position and makes YOU look bad.

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Basically this.  I have like one other friend who plays often, another who plays MAYBE once or twice a month because the AI whether it be goalie or defense is brutal, and another who plays once or twice a month but isn't great.  All three of them also only play on PS4 still and don't plan on getting PS5's and I don't plan on playing the PS4 version anymore.

Sorry, forgot to reply. I don't have 20 friends either, I just think that out of all the drop in games you've played, surely you had a good rapport with at least a few people willing to create a bulk team - I've seen a few stat screens in 'competitive' with 10+ random players with equally random stats. It mostly becomes a change of aesthetic in the end.

I just think you'll get everything you want - proper jerseys, actual arenas without nasty shadows, and a more law abiding structure of play. Now I admit it might force you to opt for facebook or discord groups to coordinate pairing up a little more but its a small price to pay to fine-tune the experience to your liking.

The game needs a ton of tweaks; I'm not sure everyone in every mode will or even can be fully satisfied

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@TTZ_Dipsy wrote:

Sorry, forgot to reply. I don't have 20 friends either, I just think that out of all the drop in games you've played, surely you had a good rapport with at least a few people willing to create a bulk team - I've seen a few stat screens in 'competitive' with 10+ random players with equally random stats. It mostly becomes a change of aesthetic in the end.

I just think you'll get everything you want - proper jerseys, actual arenas without nasty shadows, and a more law abiding structure of play. Now I admit it might force you to opt for facebook or discord groups to coordinate pairing up a little more but its a small price to pay to fine-tune the experience to your liking.

The game needs a ton of tweaks; I'm not sure everyone in every mode will or even can be fully satisfied

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Allow drop-in players to join up with a club that has open CPU slots. Give clubs the tools to boot the free agents if needed. Problem solved. 

@KidShowtime1867 

Buddy and I beat 3 man teams all the time but I don't think it's exactly fair to allow a group of two to suddenly tack on another mid-game when playing clubs. We already have the tools to invite and kick people anyway; the game needs more in-depth changes and less bloat

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@TTZ_Dipsy wrote:

@KidShowtime1867 

Buddy and I beat 3 man teams all the time but I don't think it's exactly fair to allow a group of two to suddenly tack on another mid-game when playing clubs. We already have the tools to invite and kick people anyway; the game needs more in-depth changes and less bloat

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That's not what I'm suggesting at all.

When you're in a club, there should be an option for 'allow free agent's when you begin searching for a club game and you've got open CPU positions.

When you're a drop-in user, you should have an option like 'Enable Free Agency' which means while you're searching for a drop-in game, if a club on your regional server has 'allow free agents' selected while searching, you would be given the option to match up with them and take one of their CPU spots.

I didn't suggest at all that a club running 3's can pick up 3 more human players mid-game, to fill their roster to 6 -  versus a team who only has 3 humans. 

The idea would be that if your club had 3 humans, picked up 3 free agents, then matchmaking would match you up with another team who has 6 humans, whether that was a full club of 6 or they grabbed free agents as well.