Without a doubt there comes an incredible bias when ranking teams as you have friendships to honour (people take these very personally), your own teammates to suck up to, and your own ego to maintain. Luckily the guy writing this hates just about everyone equally and couldn't care less about your feelings. Before getting into this write-up, I'd like to quote @Perrilyzer1: "At the end of the day we're playing NHL 18, not what everyone THINKS NHL 18 should be." This write-up is about the best teams in NHL 18 based on a mix of actual results and a little opinion. This is about the teams, not the individual players, as not only is NHL 18 heavily focused on team play, but championships are won through more than just individual skill. Please rank your own top 5. I'm sure you guys have some friendships to maintain, but I challenge you to go back and look at the full years worth of data and results available to you. 5. Turning Point Total ESHL Events: 4 ESHL Championships: 0 Best Finish: 4th ESHL Combined Finish: 2nd Here's a team you probably think you should beat. Every single team said that in their head when they saw these guys on the schedule and every single team that lost to them said they shouldn't have lost to them. These guys were in the running every single event, always hung around the top of the standings, and had an overall 2nd place finish for the full year to show for it. Good for you guys for being the quiet, humble, quality team that stuck it out despite numerous roster changes. They may get beat in scrims by a lot of teams, but when the games mattered they showed up ready to win. Overall chemistry is what brings these guys in at number 5 over Delusions - had to the turd meta down, couldn't piece it together and Composure - inconsistent overall performance throughout the year. No hard feelings to those 2 teams, I just think overall this team put together a far better year long performance. As far as individual skill goes these guys aren't too bad at all - they aren't a team like Prophecy stacked with talent, but they certainly have more than a team like Rated R who survived on pure chemistry. This team was a game or two away from being a top 3 team and a game or two away from being an 8th, 9th, or 10th place team. Every single event they found a way to grind out those extra wins to keep them in playoff contention and I think that extra little mustard they put on their hotdog is what rounded them out as a top 5 team. 4. Rated R Total ESHL Events: 4 ESHL Championships: 0 (pending) Best Finish: 3rd (pending) ESHL Combined Finish: 3rd You can hate the way they play all you want, but they are good at NHL 18. Stop complaining that it's not the game you want it to be and deal with it. Before I switched to Xbox I watched this team qualify in NHL 17. I remember telling Nuge, "I've never seen a team play so fast and be so successful like that Rated R team... I like it." It was something like that. Compared to heavy TOA teams like Composure who played slow, these guys were just about the polar opposite and the first team I'd seen win anything playing the style that they did. Congrats on finally getting some clout guys. I know you think you should be #1, but you aren't in my books. I will say that I think you have a pretty good shot at winning the grand final and are by far the hottest team playing right now. Take pride in knowing that there are at least 4 teams preparing a death threat for me as we speak for having you on here instead of them. These are the guys everyone dismissed. They were forced to qualify for Invite this year after doing so in NHL 17 (my DMs are a real nice reflection of how they felt about it), they were never ranked highly by anyone, but always seemed to make playoffs, and they are now competing for the biggest championship in ESHL. Compared to everyone else, their individual talent is mediocre at best, but their chemistry is by far the best. All these guys do is play together - in club everynight, in LG, and in ESHL. This year was a marathon, not a sprint. They have shown that they have a deadly kick and are ready to cap off the year with a championship. The sole reason they are ranked is because of this hot streak they are on from the last event to this event. They still made playoffs every event and still upset a lot of teams that took them too lightly. If they win it all it still won't change where I put them. The first two events were not enough to boost them higher than this. As a fan of the underdogs, I'm rooting for you guys to take home a championship. Good luck. 3. Prophecy Total ESHL Events: 3 ESHL Championships: 1 Best Finish: 1st ESHL Combined Finish: 6th If I haven't pissed you off yet, these next two are surely where it happens. If this powerhouse had been together from the beginning of the year, they would have finished in the top 2 or 3 tournament points wise. Skill wise these guys are all individually elite level players. If individual skill reigned supreme in NHL 18 they would be the best team in the game. The chemistry these guys have is equally as good so they aren't losing any points there for me. The reason I have them 3rd and not 1 or 2? Playoff performance. With the exception of their one championship, they had 2 first round exits (1 of them to Ice Breakers). They can blame bad luck, a bad game, or a bad meta, but they couldn't overcome it on the ice to be crowned the best team in the game (although I really think they should have been). What they bring to the table is a perfect balance of puck possession (which can help in certain scenarios) and speed (read: gilleh with the puck anywhere on the ice). This is the team that would find out what plays and moves would be the toughest on their opponents and they executed them with near perfection. If NHL 19 is more suited to individual skill then these guys will be on top. 2. Ice Breakers Total ESHL Events: 2 ESHL Championships: 1 Best Finish: 1st ESHL Combined Finish: 7th Before I lose you, hear me out for a minute: 1 for 2 in ESHL events, semi-finalists in the Grand Finals, beat out powerhouse Prophecy from playoffs event 3, and has the absolute best depth on their roster. @Hxndry will be mad I didn't rank us #1, everyone else will be mad I ranked us at all. Again, I'm trying to do this without any bias. If this team had have played all year, they would be either #1 or still #2. The roster is made up of a bunch of left over misfits that no one likes (except for @JClaus33 and @GB521), but as it turns out everyone had elite level chemistry together. Offensively there are 2 lines - Hendry / Jclaus / Fisher and GB / Jclaus / Keeks. Those 2 lines could start on any single other team. When you mixed them together, they weren't very good. When you kept them separate, the chemistry and skill was undeniable. The number of plays this team had drawn up were as equally impressive as their ability to execute them. You can argue that the plays aren't pretty, but they got the job done more times than not and that's all that matters. Defensively they had one of the lowest GA in the league. That speaks for it self. Hate both or either of the dmen, but they locked it down in their own end and wreaked havoc in the offensive end. When this team showed up they were one of the best without a doubt. 1. Total ESHL Events: 4 ESHL Championships: 1 (pending) Best Finish: 1st ESHL Combined Finish: 1st The above stats are enough to sway me to say these guys deserve the title of the absolute best team in NHL 18. They went through some rough patches throughout the year, but they won the first event, were runners up in the 2nd event, semi-finalists in the 3rd event, and are currently in the championship of the grand final. If that's not enough to convince you then you're probably someone I wouldn't get along with very well. It seemed like all they had to do was flip a switch and decide they wanted to be the best. That switch was turned off during the regular season for the last 2 events, but come playoff time they found a way to compete. NHL 18 is a game where TOA can be a meaningless stat. The game catered to teams who played fast and scored off the rush and this is what was able to do. Love it or hate it, they collapsed hard in front of their own net, making it easy for their goalies to saves shots and one-timers from the outside. They may not have been perfect every time they stepped on the ice, but I think they're by far the overall best team that played this year.
1. 2. Ice Breakers 3. Prophecy 4. Turning Point 5. Rated R has proven to be the best team throughout NHL 18. Obviously biased but I still believe that I put together the best team CURRENTLY in NHL 18. Goes to show when we took down arguably the next two best teams in the game in season 3 playoffs and went on to win it all. I think what wins it for us though is our depth, to be able to have guys like @GB521 and @Aye Keeks on our roster as well was unbelievable and I applaud them for the effort they showed in the grand finals. S/O all the other teams and players that made this year fun and competitive and special S/O to @jonlol for putting up with everyones bullshit throughout the year and making this enjoyable for all of us. Good luck tonight in the finals @ @Rated R
1 rated r 2 ice breakers 3 4 prophecy 5 composure yes i agree that its about nhl 18 and not what we wanted nhl 18 to be ....but i like to acknowledge that the best team doesnt always win in this game.
1. - How can they not be 2. IxB - Just as successful during their existence 3. Prophecy - Same deal as IxB 4. Rated R - Current run shows consistency/chemistry 5. Turning Point - Love the hate, always competitive
