If you don't think the players in the EASHL are serious about being Champions then you haven't played with the finalists who will be competing for the first EASHL Championship next week. We continue our look at some of the gamers who've led the league with their teams and find out how they've reached the top as we near next week's best-of-seven game series. Here we feature the Purple Cobraz LD, Mattocaster7.
Gamertag: Mattocaster7
Name: Matthew Parsons
Hometown: Glovertown, Newfoundland, Canada
Age: 22
Position: LD
Favourite NHL Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
I’ve been a die-hard fan of the NHL series for as long as I can recall. I remember opening my SNES on Christmas morning back in 1992 and nearly hitting the ceiling with excitement. A couple of days later, once I had finished my first run through of Super Mario World, I convinced my mother to let me rent a new game. Being a huge hockey fan, it took me mere seconds to decide on NHLPA 93. As I controlled the likes of Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark, leading the Leafs to the Stanley Cup, I became hooked on the NHL series.
Even though I played the games frequently, I never really got into the online aspect until this year. I had always been a huge fan of dynasty mode, starting out from stacking my team and playing on the lowest difficulty to try to win by 50 goals as a kid, to grinding it out on the hardest difficulty with the Leafs’ current roster in more recent years. I had played a little versus play and a handful of online team play games in NHL 08, but once the EASHL was introduced in NHL 09, I became a huge fan of online play. In fact, 99% of my time playing NHL 09 is spent playing the online modes now. The introduction of the Be A Pro style of online hockey has truly been the greatest advancement in any sports game to date, and has made the game much more interesting. Teams now actually feel like real teams, as you all have to play your own part and you really have to know the game in order to be successful in the online community.
I started my EASHL career by playing with a friend of mine on a team named Super Snipers. It was a small team and we didn’t play very often, so I decided I would make an attempt at earning my legend card through random OTP games. I played a few games as a winger, but quickly converted to a defenceman, as I enjoyed the defensive part of the game a lot more. After playing 150 games of OTP and earning my legend card, I decided I would try to find a decent team to play with. I posted my stats on the forum, and within a day or two I received a message from knights1191 asking me to play for his team, which would later become “What Just Happened”.
We played on a regular basis, and despite being a small squad, we managed to move up the rankings rather quickly. I remember 4 of us beating Air Force One 6-5 in overtime and thinking it was the greatest thing in the world. We didn’t have any success against Division 1 teams up until this point, so this was a really exciting event for us at the time. We kept moving up and down the ranks once we reached the higher divisions, as we were losing several games due to our opponents using glitch goals. At this point, we decided we would have to find a goaltender to help solve the problem. This is when I was first introduced to current Purple Cobraz goalie, Jordan Perri (Perrilyzer1.)
At first, we weren’t sure if Perrilyzer was the right fit for us, as he was a bit weak between the pipes starting out. However, he caught on very quickly and began to be a huge help. Once our back end was solidified, we made a strong push to the top 50. We stayed there for a while, but the others on the team became too obsessed with the look of our record, and the team decided to disband in early November. At this point, I started searching for a new team, but because I hadn’t played the series online in the past, none of the top GMs had any clue of my skill level. As a result of this, tryouts were hard to come by. I had an unsuccessful tryout with EA Factor, so I sent a message to Tim Loder (RocketQueenGnR at the time) asking for a tryout with the Purple Cobraz. At first they just laughed it off and didn’t appear to be interested in my services, but Tim finally decided to let me have a one game tryout. This time, I didn’t disappoint, and became the Cobraz starting left defenceman.
The Cobraz were also in need of a goaltender, so Perri asked them for a tryout. When they consulted me about his abilities, I told them that he was a solid goaltender and that they should give him a chance. That’s when the Purple Cobraz truly became a force to be reckoned with. With the Boder/Moder/Loder line firing on all cylinders, clockwork and I holding down the blue line, and Perrilyzer bailing us out whenever we were in trouble, we began to have a lot of success against the top teams in the league. The guys taught me much more organized offensive and defensive systems than I had been exposed to on my previous teams, and I improved significantly as a result of this.
The core of this group remained together for the remainder of the season, but due to the restrictions of the EASHL Invitational, 4 members of the team had to be replaced. The Oders helped us secure a position in the Invitational and were also crucial in recruiting other talented players to help fill our playoff roster. They have been a large part of our success throughout the entire season and even though they won’t be traveling with us to Vancouver, they deserve as much acknowledgment as the rest of our club.
The Invitational started out a little less pleasant than it should have for me, as my connection dropped early in our first game against 13th Amendment and the guys were forced to play with a weak AI player in my place. Thankfully they were able to pull off some late-game heroics and come out with a 2-1 win. Our second round match-up saw us put forth out best effort of the playoffs, as we easily defeated The Giant Shafts 7-0 to move onto the console finals.
The final against The White Church was definitely an uphill battle for us. We went in with a lot of confidence and knew if we stayed out of penalty trouble, we should be able to control the play. However, we were very undisciplined, making 7 trips to the sin bin in the first 2 periods. It seemed as if we couldn’t touch the A or RB buttons without ending up in the box, so we became quite frustrated. However, we did an incredible job of killing the penalties. Domination x21 was a monster in the face-off circle, which helped a great deal in our own end. We managed to keep most of their attack to the outside, and Perrilyzer came up huge whenever we had a breakdown in coverage. We escaped the first 2 periods with only 1 goal against, despite playing shorthanded for the majority of them.
As the game wore on, we knew that they wouldn’t be able to hold us off of the scoreboard for the entire game. Our offence was hardly ever shutout throughout the entire season, so we knew our chances would come. We kept our composure and didn’t panic, even though the clock was working against us at this point. We created several great chances, only to have them broken up by some great defensive plays, but we didn’t give up.
With just under 3 minutes left, we finally got our break, as one of their forwards took a penalty in the neutral zone. This turned out to be costly, as Domination x21 walked out from the corner on this very power-play and ripped a shot over the goaltender’s shoulder to tie the game at 1. It was quite a relief to see the red light come on, and we knew that it was our game to win from then on. This proved to be true, as we overcame some more penalty trouble early in overtime and shortly after, NfldTim fired home the game winner to send us to Vancouver and crown us the first EASHL champions for the Xbox 360. The celebration that ensued surely was intense, as all that could be heard in our Xbox Live party was a mess of screaming and cheering coming from each and every one of us. The final happened to fall on my birthday as well, so the win definitely was a great gift from the guys.
The stage is now set for what should be a great EASHL final. After watching several of the NHL Regulators’ games, I’ve noticed that they move the puck really well in the offensive zone, so we will definitely have to be sharp in our own end if we want to be successful. Our offensive potency will be a huge asset in the finals and I have full confidence in us putting up some big numbers if their defence isn’t up to the task. The Regulators are undoubtedly the best the PS3 has to offer, so we will not be taking them lightly in Vancouver. We are representing the entire Xbox 360 community and have no intentions of letting it down. The Cobraz will be up to the challenge and we won’t settle for anything less than a championship.
I think the trip will definitely be a great experience for everyone involved. It gives us the chance to meet the guys that we have been playing with for quite some time and see what they are like in person. I’m excited to meet both our guys, and the members of the Regulators. It should be a lot of fun to compete side by side against some of the best players in the game.
As for preparation, we’ve been running fun 6v6 all-star games on a regular basis to make sure we don’t get rusty before the finals. Aside from this, I’ve also been playing EASHL games with my best friends from home on their club, the G City Bombers. It’s a great deal of fun and a nice break from the pressure of playing top teams every night with the Cobraz.
I think the inaugural season of the EASHL, despite its flaws, was a great success. It truly re-innovated the way sports games are played online and I think it’s only going to improve from here. I can’t wait to see what NHL 10 has in store both online and offline, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint.