The teams compete for three trophies.

​

Each of the ten teams plays a 54 game season beginning early September, consisting of three home and three away games against each of the other teams. The results of these games give us the League trophy. The majority of games take place at weekends, and teams play two games most weekends.

 

Of the regular season games, the first home game and the first away game played against each opponent make up the table for the Cup. This is normally complete by around Christmas, depending on scheduling. The top four teams in the table go on to play in the knock-out round: semi-finals and final. These games have to be fitted in around the existing league schedule and often end up being scheduled mid-week. 

 

At the end of the regular season, which finishes mid-late March, the top eight teams in the League go through to the Playoffs. The structure has changed from season to season - sometimes they start with a round robin and sometimes they start with knockout rounds. Knockout rounds are set up so that the highest placed team plays the lowest (1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5). The playoff rounds in Back Up There follow the round robin format.

The top four teams go through to the finals weekend. The real EPL played this weekend at the Skydome in Coventry - none of the EPL teams were based at this rink, which is the home ice for the Coventry Blaze in the Elite League, the UK's top league. Most EPL rinks are not big enough to host the event, and Coventry is fairly central in England. Tickets go on sale months before the top four teams are decided, so there's always a mixture of fans from all teams and a party atmosphere.

All four teams play a semi-final match on the Saturday (1-4, 2-3) and then on the Sunday there's another match in the early slot (usually a juniors final or a National league final) and then the EPL final takes place as the last game of the weekend.