MENU MENU

Know the rules in EA SPORTS NHL®

Learn to play by the EA rules in EA SPORTS NHL® and what breaking them means for you and your account.

Play by the rules and help keep Hockey Ultimate Team™ (HUT) and World of CHEL (WoC) a fair, fun, and secure experience for everyone. Check here for the latest updates to our rules, and get tips to help secure your EA Account.

How do I play by the rules?

It’s easy to play by our rules once you know what they are.

Check out our article on playing by the EA rules and our Positive Play Charter.

Sometimes our general rules don’t cover everything. Below are some additional rules that apply to HUT and WoC.

Don’t buy HUT Coins or Items

You can earn HUT Coins and Items by playing HUT and trading within the Auction House, but you can’t buy them. Paying for HUT Coins or Items from a third party is against our rules.

A few ways to earn HUT Coins or Items are:

  • playing matches in HUT (excluding Play with Friends)
  • ranking in HUT Rivals, HUT Champions, Competitive Seasons, or Squad Battles
  • completing HUT Challenges, Objectives and Milestones
  • trading in the Auction House at fair market value.

You can trade for Items to build up your HUT team at Coin prices (or trade offers) which accurately reflect an Item’s current demand and availability. Price Ranges show an Item’s potential price range as it fluctuates over time, but are not absolute indicators of its fair market value at the time of your trades.

Buying or selling HUT Coins leads to an uneven playing field in HUT. It creates an unfair increase in Item prices on the Auction House and takes away the opportunity to buy affordable Items for players who earned their Coins legitimately.

Buying HUT Coins puts your account at risk

If you buy HUT Coins, you’re at risk for having your account information stolen by phishers. HUT Coin sellers need account login information to give out HUT Coins so they can just as easily remove your Items and HUT Coins too. Then they’ll turn around and make a profit off the Items they steal and hack someone else. Help keep your account safe and don’t give your login information to anyone.

Buying “mule” accounts or performing comfort trades isn't allowed. These activities are against our gameplay rules because they have a negative impact on the game economy, and they damage gameplay for you and other players. When in doubt, don’t do it.

Don’t use auto-buyers

If you use any sort of in-game bots so you can earn HUT Coins fast and illegitimately, you’re breaking our rules. Making transactions outside of in-game limits or playing in an unauthorized way that gives you an unfair advantage hurts the experience for you and other players.

You can only access NHL®, NHL Hockey Ultimate Team™, and our servers using an official copy of EA SPORTS™ NHL®, otherwise it breaks our rules. An official copy is a copy that you bought from us or an authorized retailer. You must also use an unmodified platform to avoid breaking our rules. An unmodified platform is a console that no one has adjusted or added anything to that would change the way it functions. In other words, the console must work the way it did when it came out of the box from an authorized retailer, and does not have any software running to modify the game or the game’s interactions with EA.

If you share your credentials with someone who is using a modified platform, that breaks our rules too.

Don’t promote HUT Coin buying and selling

Promoting the sale of HUT Coins or Items anywhere within our games or forums breaks our rules. Buying HUT Coins breaks our code of trust. 

Don’t distribute HUT Coins

HUT Coin selling and distribution damages the HUT economy. It disrupts the safe buying and selling environment that legitimate players are trying to use to get the players they need for their Ultimate Team.

We all want to help a friend out, but sending HUT Coins or Items to your friends is a form of coin distribution and it breaks our rules.

Giveaways are another form of coin distribution that’s against our rules. If a player or a site offers you HUT Coins or Items in exchange for subscribing, don’t do it. Having multiple accounts and funneling HUT Coins and Items to your main account breaks our rules too.

Don’t farm HUT Coins

You can earn HUT Coins and Items in a bunch of different ways in HUT, but farming isn’t allowed.

HUT Coin farming is when you use exploits to earn HUT Coins outside of normal gameplay, either by using bots in the Auction House or by tricking the game into thinking you’re playing matches when you aren’t.

When you store a lot of HUT Coins in your account, that’s fine—as long as you’re earning those HUT Coins the right way in-game. Using any sort of Auction House bots or disconnection methods in-game breaks the rules.

Don’t make false claims

Making a false claim to EA Advisors or any other EA representative is against our gameplay rules. Breaking the rules makes it hard to create a fun, safe, and secure environment for you and everyone else playing.

Don’t hack other players' accounts

It might seem like a no-brainer, but accessing another player’s account is completely against the rules.

Don’t cheat in-game

Cheating can include, but isn’t limited to, using external tools, performing in-game exploits, abusing glitches or bugs, performing, using, buying, or selling match collusion, matchmaking manipulation, or win manipulation services. In-game cheating isn’t fair play and hurts the experience for the players you're playing against.

What happens if I break the rules?

We have these rules because we want HUT and WoC to be a fair, fun, and secure experience. Engaging in HUT Coin Distribution, cheating, or other disruptive and toxic behaviors in our game breaks our rules, and there is a chance we may:

  • remove your HUT Coins
  • remove your HUT Items
  • remove your NHL Points
  • remove your HUT competitive modes rewards and leaderboards entry
  • limit or remove your access to the HUT Auction House
  • reset your Player Rank level and reward rank tier in WoC Seasons
  • remove your EASHL Club from the Leaderboards and reset its Club Finals Rewards
  • ban you or your console from HUT, WoC, or NHL
  • ban you or your console from all EA games
  • restrict your access or in-game privileges in other ways.

Help keep your account secure

We'll never ask for any of your account passwords. That includes passwords for your EA Account, your Xbox Live Gamertag, or your PlayStation™Network ID. If anyone tries to get that information from you, know that it’s not us. Anyone breaking EA rules while using your account, in any EA game, may result in your account being suspended or terminated. Never give your passwords out, ever.

Got questions about an action we took on your account?

Learn more about your account lock, ban, or suspension.

Need more help?

We want to help our players as efficiently as we can, so please only contact us with genuine challenges. If you think we made a mistake with a ban or suspension, contact us using the available method so we can review your account.

Before you contact us, know that the Rules of Conduct in our User Agreement expect that players don’t:

  • improperly use in-game support or complaint buttons
  • make false reports to EA staff.

Was this article helpful?

0% of 0 players found this article helpful.
Not what you were looking for? Try searching again.

Was this article helpful?

0% of 0 players found this article helpful.
X
Have a question? Ask EA Help
X