For the fourth time in history, the Oberliga was split into four regional leagues (North, South, East, West).
[1][2] The regular Oberliga North season operated a 32 match format with each team playing each other four times.
Format: Best of three match series' for qualification and main rounds Source: www.pointstreak.com Operated by the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB), Oberliga South covers the states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
Bundesliga to Oberliga South, Erding Gladiators were permitted to remain in the league rather than being relegated to the Regionalliga.
[4] Format: Best of five match series' for both rounds Source: www.pointstreak.com Operated by the Berlin Ice Sports Association (LEV-Berlin), Oberliga East covers the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
ECC Preussen Berlin withdrew from the league, leaving Oberliga East with eight teams.
[5] The format for the regular season saw each team play each other four times for a total of 28 matches.
The top two teams of each group progressed to the elimination stage, which involved three match series' for the semi-finals and final.
Elimination stage Format: Best of three match series' for both rounds Source: www.pointstreak.com Operated by the Ice Sports Association North Rhine-Westphalia (LEV-NRW), Oberliga West covers the states of Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
[8] The Oberliga West regular season ran from 27 September till 20 December 2013.
The top six in the standings qualified for the DEL2 promotion playoffs as well as the Oberliga West championship round.
The two groups played a ten match round-robin tournament with the winners progressing to qualification phase two.
Joining the Kassel Huskies, Löwen Frankfurt, EHC Freiburg and VER Selb for the qualification tournament was DEL2 teams, Eispiraten Crimmitschau and ESV Kaufbeuren.