Anaian Ice Hockey Championship - Everything Thread.

[United Hawkland]

Beep Beep
We have landed in Koroa City, enjoy your stay!
The seatbelt icon disappeared on the overhead screen, and we all unbuckled, simultaneously. I looked out the window. Even from the airport on the outskirts of the city, I could see the buildings poking through the clouds.
I grabbed my bag from the overhead compartment, and raced to the baggage claim, to pick up my hockey equipment.
Outside of the airport, I felt the nice, salty breeze. It was a beautiful day, 15 degrees. The streets were bustling, the posters were everywhere. Every screen and kiosk in the city had the ice, and the players, and the logo. The city was ready.
As I thought about the opening game, which was in just a couple hours, I heard people cheering. I turned around, to see it. A bus, driving around the corner, people inside of it waving. It was purple and black, with a giant bull on the side. The Audioslavian team bus. The Audioslavian hockey team.
Another flew by, and then another. The next one I saw was green, blue and yellow. A giant firefly was on the bus, along with some of the star players. Ko-oren. The Ko-oren team wasn’t the last, because then there was a basic, unbranded, amateur bus. The Plough Islands. The next bus was green and navy, with a roaring polar bear. United Hawkland, my home nation. Only then did I cheer with the rest of them. I put my phone in my pocket and I clapped loudly. “Let’s go boys!” I called out. Three more finally flew by, A red bus, with the grim reaper. Huayamarca. A black bus, with a giant Phoenix on it, Osarius. Finally, a blue, yellow, and red bus, with the coat of arms of the nation on it. Estorvipa and Estorpiva. They were all headed toward the only destination that mattered.
Oasis Arena.
It was visible in the distance. It had palm trees, a waterfall, a pool, suites, food, beer, games, and most importantly-
An ice rink. The 23,000 seater would host the best hockey Anaia had to offer. And given the tickets sold, 23,000 wasn’t enough. Every game would be a packed house.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………



I stepped inside this arena, and it was like stepping into a new world. A marching band played Seven Nation Army as loud as they could, water gushed from the walls, and trees grew inside, and alongside the far wall, you could see into the arena. Beautiful, huge, and passionate. The scoreclock was bigger than my apartment, the seats were all purple and green, (as was everything,) and the ice, was so shiny and perfect that I swear, I could see myself in it. And with the seats nearly filled, I sat down. Front row, dream seats right next to the bench.
The lights dimmed, and the speakers blasted music. Fire, pyrotechnics, and smoke were released, covering the entire arena in vast colors. The smoke was green, blue, pink, white, and yellow, and purple, just like the logo of the competition. The fire was bright yellow, lighting up the darkened arena. The firecrackers blinded us all every time they shot off. The players took the ice, ruining the perfect ice. The players were ready, the fans were ready, and the city was ready.
So I sure hope you are too.

Teams:
United Hawkland
Ko-oren
Audioslavia
Plough Islands
Huayamarca
Osarius
Estorvipa and Estorpiva

THIS IS IMPORTANT:
Every team will start at 0 KPB. You will gain 5 kpb for every win, and lose 2 kpb for every loss. However, you will gain 10 kpb for every high effort rp. you will gain 5 kpb for a low effort half-assed rp. this way, the better, more active teams will have a higher chance to win.

First round:
7 team round robin, one fixture per team.

2nd round:
4 team knockout
1v4
2v3

W1vW2

[United Hawkland]

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=530883

^^^^^^ Click here to see the signups (which are now closed)

[United Hawkland]

MATCHDAY ONE RESULTS

Estorvipa and Estorpiva (EST) 5–1 United Hawkland (UHL)
Huayramarca (HUA) 1–0 Plough Islands (PI)
Ko-oren (KO) 0–0 Osarius (OSA) (1–2 SO)

Round Robin Pld W L GF GA GD Pts
1 Estorvipa and Estorpiva 1 1 0 5 1 +4 3
2 Huayramarca 1 1 0 1 0 +1 3
3 Ko-oren 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
5 Osarius 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
5 Plough Islands 1 0 1 0 1 −1 0
6 United Hawkland 1 0 1 1 5 −4 0

Audioslavia is still yet to play

[Ko-oren]

One of those in attendance in Koroa City for the Ko-oren - Osarius game was Gerases Esesorenthen, a loud voice in the campaign to join Anaia, and recently appointed as the official (national) representative to Anaia. With the completion of the permanent mission to Koroa City, he'll be the one taking office there, responsible for trade missions with other Anaian nations, where he'll enjoy the same status as any Ko-orenite ambassador to a foreign country. He'll also be in charge of the day to day operations of his home base, from the decorations in the lobby to the maintenance of the botanic garden - did we mention we're not just going to maintain a diplomatic presence in an anonymous office building?

The philosophy is that we aren't in it just for the financial benefits. No, in the fast-paced, high-endorphin, high-on-sugar-and-god-knows-what-else Koroa City, there's a real need for a place to calm down and find your balance. Introducing: the botanical garden of Koroa City - at least, one of several potential gardens - featuring plants from all over Ko-oren as well as whatever samples other delegations are willing to transfer to our care. It features greenhouses as well as an outdoor part. A top secret part of it is a herb garden for those special Finisterran recipes - access is highly restricted to Esesorenthen and the most trusted kitchen staff. The gardens are self-sufficient where possible, with water re-used as often as possible to not put a further strain on Koroa City's resources. All in all, the Ko-orenite 'compound' is to be a lush oasis in the middle of a city that tries to go as hard as possible.

[The Plough Islands]

PLOUGH ISLANDER ICE HOCKEY: A DIFFICULT BIRTH IN A STRANGE LAND
by Patricia Stein, Ice Sports Correspondent for Plough Radio, in Koroa City

Huayramarca 1-0 Plough Islands
Players: Zakharov, Campbell, Kovalev, Piper, Hurley, Moore. Goals: Holguín (Huayramarca, 48:20).

After the Declaration of Foxchester was followed by regional championships in cricket, soccer, and rugby, ice sports are having their day in the figurative limelight with the opening of the inaugural Anaian Ice Hockey Championship in Koroa City.
For the first time in the history of the Plough Islands, an ice hockey team will be representing our small country in international competition, largely thanks to the efforts of one man; Paul Campbell, a 45-year-old secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Society who is leading and mentoring the team as something of a passion project. After the at times brutal introduction to international ice hockey he and his comrades received amidst hyperreal scenes in the new Anaian cultural centre, he could well wonder what on earth he has signed up for.
An entirely indoor structure that nevertheless holds more people than December Park on the first day of a Test, the Oasis Arena - living up to its name with palm trees and water features decorating the viewing areas - is a genuine achievement of modern architecture that has nonetheless been co-opted at every turn by capitalism, with pyrotechnics and flashing lights drawing the eye away to garish marketing selling empty promises. Coupled with loud music, slickly choreographed chanting, and an ear-piercing horn that heralded the start and end of play and shook the entire arena bowl, and it seemed at times to be more of an entertainment spectacle than a sporting competition, bathing spectators in a cacophony of light and sound that left the senses working overtime.
It was, perhaps, an inevitability that the Plough Islanders would look and feel out of place in this carnival of capital interests, but a photography session with all seven team captains on the ice of the arena brought the differences into sharp focus. Campbell - a lean, wiry father of two who self-confessedly looks far from imposing under normal circumstances - looked tiny and almost frail next to his armoured, padded, and toned counterparts from around Anaia, with their patterned jerseys stretched tightly over their reinforced exoskeletons like tin toy soldiers wrapped up for the winter.
When Campbell's team lined up against Huayramarca for their first match later in the evening, the contrast manifested on the rink as well. Many of the Huayramarcans play in Quebec & Shingoryeo and brought the fast-paced, physical, and tough playing style of that league to Koroa City with them. Their energy levels were kept high by a constant stream of rolling substitutions, often changing three or five players at once in practiced manoeuvres, and right from the start the Plough Islands were forced to defend in numbers, all too often with their bodies.
The Huayramarcans were organised and merciless on the offensive, and both Campbell and Lauren Piper were lucky to avoid serious injury in the opening exchanges as they were all too often simply brushed aside or barged into the side boards by their battle-hardened opponents. Despite the constant stream of attacks, however, and the apparent omniprescence of Ho Man Young, the Plough Islands were steadfast and kept the scores level, almost entirely owing to the tireless work of goaltender Peter Zakharov; the nuclear engineer from Crabble was constantly having to anticipate where the next shot would come from and somehow blocked or caught everything, giving the impression of a lone soldier holding his position at all hazards.
It looked as though his Stakhanovite labour in the goal might be rewarded, but Huayramarca finally broke through a short while into the third period; Pablo Holguín outmuscled Julian Kovalev in front of the team benches, and flicked a shot that flew past Campbell and squirmed underneath Zakharov's pads. The blow was a bitter one for the Plough Islands, who had slowly begun to settle in the arena environment, and forwards Malcolm Hurley and Neil Moore tried desperately to press for an equaliser. A last-gasp attack by Moore was the best chance the Plough Islands had in the entire game, but it was forcefully neutralised by Huayramarcan captain Zayden McCrae, and when the horn sounded for the final time, they had nothing to show for their bravery but aching bones and smears of blood on their pristine white shirts.
The result was a hard collision with reality for the Plough Islands, but if they had been almost literally outfought on the ice, the defeated team could find some consolation elsewhere. Perhaps won over by their refusal to stop trying, pockets of neutral fans inside the arena appeared to have adopted the Plough Islanders during the match and were cheering for them as they would their own; the feedback to the late night Plough Radio broadcast of the match has also been enthusiastic, with praise for the unity and spirit shown by Campbell's team. The hope will be that this energy can sustain them in the coming days; with matches against regional powerhouses such as Audioslavia, Ko-oren, and United Hawkland to come, this brave new frontier of Plough Islander sport still feels like a hostile and unforgiving place.

[Audioslavia]

Koroa City, Anaia

Txordin Zeroa looked down at his map. Sure enough, below the hamburger that represented the stadium-sized food court, between the bearded sepia man in all white playing cricket with a keytar and an angry cartoon man wearing a kulfi cap, there was a picture of an drunk cartoon bull smashing a swan with a mallet.

“This is the Audioslavian district?” He asked his wife, Lara
“Looks like it” said Lara, glancing up from her phone.
“It can’t be” he said. Lara peered over his shoulder at the map.
“Here look” she said. “Plough District on the left, Cobrio district on the right. This must be the Audioslavian bit.

Txordin looked left and saw men and women skipping through artificial moors singing along to synth pop. He looked right and saw men in colourful clothes cooking barbecues for gaggles of laughing, slightly drunk visitors. He looked up, between the two, and saw a cobbled street with a pub. “Welc me to Audi slav a” said the sign on the pub door. It looked empty.

“They’ve used… they’ve used Cathair’s east side for Audioslavia” said Txordin. “Not, like, Ferramendiak, rolling mountains full of skyscrapers and neon lights. Not like, the Padian coast or even the grotesquely rich oil towns. Not Laivana’s spaceport. Not Silica City’s universities. Eastern Cathair. Cobbled streets and vices and Cazadores ultras.”
“It looks empty” said Lara. “Plastic Cobrio and Postcard Plough Islands are full of happy punters”
“Let’s just go eat some stew” said Txordin.
“You’re not curious to see how Koroa City has distilled the essence of Audioslavia into a pub?” asked Lara
“No”
“I fancy a drink though” said Lara. “Come on. Five minutes”

The pub wasn’t empty, though it was difficult to make out which of its patrons were paid actors and which were genuine tourists. Txordin’s ears told him half the Audioslavian accents he could here were actually from the island, the other half he could here sounded put-on, as if a Mertian student was earning some summer money by offering ‘local’ colour. Another couple of seconds and Txordin was easily able to figure out who was actually Audioslavian and who wasn’t: Anyone who’d go on holiday from Audioslavia and end up in an Audioslavian pub had a certain look about them. Massive alcohol-fed face, bald, white shirt, perpetually 50 until they turned 50, at which point, dead.

But one face looked familiar.

“Tx.. Txordin?”
“Ugh… yeah?” Said Txordin, squinting.
“Huh” said the bald headed figure. “Didn’t expect to see you here”
“Sorry mate but who are you?” Said Txordin, still with his brow furrowed. Sat at a table to his left was a large, bald man with a face redder than the Cazadores shirt he was wearing, which was pretty red.
“Bugger off, White-shoes, you remember me” said the bald man, with a smirk.
White-shoes? That had been a nickname at… what, middle school? He’d come to school wearing white shoes one day, so that had become his nickname for the year. Who’d given him that nickname?
Oh god
“Albert?” said Txordin, cocking his head to one side
“See you do remember me. Hear you’re a big shot Ice Hockey player now” said Albert. He didn’t look impressed. “Twirling about like a fairy”
“Babe” said Lara
“Not now” said Txordin. “You turned out bald, then” he said to Albert
“More hair here than on your balls mate” said Albert, folding his arms
“Babe” said Lara. “Babe let’s go”
“Fuckin dick you are” said Txordin. “Always were”
“Come ‘ere and say that, Whiteshoes” said Albert. “Knock tar out you again”
“I was 11!" said Txordin, “You were two years older than me. Two years older than everyone else in our year too”
“Babe, I’m not asking” said Lara, getting herself between Txordin and the seated Albert and giving Txordin as big a shove towards the door as she could. It wasn't very effective, but Txordin finally got the message.
“Do what your dog tells you to, Whiteshoes” came Albert’s last words as Txordin disgustedly left through the same door they’d come in through
“That prick” spat Txordin, outside. “I ought to…”
“Babe! Will you listen to me for once” snapped Lara, grabbing him by the shirt cuff and trying to lead him back towards the street. “It’s an Audioslavian Pub, babe. What happens in Audioslavian pubs in every Audioslavian story you’ve ever read”
“Someone… runs into an enemy in a p… oh”
“Narrative Pub, babe” said Lara. “Let’s go get some barbecue.”

[Ko-oren]

[United Hawkland]

(Image)

i love it. a meme in the everything thread. be like ko.

[United Hawkland]

The dissapointed players trudged off the ice, into the locker room. The speakers were shut off, and the players were silent.
Coach Mike Delani barged in with power, yet quietly and slowly. “What the hell was that?!” The players stayed silent. “Pulkrabek, incredible goal, the rest of you, get your heads out of your asses! I thought I was watching a god damn tidbits game!”
As Delani chucked his hat at the wall, goalie Aaron Miller snapped.
“Coach-” he said. “I’m not ready to start for this team, give it to Maselnik, he’d be better off for us.” Theo Maselnik, the backup goalie who plays for the Pacifica Seagulls, looked up in shock.
Delani eyed Miller with a death stare, one that could see through him, through the wall, and outside of the arena. “I believe in you Miller… but damn it I just might.”
Theo spoke now. “I’d be honored coach, but I’m no more ready than Miller…”
“I don’t give a shit WHO tends, take that up with the goalie coach. As long as you don’t let in 5 shots, who cares.” He yells, and the rest of the players go silent again. “Get your shit off.” He says to the players. “We better pull it together come Monday. If not, I swear to god none of you will wear a United Hawkland jersey EVER AGAIN." He screams, making the players jump. When he leaves the room, the players begin to speak.
"Coach is right." Said a voice. "It's more than the keepers though. We absolutely need to play more defensively on Monday." Another voice pitched in.
"Possesion game tomorrow. Passing and drawing penalties. Everyone with us?" He calls, and all the players yell in agreement. Before they depart, they all put their hands in, and say the signature chant.

"Where are we from!?"
"HAWKLAND!"
"What's our name!?"
"HAWKLAND!"
"And what the hell are we gonna be?"
"VICTORIOUS!"

[Osarius]

Expectations were not high for the Firebirds coming in to the inaugural Anaian Ice Hockey Championships, but even the most optimistic among the team's personnel were pleasantly surprised with the shootout victory over Ko-oren on matchday one. The two nations have shared something of a rivalry in football over the years, though their respective periods of success have not overlapped much. So the prospect of a fresh rivalry in a new sport, where both nations have only recently professionalised, was somewhat exciting.

For the Firebirds, there may be some concerns that their aggressive attacking style of play struggled to break down a typically resolute Dragonflies defensive setup; which does not bode well for future matchups against more experienced sides in the competition. But nobody will complain about starting off a campaign with a win.

"We have struggled a little today," Loic Lamarche admitted, "but we came away with the win, which is what matters most at the end of the day." The Osarian manager-slash-head-coach was visibly frustrated with his side's failure to convert throughout the game, but did not feel a need to change his approach for upcoming clashes with the likes of Audioslavia, or the Plough Islands, among others. "I don't think the problems we had were with the gameplan," Lamarche said. "It was quite clear to me that the opposition deliberately set out to frustrate, and wear us down. They did not succeed."

The Firebirds started brightly, with Thibodeau's physicality enabling him to create several opportunities in the first period, but the Ko-orenite defensive line held firm, blocking shots without fear; the few that they didn't block were saved well by teenage goaltender Bitterabeel.

Having a significantly older side has its advantages, especially in the earlier stagese of a game, where your more physically developed players can assert themselves more; and this was something that Lamarche's side definitely tried to leverage. Though it must be said that their Ko-orenite opponents were more than equal to the task. Despite not containing a single player over the age of twenty-two, the Dragonflies were capable of going head-to-head (or stick-to-stick, I suppose) with a team which, at least on paper, should have possessed significantly more experience. When Birtle Montrose sent a rocket of a shot at the Osarian goal late in the first period, it was a warning of sorts. And frankly, it may have given them the lead if not for Malik's desperate lunge getting the faintest touch on the puck.

This pattern would repeat throughout the three periods and into overtime -- even when either team was on a power play -- with the only reprieve coming mid-way through the third period, when Moligno winger Denzel Guyton attempted to provoke a fight with Vilokatsu Akinaga. The young Ko-orenite did not take the bait, though the situation appeared close to bubbling over before Ryan Barron wisely separated the two. After the game, Barron admitted it was a precautionary measure, "I couldn't remember what the rule was about fighting in the AIHC, and we couldn't afford to be a man down at that stage," he said. "Of course, at home, we would have let them thrown down, you know? But I've heard some competitions don't like that. It's something we probably should have clarified before the tournament began, and we'll definitely be speaking to Coach Lamarche and the tournament organisers about it."

                       1   2   3  OT  SO
Osarius Firebirds      0   0   0   0   2
Ko-oren Dragonflies    0   0   0   0   1

Scoring Summary

Shootout                                                           
[OSR] Jonquel HENERY unsuccessful against Bertrand BITTERABEEL
[KOR] Birtle MONTROSE successful against Charles-Antoine LAMARCHE
[OSR] Ryan BARRON successful against Bertrand BITTERABEEL
[KOR] Tiele LOENAREN unsuccessful against Charles-Antoine LAMARCHE 
[OSR] Lauryn HAAGSMA successful against Bertrand BITTERABEEL

[United Hawkland]

Matchday 2 Scores: (i don't feel like making the graphic lol.)

Plough Islands (PI) 0–0 Ko-oren (KO) (0–1 OT)
United Hawkland (UHL) 4–3 Huayramarca (HUA)
Audioslavia (AUD) 3–3 Estorvipa and Estorpiva (EST) (4–1 SO)

[The Plough Islands]

(with thanks to Ko-oren, and apologies to Audioslavia and Huayramarca)

Sometime after the first Test of the Plough Islands Cricket Association tour of Ko-oren, but before the second, a group of players from both teams met up at the Plough Islanders' temporary base at the Mariners Hotel in Greencaster, informally commandeering one of the hotel's lounges to watch the Anaian Ice Hockey Championship together. The competition - being held in Koroa City, across the Salamantic Sea - would mark the first time that the Plough Islands had competed internationally in any sport other than cricket, and with the Dragonflies scheduled to meet them in round two, the cricketers wanted to mark the occasion.
Most of them were drawn mainly by patriotism and the chance to see their two nations' rivalry from the spectator side, for once; none of the Plough Islanders had ever played hockey before and few had any grasp of the sport outside of the conceptual stage. Their hosts were not much more knowledgable - cricket and ice hockey occupying distinct cultural spheres in the patchwork of the Ko-orenite psyche - but they could at least follow the game.
Despite the gulf between the two sides - Ko-oren were former World Cup of Hockey runners-up, while the Plough Islands side were playing their second ever game - the match had dragged on as a contest later than any of them had anticipated, thanks largely to some anaemic Ko-orenite attacks and another good performance in goal by Peter Zakharov. Several players from both sides had already called it a night; there were only a half dozen or so remaining in the lounge as overtime began. Among them was batter Martine Raafden - who had strapped on skates as a child during family holidays in Schemerdrecht, and had found herself on her third glass of grapefruit juice for the evening, having been silently appointed to the role of interlocutor to her nominal opponents.
"Will they not just leave it at a draw?" asked Colin Williams.
"Well, they'll go for another twenty minutes?" Raafden's voice of authority hesitated as she ran over the myriad league rules in her mind. "It depends on the competition - some of them go straight to a shootout, but most of them do ten or twenty minutes and whoever scores first, wins. Sometimes it's three on three..."
"Three on three?" came another Plough Islander voice.
"Yeah, three players per side. I can't tell what they're doing though?" Raafden began to clamber up to retrieve her phone, but was immediately aware of a taller presence coming from her left, leaning forward as if to see each pixel on the television a little clearer.
"It looks like six against six?"
"Five against five." Genorak Dherengun corrected from across the room. "They don't count the goalies."
There was a pause. "Huh. Well, yes, five against five. Hamish is out there and the umpires have not told him to go back yet!"
The Foxes captain, Kevin Laing, had been notably more serious all evening than any of his own teammates could remember seeing him outside the boundary rope. His younger brother Hamish was on the Plough Islands team in Koroa City, and whenever the camera lingered on the defender's face, Kevin gripped his glass a little tighter.
"I genuinely did not think we would get this far, honestly." Kevin carefully lowered himself to the sofa. "We've been under siege since the start of the second period, it feels like, and..." He froze, mid sentence, as the cameras began to track Hamish falling, sliding across the ice, his footing having been taken from him by Jacob IJzerkroon in a blue and yellow blur.
Dherengun was puzzled. "You know he'll be okay, right? Have you not seen him play before?"
"No. Well, not for a long time, to tell the truth." Kevin took another gulp. "It is not really a spectator sport back home, you know? You can only fit so many people into an ice hall, we simply do not have these fifteen thousand seat theatres that other places do. And even if we did...this is so much...more?" Kevin met Raafden's eyes, then Williams's, then Dherengun's. "If you know what I mean?"
"Violent?" Raafden stifled a laugh as Dherengun said what she was thinking.
"Yeah. I was trying to find another word, but..." The Foxes captain trailed off.
"Everyone is wearing a good fifteen or twenty kilos of body armour to cope with it." observed Sarah Wilson. "Everyone is wearing shirts three or four times their usual size. Back on the islands, nobody wears those - what we have is all long shots and figure skating with goals, not ripping peoples' heads off!"
"That's what makes it all exciting though!" Raafden defended. "It's fast and physical and tribal and appeals to that instinct within us as people. But the game is always moving, and it's easy to tell which team is on top, so it works really well as entertainment as well as sport. And the coverage on TV is always..."
"Oh, that's gotta hurt! That's a sure-fire contender for the Wildcard™ Flat-On-His-Slash-Her-Slash-Nonbinary-Arse™ Moment Of The Game!"
"...maybe not that." Raafden felt another wave of anxiety crest over her at the dodgy Audioslavian coverage of the game the hotel were somehow using. "I mean, it's not another 'Whatever Sport This Is Special Offer'? There's that?"
"From O'Diarrhoea's?" Tim Bleasdale's gravelly Liverpudlian snark cut across the room, from where he had been holding court and almost giddily dissecting the commercials.
Dherengun snorted. "Yeah. I suppose you don't have those over there?"
"Nope! I tell you - advertising, marketing, viral content - they're everything that is wrong with this world." The adopted Plough Islander clattered his mug down abruptly. "It's worse where I grew up. They have these people who talk over all the games - you know, big shot, ex-players, ex-managers, universally respected", Bleasdale gestured, his voice rising and falling as he drew out all eight syllables of that last phrase, "and then they go to adverts, right, and it's the same fu'in people doing betting adverts! Telling you to give whats-'is-face all yer money! In the same tone of voice! Fu'in mental..."
Bleasdale's lecture continued on, rambling away and making Raafden start to wonder that his coffee might contain slightly more than just milk, but the attention of most of the cricketers was back on the television as Peter Zakharov clubbed away another shot.
Williams exhaled sharply. "That was nearly the game!"
"This is good though," Dherengun called out, "you're not giving up. This could go either way, I think!"
The puck drifted just ahead of Paul Campbell, who took a couple of steps forward as Otaulune Monokudhen skated up from the centre of the rink. Then Monokudhen was out of the picture, and then she was again.
And then she was in two places at once, her silhouette garbled into blocks as the loading circle lazily rotated in the middle of the screen. A mouse cursor appeared after a few seconds, switching from the game to the PotatoStreams front page, as a groan filled the lounge.
"...fokken..." Raafden quietly cursed the KAA for not carrying the match, and the Mariners Hotel for not subscribing to a legitimate broadcaster that did. She had just started to get her phone to follow the game from where she had left off the last time the stream had done this, when the picture came back, albeit at considerably lower quality and with what sounded like a continuous stream of excited Quechua replacing loud adverts for dubious sandwiches.
It was clear what the excitement was for, though; the camera was shaking, and there were huddles of blue shirts forming and dissipating as the crowd volume threatened to drown out the commentators, and the camera cut from Pieter Zwanenzanger brandishing his stick in the air to a miserable looking Zakharov, with a white arm in green and amber stripes helping him to his feet. There were no graphics on screen indicating what had happened, but the meaning was obvious. Raafden found herself smiling and sighing all at once, conscious of the atmosphere that was leaving the room she was in.
"Eeeehhh, fuck" Bleasdale set his mug down again and stretched out theatrically. "Well done, guys, we made youse work for it but you got there in the end."
Raafden took the already extended hand to her left. "Hard luck, Kevin. Hopefully you enjoyed the game, at least!"
"I did, Martine - well done." The Plough Islands captain bit his lip. "I just wish we could score some goals..."

Ko-oren 1-0 Plough Islands (after overtime)
Players: Zakharov, Campbell, Laing, Piper, Hurley, Moore. Goals: Zwanenzager (Ko-oren, 85:13).

[United Hawkland]

Matchday 3

Huayramarca (HUA) 4–4 Audioslavia (AUD) (4–5 OT)
Ko-oren (KO) 0–1 United Hawkland (UHL)
Osarius (OSA) 0–0 Plough Islands (PI) (0–1 OT)

[Ko-oren]

In between national team games in Koroa City, the Aevarea League - the domestic competition of Ko-oren - has been completed. Now in its eighth season, that is, the eighth season of a national, professional league, all twelve teams are still there in one piece. Some of the stories will go on for as long as the league exists, such as the Aerellen-versus-mainland rivalry, but other trends have emerged more recently. Younger and younger players get starting jobs on the first lines of teams, ready for pro ice hockey earlier than previous generations. That's broadly attributed to two things: the first being that there's now money to be earned in ice hockey, and players that break through now were about ten years old when the league professionalised. The second is that with the TV deals earned by the Aevarea League, more people got into the sport from outside the traditional areas, giving us a lot more talent from a much bigger area.

Other stories are much smaller: the sudden rise of the Lamau-Dartha Hunters, concurrent with the rise of the IT-sector in northeastern Ko-oren. The decline of Aerellen teams (yeah, about that Aerellen-versus-mainland rivalry). Serevne and South Aevanna rising from the ashes. Arboren not finishing bottom two for the first time since the club became a thing in season one of Aevarea. And then some stories are even more personal/local: the best few players of the league being under 24 years old - Bitterboom at 20 who debuted last season and Aegomenna who did so in season eight. Some brother stories with the Loenaren family, the Aenec brothers, and the only two families to have three players: Hazelaar and Aurtinia. For the latter, oldest Aelocu is playing on a Serevne team that desperately wants to compete with the big boys, and the youngest, Ausugo, is with a South Aevanna team that's probably the only capable Aerellen team as it stands. All three Hazelaars are active, but on different teams. The oldest, Veerle, is with Noordrug on a mission. The middle, Duive, plays on a much improved West Coast Blizzards squad that recaptures the magic from the years before Aevarea. And the youngest, Hendrika, struggled to make a team but she did: the Launott Polar Bears, the reigning champions looking to repeat.

Yes, that's right: all three Hazelaars are women. The female revolution has hit the Aevarea League as it has hit other leagues in the last decade or so, and the first girls are making their way to professional contracts.

Aerellen
Seven out of twelve teams are from there: the grand old Aevanna Scouts, the Aevanna Explorers-Mariners (once two teams, but merged for the Aevarea, as the 2nd and 3rd teams of the city), South Aevanna Storm (a newly founded club for the rapidly expanding southern suburbs), Aevanna Plains Wanderers (representing not just the outskirts of the city but also the rest of the island) - so far it's four teams from the same city - as well as the Serevne Northerners from the northernmost of the three Aerellen islands, and the Egevea Islanders representing the sprawling city on the south end. And then there's the newly established Arboren Vortex for the southern of the three islands.

These seven teams were the only thing in ice hockey. The Scouts versus the Explorers or Mariners was a big fixture, but extremely local and barely televised. The arrival of the Storm and Wanderers was sudden, poorly planned, and not well received. That is, by the fans of the original three Aevanna teams. Soon after, they eclipsed the original three to the point where the Explorers and Mariners had to merge - and not the new duo.

Final standings

At the end of season eight, the bottom six are all from Aerellen. Yes, six out of seven clubs from there outright failed to overtake one of the mainlander teams, and that's a very hard pill to swallow. Aerellen teams by and large rely on outdated strategies, particularly in substitutions, where mainland teams play a blazing fast brand of ice hockey that's much more in line with what the international game requires. The Ex-Ma (Explorers-Mariners) finish last by a huge margin, with Egevea as a newer team in 11th. The proud Scouts in 10th, followed by the youth revolution of the Serevne Northerners in 9th. Nobody had expected much out of Serevne yet, but it's a harsh reality that despite their best efforts and a full summer of scheming, 9th is all they could muster. Arboren in 8th says about as much as you want it to: they were the worst team from the three islands for a good half-decade, and now they're not, without improving their team much. The South Aevanna Storm miss out on the playoffs in 7th place and they're a genuinely good team - just obsolete behind the five mainland operations. The only team to make the playoffs and to carry the expectations of the ice hockey-crazy islands are the Aevanna Plains Wanderers, exactly the team that was so cursed a decade ago when they were created to please the new suburbs.

Mainland
The talent, the money, and now the good teams. All good things are found on the mainland, and that includes hot new rivalries that locals are starting to care about and fans elsewhere really look forward to. Straudum Ice are the old powerhouse of the northeast, but now they have the new kids on the block to worry about in a dominant Lamau-Dartha Hunters team, a bit of a mystery in Noordrug, and lastly their old rivals in Launott. Nowadays, however, Straudum versus Lamau-Dartha is the big game in Ko-orenite ice hockey.

But wait, aren't those just eleven teams?

Yes, there's one other historical team - the West Coast Blizzards. Originally a team that would go over to Aerellen for a week to play seven games in seven days, and they're still the only team even remotely in their part of the country, but they've long been a necessary counterweight to the Aerellens, until Straudum and Launott joined, and later the other two as well.

[The Plough Islands]

PLOUGH ISLANDS BEAT OSARIUS: OVERTIME VICTORY IN KOROA CITY SHOCKS TOURNAMENT
by Patricia Stein, Ice Sports Correspondent for Plough Radio, in Koroa City

Osarius 0-1 Plough Islands (after overtime)
Players: Zakharov, Campbell, Laing, Piper, Hurley, Petrov. Goals: Hurley (79:33).

It is not often that anyone can say they have witnessed the start of an era, and to so state would almost certainly still be hyperbolic, but a kind of history was made nonetheless last night in Koroa City as the Plough Islands won their first match in international ice hockey competition against Osarius. Malcolm Hurley, a 27-year-old accountant from New Hibernia, was the unlikely matchwinner, his scrambled goal deep into injury time just reward for three matches and over three and a half hours of proletarian toil and sweat in the often lonely role of attacker.
The first two rounds of the competition had followed broadly the same template - with Paul Campbell's team being pinned back in their own half of the rink almost from the start, and enduring a flurry of almost uninterrupted attacks until Peter Zakharov's resistance in goal was broken late in the game. If there was any difference for the Osarius game, it was less in the general pattern of play than in the physicality of their opponents. Antranic Thibodeau's team, hitherto used to an aggressive, dominating style of play, had struggled at times to break down a much younger, more disciplined Ko-oren team in their opening match, and appeared to have set their eyes on the amateur Plough Islanders as softer, easier targets.
Osarius rotated players in and out evenly throughout the match, and were often faster, fresher, and stronger than the Plough Islands; they frequently drove this advantage home with their shoulders or hips, taking possession by force and at times seeming more concerned about opposing players than the game itself. So-called 'enforcer' Pharoah Goode was often the vector for this, and constantly needled and harassed Campbell, Hurley, and Lauren Piper on the few occasions they had the puck; this culminated in him grappling Piper to the ice midway through the second period, which resulted in a five minute penalty for both players when the dockworker kicked out in self-defence.
No goals were scored during the allotted three periods, as Zakharov and his counterparts Charles-Antoine Lamarche, Daniele Bottego, and Shaquille Kessler held firm, and as overtime began the pace of play slowed down rather than speed up; the Osarians appeared to be choosing their battles more carefully, while Campbell and his comrades were simply too tired to do anything beyond hit and hope. It appeared as though the Plough Islands might have gained an advantage when Goode, once again, incurred a penalty for crushing Flora Petrov against the side boards while dispossessing her, but the constable struggled with chest and abdominal pain and was left unable to continue, and so this merely reduced both teams to five players.
Shortly afterwards, though, Piper won a faceoff in defence and headed forwards; with black jerseys closing in from all sides, she took a long range shot that Kessler could only deflect over his shoulders, the Osarian goaltender having apparently been caught off guard. The puck bounced off the wall and drifted back towards the near side, where the onrushing Hurley blindly swiped at it as though hitting a six, but his shot threaded the gap between Kessler's pads and ricocheted from the far post into the goal.
It was undoubtedly a triumph of tenacity and spirit over athleticism and skill; although Hurley was sure the puck had gone in, most of his teammates initially seemed unsure what was happening, and as the horn rang out through the Oasis Arena the predominant emotion among those in white was shock. The thunderous acclamation of the crowd and the flashing of the arena lights drove the point home before long, though, and the enduring image of the game will be of Piper and Zakharov, holding the corners of a green and amber flag, leading the Plough Islanders back across the ice with around a dozen of their comrades applauding. While Osarius are hardly a giant of ice hockey by world standards, a blow has nonetheless been struck for what this band of players are capable of if they endure, and come together in the spirit of socialism. And that, in itself, may have met all of Campbell's wildest hopes and dreams for this adventure.

[Audioslavia]

"What on earth is all this" said Jeremy Jaffacake, peeling off his claret ice hockey shirt.
"Yeah" said Txordin, smiling and nodding at Jeremy's general state under his hockey shirt. "Yeah we don't usually wear a t-shirt underneath our hockey gear"
"Jesus I'm absolutely soaked in sweat, how on earth..." said Jeremy, picking at the grey t-shirt that was matted to his skin so tightly you could see his ribcage through the fabric.
"Well, why did you wear a t-shirt underneath your shirt?"
"I thought it'd be cold! Ice! There's the word 'Ice' in Ice Hockey!"
"We just call it Hockey" said Txordin, giving Jeremy a pat on the back so firm that the reverberations sounded through Jeremy's rib cage with a hollow thwock, like an 808 snare drum under a duvet.

Jeremy had ice skated before, as a kid. Two hours, once a week at the local rink, first hour for practicing skating, second hour under some naff disco lights with music that had been kind of popular four years prior. He'd gotten quite good at going round in circles quite fast and impressing the girls with ability to stop with a kssh and a spray of ice, such is what passed for cool as a nine year-old. He'd figured he'd be fine to do this news story himself, rather than send someone younger and more capable, what with his days as a nine year-old over two centuries behind him now, but hubris is something that affects men of all ages.

The plan had been simple: Perform a few of the feats that Audioslavian Ice Hockey clubs demanded of its recruits: Skate hard, stop, skate backwards in a circle around some cones, skate backwards on one leg, slaloming some cones, and now do all of the above with a hockey stick and puck while someone shouted at you. It turned out Jeremy could barely skate while holding a stick, let alone dribbling a puck at the same time, and only his bantamweight figure and ability to catch falls on his forearms had prevented serious injury, though he was sure is arms would have the same general colouring as the alley behind a chip shop soon enough, even with the protective gear. Helmet, pads, gloves, no wonder he was covered in god-damned sweat.

"So" he said. "Two wins in two games. More than anyone expected?" said Jeremy, breathlessly
"Not at all!" said Txordin. "Good bunch of lads, here, playing the Audioslavian way"
"Defensive?" said Jeremy, not altogether familiar with Ice Hockey despite having watched the Bulls way back in the 18th World Cup if Ice Hockey
"Not so much" said Txordin. "We can skate well, shift the puck around, but we're not the biggest team. We try to avoid the hits, pass it around. You're more likely to see an Audioslavian team vacate the final third and go again than risk everything for a shot, sure, but it's not defensiveness just..."
"Caution" said Jeremy.
"I suppose" said Txordin
"Sounds Audioslavian enough" said Jeremy. "You boys would rather 'not lose' than win
"I supppose that's borne out through two overtime wins" said Txordin. "Do you want help with that?" he asked, watching Jeremy try unsuccessfully to tug his soaking grey shirt over his head.

The photographer took the shot at just the right moment: A hockey player holding a shirt over Jeremy's head, smiling for the camera, faking as if he's about to punch him through his shirt.

[Osarius]

The defeat against the Plough Islands was a bitter pill to swallow for Loic Lamarche. Not because he actually believed that the Islanders' team was weak, or any of the insinuations he may have made during press conferences, but because despite both teams lacking experience, the Firebirds should have had one glaring advantage: sheer numbers. And yet...

The locker room was quiet. Lamarche paced furiously, but said nothing. The team were, in a manner of speaking, shell-shocked. The minutes passed slowly. Time itself seemingly dragging out the awkwardness, the unease. Inflicting yet another wound on what might best be described as a damaged ego. The more dramatic among them may have gone for something more akin to a scarring of the national psyche.

Eventually, Antranic Thibodeau spoke up, "you know, my cousin in Akach always says socialists are tough." A few chuckles at that. Gradually spreading through the room. Even Lamarche barked a laugh. "Does anybody know who we face next?" Thibodeau continued. "There's no point moping about in here. Tournament isn't even close to over yet, is it?"

The straight-talking captain's words made Loic Lamarche pause. He was right. The win over Ko-oren -- despite once being accepted as 'a thing that happens' in football -- was a bit of an upset here, even if only because the Dragonflies had a slightly longer established ice hockey scene at home. Sure, you could go back and forth over the experience thing, but the reality is that if Osarius had lost, nobody would have been surprised.

It struck him that he hadn't even been paying much attention to other games in the tournament so far. He'd actually just made the assumption that everyone was playing a strong defensive game, since there had been a grand total of one goal in over two hours of hockey played by the Firebirds so far -- and there was no reason to think it was down to a lack of scoring talent in this team. He grabbed his smartphone and tapped away, looking for the results of the other matches, trying to get a bead on the next opponent. Time to take things seriously. For serious.

The page opened, and Loic glanced at the scores. His face drained. There were a lot of goals being scored elsewhere. "Well this might be a problem," he muttered to himself.

[United Hawkland]

Matchday 4 and 5

United Hawkland (UHL) 0–5 Osarius (OSA)
Audioslavia (AUD) 0–1 Ko-oren (KO)
Estorvipa and Estorpiva (EST) 1–2 Huayramarca (HUA)
Ko-oren (KO) 2–0 Estorvipa and Estorpiva (EST)
Osarius (OSA) 0–2 Audioslavia (AUD)
Plough Islands (PI) 2–0 United Hawkland (UHL)

##  Team                     P   W   L    OTL  WP    Pts  GF   GA   Diff                                                    
01  Ko-oren                   5   3   2   1   .600   10    4    1    3
02  Audioslavia               4   3   1   0   .750    9   10    8    2
03  Plough Islands            4   2   2   1   .500    7    3    2    1
04  Huayramarca               4   2   2   1   .500    7   10   10    0
05  Osarius                   4   2   2   1   .500    7    5    3    2
06  United Hawkland           5   2   3   0   .400    6    6   15   -9
07  Estorvipa and Estorpiva   4   1   3   1   .250    4    9    8    1

"

[The Plough Islands]

PLOUGH ISLANDERS BEAT UNITED HAWKLAND AS UNLIKELY MOMENTUM BUILDS FOR ICE HOCKEY
by Patricia Stein, Ice Sports Correspondent for Plough Radio, in Koroa City

Plough Islands 2-0 United Hawkland
Players: Matthew Campbell, Paul Campbell, Laing, Piper, Hurley, Moore. Goals: Moore x 2 (3:18 & 47:50).

After a bye in the schedules allowed the Plough Islands a much needed mid-tournament break, Paul Campbell's team followed their first victory of the Anaian Ice Hockey Championships with an unexpected second, defeating tournament organisers United Hawkland in Koroa City. Despite the comfortable scoreline - Sutton-born attacker Neil Moore scoring early in the first and third periods from rare opportunities - the match was a hard-fought one, with the Plough Islanders frequently defending inside their own zone, but the way that the team endured and saw the result through will greatly hearten to the ice sports community in our small country, and give confidence that the overtime win against Osarius was more than a fluke.
The reputation of United Hawkland preceded them, their passion for ice hockey made real through their full-throated and often rowdy supporters that had made the journey to Koroa City in force and cacophonously made their presence known throughout the tournament thus far. Paul Campbell's team would have been bracing themselves for a tough match, particularly given the absence of talismanic goaltender Peter Zakharov; the nuclear engineer had struggled to recuperate after an at times brutal first half of the competition, and Matthew Campbell, still recovering from a broken wrist, had been forced to deputise in front of goal.
However, within less than four minutes, the Plough Islands were ahead; Paul Campbell collected the puck in defence and passed to Moore, who eluded the attention of Quinten Andreassen with a burst of speed that took him around Hawkland goaltender Aaron Miller and left a virtually open net to aim for. The tour guide could barely believe his luck, and nearly left it too late to complete the attack, but flicked the puck into the net from a narrow angle and wheeled back around the net, with one arm aloft, his face a mixture of confusion and delight.
Having gained an unexpected advantage, the Islanders seemed unsure how to progress - having never taken a lead and held it before - and were forced back into defence from the restart, with Matthew Campbell repeatedly tested as United Hawkland tried to equalise. It was a challenge the younger Campbell was equal to, though, aided by his father and Lauren Piper holding their positions just in front of the goal to screen out attacks, and aided by some occasionally sloppy manoeuvring by the Hawklandians, they successfully defended their lead under extreme pressure throughout the first period and the second.
At times the Hawklandian frustration boiled over, with what felt like needless body checking and a couple of the larger attackers attempting to goad Piper into some sort of response, and where the Plough Islands had chances to score they tended to come from the resulting faceoffs in their opponents' zone. It was from one of these that they scored their second; Malcolm Hurley won possession and tried to find Hamish Laing with a pass, only for Wolfgang Laurens to intercept. Laurens could not control the puck, though, and it ended up with Moore, whose speculative shot through a crowd of blue shirts seemed to take a deflection from an errant skate or stick that sent it beyond Miller and into the goal.
The atmosphere in the arena became at once quieter and more frantic, with a nervous tension settling over the remaining minutes of the match and threatening to smother it. Hawkland pushed forward in numbers, even foregoing a goaltender for an extra attacker in their desperation to fight back - a decision they almost came to rue as the Plough Islands nearly had a third when Piper intercepted a pass in her own zone and her lunging, split-second shot drifted just wide of the posts. But time was on their side, and after Matthew Campbell saved comfortably from the resulting faceoff, the clock ticked down to zero; for the second time in two matches, the deafening, wailing howl sounding from the horn of the Oasis Arena signalled victory for the socialist fraternity of the Plough Islands.
There is a sense of faint surreality about the way the competition has turned around, with the Plough Islanders potentially eligible for a place in the semi-finals if they can win at least one of their remaining two matches - heady heights indeed, for a team that only came into existence last month and who have less than half a dozen clubs from which to select players. It is certain that Paul Campbell and his players will not be allowing any faint expectations to carry them away - Audioslavia, who await whenever the next round of matches can be organised, will no doubt gladly puncture any notions that anyone might be tempted to develop - but the manner of their victory last night proved that there is genuine ability in this group of comrades, and made a compelling case for this to be nurtured and developed.
Regardless of their immediate fate in Koroa City, there is no denying that there is a future for ice hockey in the Plough Islands.

[United Hawkland]

Matchday 6

Audioslavia (AUD) 0–1 Plough Islands (PI)
Estorvipa and Estorpiva (EST) 0–2 Osarius (OSA)
Huayramarca (HUA) 0–5 Ko-oren (KO)


(no standings today, due to issues with the spreadsheet.)

[Ko-oren]

The Dragonflies wasted a monumental amount of energy while running up the score against Huayramarca. The win by five goals will help our point differential out a lot, but we're not used to seeing our national team 1) score a lot of goals and 2) win by a large difference - case in point, most World Cups of Hockey in which we win a lot but tend to do so by one or maybe two goals, even against minnows. In fact, we'd have to go back three WCOHs to find our last group stage loss (going 4-0-0 and 7-0-0 in editions 46 and 47, respectively) and we have to go back one more edition to find the last loss in regular time. In both group stages, our biggest win was by three goals, so we appreciate the exercise in accuracy in the AIHC.

On twenty-two shots, the Dragonflies recorded five goals by four different players. Montrose scored one on a quick break by Zwaluwbeuk, who circled the net and found the Aevanna Scouts' centre with the defence still tracking back - Montrose had a free lane to shoot and made the most of it. In the second period, Akinaga recorded his first national team goal on a shot from distance, obscured by a lot of traffic in front of the net, and Aivobelin added the 3-0 a few minutes later with an easy tip in. The third period saw some fightback by Huayramarca but all they got out of that was the 4-0 on a solo break by Van Eikland. For what it was worth, Montrose scored the final goal on an open net with seconds on the clock. For the entire AIHC, the Ko-orenite powerplay unit hasn't connected very well, but there have been relatively few fouls during games involving us - we certainly don't give our opponents a lot of opportunities to exploit the powerplay against us, and our opponents have played a fairly clean game in return. I'm sure we can all appreciate a clean, fast game with few interruptions through easily preventable fouls.

Circling back to the Aevarea League, the top three U21 players haven't shown a lot of their ability in the AIHC - in fact, they haven't even been selected. However, the top scorer of the season has been great for us (including two goals in aforementioned game) with Birtle Montrose quickly winning over the critical Aevanna Scouts fanbase. A player that wasn't rated too high when the AIHC roster was released but lit up the Aevarea League since then is Casselaer, earning more and more AIHC minutes as the tournament rolls on, now even making up 50% of the first defensive line, bumping Monokudhen down to line two, which in turn bumps Shadongudhen down to three, and Aemo down to the substitutes/reserves.

---

Round one of the Aevarea League Playoffs features the teams that finished 3rd through 6th, with the top two earning a bye to round 2. The West Coast Blizzards enter with nothing to lose in the 6th spot, but even they were sure of the playoffs a full week and a half before the end of the regular season - that's how big the difference between teams 6 and 7 was. The Aevanna Plains Wanderers are the only Aerellen team to make it in. They take on the Lamau-Dartha Hunters, who entered the regular season with huge expectations too. In contrast, the Noordrug Bi-state versus West Coast series (3rd-6th) feels a bit tepid with neither team expecting to go far - though now that they're in, they're not backing out of the challenge.

Game one of both series doesn't teach us a lot:
Noordrug Bi-state 2–3 West Coast Blizzards / Lamau-Dartha Hunters 2–1 Aevanna Plains Wanderers

West Coast gets the crucial away win in Noordrug, while the Hunters get a very predictable win. Due to the series being best of 3, winning game one is half the battle, literally.

West Coast Blizzards 3–2 Noordrug Bi-state / Aevanna Plains Wanderers 1–1 Lamau-Dartha Hunters (1–2 OT)

And that's the end of the series, both of our winners earning a day off before round two starts. West Coast leverage their home advantage and considerable travel time for a second 3-2 win in a row, Zudalu not up to the usual standard letting in four goals in two games but nobody's complaining. The Hunters think they're good when they concede a goal with a minute on the clock in the third period, but they survive overtime to send all of Aerellen home to watch the rest of the playoffs taking place on the mainland.

This sets up a second round of Straudum Ice versus the West Coast Blizzards and the Launott Polar Bears versus the Lamau-Dartha Hunters - and we avoid the Ice/Hunters Sudaefjoll derby here - but we can still get that in the final. Either way, if Straudum make it to the final, either they get to play their Sudaefjoll rivals (the Hunters) or the only other mainland team back in the day (Polar Bears) so we're 50% sure of a rivalry final already. Combine that with a West Coast team that was out of the picture for a bit as the only team that's not Aerellen/Northeastern - so they're very proud of their brand of ice hockey - and we're in for a classic final no matter what.

---

Before we're completely done with the regular season, consider this:
- The Launott Polar Bears recorded the best save percentage across the season (0.943) with Lamau-Dartha close behind. The Aevanna Scouts not only conceded a lot of shots on goal, they were also the worst in the league in keeping out shots.

- Straudum Ice, Arboren Vortex, and the Aevanna Scouts all required the least amount of shots per goal (all under 10). For Straudum, this translated into a lot of goals. For the other two, it just covered up their mediocre shot creation ability.

- the Explorers-Mariners had the best powerplay unit - which didn't help them much in the standings - followed by Straudum and the Aevanna Scouts. For Straudum, they keep showing up in the positive stats. The Scouts do too, but again, it didn't help them much.

- The best penalty kill was the Explorers-Mariners again, owning that part of the game (alongside powerplays) but as they figured out that ice hockey is more than 6v5s, they kept losing games. Arboren Vortex and Noordrug also were more than capable in the penalty kill.

We expect that the good stats in various columns will result in Straudum, Arboren, the Scouts, and Ex-Ma improving next year, should they not regress in those categories. Make them your strength and don't fall behind too much in other areas of the game!

[United Hawkland]

Matchday 7

Osarius (OSA) 0–0 Huayramarca (HUA) (2–1 SO)
Plough Islands (PI) 2–0 Estorvipa and Estorpiva (EST)
United Hawkland (UHL) 2–2 Audioslavia (AUD) (2–3 OT)

##  Team                     P   W   L    OL  WP    Pts  GF   GA   Diff                                                    
01  Ko-oren                   6   4   2   1   .667   13    9    1    8
02  Plough Islands            6   4   2   1   .667   13    6    2    4
03  Osarius                   6   4   2   1   .667   13    7    3    4
04  Audioslavia               6   4   2   0   .667   12   13   11    2
05  Huayramarca               6   2   4   2   .333    8   10   15   -5
06  United Hawkland           6   2   4   1   .333    7    8   18  -10
07  Estorvipa and Estorpiva   6   1   5   1   .167    4    9   12   -3

[United Hawkland]

Knockout Stage Preview
Ko-oren vs Audioslavia
Plough Islands vs Osarius

Semifinals: Friday
Finals: Sunday at 11:00 am CST

[Ko-oren]

Audio versus Ko-oren: We Fell From Concord Heights: On Ice


Audio versus Ko-oren: Songs From The Terraces: On Ice

"Now... well, here's a callback. It all started with a series of figure skating exhibitions set to a soundtrack, somehow involving a mouse. But we're actually taking about... wait, hold on. There's more context. It's going to make sense."

"Will it?"

"Yeah so some people in Audioslavia got together and started a band. Initially they just wanted to play some good old post-rock, which-"

"Post-rock. You know, post-football but in music form."

"Post-football?"

"Yeah, you know, post-football. Rejistanian football styles."

"What?"

"System Karela, which both teams play."

"And this relates to a regional ice hockey tournament how?"

"So right, Ko-oren and Audioslavia played some absolutely unwatchable games in a few CAFAs and World Cups. I swear this is going to make sense. They play a style called Post-football, which is a new word for System Karela, and post-football is also a reference to a style of music played by the band Audio versus Ko-oren."

"Was the band named after the series of matches, or were the matches iconic because there was also a band with that name?"

"Yes. Anyway, they then started releasing albums whenever these teams played. And sometimes during the games themselves. Such as the iconic We Fell From Concord Heights. Or Flies Against, For All the Marbles, Songs From The Terraces and a couple of older albums."

"And now they've made an on-ice choreography to these classic albums?"

"Yes! Glad you're with us."

"What's that mouse doing there though."

"Yes."

[United Hawkland]

Semi-Finals

Plough Islands 3–0 Osarius
Audioslavia 1–2 Ko-oren

Final Preview:

Championship Game - Plough Islands vs Ko-oren
Third Place Match - Audioslavia - Osarius