Space Hockey
Welcome, sports fans, to the Colonial Space Hockey League!
Founded in 2322 the CHL features ships, weapons, and equipment reminiscent of the primitive technologies of the piracy crises of the early colonial era. In the earliest days of their Post-Terrestrial Age humanity's fledgling network of primitive colonies had nearly collapsed and failed. Throughout a nearly 20-year long period beginning in the mid 2160's the civilian population were forced to rise up and save themselves from starvation... or from those seeking to save themselves from starvation. Through a trial-by-fire the earliest colonial pioneers quickly evolved the tactical and operational doctrine of operating their highly configurable “Civilian Enforcement Ships”, a unique class of ship that ultimately revolutionized their capabilities in the harsh realities of space and most likely saved their home world from complete devastation at least once. This often overly romanticized formative era of the Confederation of Colonies is a sentimental favorite period of history for most people of Earth and the colonies. The change too this early colonial theme shortly before the formation of the league greatly enhanced the popularity of what had already been the fastest growing sport in the colonies.
The CHL consists of 24 teams divided into two conferences. Each conference has three divisions and each division is comprised of four teams. There are 18 games in a season. Teams play nine divisional games during the regular season, three games against each divisional opponent. The remaining nine games of the schedule are played against teams from across the league. The post-season playoffs consist of three rounds between eight teams. The three divisional winners, and one wild card team, compete in a two-round single-elimination playoff tournament to determine the conference champion. The two conference champions then play each other to determine the league champion. In the early days of the league the CHL was a single conference of 12 teams divided into two divisions of six teams each. They played 11 games per season, one game against each team in the league. A tie-breaker for division winner could create a playoff game, and an order of precedence of statistics beginning with total season points for and against broke ties for making it into the playoff game. The division winners then played each other for the championship game.
A Space Hockey team is comprised of six players. While many different team compositions are in use within the league the standard, or classic, formation of a Space Hockey team is two offense, two midfielders, and two defenders. Over the course of a game this “ideal formation”, or whatever general philosophical formation a team uses as a part of their strategy, is often not what a team has in the game at any given moment. Each individual player also has their own ship lineup and most players use at least two classes of ships in their lineup. This means that most players switch between at least two roles over the course of a half depending on which ships they are using. Each player is allowed as many ships as they can squeeze into their hangar bay each half. If a player runs out of ships, they are out of the game for the rest of that half. Good ship lineup strategy, and management, is a key aspect of any championship team.
The Colonial Space Hockey League sanctions nine 1/5th scale ships. The pilots, of course, fly these tiny replica ships remotely from the hangar bay using the same flight control stations used to control drones on the fleet's CLD drone carrier ships. The league would have a hard time finding talent if they asked the players to actually be inside of full-sized ships. On offense the fast and agile “S-Ships” (Stinger, Scorch, & Savage) tend to score the most goals, but they are sometimes destroyed by a single stream of fire from the larger defenders. The midfielders, the “P-Ships”, are a mixed bag. Predator is the best man-to-man defender in the league and is also decent playing offense. Phantom is the pure hunter/killer that spends most of its time just trying to bash other players out of the game, and Phoenix has a strategic value that makes it an obvious choice no matter what a player's role might be. The big defenders, “The Bashers”, require a player to build their lineup around them just to get away with using one of these heavy ships and still be in the game at the end of the half... but the other team has a hard time scoring when Ogre, Juggernaut, or Leviathan are guarding the goal.
I am about to begin trying to put together an indie team to actually make Space Hockey. If anyone is interested in helping bring Space Hockey to life you can contact me through this site, or my e-mail address is Kavik_Kang@hotmail.com.
The 64-page design document for Space Hockey is attached to this post.
Pirate Dawn Universe – “I wish that I could live it all again!”
Space Hockey.odt
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