I scheduled some games for next week. Have a look at the times:

Hmm @ Interference -> Thu Jul 8 2010 9:00 PM
Underdogs @ EZPN On Ice -> Sun Jul 11 2010 9:00 PM
Breakaway @ Allow Us Winnir -> Sun Jul 11 2010 10:00 PM
Mazer @ EZPN On Ice -> Mon Jul 12 2010 9:00 PM
Underdogs @ Hmm -> Tue Jul 13 2010 9:00 PM
Slasher Park Blades @ Rich Kids Win Again -> Tue Jul 13 2010 10:00 PM
Interference @ Breakaway -> Wed Jul 14 2010 9:00 PM

As many have already read, one of our veteran players and former sysops, white_0men (Matt Butcher), died this past week on the 24th. There is a forum thread about it with dozens saying a few words for him.

BlueGoku is accepting money via PayPal for Matt's memorial fund, to give to his family, at devoit@gmail.com.

Finally, a remembrance service with replays in honor of w0 will be held on Monday, July 5th, at 10:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
Update: See some screenshots, reactions, an a video here.

Hello friends. I am going to schedule some games for all teams with 10 or more players. There is no sense in waiting for these slowpokes to fill out their rosters. If your team does not have 10 people on it by Friday, July 9, your team will be removed from the league. This means the following teams still need players:

EZPN On Ice
Killa's Krew
Mazer
Nut Cases
Sting
Underdogs

I have scheduled games for next week. Here are the times:

Rich Kids Win Again (0-0-0) @ Breakaway (0-0-0) -> Mon Jul 5 2010 9:00 PM
Allow Us Winnir (0-0-0) @ Slasher Park Blades (0-0-0) -> Tue Jul 6 2010 8:00 PM
Hmm (0-0-0) @ Interference (0-0-0) -> Thu Jul 8 2010 9:00 PM

Good luck to the teams with games scheduled, and to those lacking players: get some people so we can get this thing rolling! Thanks.

Further, please join us for a special replay service of w0 which will be at 10:00 PM on Monday, July 5th.

I have been forced to take over delightfully taken over running this event. If you'll notice, to the left there are now rosters up for the white_0men Cup. If you are a captain and you see your team, you may start accepting applicants. If you would like to captain a team, please see the thread here. I'll let the rosters fill out a bit, but stay tuned for updates on the league structure. Thanks.

Congratulations to United States New York on sweeping the best of three finals and winning the 2010 Mini World Cup Tournament. Thank you to everyone for participating and especially those that helped ref (SilverMike, puker, Dark^$hadow, Judge, Goldeye!)


Team New York:
King- (C)
Kula Shaker (C)
10 pavel bure
artofwar
Goldeye
Killer Soldier
oug
Steve Cheese
Stryke
SuperDan

Stay tuned for the Bluey Cup, which is run by white_0men and will be starting soon!

First of all, congratulations to team New York for winning in double overtime. It was an entertaining game. Secondly, I'd like to announce that game three (if necessary) will be on Thursday, June 10, 2010, NOT Wednesday, as stated before.

Game two is tomorrow (Tuesday, June 8) at 9pm. Good luck to both teams!

Hello, world cup fans. After a month of games, the best of three finals are finally here. It is an unlikely tale, with the two lowest seeds meeting in the finals: United States New York and United States Great Lakes.

Please join us for the first two games of the finals:

United States Great Lakes @ United States New York -> Mon Jun 7 2010 9:00 PM

United States New York @ United States Great Lakes -> Tue Jun 8 2010 9:00 PM

Game three, if necessary, will be played on Wednesday, June 9th at 9:00 PM. Good luck to both teams and thank you to everyone who has helped me so far in the tournament!

Due to a family emergency and some confusion, the game between US Great Lakes and Europe East did not happen as scheduled on Sunday. Our kind neighbors across the pond have agreed to reschedule the game for Thursday, June 3 at 5:00 pm EST.

After this game is played, I will release the schedule for the Mini World Cup finals, which will be a best of three series. All of the games will be played next week, optimally.

since it's still may, and we aren't going to start the next rshl season now...but i don't want us sitting around doing nothing for 3 months...

it's time to start accepting applications for the next league.

originally i was going to say just rshl/mshl teams...but since its summer, i'm just going to leave it open to all.

a world cup style draw into brackets, short round robin, seeded elim bracket to the finals afterwards.

games will probably start a week or two after weeze's championship, depending on if there are any setting changes arnk wants to get done before then.

sign up in thread

Congratulations to United States Great Lakes, Europe East, United States Northeast, and United States New York for advancing into the semifinals. The next round has been scheduled. I have updated the brackets with the correct structure.

Here are the games:

United States New York @ United States Northeast -> Thu May 27 2010 9:00 PM

United States Great Lakes @ Europe East -> Sun May 30 2010 5:00 PM

I have scheduled the first round matchups for the playoffs. The times are as follows:

United States Northwest (3-2-0) @ United States Northeast (4-1-0) -> Thu May 20 2010 11:00 PM

United States Great Lakes (3-3-0) @ United States California (5-0-0) -> Thu May 20 2010 11:30 PM

United States New York (4-1-1) @ The Islands (4-1-0) -> Sun May 23 2010 5:00 PM

Ontario B (4-1-0) @ Europe East (4-1-0) -> Sun May 23 2010 5:30 PM

I made a little bracket so it's easier to keep track of the matchups:

The games to determine who will get in the Mini World Cup playoffs have been scheduled. The games will be played at the following times:

Monday, May 17 at 9:00 PM, United States Mid Atlantic @ United States New York

Monday, May 17 at 9:30 PM, United States Great Lakes @ Canada East

Please try to be there, thanks!

What do the following have in common:

Accuracy
Slalom
Slapshot
Speed
Team Relay
2 vs 0 Goalie
2 vs 0 Shooter

These are the remaining all star events to be played this off season, and are coming very soon, Watch here for scheduling!

Just a reminder:
-Early start- Breakaway Shooter Winner: Kid Cudi
Breakaway Shooter - Zone Champion: Reppotimus

-Early start- Breakaway Goalie Winner: Zanaz
Breakaway Goalie - Zone Champion: Saving, Runners up Linix and M1ch

Terriers bested Spiders in the Exhibition scrim.

Hello and congratulations to our playoff qualifiers in the mini world cup:
United States California
United States Northwest
United States Northeast
Ontario B
The Islands
Europe East

Also congratulations to our four wildcard teams:
United States New York
Canada East
United States Great Lakes
United States Mid Atlantic

The four wildcard teams will engage in mortal combat to eliminate two teams, which will give us our #7 and #8 seeds in the playoffs proper. The rules for the forthcoming games are the same as I have outlined before, except there is now overtime. The playoffs will be single elimination until the finals, which will be a best of 3 series. Good luck to all the teams. The roster lock is now engaged.

Attention all teams involved in the playoffs: be ready to play games starting on the 16th!!

The first play-in games will be as follows (times to be determined):
United States Mid Atlantic @ United States New York
United States Great Lakes @ Canada East

Hello friends. I cannot say I am upset that this week's games are over. There were some exciting games played today. It was really an emotional roller coaster. Let's jump right into things.

Europe East(7) @ The Islands(4)
Euros are my favorite people in this zone: they are truly model citizens. Just before the first drop, it appeared that Europe East would not field enough people, but apparently they had an army just waiting for the command. The army was led by legendary Weasel, Brethal, and he did not disappoint. He finished the game with 5 goals and an assist. He essentially was the Eastern Europeans' offense. However, as the adage goes, behind every offensive threat, there is a great goaltender. SOiLD was just that, with an impressive 20 saves in this afternoon affair. The Islands made it interesting in the second period, but it was to no avail. CSS chipped in a hat trick, including a buzzer beater as time expired.

Europe Central(12) @ Pacific / South America(6)
As usual, team Pacific / South America was struggling for players. Blackie Cup champion D.Hasek, noted for his Uruguayian roots, volunteered to help out. HEYBACCHUS was found in pub creasing blatantly, so naturally we gave him a jersey and he hopped in a Leviathan. To the untrained eye, it appeared that HEYBACCHUS was floating around aimlessly, and that is what he wants you to think. This man is an offensive genius. He is so chaotic that nobody knows what he will do next. The disorganized Pacific team could not muster enough firepower to keep up with Europe Central, though. Pooter89 outsexed his opponents, totaling 4 goals and 3 assists. LuKeZ provided some solid goaltending (11 saves) and some offensive prowess, finishing with 2 goals and 2 assists. Acido chipped in a hat trick, and this game finish 12-6 in favor of the Euros.

Canada East(13) @ United States Mid Atlantic(15)
This game was a furious 3 on 3 affair. Zeppelin- and Chagrin each led their threesomes (Chagrin more eagerly), with an absurd 17 goals between them. This game was all offense the entire game. Going into the second period, it was already 6-5 in favor of the US Mid Atlantic team, in their mini tournament debut. They did not disappoint, amassing 9 more goals in the second half to seal the win. My fingers actually got sore from typing ?g clean so much.

United States New York(6) @ Ontario A(5)
This was another tight one. The New Yorkers jumped off to a quick 2-0 lead behind goals by Killer Soldier and 10 pavel bure, but Ontario battled back to get it within 2 at the half. Every time Ontario seemed poised to make a comeback, though, Stryke shut them down. It was a pretty good team effort for US New York - everyone contributed offensively. However, the real story of this game was once again the goaltending of King-, who amassed 21 saves in the 20 minute game. As the New York team looks to advance to the postseason, it will be interesting to see if King- can keep up his solid work between the pipes.

United States Midwest(10) @ United States Northwest(9)
Wow, what a comeback. Bills over Oilers, 1993. Illinois over Arizona in the Elite Eight. Reggie Miller with 8 points in 18.7 seconds in the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, we have this. US Midwest over US Northwest, 2010 Mini World Cup. The Northwest team was winning 6-3 at the half, after some quick goals by RED30 and four goals by PartyMan. Then, something happened. The earth started to shake. Dark clouds formed on the horizon. Lightning struck. Zeus returned tonight in the form of Arnk Dylie, who tallied and other-worldy EIGHT goals this game. KOR showed up late and added a few goals of his own, including the crushing, go ahead goal. The Midwesterners left the Northwesterners stunned, winning 10-9. There is still some fight left in the Midwest team, after some early activity issues, due in large part to God joining the roster.

United States East(0) @ United States Northeast(10)
This one was ugly. You know when Hornet and Judge69 are going off offensively, you have some very serious issues with your team. The East team only showed four and struggled the entire game. Everyone chipped in for cocain's squad. Saving lived up to his namesake, putting up a shutout with 15 saves. The game ended just halfway into the second period in a mercy.

United States Great Lakes(11) @ United States Texas(1)
The Great Lakes team was looking to get out some frustration tonight after losing their first three games. They did so. A first period hat trick by stevewhitmer set the tone for this one. Once A_Pac got into the game, there was no looking back. He scored 4 goals. Arcadian chipped in a hat trick as well in this offensive rout by the Great Lakes squad. Hazecloud was a wall tonight, with 16 saves and just one goal against him. He also chipped in with some nice outlet passes, notching 4 assists.

Well, friends, I am done for the week. Thanks to all the stress of reffing and getting this organized, I need to relax this weekend. I plan on getting drunk. Have a nice weekend!

Pacific / South America(1) @ Europe East(3)
This first game didn't happen, if it wasn't for acclaimed Brit and HZ personality fur of fur volunteering to net for Jumper, who was the only one to show up for the Pacific. Jumper got a quick goal and had his ball-killing/self passing on display, but the overwhelming numbers of Europe East made this a short affair. If anyone could beat a team single-handedly, though, my money is on Jumper.

Canada East(7) @ Europe Central(4)
This game also nearly didn't happen, but Zeppelin- showed up mere seconds before the first drop: a Zeppelin arrives precisely when he means to. It's a good thing that our Newfie Javelin showed, too: he went on to score 4 goals. The real story here is Linix, though. The Stoic Shark had a total of 21 saves and only 4 goals against (in mini, those are Olympian-like numbers.)

Ontario A(4) @ United States South(4)
Early on, it looked like the U.S. South would run away with this one. It looks as though history were to repeat itself, though: just because the South is off to an early lead does not mean they will run away with it. Just ask . Despite going into the second period up 3-0, it was not enough to hold onto the lead. Ontario A stormed back behind the fury of freshly-added, honorary Ontarioan, Rage. Dark^$hadow had an impressive game between the pipes (not surprising, given D Money's affinity for pipes), and was able to stop the Ontarioans rally. The game ended in a 4-4 tie.

United States New York(7) @ Ontario B(6)
This game, like the other Ontario matchup, was a tale of two periods. The U.S. New York was simply dominant in the first half of the game, going into halftime with a commanding 5-0 lead, behind the scoring of Killer Soldier and strong netminding of King-. The second half, there seemed to be a role reversal, once Lancaster The Boogieman found his focus. CaNa and struck provided some offense to make this one interesting. Ontario actually had the lead with 0:45 on the clock, but Killer Soldier pulled a Bruce Willis and refused to die softly. Kula Shaker provided the heroics and scored the go-ahead goal with 0:11 remaining. This was a great game.

United States California(11) @ United States Midwest(1)
The U.S. Midwest struggled to field people, so some accommodations were made, with the additions of Snappy and a surprise appearance by Zeus himself, Arnk Dylie. Could our fearless zone leader put the Midwest on his back, defying the odds and upsetting WhiteIrishRebel and his Californians? Ahahahaha no. The Midwest managed only one goal, a circus shot by our divine thunderer, which brought a chorus of praises which the Muses will surely sing about for generations to come. VnV-Nation fought body overheating issues by shirking his clothing and scoring 4 goals. WIR added a hat trick of his own with 3 assists. If WIR continues his torrid pace, we could be looking at our Mini League MVP. Only time will tell.

United States Texas(4) @ United States Northwest(12)
It looked like the U.S. Northwest would not be able to show enough in this one, but Trick- and Percent showed up and the team was at full strength less than three minutes into the game. white_0men put on another offensive clinic in this one, finishing up with 5 goals and 3 assists. Partyman continued his strong play as well - he notched 4 goals and 3 assists. The highlight of the game came when Trick- checked an opposing player and caught the opposition's goaltender offguard, scoring the unlikely goal from the goalie position. This one had to be ended early because the frustrated Texans were on the verge of rebelling. Someone tell David Seaman #1 that Texas is no longer independent anymore; they can't go around rebelling all the time.

Canada West(4) @ United States Great Lakes(3)
This one was actually a lot closer than I thought it'd be. Both me and 00superfreak00, our team's netters, were facing lag issues right before the first drop. After 00 put his modem in the fridge, he was able to goaltend for the second half, but the Great Lakes team was already down, 0-2. After another Great Lakes lagout, Weeze (that's me), jumped in. I'd just like to point out that the team was +3 in a period of 11 seconds where I played offense. Just saying. In the end, though, the Twi$t-led attack of the West Canadians proved to be overwhelming. This was a defensive struggle for a mini game (maybe because of the poor offense.)
AznHawk> weeze why do you hate me. why did you not put in report how i sniped your sorry ass lancaster?

There are seven games scheduled for tonight, Thursday, so please tune in. We get to see the exciting debut of team United States Mid Atlantic tonight. It should be wild. Remember that you can still sign up until May 9 by talking to me in-game or visiting the forum thread. Have a good day.

Hello again, friends. We now have two days of competition in the books, and things have started to get heated. So far, I have had three death threats lobbied against me. There have been two rage quits. All this has made for an entertaining series of games, which will continue tonight and tomorrow. Our opening ceremony of Arnk Dylie carrying the torch into ?go summer would have been the highlight so far if it wasn't for the wardrobe malfunction.

But I digress. There are some important rule announcements and other minutiae, even though I have been saying them before every game. The rules are all the same as the RSHL/MSHL's, but with a few exceptions:

1) The goalies must start the faceoff behind their own blueline. After that, goalies may never cross center ice.
2) Games are two periods of 10 minutes in length.
3) There is no overtime.

Further, take note of the team name and abbreviation changes. You can see all the rosters here. If you are not on a roster and you have signed up, please contact me in-game or send me a forum message. If you have not yet signed up, you can sign up in the forum thread here. Please note, you may sign up until the last game is played. After that, teams will be starting the playoffs and rosters will be locked. The last game currently scheduled is May 9.

Now then, we had a lot of games that were played yesterday, so let's get right into it.

The Islands(10) @ Europe Central(4)
In the first Europe timeslot, our Euros battled it out. The Islands jumped off to a very fast 4 goal lead, with offensive output provided by Blackie Cup champion BananaSquadron69. This game was never very close, and The Islands cruised to a 10-4 victory.

Europe East(5) @ Canada East(9)
Canada East actually decided to show some people to this game, including Most Outstanding Player runner-up, Zeppelin-. With 5 goals and 3 assists, Zeppelin- proved why he is one of the most dominant players in the zone, but it is not to downplay the performance of the Super Fin, gilder. He had 3 goals and an assist, despite four minutes in the sin bin. Canada East was too powerful, in the end, and won 9-5.

United States Northeast(9) @ Ontario A(1)
This one was painful to watch. Without their fearless leader, Abvolt, the Ontarioans looked like they could not tell the difference between a Tragically Hip concert or a Rush show. It was a mess. US Northeast elected to go with the all-Leviathan lineup, and it proved overwhelming. Saving was dominant, with 4 goals and 3 assists.

United States East(7) @ Ontario B(14)
Ellis D., struck, CaNa, and Mailliw all had hat tricks for Ontario B. Consummate veterans Cyris and Doobie chipped in hat tricks of their own, but they simply did not have the firepower the Ontarioans had. Slartibartfast, always a chaotic force, was defrocked with a blatant defensive crease, which essentially put this one on ice (no pun intended.)

United States Northwest(13) @ United States Great Lakes(4)
This was another lopsided affair. After jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead off the creative homosexual force that is Arcadian, the Great Lakes team could not maintain their pace. Recent roster addition white_0men took the game over (in between dealing drugs legally to "patients.") In an amazing display of offensive force, w0 finished the game with 8 goals. Partyman finished the game with 4 goals and 4 assists, and was passing out trays of shooters after the game. Trick- also had 6 assists, which is impressive considering he was goaltending for half of the game.

United States Texas(8) @ Canada West(7)
If Monday's game was the batman2 show, this game was without question the Sydor show. Not only did the pint sized Texan show his heart by, with just seconds remaining in the game, tying it on a beautiful fade shot, Sydor also assisted the winning goal with a mere 6 seconds left in the game. Batman2 continues to impress, however, as he finished with 3 goals and 4 assists, including the game winner.

Stay tuned for another whopping seven mini games tonight as we continue our torrid pace in this 2010 Offseason Mini World Cup.

Hello friends. Last night we officially took the maiden voyage on our exciting trip through the summer league. Let's have a look at how some of our friends around the world fared in the first night of action.

Ontario B(11) @ United States Northeast 1(9)
Starting things off, Ontario B took care of the US Northeast, 11 to 9. This game was full of gripping drama and was a high scoring barnburner. It saw the return of legends Mailliw and BlueGoku, as well as the meltdown of cocain and Killer Soldier. The latter has been traded to US NY for a washing machine.

United States Mid Atlantic 1(9) @ Ontario A(3)
In our next matchup, Shlazzer and his band of merry makers were able to top Ontario A in glorious fashion. Going into the tournament, I would have thought Shlazzer's crew were the underdogs, but apparently he has been running drills with his team for weeks on end. US Mid Atlantic won this won 9 to 3.

Pacific / South America(0) @ Canada East(0)
The battle of who could care less ended in a tie. It was a hard fought matchup. Special shoutouts to Gothenks and Flew for being the only members of their respective teams to actually show up.

United States Northeast 2(4) @ United States South 2(4)
Apparently these folks did not know the matchup could end in a tie, even though I told them that this was the case before the game. Activation Crease Sit, Inc. was on the spot last night. Acti even chipped in a little offense for his Southerners to tie the hated New Yorkers.

United States Midwest 4(8) @ United States South 1(12)
The batman2 show was on display last night, with our caped crusader ending up with a rating well over 100. Team Texas looks strong in the early going, but the Midwesterners, led by interim captain Pheef, made a game of it.

United States Midwest 3(3) @ United States West 2(10)
WhiteIrishRebel's famous Spider proved to be too much for the other Midwestern team to handle last night. Not even such perennial stars and Hockey Zone celebrities stevewhitmer and A_Pac could hope to topple the mighty Californians.

After a frustrating day of scheduling, I think I have everything worked out.

Check out the schedules here!

The first games begin on Monday, April 26!!! Please let me know if you are still not placed on a roster and you have signed up. Continue to sign up in the forum thread if you have not yet signed up.

I realize I packed a lot of games in a lot of days, but keep in mind the games will last 30 minutes apiece. As for the league setup, here is how things will go:

Ten teams will make the playoffs: the top two in each division and four wild cards. The top two seeds overall will get a bye through the first round, while the remaining eight teams will play. Tiebreakers will be determined by wins, head-to-head record, and goal differential.

Each time will play five games before the playoffs begin, although I am considering having each team play ten. We'll see how things go after this batch of games. Good luck!

Best Coach:
J-Walking – 16 Votes
LTFlagger – 10 Votes
Trick- - 31 Votes

Best Defender:

Saving – 13 Votes
Lawnmower – 8 Votes
AFH Whiplash – 26 Votes
Bak- - 16 Votes

Best Defensive Forward:

Arcadian – 16 Votes
Dege – 26 Votes
J-Walking – 10 Votes
Jumper – 10 Votes

Best Goalie:

Linix – 37 Votes
Blitzstrum – 16 Votes
LtFlagger – 9 Votes

Best Sportsmanship:

AFH Whiplash – 33 Votes
Puker – 24 Votes
Chrono – 6 Votes

Golden Whistle:

Puker – 42 Votes
Arcadian – 15 Votes
Furry – 4 Votes

Most Improved Player:

Klammy – 9 Votes
Oug – 42 Votes
Goldeye – 8 Votes

Most Outstanding Player:

Oug – 45 Votes
Zeppelin – 12 Votes
Dark Shadow – 3 Votes

Most Perseverance:

Puker – 19 Votes
Weeze – 23 Votes
Judge69 – 13 Votes
Smalls – 6 Votes

Most Service:
Arnk Dylie – 27 Votes
SLART IN – 17 Votes
Judge69 – 17 Votes

Most Valuable Player:

Oug – 33 Votes
White_0men – 5 Votes
D.Hasek – 10 Votes
Trick – 14 Votes

Rookie of the Year:

Zanaz – 17 Votes
Navimaster – 9 Votes
Deci – 14 Votes
LtFlagger – 20 Votes

FINALS Most Valuable Player:
BananaSquadron69