Bringing the Community Together with Virtual Hockey

In the previous article titled What to Do Now? I had mentioned that myself, Canes Stats, and the guys from the Talkin' Sauce Podcast were starting up a league on NHL 20 for the Xbox One called the CanCHELation Cup.  At that point we were just coming up with how the league would be structured, amount of players per team, amount of games in a season, and so on.  With the basics down, we started to advertise the league. 

We weren't expecting the response that we did!  27 people answered the call to play in the league and in our first season we had five teams, each with a rotating squad of six players.   My team was Under Review, Talkin' Sauce's team was Raleigh Ferda, and Canes Stats' team was... Canes Stats.  The teams not run by the league founders were For the Troops, captained by Carson McGee and Raleigh Rebellion, captained by Patrick Holden.

Games were played every Sunday and Wednesday over the course of a month and a half to complete the 12-game regular season.  Every game was streamed online either using Twitch or Mixer (links below) and we created a Twitter account to share standings, stats, game times, and streaming information.  During Night Five we had Wade Minter, PA announcer for the Carolina Hurricanes, create goal calls and three stars for all the games which was awesome!

By the end of the regular season we saw For the Troops as the first regular season champs of the CanCHELation Cup!  All five teams would be involved in the post season with Under Review (4th place) and Raleigh Ferda (5th place) facing each other to see who would play For the Troops in the semi-finals.  Once it was all said and done, regular season runner-ups Canes Stats defeated For the Troops two games to none in the CanCHELation Cup finals to win the very first league championship!

We are very grateful for everyone involved in this season and we help to see more teams and players for our second season in a few weeks.  Even though it was all done in the comfort of our homes, it did have a lot of the same feelings I would get when playing adult league hockey.  The feelings of camaraderie and competition were in full effect every game night.  With that said, we look forward to Season 2 with new players, teams, and even an additional format with the introduction of a 3's league that will play along side the 5v5 league.

If you need more information you can contact the CanCHELation Cup or HockeyNC Twitter accounts.

Lastly, huge Thanks to everyone that made this league possible.  To Canes Stats, Talkin' Sauce, and myself (yes, I'm thanking myself!) for setting up the league; Carson McGee and Patrick Holden for volunteering to be captains; Jack Rogers, Jakob Rosentreter, Tyler Parker, and James Jackson for helping stream games on Twitch and Mixer along with myself and Canes Stats to ensure maximum exposure for the games for everyone to watch; and last (but not least) Wade Minter for his goal calls and three stars announcements mid-season which brought so more immersion to the our gaming experience! 

Stream Accounts:
Twitch
HockeyNC
Jack Rogers
Tyler Parker
Jakob Rosentreter

Mixer
Canes Stats
James Jackson