It’s that time of year again — actually, we’re a little late, but whatever — for Fantasy Hockey, and here at BSH, we’re ready to kick things into gear. We’re moving to a promotion and relegation format for this season and we think it’s going to be pretty fun, but admittedly it’s a little more complicated than usual.
So, we’ve explained things after the jump. We use pictures and stuff. And at the end, there are details about how to join in on the fun if you haven’t already been included based on your standing in BSH Fantasy Hockey a year ago.
THE FORMAT
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of the promotion and relegation in soccer, it’s basically pretty simple: there’s one top league, and that’s where you want to be. That’s where they battle for the ultimate prize. If you’re in the top league and you finish at the bottom, you’re relegated to a lower league. If you finish atop a lower league, you are promoted to the top league.
That’s how we’re running BSH Fantasy Hockey from here on out. We think this demands imagery to understand the specifics.
For those of you that aren’t visual learners, it’s actually pretty simple despite all the arrows:
— The top 10 from our two 2010-11 leagues have been promoted to the Champions League. You should have received an invitation on Sunday night from Geoff, who is the commissioner of that league. (We know, it’s already gone to his head.)
— If you finished in the bottom half of BSH League #1 a year ago, you’ve received an invite to Tier 2’s Orange Division from me. We’re the relegated assholes. If you were in the bottom half of BSH League #2 last year, you won’t be getting an invite to a league (for several reasons — mainly, we don’t recognize a good number of the people) but that shouldn’t stop you from signing up now if you want to play. More on that in a sec.
— Starting this year and every year from here on out, if you finish in the top 10 of the Champions League, you’ll stay. If you finish in the bottom 10, you’ll be relegated. And if you finish in the top five of your Tier 2 division, you’ll be promoted to the Champions League.
— If you finish in the bottom 15 of either Tier 2 division, you won’t get an automatic spot for the following season. We’re making those 30 spots first come/first serve every year to help weed out those that sign up and then stop playing midway through the year, as well as to give opportunity to those who might join our community throughout the course of the season.
— The Champions League winner (I guess the proper word would be Champion) will get a prize TBD, probably a shirt from the BSH Store. The winners of each Tier 2 division get… uh, bragging rights? And promotion to the Champions League, obviously.
So basically, the goals are simple: Finish in the Top 10 if you’re in the Champions League, and finish in the Top 5 if you’re in a Tier 2 league. Or just win your league and you don’t have to worry about it.
LEAGUE RULES / DRAFT DATES
We’re going to sort out the final rules before the drafts, the dates of which also have yet to be finalized, but we’ll have the same rules across all three leagues of course. We did rotisserie leagues for whatever reason last year, but we’re doing head-to-head points leagues this year. Suggestions on rules are welcome.
2011-12 FANTASY HOCKEY SIGN UPS
So if you haven’t already received an invite for either the Champions League or Tier 2 — and if you should have and didn’t, that means you have a different email than the one you used for fantasy last year; email us and we’ll sort it out — here’s how to sign up:
Instead of just handing out the password and allowing sign ups that way, we’re going to send email invites out for those who wish to join. We’re not going to turn people down or anything (unless you’re banned or something) — it’s just easier for us this way.
If you’re interested in filling one of the 30 spots we have open, shoot us an email at broadstreethockey at gmail.com and put FANTASY HOCKEY in the subject line. They’re first come, first serve so be sure to act fast.
COMMISSIONER NEEDED
We have two commissioners already: Geoff is running the Champions League and I’m running the Orange Division of Tier 2. We need somebody to run the Black Division of Tier 2, so if you’re interested, let us know in your sign up email and we’ll take it from there. Obviously, the longer you’ve been around and the more we trust you, the better. (And we’ll probably think of some kind of small perk for whoever gets the gig.)
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Let us know if you have any questions. Good luck!
