The QCHL- Or My "Introduction" to Sim Leagues

[Rin 138]

I may have mentioned it in a post or two some indiscernible time ago, but I don't think I've ever really described my initial "introduction" to sim leagues. I put "introduction" in quotes because it isn't exactly a formal sim league kind of environment- it's moreso something of my own creation that I've been doing since I was a kid.

 

The first hockey video game I ever got into was NHL 2k10/2k11 for the Nintendo Wii, which was the "major" console I had at the time. I was still a few years away from getting into the world of Playstation/XBox, so these were the only hockey sim games I really had access to-- at least out of the titles that could be considered "current" for their time. Naturally, one of the game's features caught my eye nearly immediately- the "Create a Team" section, which has obviously been a standard for sports games as far back as I can remember. After fiddling around with some uniforms, logos, and cloning a bunch of free agents onto my team, I'd created the Las Vegas Yetis- the first of what would end up being ten different created franchises, all full of unique players.

 

...Well, sort of. I definitely couldn't be bothered to create custom players for all ten rosters- that would be HUNDREDS of players to sit down and manually menu through. No, young me instead decided to clone existing NHL rosters and simply change the names of everyone on the team to fill out most of the other squads. With a few created names sprinkled in for good measure, we were off to the races on our own little sim league adventure.

 

This is the best place to shout out some of the most loved players in Yetis history. Salvador Joensuu, the first created player I ever threw together. Zachary Ternavsky, our netminder turned defenseman that held down the ship on path to multiple cup victories. Percy Dubinsky, longtime shutdown defenseman and irreplaceable rock of the team. And lastly, the first line pairing of Trevor Baier and Dwayne Torquato-- two elite goalscorers in their own right, lighting the lamp in McDrai-like fashion. Then again, I don't know if they ever outscored some of those Falcons rosters...

 

I've been saying "we" as a few other people would join me on the endeavor, including my brother and a few friends from school at the time. We would each "GM" our team and make trades, edit lines, and play with strategies to see what ended up working. As it turns out, NHL 2k11 is actually a fairly decent sim game-- some teams were consistently good, some consistently bad, and certain players would rise to the top and reliably keep their name on the scorecard. And best of all, we could watch every game live as it happened, since sims required us to play CPU vs CPU matches in the "quick play" section of the game.

 

Seasons would pass, and before long it was easy to see narratives naturally forming from season to season. Each offseason would host a draft class (which I would use "create a player" for, it was much easier to sprinkle in one to two players per team every now and then), and new draftees would spark life into struggling teams. Some went on to win multiple cups, while others would get close every season only to fizzle out at the end. Hell- the team based in my grandfather's home town went on to win back to back ups right after he passed away. Some players were incredibly dominant, some would develop reputations for racking up penalty minutes and fighting. Some would always score a goal at the most opportune time. Even though I technically had a dog in the race, I found myself rooting for every team at some point or another since I had to follow every team in order to sim.

 

All of that setup, of course, transitions into why I initially took interest in the VHL. For the longest time, I was only enjoying the QCHL within a small circle of friends. Running fake sports leagues on video games felt like such a niche in the middle school days, and I wasn't internet savvy enough at the time to stumble into message boards. An older me, however, was elated to find entire communities of people who shared that exact same passion, but this time at an even lower level. Instead of taking on a whole team, you represented one player that strove to take home glory. And how do you make that player better? By exercising creative freedom to help build the world of the league you're taking part in. Seeing so many years of history etched into the Portal's HoF page immediately reminded me of what I'd done with the QCHL, and I was immediately inclined to join and begin my journey here.

 

Many years have passed since we started the QCHL, and we've always come back to it whenever free time allows. Every time, we improve a little bit of the technology behind it- from statkeeping to streaming, and even defining more proper rules for player signings and trades. Our own personal growth can be reflected in the QCHL itself, and I think that's a really wonderful thing to have so close to me. I see so much of that same growth and love put into the VHL, and it really resonates with me. This all started as a group of some nerds on a forum, and now you have so many different yet talented people coming together to contribute toward one big idea just for the fun of it. It really is fantastic.

 

So...what spurred this honestly rambly discussion about an old passion of mine? Well, I recently experienced my first round of company layoffs, so for the past month I've been doing...very little. After the high of the Vegas cup win (which I was in the building for!) finally wore off, the reality of unemployment set in and I quickly spiraled into a sleepless mess. With nothing major to put my time towards, I've started looking back into the QCHL as a creative outlet- this time taking additional steps to see just how far I can push the league. Emulators exist now, making it incredibly easy to save data and keep the game on hand at all times. Some people have even created tools to make roster editing a bit easier- done through the use of CSV files instead of having to manually sift through the game's menu system. It's buggy, but it's also been a fun exercise in trying to interact with a game's code directly. What combinations of actions lead to bugs? How fragile was this last change? It's an amusing game of trial-and-error.

 

As a professional developer, my plan is to also launch a "portal" or website for the league as a means of centralizing data. Instead of keeping numerous spreadsheets on hand, I'd love to have player and team stats easy to access at a moment's notice. On top of that, site functionality could be expanded to allow users or "GMs" to manage and interact with their team, checking box scores and editing lines to be sent in before sims. With the existence of this CSV editing tool, I can even make player updating a breeze. Of course, these are all super long term, non-committal goals that I'd like to work on over time. After all, I'm also learning how to....

 

...Edit the game's textures directly. This has been the absolute most fun I've had while revisiting the game. Apparently, Dolphin makes it BRAINDEAD easy to dump and edit textures, so I've taken it upon myself to see just how much rebranding I can get away with. Gone are the days of limited jersey styles and logos, we can now do literally whatever we want when it comes to the branding of our teams. This has always, ALWAYS been a passion of mine, as evident by some of my old media spot/graphic ventures (the jersey initiative, just to name one). Behold, the completion of my own rebranded team-- the Galveston Terrapins.

 

 

With some really appealing jersey references that I found online, as well as a pair of logos that I was able to get made on Fiverr, I managed to figure out the game's uniform textures in order to completely overhaul my old Las Vegas Yetis. I'll always love that franchise, but since professional hockey is now exploding in Las Vegas, I feel that now is the right time to bow out and accept that we've "done our job." Plus...I just really, really like turtles. Gotta have a turtle team.

 

So yeah, since I've been working on this in my off time, I've been reminded of the VHL and why I was excited to hop on board in the first place. I've really appreciated the welcome back, I wasn't sure at all how it'd go over. A lot has changed since I was last here, both on this site and in my own life, but I'm happy to be back and interacting with the internet nerds who share my niche passion for fake hockey.

 

 

I blinked and filled 1,536 words worth of content before I even knew it, I guess I have an easy claim for the next few weeks...

[Daniel Janser 2,055]

5 hours ago, Rin said:

A lot has changed since I was last here, both on this site and in my own life, but I'm happy to be back and interacting with the internet nerds who share my niche passion for fake hockey.

wdym 'fake hockey'?  glad you re-found your passion for this league and looking forward to play against or with your fake hockey player with my fake hockey player.