The V Before The V

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The V Before The V

 

The ole ‘V has been around for some time now, with ups and downs, expansions, contractions and more than a few lifetime bans.

 

What a lot of people don't know about is the predecessors to the VHL, founded when simulated hockey was young and players did it for the love of the game, because no one could afford to pay them very much.

 

Let me take you back to the heady days of 1907. Old Victor, the grandfather of the illustrious leader of the VHL, had just discovered Louis T's Hockey Simulator. Using only three abacus, Louis T could stimulate a single hockey game in under thirty minutes. Louis was struggling to peddle his simulator, as the interest in simulating a brand new sport just wasn't there. Old Vic, though, saw the potential in Louis’ sim. He began sending out telegrams to hockey enthusiasts in other cities. Soon, there were six cities with groups prepared to front the money for a simulated franchise. The Toronto Hoplites, the Stockholm Rain, the Hamilton Good Canadian Boys, the Helsinki Chill, The Berlin Kaisers and The Calgary Wranglers would be the inaugural teams in the Victory Hockey Association. 

 

Those early days were tough going. Toronto folded and reopened three times between 1908 and 1911. The first ever Moscow franchise was founded in 1913, only to be nationalized by the Soviet Union shortly after its founding. 

 

In those days, players had to send their Point Tasks to head office by telegram. Once the update had been approved, head office would telegram back and then players could distribute their TPE between three attributes: scoring, passing and defense. 

 

At first only two games would be simulated per day, meaning a typical regular season lasted nearly five months. The championship was a five game series between the two teams with the best records. 

 

In 1952, the upstart Glorious Hockey Association burst onto the scene, with one key difference from the VHA - they had acquired a sim that would run on pioneering computer ENIAC. This allowed them to stimulate a season in less than two months and enabled them to use a more complicated sim with five attributes. For a few years, the GHA poached top prospects from the VHA, as both leagues prohibited players from playing in multiple sim leagues. However, in 1955, financial hardship forced the GHA to take desperate measures. While using an ENIAC-based sim produced more sophisticated results more quickly than the VHL's abacus-based sim could aspire to, it also was extremely expensive. The GHA's operational expenses were higher for a single month than a full year of the VHA. The league was bleeding cash and without bold action, it would fold shortly. 

 

What was that bold action? Despite some bad blood between the leagues’ head offices, the GHA reached out to the VHA with a proposition - a merger. The reception of this offer was extremely divisive, with the owner of the Berlin franchise, now called the Chancellors, threatening to fold if it went through. Proceeding without Berlin, the GHA and VHA would unite to become the VHL the league that we know today. 

 

[Victor 11,021]

The Wranglers survive through all eternity.