You have some pretty unique ideas so far, I must admit! This sounds like an interesting sport, and my favorite team so far is Montreal, mainly because purple is my favorite color for one, and the updated look makes them look even better, but in all honesty, all five teams revealed so far have cool logos and uniforms! I also have some questions about the league, if you don't mind: 

1. Do any real life leagues like the NFL exist in this universe, or are they all fictional?
2. Will there be any expansion councils?
3. Will there be any inaugural teams in Ohio?

Other than that, keep up the good work!

Slapshot Kirby wrote:

You have some pretty unique ideas so far, I must admit! This sounds like an interesting sport, and my favorite team so far is Montreal, mainly because purple is my favorite color for one, and the updated look makes them look even better, but in all honesty, all five teams revealed so far have cool logos and uniforms! I also have some questions about the league, if you don't mind: 

1. Do any real life leagues like the NFL exist in this universe, or are they all fictional?
2. Will there be any expansion councils?
3. Will there be any inaugural teams in Ohio?

Other than that, keep up the good work!

Thanks for the questions!
1. This is still under debate for me. As for now though, assume that all other leagues in this universe also exist IRL and are in the exact positions they are in as they were in the real-life 1944 and beyond.
2. Yes! Not for a few more seasons, however.
3. Unfortunately, no.

Section30 wrote:

I like the colors and logo for Minnesota, I'm just not sure about the name. Grizzlies aren't found anywhere in Minnesota, the only bears we have are black bears. I would suggest changing the name to the Bears.

I actually didn't know that before. I would, however I do like the Grizzlies name. I actually had them originally named the Brown Bears, but I thought that it was too boring and thought that Grizzlies was a lot better. 

Thanks for the comments, though! I have the sixth team in the pipeline right now, and I'm still working on how to simulate the seasons. I have a couple methods I can use, but if you have suggestions, tell me.
 

I do like Connecticut's uniforms. Only question I have is how the advent of television is going to affect the uniforms in general.

Only thing I will say is that until the 80s, you would want to have the letters form an arch individually as computer technology was non-existent outside of a top-secret British program at this time and not sophisticated enough to design logos with until the mid-late 80s (IIRC the Twins baseball logo was one of the first to be designed using CADD software in 1987). Just a heads up on that front.

Last edited by Red Comet (5/23/2019 7:42 pm)

Red Comet wrote:

I do like Connecticut's uniforms. Only question I have is how the advent of television is going to affect the uniforms in general.

Only thing I will say is that until the 80s, you would want to have the letters form an arch individually as computer technology was non-existent outside of a top-secret British program at this time and not sophisticated enough to design logos with until the mid-late 80s (IIRC the Twins baseball logo was one of the first to be designed using CADD software in 1987). Just a heads up on that front.

IMO I wasn’t really concerned about how TV would affect it. Do you mean that there would be less bright colors on uniforms until the advent of color TV?

About the latter point, I’m a little confused on that too because it looks like I did that. Can you clarify?

Without further ado, we have the 1944 season finally here!

As new as a sport zoneball was, there was a clear hype for this upstart thing. A fair few people were excited to see a new game that wasn't as violent as football, as slow as baseball, or as tightly-packed as hockey.

The season got underway on March 5, 1944, in a game with the Toronto Patriots visiting the New York Lions at Polo Grounds. Even though the Lions were expected to come away with a victory in front of their home crowd, and sure put up a fight, the Patriots spoiled their debut with an unstoppable offense led my Toronto native Robert Kopp, who scored the league's first goal, en route to a 49-34 victory. However, this would not be the end of the Lions' woes, as this began a 6-game losing streak that eventually contributed to a 5-15 record; worst in the East Division and in the league. Toronto didn't fare much better; Kopp went down with a broken wrist in the fifth game of the season (which Toronto had a 3-1 record going into) and they couldn't keep their footing without him, finishing just under .500 with a 9-11 record.

The West Division was clearly the more competitive of the two in the first season. Only Toronto managed to finish without a .500 or better record, and these teams were led by the Detroit Badgers. With a ridiculous home-field advantage, Detroit went on a 8-game home win streak that continued throughout the end of the season, with a NZA-best 16-4 record. A notable story of their season was the 20th and final game against the Minnesota Grizzlies, who had been nipping at their heels all season thanks to Roger Ratliff, who was the league's leader in goals and kept the team at a nice scoring pace. In game 20, with both teams tied for first in the West with 15-4 records, Detroit overcame a 9-point deficit at halftime to win the game 53-50 on a last-moment game-winning over scored by Detroit midfielder Scott Kell. In the locker room, in tears, Kell was quoted as saying, "It wasn't just me. I may have scored, yes, but I didn't score 9 points to come back, did I?"

The East was the far less competitive division in the league. Only the Washington Founders managed a .500 or better record, and even then, their 12-8 finish was only third-best in the league (behind Minnesota and Detroit). Founders goalkeeper William Barron was infamous for his contempt with the ineptitude of the other three teams, once telling a teammate, "I joined this new-fangled sport for a chance at victory and overcoming obstacles. These obstacles are so insignificant I might as well be simply stepping over them." Regardless, the Founders easily won a berth in the championship game against Detroit, beating out Montreal, Connecticut, and New York without a second thought.

The championship game was intended to be an easy pick for anybody. As well as Washington was playing, they were widely expected to fall to the Badgers, especially on their home turf. And sure enough, that's what happened at first. With 13 points from Scott Kell and 9 from Detroit forward Theodore Isaacson, the Badgers led 22-17 at the half. However, even with this lead, the Badgers fell victim to the same thing that they overcame in their last regular season game. The Founders scored 11 consecutive points in the third quarter, with the score entering the fourth at 32-34 in favor of Washington. With the careful goalkeeping of William Barron and the rest of their defense, the Founders gave up only 5 more points in the game to defeat the Badgers 37-43 in a spectacular game.

What do you all think?