Alt Sports Universe! 

Gritty here. I know it has been a while since you heard from me. I have been working in the background but life experiences made me take a step back during the fall season. For me, I had time to set lineups and that was about it. I wanted to thank Dan O'Mac and QCS for taking things off of my plate during this time. With that said, I am back and going to be focusing on a fun project that I hope will bring a spark to our community and enhance the experience for everyone. 

On this date in 2020 the Alt Universe was busy voting on names for its first group of franchises. On February 15th, the AltHL welcomed its first four franchises (the oldest of the Alt Sports Universe) - Boston Rovers, Montreal Chevaliers, Calgary Wranglers and the Los Angeles Titans. In the winter of 2020, we started a project that would grow to 6 fantasy sports leagues with over a hundred different team identities that were developed by dozens of community members over the course of hundreds of designs and thousands of votes.

As we prepare to enter our historic 5th anniversary season it is time to give our oldest league a much needed Refre5h. Please continue reading with some of the things to look forward to this spring. Our Refre5h project will be composed of three unique and important elements : League Events, Team Identities and the Minor Hockey League.

• Our goal is to invest time and energy to focus on three annual events that will build community and exciting for our league. In the past, our events have had minimal participation and only a few teams seem to ever be represented. This plan will make sure that everyone has a chance to get in on the action. All of the logos for the events will be unveiled at our annual owners meeting which will take place during the Stanley Cup Finals. The logo designers will be challenged to combine league issued fonts as well as host team and city iconography. League Teams are not allowed to host multiple events in the same season and not in consecutive seasons.


• The AltHL Draft


• This event is awarded annually to the team with the WORST record from the previous year. Therefore the team with the number-1 pick will host the event. The owner of that team will work with a designer to create a logo for the event.


• The AltHL All Star Game


• This event will be assigned in a completely RANDOM drawing. The host owner will work with a designer to design the event’s logo. During the season, the owner will submit a design brief for people to design all star uniforms. Those uniforms will be revealed with the rosters each year on NHL All Star Weekend.

• This will be our reimagined (and only) outdoor game. Here are the Top 5 Things you should know about the Legacy Classic


• (1) Teams will be able to submit a venue in their home market (legitimate venue) for consideration- the host team will be selected at random from that pool of interested owners
• (2) The visiting teams will be selected at random from a pool of the entire league (that team will have the option to accept or decline the invitation)
• (3) The host team will work with a designer to develop the event logo and branding
• (4) The Legacy Classic will be purposefully scheduled to happen during the week of the NHL’s Winter Classic
• (5) The participating teams can work with designers to develop their game day sweaters. Designers will be presented with a unique design challenge LEGACY CONNECT UNIFORMS


• Participating teams will find a creative way to blend


• A.) The AltHL team logo / colors
• B.) Design elements from their NHL’s Legacy team. For example, the San Francisco Dragons were linked with the Montreal Canadiens - could the Dragons design a throwback that includes the classic Habs chest stripe?
• C.) For the teams who were not a part of the Legacy Project we will randomly assign teams to you (Milwaukee, Alaska, Edmonton, Ottawa)


• Rovers = Blues
• Wranglers = Maple Leafs
• Racers = Penguins
• Ghosts = Islanders
• Bighorns = Whalers / Hurricanes
• Kingfishers = Blackhawks
• Titans = North Stars / Stars
• Loons = Devils
• Chevaliers = Nordiques / Avalanche
• Gargoyles = Bruins
• Founders = Rangers
• Sawblades = Oilers
• Owls = Kings
• Dragons = Canadiens
• Seawolves = Capitals
• Terriers = Redwings
• Glaciers = Flyers
• Arrows = Sabres
• Panthers, Lightning, Senators, Mighty Ducks, Sharks, Blue Jackets, Wild, Predators, Thrashers / Jets, Jets / Coyotes, Canucks, Flames,

• 
• Each active owner will select the level of intensity of their refresh. Each team will keep the relative color palette of their team. However if the owner would like to make slight adjustments they may. For example, the Calgary Wranglers could ask to brighten the color of their orange in their palette. If they wish to participate, each owner will submit a short brief via a Google Form. Depending on the number of teams we will do this in rounds. Once all the submissions are in, the owner will be able to select the logo and uniform that they wish. If they would like to mix and match from the submissions they may. For example, the owner may love the new logo for design 1 but the sweater from design 2. Each new uniform will be revealed at the same time with an AltHL fifth anniversary patch. 

The goal is that we want to balance the original intent of our community vote AND the wishes of the owner. 

• 
• This will be the ONLY TIME that we do this, but if there is any defunct AltHL team that you would like to resurrect and swap it out for your current team you may do so. If multiple owners request the same team we will do a coin flip. Here is our current outlook - we are looking to keep the current alignment. 
• 
• 

We are going to invest some more energy into the development of our minor league clubs. This effort has two components : DESIGN and MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS.

DESIGN
Each owner will select a location and team name for the minor league club. They will then work with a designer (or themselves) to develop a quality brand for the team. They will submit those brands to Gritty for the league reveal later this spring. 

You may locate your farm team in an existing AHL/ECHL city but cannot duplicate team names. 

MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS
We are proposing that we add small minor league rosters to our existing AltHL rosters. Fantrax has the ability to roster minor league eligible players (players that have been drafted but have not yet played in 60 NHL games). We are proposing an 8-player minor league roster. 

The goal of this proposal is to add an exciting new element to our league experience. It also provides meaning to the end of the season for ALL teams regardless of where they are in the standings. Teams pushing for the playoffs may trade prospects for veterans while rebuilding teams have the opportunity to trade aging veterans for draft picks and prospects. I do this in another league and it has made the experience SO MUCH fun. We believe that by giving our Minor teams a purpose it will engage all AltHL teams all season. 

The time commitment is minimal - players who wish to strengthen their MHL team can do so throughout the season. You can use resources like DOBBER PROSPECTS to guide you. If you do not want to commit any more time to the league then you can simply draft your MHL players and then wait for them to become pros. It is up to you. 

With that said, since this is a big change we will open it up to a vote. We have 18 owners - we will require 12 to say yes to pass this change. If we decide that we will move forward with this idea we will have a rookie draft this summer (see AltHL Draft section above).  

VIDEO - Here is a video of me walking through just how easy and minimal of a change it is on Fantrax. 


All owners please fill out this survey by Friday, February 9. 

VERY IMPORTANT SURVEY

Depending on the responses from the community, we will determine the plan and timeline for how we will proceed this spring. 

This entire AltHL Refre5h Project will culminate in our owner meetings during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That is when we will release every team's updated logos and uniforms. At that time, we will also reveal the logos of the league events for next season. And finally we will reveal the identities of all 18 MHL teams. So during the design process keep your designs under lock and key until the big reveal. 

If you have any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, fill out the survey and wait til next week for more details. 



 

Two good questions:

1.) Fixed, it will only be once now. 
2.) The declaration for intensity of the redesign will be next week. I wanted to give people time to consider what they wanted. 
3.) We will include intensity level options for both the logo and the sweaters. 

You'll also be able to share your vision in a short design brief. 

Last edited by Gritty (2/11/2024 8:43 am)

You love to see it. I'm really excited to take a new look at some of these brands, especially seeing as I wasn't around when we designed most of them.

One quick clarification: the post says the deadline for the form is February 9 even though that's impossible because the post was made on the 10th. When should we have it done by?

ItDoesntMatter wrote:

You love to see it. I'm really excited to take a new look at some of these brands, especially seeing as I wasn't around when we designed most of them.

One quick clarification: the post says the deadline for the form is February 9 even though that's impossible because the post was made on the 10th. When should we have it done by?

Haha you are totally correct. What I meant was this Friday. 

Is there a visual of all the logos and uniforms in the AltHL that could be posted for viewer reference?

Last edited by Thehealthiestscratch (2/13/2024 6:00 pm)