PLAAY CONNECT 09.26.24
Another month gone by, and we’re heading full-blast (literally!) into the Holiday season! Here we go with another edition of our e-newsletter!….
It's Time Again for HOCKEY!
It's our 10th annual Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament--where EVERY team has a chance to win it all! EVERY pro team from the HOCKEY BLAST 2023-24 Pro Season card set is included in the tournament, all 32 teams! It's single-elimination, and the match-ups were completely random—we literally DRAW them out of a hat! This format ALWAYS generates surprises, as there's no seeding, home ice is assigned randomly and hot streaks are over-rewarded!
TONIGHT (09.26.24) in our PLAAY Space YouTube stream, we'll randomly draw our First Round Bracket (literally from out of a hat!), followed immediately by Game One of the tournament!
You're invited to participate in the tournament! Once the brackets are set, just let us know which game you'd like to claim! First round games will need to be played by Wednesday 10.02.24, second round games by 10.09.24. We'll play the "Great Eight" live on-location in Salt Lake City, Saturday 10.12.24...
UTAH-ctober!
PLAAY Games is hitting' the road again, destination Salt Lake City, for a full day (and more!) of tabletop sports FUN! Join us Saturday 10.12.24 at Hastur Games, 6831 S State St, Midvale, UT 84047, for a sports game get-together that we are calling "UTAH-ctober!" We'll play out BOTH the Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY with History Maker Baseball (ALCS, NLCS and Championship Series), AND the final rounds of the Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament!
It's totally FREE--just show up, and have fun! Read more about UTAH-ctober here...
Imminent Video Activity
We have our hockey "surprise" bracket-setting show tonight, and then MORE fun on the way from the PLAAY Space....
• 10.03.24 • 2002 Sharpie 500, Red White & Blue Racin': We'll get our brand new vintage racing' season on the game table with the biggest stars of the Y2K era tradin' paint at our very own Bristol "Night Race!"
• 10.10.24 • Big League PLAAY-offs, History Maker Baseball: On the eve of UTAH-ctober, we'll apply our "Game Seven" format to the remaining eight baseball playoff teams to narrow the field to FOUR--those four teams will travel with us to Salt Lake City for our "Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY"
• 10.17.24 • Draft Duel Returns! The super-awesome professionally-printed-and-produced version of last year's holiday hit is ready to be unleashed on your game table! Can't wait to show it to you. Fun for sports fans and non-fans alike, you don't have to know anything about football to attain Draft Duel "Royalty" status!
• 10.24.24 • All Hallow's Eve with Steve: Our annual Spook-Tacular Team-Up with AFR's Steve Tower, this year it's an all-wrestling show, debuting the new 2025 Wrestling America Federation cards for FACE TO THE MAT! We'll out on a Royal Rumble that'll get you acquainted with a couple dozen of the BIGGEST stars of the new season, followed by our annual "Three For All Throwdown" between me and "Evil Steve," with our stables drafted from the remaining WAF stars. Fun!
Bookmark/subscribe to the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel so you don’t miss a thing!
Last Call for the HMB 2024 In-Season Set!
Our annual presentation of the in-progress baseball season will be available for the next couple of weeks, and then we'll take it out of print. Play along with the real-life baseball playoffs, or hold your OWN post-season tournament. Read more about the 2024 Pro In-Season set here...
Now Available...
These recently-released sets are getting a lot of table-top time in the PLAAY Games community...
• 2024 Football America for Second Season: our fifteenth season of fictional football, lots of changes this year as the "old guard" steps down and makes way for the new stars. Nothing sums this up more than the retirement of long-time star QB Matt Harrell and the emergence of dueling rookie-of-the-year candidates in QBs Skyler Cook (San Diego) and Seth Vande Walle (New England).
• 1974 World Football League 50th Anniversary for Second Season: OK, confession time. Ever since our "World Football League Remembered" 50th Anniversary event at the Pro Football Hall of Fame event last month, I have been on a WFL kick! I had so much fun with the Southern California Sun, I decided to play through an entire WFL season with the club! (So far we're 2-1, nearing halftime in game three vs. Houston, tied 0-0.) I feel like the team cards really reflect the uneven yet highly entertaining presentation that WAS the 1974 World Football League, it's like a time machine!
• 2024 World Football League Fury REMIX: For a new twist on an historical league, we created the 50th anniversary World Football League Fury REMIX! It's 2024, and we have the same twelve franchises taking the field in a "furious" new take on pro football. Fast game play, memorable results, lots of drama.
FREE Stuff!
• 2024 Pro Hockey Season Sampler, Hockey Blast: We're giving you last year's "Final Four" for free, re-create the playoff finals on your game table! Dallas, Edmonton, Florida and New York!
• 2024 Football America San Diego "Sun" for Second Season: Like I said, I'm on a World Football League kick! I decided to re-do the San Diego team (for this special freebie only, not in the real set) in the distinctive Southern California Sun colors, magenta and orange! In case you don't have the set but would like to get a taste of what Football America is all about, I'm including 2024 Golden Bay--these two clubs are favorite to make deep playoff runs, so this "California Bowl" will be a good one!
• Studio Sp1CY play-test games: If you enjoy the play-test and development aspect of board games, we have two in-the-works games that you can try out for FREE, "Kudos," “Gacha Pawn” and "Myth Mash Chronos!" PLUS, previously-streamed games like Spell Stones and Battleground States. (Studio Spicy is the landing place for our mass-produced games, we have plans to add even more sp1ciness to the mix in 2025!)
Coming Soon...
We've got some exciting new sets in the pipeline, available in the next few weeks...
• 2002 Pro Season for Red White & Blue Racin, available 10.03.24: Arguably the greatest competitive balance of talented drivers ever to race together in a single professional stock car racing season.
• 2025 Wrestling America Federation for Face to the Mat Pro Wrestling, available 10.24.24: A whole new season of wrestling drama and fun, based on the results of our "Commissioner's Edict" and "2025 Impact" YouTube Streams. (Product page coming soon to sign up for the wait list…)
• 2025 Pro World Golf, History Maker Golf, 11.14.24: Our fictional golf franchise gets re-branded to better align with the international make-up of its roster. Same cast of golf stars (with the usual number of departures and arrivals!), new world-class branding! (Product page coming soon to sign up for the wait list…)
Don't Look Now but, the Holidays...
Wait, what!? It's already time to start talking about our holiday plans? Things will look similar to years past, unfolding like this...
• Our annual PLAAY Games Holiday Sale will once again run "Black Friday" through "Cyber Monday," with special discounts on printed and PDF products site-wide, all four days. There'll be a discount code that you'll activate to get the savings. We'll again have a selection of special holiday sale products and bundles that will ONLY be available during the sale, including at least one holiday-only game! We like to keep these a surprise until the sale begins, but we will have (some) details on our annual pre-sale YouTube stream, which will happen the Monday before Thanksgiving (11.25.24). We'll ALSO have "Super Early Bird" savings on PLAAY passes for PLAAY-Dot-CON 2025 (to be held June 26-27-28 in Denver)! Woo hoo!
• Once the sale is over and we've finished getting all the sale packages shipped, we'll settle in for some holiday cheer with our annual Online Christmas Party, scheduled for Thursday 12.12.24. The highlight of the party is our "White Elephant Gift Exchange," believe it or not we've ALREADY had people contribute gifts in anticipation of the party! (That's because the earlier you send your gift in, the LATER you get to choose, or steal a gift that's already been opened, haha!) It's easy to be part of the fun: just mail us a "white elephant" gift, and you'll GET a gift during the exchange! To clarify, we intend for this to be "white elephant" exchange--don't go out and buy something, or order something on Amazon and have it sent to us! Rather, go through your game shelf or closet and find something you don't use/play but you just can't bear to toss out--THAT is the kind of gift we're looking for! Questions? Let us know, happy to help.
• After the Holidays, we'll set our sights on 2025 with our annual New Years "Look-Ahead" Stream, Thursday 01.02.25! Lots of exciting new stuff is in the works, you'll want to know about it!
PHOTO FINISH
Did I mention that I’m on a 1974 World Football League kick? Here’s the jersey I was HOPING to wear at the pro football hall of fame football event, except it didn’t arrive in time. Oh well, I am getting a lot of use out of it now! YES, that’s a replica of the Southern California Sun’s ACTUAL jersey—the Sun is the only pro sports team ever to use magenta as its primary color! Dave Roller was the 1974 World Football League Defensive MVP, terrorizing enemy passers and stuffing run plays from his defensive tackle position. He later played for Green Bay and Minnesota before retiring from football in 1980.
That’s it for this month! As always, thanks for reading and for being part of our amazing community of board gamers—WE LOVE YA! Hope to see you online and/or in Utah next month!