PLAAY Connect: 09.27.21
Welcome to the official start of the fall tabletop sports season! Here’s the latest from the PLAAY Universe…
TONIGHT: Commissioner's Surprise HOCKEY BLAST PLAAY-In Game!
Time again for our annual "Commissioner's Surprise HOCKEY BLAST tournament," our seventh consecutive year to crown our OWN pro hockey champion in a chaotic, anything-can-happen, "hockey madness" tournament structure! As always, we'll be inviting the PLAAY Games community to join in the fun by playing preliminary round games on your own game table, with our "final four" happening live, in-person on November 13th at the Game Train USA in Highlands Ranch, CO. Read more about the tournament here!
The previous year's real-life championship series teams always get a first round bye for this tournament, that's Montreal and Tampa Bay this year. The pro league's expansion to Las Vegas a couple years ago gives us an un-even number of teams (31), so we'll kick off the tournament with a "PLAAY-in" game between the bottom two pro teams from the 2020-21 season, Buffalo and Anaheim, streamed live on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel TONIGHT (09.27.21)! Join us LIVE starting at 6pm EDT (8pm MDT). We’ll start the stream with a random drawing of the first-round pairings—literally drawn out of a hat! Then we’ll drop the puck for Sabres/Ducks. If you'd like to play one of the preliminary games, let us know after the stream, we’ll reserve that game for you! (Currently, these teams’ first-round games have already been claimed: New York ISL, New York RGR, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Boston.)
OTHER COMMUNITY CO-OP FUN...
Besides our annual hockey tournament, we have a number of cooperative game projects going on in the PLAAY Games community that you are welcome to participate in! Here's a quick tour of what's happening...
PLAAY Gamer Golf Tour
Organized by Paul Salzgeber, the 2021 PLAAY Gamer Golf Tour is designed to fit into anyone's schedule. Each week, the tour moves to a new venue, using either a course that comes with the base game, a PLAAY free-download course, or a course home-brewed using the game's "how-to" guide. All golfers use the same golfer card, chosen by Paul from this year's selection of cards provided (for free) for the online PLAAY Gamer Open. So, no one has to buy anything to take part, you just have to own the game!
You can join the fun on the PLAAY Games Community Facebook Page. Paul posted Thursday, "Our gallop around the globe heads to California and the Pasatiempo Golf Course in Santa Cruz, CA with many holes offering fantastic views of Monterrey Bay."
Here's the link for the course, and here’s the link for the golfer cards. Don’t be bashful, come on and join the tour! Just play two rounds, and post the results on the PLAAY Games Community Facebook Page—easy! Paul keeps a running summary of tour results.
Football America Cooperative Full-Season
Organized by James Cast, it's a full-season play-through with the (free) 2000 Football America teams. The entire season is being played in Second Season Express. “I enjoy solo projects,” James says, “but also miss sharing projects with others. Often these community based projects don't pan out, because it's difficult to commit long term. So, my approach is to make the commitment from each PLAAYer small--like, ONE game small!--and collectively complete a full season replay in a short period of time.
James created a twelve game schedule, where each of the thirteen teams plays each of the other teams once. This adds up to 78 total games. “In eight days we already have half of the schedule completed or in progress,” James reports, “so we're doing really well. But we always have room for new people who'd like to contribute a game!”
Here's the webpage James built to keep everyone engaged on the league’s progress. Here’s where you can get the free 2000 Football America teams. You can sign up for games on James’ site, and follow the action there or on the Community Facebook page. Totally free, you just have to own Second Season Express and have a half hour of game time!
Once the 2000 Football America season is complete, we'll stream the championship game live on the PLAAY Space! Exciting!
Holiday Sale Update…
In the September CONNECT, we promised an update on our annual holiday sale. Here’s what we know so far...
• The sale will run Friday, November 26th through Monday the 29th, on both PLAAY Classic and PLAAY NOW.
• All boxed games will be marked down 20%, digital products will be marked down 40%, site-wide (both sites).
• FREE domestic shipping (international orders will require extra postage).
• We'll introduce a brand-new PDF game, available ONLY during the sale!
• We'll be bringing back LACROSSE BLAST for the sale, along with previously-released lacrosse card sets AND a brand-new vintage card set. The game will be offered in the new sleeved box style, and will be available for four days ONLY, at the holiday sale price.
• Any additions/changes to these plans, we’ll let you know in the October CONNECT!
Questions? Let us know, we’re happy to help!
ViDEO Activity!
It was another full month of video-activity on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel, here's SOME of what went down--you can get a complete list of archived streams by visiting our YouTube channel home page...
• Managers and Mercenaries Tutorial and Gauntlet Series: This was a fun stream, spotlighting our new multi-player draft mode for Fury Hardball by discussing team-building strategies and player value. We concluded by announcing our hand-picked team abiding by the standard $25 million salary cap. We then played a three game "gauntlet series" against randomly-drawn opponents. How'd we do?
• 2021 Cartier Bowl with COLD SNAP Canadian Pro Football Game: Our own Canadian football universe just finished a spirited 2021 campaign with full-time coaches for all eight teams! We crowned the IPFC champion by full-playing the entire championship game with COLD SNAP, with online updates for the first three quarters and the final quarter streamed live, start to finish.
• HISTORY MAKER HOOPS Progress Update: We provided the latest scoop about our soon-to-be released basketball board game, displaying new game boards and cards, and more! Then we played a sample quarter with the 2020-21 Pro Season cards, Brooklyn at Philadelphia.
Coming Video Attractions
After the Commissioner's Surprise PLAAY-In Game, we're going to take a couple weeks off from streaming. But we'll be back in the second half of October with some PLAAY Gamer stream favorites!...
• 10.18.21, PLAAY Games Laboratory Lightning Round: We bumped this back from the September schedule in order to have more time to prepare. Plus, with Halloween just around the corner, it seemed a more appropriate time frame for our "mad scientists" sensibilities! "Mmwaaah ha ha ha HAAAA!" The format will be the same as other Laboratory Lighting Round streams: we set the clock at 60 minutes, and count down from there, picking boxes at random from our stack of in-development projects and allowing no more than ten minutes for any one game. One of our most popular stream series!
• 10.21.21 Decade Golf: 80s vs. 90s: The second wave of decade golf sets hits game tables in late October, and we'll celebrate by pitting a sampling of golfers from each decade against each other in match play!
• 10.28.21 All Hallow's Eve with AFR's Steve Tower: Were still firming up the itinerary for our annual spook-tacular with AFR Steve, but you can bet sure that it will include a FACE TO THE MAT Pro Wrestling "Throw-Down," a Commissioner's Surprise hockey game and--something else!!
FREE STUFF
• 2020-21 Pro Hockey Final Four Cards: Here are the four championship finalists for the 2020-21 Pro Hockey Season, Las Vegas, New York, Montreal, Tampa Bay. We've rendered these cards in "alternate uniforms," that is, they use different color schemes than the standard cards in the new 2020-21 Pro Season set. Rewind the calendar back to mid-June and see if you have a different ending to the hockey season on your game table!
• 2021-22 Seattle Expansion Team Projection: Just for fun, Rob Gallamore created cards for the new Seattle pro team, which begins play this season. Rob used each player’s card from the 2020-21 set and added the club’s first round draft pick Matthew Beniers. Click the button above and get this brand new club on your ice!
That’s All for This Month...
Thanks for connecting with us! Hope to see you online for one or more of our upcoming YouTube streams, or as part of our various community cooperative projects. One of the great things about our community is its involvement with each other, and for that I’m so grateful! For those who have been following along on my health saga, here’s an update: I’ve completed eight of the prescribed radiation sessions and am doing really well, minimal side-effects and the process is pretty unobtrusive so it hasn’t dramatically upset my normal daily routine. Thanks for the prayers, please continue to pray! My completion date is October 14th. After that, if all has gone as intended, I should be in the clear.
We’re taking a couple weeks off the YouTube schedule to be able to focus on hoops development, as we’re starting to get close to the finish line. We also want to put some more polish on our in-development games for the Game Lab Lightning Round segment on October 21st. We’re really looking forward to that!
As always, we want you to know that we appreciate that you’re part of our community! THANK YOU for all the support and encouragement!
Keith Avallone, PLAAY Games, LLC