“UTAH-ctober!” : PLAAY Games in Salt Lake City 10.12.24

EDITOR’S NOTE 10.14.24: Another great live event in the books! THANKS to everyone who made “UTAH-ctober” such a fun weekend! Hockey results are listed here. In baseball, San Diego was our Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY champion, defeating Kansas City with a dramatic game seven, extra-inning, walk-off home run. (We’ll do a separate recap of the baseball activities as time allows.)

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, 11am to 4pm at Hastur Games, 6831 S State St, Midvale, UT 84047, for a sports game get-together that we are calling "UTAH-ctober!"

The festivities will actually get started the night before, Friday evening 10.11.24 in our annual Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY with History Maker Baseball and HMB express and the 2024 Pro In-Season card set. This will be held Friday evening at our "official" hotel (i.e., we are staying there, so we are PLAAY-ing there!), The Hampton Inn SLC/Cottonwood 3210 E. Millrock Drive, Holladay UT 84121. We'll finalize our own ALCS and NLCS participants on the PLAAY Games YouTube channel the night before (10.11.24) using a "game seven" format with the eight pro finalists, and then make a bee-line for Salt Lake early the next morning. From there, it'll be the same format as in Cooperstown last fall--two best of seven LCS followed by our own projected "Fall Classic."

(FWIW, we've correctly predicted the actual big league champion the last two years, Texas (last year) and Houston in 2022! Will it be a "three-peat?" Can't guarantee THAT, but we DO welcome you to join us Friday night and be part of the fun!)

Saturday, it's our 10th annual Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament--where EVERY team has a chance to win it all! Last year, we played the entire tournament on-location in Winnipeg, MB, with Hockey Blast Express. We've held this tourney is cities all over the continent, like Boston, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas. The Vegas event (in 2016) was tied in with the city getting its own pro hockey club, so we thought that with Salt Lake becoming a pro hockey city this year, it's only fitting that we have the tourney here!

How does the Commissioner's Surprise Tournament work? Well, 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 some surprises, as there's no seeding, home ice is assigned randomly and hot streaks are over-rewarded! Last year's final four included 2022-23's top-achiever (Boston) and three teams from the same division (Dallas, Minnesota and Winnipeg), with Minnesota winning out. We expect similar drama again THIS year!

We'll also plan to have other PLAAY games activities--(possibly with some super-secret, in-development projects! Sshhhhhh!!) and maybe even a few prizes.

AND—special guest!—Grant Fines from 49 Sports Games will be part of the weekend, with your chance to play 49 On The Turf and Quick Decks Football (Canadian and American), and Quick Decks Hockey!

Sound like fun? It WILL be! We hope you can join us for either or both days. Totally FREE, just show up! Here's the link to Hastur Games' website for more info about the venue (scroll to the bottom for store/location info). The Hampton Inn SLC/Cottonwood is super-convenient, right off the interstate, easily accessible from either I-80 (if you're coming from the north and/or east) or I-15 (if you're coming from the south or west).

Please give us a heads-up if you're considering attending, so that we have the right amount of games and cards for everyone to be able to PLAAY! If you're on the fence, check out the recaps of previous events like the two "Hockey Day in Canada" events (Winnipeg and Hamilton) and the Boston, and Pittsburgh tournaments. We're happy to answer any questions about the event.

Past “Commissioner’s Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament” Results…

• 2015 (Denver, CO): Chicago 2, Tampa Bay 1

• 2016 (Las Vegas, NV): Nashville 3, San Jose 2 (OT)

• 2017 (Hamilton, ON): Philadelphia 3, Minnesota 2

• 2018 (Pittsburgh, PA): Boston 2, Toronto 1

• 2019 (Boston, MA): Tampa Bay 4, New York ISL 0

• 2020 (online): Boston 4, Philadelphia 1

• 2021 (online): Winnipeg 4, Tampa Bay 1

• 2022 (online): Calgary 1, New York ISL 0

• 2023 (Winnipeg, MB): Minnesota 2, Dallas 1

• 2024 (Salt Lake City, UT): Boston 3, Edmonton 1