The Day The Ice Took Everything
Le Council has issued two prior advisories on this matter [1][2]. Le Council had not anticipated issuing a third within the same calendar month. Le Council is doing so now because circumstances, in the considered language of Le Council's Phenomenological Assessment Division, "have continued."
Regarding May 25
Le Council acknowledges that what occurred between approximately 03:00 and 21:00 UITC on Monday, May 25, has been informally designated by the broader community as the Day The Ice Took Everything. Le Council does not adopt this terminology in any official capacity. Le Council does, however, note that Le Council does not currently have a competing terminology to offer, and that the term is, in the assessment of Le Council's Office of Naming Conventions, "regrettably accurate". Sometimes the Ice Giveth, sometimes the Ice Taketh. Yesterday, it took everything.
All Hockay players have been stripped of the modifiers previously bestowed upon them by the Ice. Le Council does not speculate on the intentions of the Ice—that jurisdiction belongs to O.M.E.N.—but Le Council is prepared to state, on the record, that if the Ice had intentions, the events of May 25 would constitute a thorough and efficient expression of them.
For the record—and Le Council emphasizes that this advisory exists in part to establish a record—the events of May 25 included sustained, simultaneous, and procedurally inexplicable Ice manifestations across all four P.F.A.O. deployment regions, with concurrent secondary phenomena observed in nine additional locations not previously flagged in Le Council's monitoring framework.
The phenomena did not subside at the conclusion of the observation window. Le Council had expected them to subside. The expectation, in retrospect, was not load-bearing.
U.I.P.I. Classification Update
Effective at the time of this advisory, Le Council is revising the standing U.I.P.I. classification as follows:
| Region | Prior | Current |
|---|---|---|
| Global baseline | Level II — Murmur | Level III — Declaration |
| Medellín, Colombia | Level III — Declaration | Level IV — Convergence |
| Cairo, Egypt | Level III — Declaration | Level IV — Convergence |
| Wellington, New Zealand | Level III — Declaration | Level IV — Convergence |
| Gander, Canada | Level III — Declaration | Level IV — Convergence |
Le Council acknowledges that Level IV was, in the prior advisory, Glacified. Le Council is electing to declassify the Level IV designation at this time because Le Council finds it operationally untenable to maintain a confidential classification for a tier into which four regions have now been placed. Le Council's prior reasoning for Glacification remains valid in principle. It is simply no longer applicable in practice.
The Level IV designation is Convergence. Le Council elects not to expand on the term further in this advisory. The term is doing its own work.
Level V remains Glacified. Le Council asks that this not be read as foreshadowing.
Expansion Sites
In the period following May 24, Le Council has registered consistent, instrument-confirmed Ice activity in the following additional locations, each of which Le Council is now provisionally classifying at Level III — Declaration:
- Oahu, Hawaiʻi, United States
- Monaco, Principality of Monaco
- Singapore, Republic of Singapore
- Cuzco, Cusco Region, Peru
- Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
Le Council notes, as it noted in the prior advisory and feels obligated to note again, that none of these locations currently host an active Hockay arena or designated Ice installation. Le Council has been asked—repeatedly, through official and unofficial channels—whether this pattern is significant. Le Council's official position is that Le Council is observing the pattern. Le Council's unofficial position is being formulated.
Le Council is dispatching Provisional Field Assessment Offices to each of the five new sites. This brings the active P.F.A.O. count to nine. Le Council acknowledges this is now the largest deployment of P.F.A.O. infrastructure in Le Council's operational history by a considerable margin, and that this was also true of the prior advisory, and that Le Council is beginning to find the phrasing repetitive.
From the Field — Excerpt, P.F.A.O. Gander, 05/25 23:47 UITC
Le Council is, in the interest of the transparency commitment previously established, electing to share a brief excerpt from a field report received from the Gander installation in the hours following the Day of Ice. The excerpt has been reviewed by Le Council's Communications Office and approved for public release. It has not been edited for tone.
Sustained presence. The Ice is not receding. It is not receding in a way that suggests it does not intend to recede. Surface formations have stabilized into geometric arrangements consistent with—and the Assessment Team requests Le Council's patience with this phrasing—the foundational footprint of an arena structure. The Team is not stating that an arena is forming. The Team is stating that the Ice is arranging itself in a manner that, if one were to overlay the schematics of an existing arena, would correspond. The Team has performed this overlay. The Team is forwarding the result under separate cover.
Local residents have begun to gather at the perimeter. They are quiet. They have brought folding chairs.
Le Council includes this excerpt without further comment.
Provisional Scientific Assessment
Le Council's Phenomenological Assessment Division has produced a provisional internal memorandum, the operative section of which Le Council is electing to share in the spirit of transparency and out of an awareness that the memorandum has, regardless, already been described in detail on Discord.
The Division's working hypothesis is that the sustained Ice presence in the nine elevated regions is consistent with the precursor conditions Le Council's earliest records associate with the original twenty arena manifestations that preceded the First Season. In ordinary administrative language: Le Council's scientists believe new Hockay arenas, and the teams that would inhabit them, may be in the process of manifesting.
Le Council wishes to be exceptionally clear about what this statement is and is not.
This is a hypothesis. It is provisional. Le Council has not authorized the construction of any additional arenas. Le Council has not approved the expansion of the league beyond its current twenty-team structure. Le Council's position is that the league consists of twenty teams. This position is not, at this time, under revision.
Le Council also acknowledges that Le Council did not authorize the original twenty arenas either. They appeared. Le Council documented them. The relationship between Le Council's authorization and the actions of The Almighty Ice has, historically, been one of sequence rather than causation. Le Council notes this without inviting further inquiry into it.
On Operational Posture
Per Level III protocol, Le Council has convened. Le Council remains convened. Le Council has begun to suspect that "convened" is, going forward, simply Le Council's default state.
The internal subcommittee reviewing the operational definition of "expected parameters," noted in the prior advisory, has submitted an interim finding. The finding has been received. Le Council is reviewing the finding. Le Council is not, at this time, prepared to share the finding.
All season operations are proceeding without interruption. All twenty arenas are open. All scheduled matchdays remain on the calendar. Bets are live. The Sixth is, by Le Council's instrumentation, no more proximate today than it was yesterday, though Le Council acknowledges that "no more proximate than yesterday" is doing different work now than it would have done six weeks ago.
H.O.R.N. broadcasts will continue. The booth has been briefed to the extent that briefing the booth is meaningful. JM has indicated he will continue to call the games. Le Council appreciates his professionalism.
Closing
The Almighty Ice is expanding. Le Council is not in a position to characterize the expansion as desirable or undesirable. Le Council is in a position to characterize it as occurring. Le Council is doing so.
If new arenas manifest, Le Council will document them. If new teams manifest, Le Council will register them. If the established structure of the league is, by mechanisms outside Le Council's authority, revised, Le Council will revise its records to reflect the revision. This is, and has always been, the nature of Le Council's relationship with The Ice. Le Council observes. The Ice acts. The two are not, and have never been, the same.
The game continues.
If you have theories, Discord remains the appropriate venue. Le Council, as previously stated, is not reading those conversations. Le Council is, however, becoming aware that several of the theories are turning out to be correct, and Le Council finds this interesting.
Everything is proceeding within parameters. The parameters are being rewritten. The rewriting is, in Le Council's assessment, also within parameters.
Le Council advises calm—except, of course, when it comes to watching the final half of the First Season Ever.