The Second Reckoning Renders Its Verdict

The roll closed yesterday morning, eight days after it opened, and Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. has done what it said it would do: read the count once, in private, and reported the result rather than the number. The count stays GlacifiedHidden by The Almighty Ice. Or by Le Council. Or by both., as promised. What follows is the verdict, not the arithmetic beneath it.

Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. will note one thing about the shape of the count before naming names. Most categories produced a clear leader. Several produced a close one. One produced an exact tie, and Le Council is reporting that plainly rather than waiting for someone to ask why a single name is missing from a category that should have one.

The Individual Honours

Most Valuable Player goes to Valentina OspinaC · MDE · ●●●●● · Sharp, Burning, Brittle, Echo, Foggy, of the Medellín MapachesMedellín. Kōki YamazakiG · TOK · ●●●●● · Hollow, Quiet, Brittle ran her close; Andrés RojasD · GDL · ●●●●● · Foggy, Ancient, Echo, Quiet, Clumsy kept the category a genuine three-way conversation until the roll closed and it wasn't anymore.

Best Goalie goes to Freya MagnusdottirG · ANC · ●●●●○ · Heavy, Magnetic, of the Anchorage AurorasAnchorage—ahead of Kōki YamazakiG · TOK · ●●●●● · Hollow, Quiet, Brittle by a margin Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. will describe as the width of a shift, and of Carolina AgudeloG · MDE · ●●●●● · Foggy, Wandering, Burning by not much more. Le Council has certified few closer categories on any ballot it has run.

Best Forward goes to Valentina OspinaC · MDE · ●●●●● · Sharp, Burning, Brittle, Echo, Foggy again, for the second time on this ballot. Jean-François TremblayLW · MTL · ●●●●● · Translated, Brittle, Echo, Ancient, Tidal pressed her the whole way. Naledi KhumaloC · JBG · ●●●●● · Echo, Quiet, Luminous, Awake, Heavy rounds out the field.

Best Defender goes to Ingrid SolheimD · MCM · ●●●●● · Hollow, Magnetic, Doubled, Wandering, of the McMurdo MonolithsMcMurdo Station, ahead of Andrés RojasD · GDL · ●●●●● · Foggy, Ancient, Echo, Quiet, Clumsy by a margin Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. also declines to call comfortable. Pieter BothaD · JBG · ●●●●● · Magnetic, Brittle, Luminous, Translated, Awake, Echo, Heavy finishes third.

The Enforcer goes to Sakura ShimizuD · TOK · ●●●●● · Luminous, Translated, Echo, Tidal, Sharp, Clumsy, Foggy, Awake, Magnetic, Quiet, Burning, of the Tokyo TitansTokyo, by a clear majority. Lorenzo FabbriD · RIM · ●●●●○ · Wandering, Ancient, Foggy, Heavy, Heavy and Pieter BothaD · JBG · ●●●●● · Magnetic, Brittle, Luminous, Translated, Awake, Echo, Heavy were never seriously in it.

Sniper of the Season goes to Sakura ShimizuD · TOK · ●●●●● · Luminous, Translated, Echo, Tidal, Sharp, Clumsy, Foggy, Awake, Magnetic, Quiet, Burning again, and this one was not close at any point in the count Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. read. Roughly two ballots in three named her.

Iron of the Sixth goes to Dmitri VolkovD · MTL · ●●●○○ · Ancient, Magnetic, Burning, Heavy, Sharp, Quiet, of the Montréal MaplesMontréal, ahead of an exact tie for second between Mariana LimaD · HAV · ●●○○○ · Luminous and Sakura ShimizuD · TOK · ●●●●● · Luminous, Translated, Echo, Tidal, Sharp, Clumsy, Foggy, Awake, Magnetic, Quiet, Burning—who collects a category win and a runner-up finish on the same ballot, which Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. assumes she will find more amusing than Le Council does.

Newcomer of the Season goes to Valentina OspinaC · MDE · ●●●●● · Sharp, Burning, Brittle, Echo, Foggy a third time, this one by a clear majority. Hemi SullivanD · WEL · ●●●●○ · Ancient, Doubled, Awake, Luminous, Wandering, Brittle, Quiet, Heavy and Janice HapgoodD · GND · ●●●●○ · Ancient, Echo, Translated, Luminous split what remained.

The Team Honours

Team of the Season goes to the Medellín MapachesMedellín, by a clear majority—home, incidentally, to the citizen who now holds three of the eight individual honours above. Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. notes the correlation and offers no theory for it. Tokyo TitansTokyo finished a clear second; Guadalajara GatosGuadalajara trailed both.

Climb of the Season goes to the Guadalajara GatosGuadalajara, ahead of São Paulo SerpentsSão Paulo and Johannesburg JaguarsJohannesburg in a field where all three drew genuine support.

The Ledger and the Roll

Most Devoted Fan is where Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. has the awkward thing to report. doppog and Tiinyhandz finished level, and Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. is not in the business of inventing a margin the roll didn't produce. Both citizens are named Most Devoted Fan for Season 2. FlargBarg finished a clear third; the rest of the field further back.

PetitionA formal filing addressed to l'Agence des Pétitions et Sceaux Publics, concerning a team, Le Council, or the entirety of Hockay. of the Season goes to The Founding of the Church of The Almighty IceThe living force that created Hockay. It appeared. It is spreading., filed by ManLee92, by a clear majority—the only outright majority among the three petitions named. The filing for a post-season trading period and the Hockay Accessibility and Beginner Subvention finished in an exact tie for second, which Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. notes and does not attempt to separate either.

Market Mogul goes to FatPenguin, ahead of FlargBlarg and Burr in a field where all three moved real volume on the Exchange.

What Le Council Will Say About the Tie

Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. was asked, when it drafted this ballot, what it would do if the count did not cooperate. Le Council said then that it would report what the roll produced rather than what would have been tidier. The roll produced two names in one category. Le Council is reporting two names.

Season 2 is now closed on every front Le CouncilThe governing body of Hockay and Unexplained Ice Phenomena. keeps a record of. Season 3 continues at the top of every hour, as it has since before this ballot opened and as it will after everyone has stopped discussing who won it.

The Horn already sounded for the games. It sounds now for this.