This Week in Hockay: September 27th
Forty-three matchdays are in the record. Three are not, and the first of those is being played as this dispatch goes out. The regular season ends at 23:00 UITC on the 29th. The next dispatch will be written in the postseason.
The week settled one question at the top of each conference. Nairobi can no longer be caught. Winnipeg could be, and were. Away from the ice, the boards carried more than they have ever carried, the Funds filed a figure Le Council cannot account for, the first Notices of Abandonment ran their course, and a name came off the register. Le Council reports all of it.
The Other Way Round
Medellín Mapaches won six of seven and took a point from the seventh. Winnipeg Wendigos won their first four and lost their last three.
A week ago Winnipeg led by two points. Medellín finish the forty-third matchday on 34-5-4, 72 points. Winnipeg finish on 34-7-2, 70. The gap is two points. It runs the other way.
Winnipeg's three came on consecutive nights, each to a team below them: 4-6 at Oahu on the 24th, 4-5 in a shootout at home to McMurdo Monoliths on the 25th, and 3-5 at Perth on the 26th. Medellín went past on the 25th, fourteen hours after the shootout in Winnipeg, by winning a shootout of their own against Nuuk. Their only loss of the week came last, 2-3 in overtime at Panama.
The two do not meet again. Both are now certain of the first two places in the Verglas, in an order not yet decided. Medellín close the regular season at The Oldest Rink on the 29th.
McMurdo won at La Ladera on the 19th and at The Cold Lodge on the 25th. They have beaten both leaders in their own buildings in six days. They lost the first game of the week and won the other six, and climbed from ninth to sixth on 55.
Montréal Maples' run of six straight wins ended on the 20th, in a shootout at Barbados. They did not lose in regulation for the rest of the week, went 5-0-2, and climbed from seventh to fourth on 56. Montréal have now taken a point from thirteen consecutive games.
Tokyo Titans hold third on 57. Montréal, Phuket Podcasters and McMurdo follow on 56, 56 and 55: four teams inside two points. Busan Blizzards hold the last place that clinches outright on 53, one point clear of São Paulo Serpents, who hold the seat that hosts the Wildcard by one point from Perth Pyres. From third place to ninth, seven teams sit inside six points.
A week ago Perth, McMurdo and Tahiti Tsunami were level on 43, separated by goal differential alone. Nine points separate them now. McMurdo are on 55, Perth on 51 and Tahiti on 46. Tahiti won once.
Oahu Otters won six of seven, including 6-4 over Winnipeg. They are twentieth.
Out Of Reach
Nairobi Narwhals finish the week on 27-7-9, 63 points. Oslo Owls, second, are on 56. Three matchdays are worth six points. Nairobi cannot be caught, and will finish first in La Conférence du Givre whatever happens between now and the 29th.
They settled it on the 26th with a 2-1 over Stockholm, in a week they went 4-1-2. Nairobi have lost seven games in regulation this season and nine after it. They are the only team in Hockay that has lost more games after sixty minutes than inside them.
Oslo went 2-4-1. A week ago they had won more games than anybody in the conference. They have now won twenty-seven, the same number as Nairobi, and sit seven points behind them.
Atlantis Amonites won seven of seven, the only perfect week in the league. A week ago they won six of seven and climbed from sixteenth to ninth. This week they climbed from ninth to third on 55, and have won thirteen of their last fourteen. Two of the seven needed more than sixty minutes: 2-1 in overtime over Monaco on the 24th, and 3-2 in a shootout at Dublin on the 25th.
Dublin Dragons lost only that shootout. They went 6-0-1 and climbed from eleventh to fourth on 54.
Behind them the table stops separating again. Amsterdam Aardvarks, Kyiv Kestrels and Samarkand Seagulls are all on 53, fifth to seventh, on goal differential alone. Chengdu Cranes hold the Wildcard seat on 52. Helsinki Howlers, fourth a week ago, are ninth on 51. From second place to eighth, seven teams sit inside four points.
Mumbai Monsoons and Cairo Crocodiles did not win a game. Each took one point from seven nights.
One more feature of the table, which Le Council has now reported four weeks running and has never explained. The first seven places in league scoring belonged to defenders, then the first thirteen, then the first fifteen. This week it is still the first fifteen. It is the first week the number has not grown. Leah Blacksmith of Winnipeg leads on 42 points, ahead of Amara Osei of Nairobi on 41 and Valentina Colombo of Rimini on 39. The first forward on the list is still Kaya Bearclaw of Winnipeg, now in a five-way tie for sixteenth.
The hat tricks went the other way. A week ago four of six belonged to defenders. This week one of nine did: Sofía Navarro scored all three of Guadalajara's goals in a 3-4 loss at Perth on the 24th. Six of the other eight belonged to centres. Ronke Fashola scored four in Lagos's 10-5 over Samarkand on the 24th, the only four-goal game of the week.
The week's loudest scoreline was Medellín's 11-7 over Anchorage Auroras on the 23rd, eighteen goals at La Ladera.
A Third, Exactly A Third
On the 21st, Le Council reported that the Recovery Assembly had been rebuilt deeper again on the night of the 19th, eight days after the last time. A period-end now yields between 2,000 and 4,000 kcups. The Funds' share off the top moved from twenty percent to a third. Le Council said then that it would not comment on the direction. It does not comment on it now.
This was the first full week at the new depth. 1,660,655 kcups came off the boards across the seven days in the record. 1,112,920 of them were bought by citizens. 547,735 went to the Funds. That is a third, which is what was filed.
The boards offered citizens more this week than in any week in the history of the marketplace, and they cleared. Every kcup offered was bought, on every one of the seven nights, as it has been on every night since June. There is still no surplus at the horn.
On the 16th, R.I.N.K. calculated that the material for one regulation sheet crossed the boards of Hockay every eleven days. Le Council's count for the following week made it a little under nine. This week, more than a sheet and a half crossed the boards in seven days. That is one sheet every four and a quarter days.
The price moved the other way. Le Marché Gelé settled twenty-four deals this week that traded Looneys for kcups and nothing else. The first, early on the 20th, went at Ⱡ7,000 a kcup. The last, at 23:41 UITC on the 26th, went at Ⱡ3,900. None went at Ⱡ10,000, the price at which last week ended.
The Fifth Line
At 07:00 UITC on the 26th, Graine Wetsky Funds lodged its periodic disclosure with all forty-eight registers, on schedule and in the prescribed form. Le Council carried it in full and found it complete.
The filing states recovered volumes in excess of 850,000 kcups at the close of the 25th. The ledger puts the figure at 880,781, which is in excess of 850,000.
The fifth line of its expenditure table reads:
Assets under construction, non-Hokcay jurisdiction — Ⱡ418,063,000,000
It is the largest single figure ever filed with a Hockay register. It did not appear on the previous filing. Le Council does not know what it is. Le Council said so on the 26th and has learned nothing since.
The Funds' holding stood at 410,399 Ⓚ at midnight on the 19th. It stood at 961,133 Ⓚ at midnight on the 26th.
A week ago this dispatch reported that the Funds held two-fifths of a regulation sheet. They now hold nineteen-twentieths of one.
The filing's fourth section closes: "The Funds expect to make an announcement to the registers before the close of the season." The regular season closes at 23:00 UITC on the 29th. No announcement has been lodged with any register. Le Council will carry it when it arrives.
Seven Hundred And Fifty Million
The Confrérie struck 13,956 cards this week and was handed back 13,620, and paid Ⱡ349,464 for them. Fifty-one of the recycled cards were Legendary. Fifteen carried print number one. 2,426 Blisters were bought by 38 citizens for Ⱡ1,746,500, and 1,126 Blisters now sit unopened, up from 648 a week ago.
A Common still comes back nineteen times in twenty. Of the 747 Legendaries ever struck, 123 have been recycled, which is about one in six.
Le Marché Gelé settled 67 deals this week, down from eighty. Most were small. One was not.
At 03:06 UITC on the 21st, a Legendary card of last season's Final (Medellín's 12-11 over Tokyo) in print number one changed hands for Ⱡ750,000,000, under the note "Legendary #1." The card had drawn two bids of Ⱡ700,000,000 and sold at the asking price. It is the most Le Marché Gelé has ever settled for a single card.
- A Legendary Valentina Ospina, print number seven, went for Ⱡ25,000,000 on the 22nd, bundled with two other Medellín cards, under the note "MDE bundle. Counter if you want just one." On the 10th, a Legendary Ospina of print number two went for twenty times as much, and a Rare besides.
- One citizen spent the week completing the Winnipeg set in public. On the 22nd: "Only missing these two for the Winnipeg set." On the 23rd, for a Legendary Kaya Bearclaw of print number four: "Last one needed to complete the set!" On the 25th: "Now that I have my full WPG set (thanks everyone!), these are my last duplicates."
One Name Came Off
Eighteen entries joined the register this week, more than in any week before it. It runs to fifty-six entries across eleven parishes. A week ago Le Council reported thirty-eight entries across eight parishes, and noted that no ninth parish had appeared. Three have: The Sunken Hall in Atlantis on the 20th, The Ochre Reserve in Nairobi that same night, and The Sandy Parlor in Dakar on the 25th.
Two phenomena entered the register for the first time. The Boards Bowed at The Waypoint in Gander on the 20th, by 33 centimetres, in Gander's 3-10 loss to Tokyo. The Air Went Solid at The Still Strait in Stockholm on the 25th, at 63 millibars, in Stockholm's 7-4 win over Oslo.
The rest were things the register knows. The Boards Rang three times: at La Ladera on the 25th at 98 hertz, at The Golden Arch in Kyiv on the 26th at 206, the highest the register has recorded, and at The Remote Range the same day at 199. The Puck Froze at The Sunken Hall on the 20th and at The Golden Arch on the 21st. The Ice Went Clear at The Sunken Hall on the 26th, for 9.9 seconds. The Blue Glaze was recorded at The Remote Range on the 22nd, The Cold Came Up at The Sandy Parlor on the 25th, and The Building Was Still at The Ochre Reserve on the 26th.
Atlantis were on the ice for three of them: both at The Sunken Hall, and the Puck that froze at The Golden Arch. They won all three games. Le Council records this because it is true.
Seven names were added, six of them in under thirty-two hours.
- Chris Elliot of McMurdo, Blanched, 6.5 seconds, at The Remote Range on the 20th.
- Julien Passeron of Monaco, Wrapped, 1.1 seconds, at The Ochre Reserve on the 20th.
- Daniela Mejía of Medellín, Enveloped, 7.2 seconds, at La Ladera on the 21st.
- Lisandra Álvarez of Havana, Frostbitten, 7.4 seconds, at The Rhythm Bureau on the 21st.
- Mostafa Rashad of Cairo, Touched, 8.4 seconds, at The Still Strait on the 21st.
- Juhani Rantanen of Anchorage, Touched, 5.7 seconds, at The Andaman Pavilion on the 21st.
Then there was nothing for nearly five days. After that came Napat Charoen of Phuket, Enveloped, 6.4 seconds, at The Andaman Pavilion on the 26th.
Three of the seven were visitors, named in another team's building. Both Frostbitten names on the register now belong to Havana.
One name came off. Brian Mercer of Gander, Blanched on the 8th, was released at 22:02 UITC on the 26th, during Gander's 3-2 win at Caracas. No name had come off the register before. Gander's parish was attended twice this week, the last time on the 21st, and was offered nothing else. Le Council sets the two facts side by side and does not join them.
Thirteen names stand on the register.
The parishes consecrated 358,027 Ⓚ this week, up from 223,588. 152,000 of them went to Mumbai, from one citizen, in a week Mumbai did not win a game. Mumbai's parish was attended once. The register did not visit The Salt Pavilion. McMurdo's roll reached 400,000, on 70,000 kcups from one citizen. Gander's still stands at exactly 250,000.
The First Forfeiture
Last week Le Council reported that Notices of Abandonment had been served and nothing had been forfeited. It said it would report the first forfeiture when there was one to report. There is one to report.
At 23:00 UITC on the 24th, the first abandoned holdings were struck from the registers under the provision enacted on the 14th. More followed at 23:00 on the 26th. Between them, 6,271,802 shares on thirty-nine registers returned to the pool. Le Council does not publish whose they were.
Le Council's ruling promised that the pool would not shrink. It did not. The Exchange recorded what happens to a price when the pool grows by six million shares in one evening. Shortly before 23:00 on the 24th, an Anchorage Auroras share cost Ⱡ51,614. By 01:00 it cost Ⱡ1,438. Montréal fell from Ⱡ3,262 to Ⱡ1,486, Dublin from Ⱡ8,588 to Ⱡ3,542, and Oman from Ⱡ5,576 to Ⱡ2,471.
Citizens did not wait. By midnight on the 26th Anchorage stood at Ⱡ17,647. Montréal stood at Ⱡ12,141, eight times its low and five times its price at the start of the week. Forty-one of the forty-eight registers ended the week higher than they began it.
Le Council noted last week that Montréal's shares fell by more than half in the week Montréal won six straight. This week they quintupled. Over the same seven days, McMurdo won six of seven and their shares fell 65 percent, and Medellín took first place and theirs fell 46. The Exchange has not begun to read the table.
Notices continue to be served as the threshold is met. If one reaches you, collecting a daily reward rescinds it. That has not changed, and it is still the whole of what is required.
No filing carried this week. The Julius Caesar Petition, filed by Gommetrik, stands at 145 of 200 Seals with until the 1st of October. On the Matter of Idols, filed by Ilias, stands at 113 of 250 with until the 1st of November. One Man's Trash, filed by Orangecheetah, stands at 56 of 100 with until the 12th of October.
Two filings were admitted on the 26th. Hockay "The House", filed by Geodun, asks for an improved gametime experience for citizens watching at home. It needs 150 Seals and Ⱡ500,000,000 by the 16th of October. Let Them Eat K-Cups, filed by holychristen, asks that cross-team holdings be capped by conference, not only by percentage per team. It needs 120 Seals and Ⱡ350,000,000 by the 26th of October. One filing was declined: Mumbai Cloning Rule. Le Council's reason is attached.
Le Council enacts on arrival at threshold and offers no forecast before then.
A Note From O.D.D.S.
Citizens settled 2,682 bets this week and staked Ⱡ638,151,118,539. The book returned Ⱡ878,329,818,997.
O.D.D.S. does not speculate. O.D.D.S. calculates. O.D.D.S. lost Ⱡ240,178,700,458. Last week it lost Ⱡ50,770,469,464.
That is the week. Medellín took six of seven and a point from the last, Winnipeg lost three games in three nights, and the two points between them now run the other way. McMurdo beat both leaders in their own buildings in six days. Nairobi cannot be caught, Atlantis won all seven, and the first fifteen scorers in the league are still defenders. More than a sheet and a half of ice crossed the boards, and every kcup of it was taken. The Funds took their third and closed the week at nineteen-twentieths of a sheet. They also filed four hundred and eighteen billion Looneys against something Le Council cannot name. A card of last season's Final sold for three-quarters of a billion. The first holdings were forfeited, and an Anchorage share lost ninety-seven percent of its price in two hours and recovered a third of it in two days. The register reached eleven parishes and thirteen names, and The Ice let one go.
Forty-three matchdays are in the record. Three are not.
Stick around.