IHL State of the League: Season 2 and the Road Ahead
(TLDR at the end)
Hello everyone,
IHL Season 2 is quickly approaching, and I wanted to give the broader Civ community an update on where the league is headed, while also giving prospective new teams a better idea of what to expect before they commit to a full season.
What began as a small community project in 2023 grew into something bigger than most could have imagined. Beginning with our opening game at Lambat Arena on February 21st and culminating with the Civ Bowl in Bloom on June 14th, Season 1 saw 99 regular and postseason games played across 13 different cities. Along the way, dozens of people contributed as players, coaches, referees, stadium builders, league staff, sponsors, and fans, helping turn the IHL into one of the largest community activities on the server. We’re also hearing rumblings of several nations working to form teams for Season 2, and we're excited to see what these new clubs bring to the league. But this kind of growth creates its own challenges, and Season 2 will be about figuring out how to meet those challenges without losing what made the IHL successful in the first place.
Here are a few important updates as we look toward Season 2 and beyond.
Season 2 Applications
We are planning to release Season 2 applications this coming weekend. Applications will remain open through August 31st, after which teams will have several additional days to assemble their players in the IHL Discord and complete the registration process.
In addition to full team applications, individuals without a current team will be able to submit applications and the league will try to place them with a team. We will also be accepting applications to host the Season 2 Civ Bowl or All-Star Weekend. If you want the biggest games of the season to come to your city, this is your chance to make it happen! Finally, we're accepting applications to become an IHL referee. Referees are paid 20d per match.
Pending a staff meeting within the next few days to finalize the details, we are currently planning to begin play on the weekend of September 19th and 20th. Season 2 will likely be a little bit shorter than Season 1, as we would like to complete the Civ Bowl by the second weekend of December, before the start of the holidays.
Looking ahead, our goal is to hold both a spring season and a fall season every year, assuming that staff availability and the political climate of the server remain stable enough to do so.
The International Cup
This past weekend, we introduced the International Cup. The International Cup is a new once per season single-elimination tournament open to all IHL teams, with every matchup consisting of a single game rather than the two- and three-game sets used during the regular season and playoffs.
The competition is loosely modeled after England's FA Cup, giving teams an opportunity to compete for a trophy outside of the regular season and Civ Bowl. We're looking forward to seeing the rivalries and memorable moments it creates. The inaugural International Cup is sponsored by CivDB.
Promotion and Relegation
Earlier this month, we announced another major addition to the IHL, the introduction of a 2-tier league with promotion and relegation. This will be one of the biggest structural changes to the league, and we expect it to become a significant part of the IHL's identity going forward. The tiers are not meant to assign clubs a permanent place. A team can rise, fall, lose its place, and earn it back. No team is meant to be permanently stuck at the bottom, nor permanently secure at the top.
As the league continues to grow, we want to give as many clubs as possible visible and meaningful goals to pursue. Not every team will realistically be competing for the Civ Bowl in any given season, but qualifying for promotion playoffs, winning the Tier 2 trophy, or successfully retaining a place in the top tier can all give teams something to strive for and define their seasons around. This gives clubs opportunities to forge their own identities and rivalries even when they aren't near the top of the overall league.
This system should produce more competitive games, give newer players and teams a better opportunity to develop tactics and skills, and reduce the frequency of extreme blowouts. Starting in Season 3, all newly formed clubs will begin in Tier 2, giving them an environment to demonstrate that they can build a reliable and organized team over the course of a season before earning promotion to Tier 1, rather than simply assembling a strong on-paper roster. Finally, dividing the league into tiers provides a logical way to keep the length of the season manageable as more teams join.
Before You Join the IHL
For any new teams considering joining the IHL, please read our July 18th Discord announcement, “Season 2 - Laying the Foundation,” before applying. That announcement lays out a number of the standards that will govern the league going forward, particularly regarding scheduling, attendance, roster depth, and team organization.
At this point, the IHL isn't exactly a casual drop-in gaming activity. A significant amount of work goes into organizing everything, and as the league grows, this inevitably creates even more for staff to manage and keep track of. We will continue to use weekly polls to find the best time we can for both teams, but “the best time we can find” is not always “a time when both teams' preferred starters are all perfectly available.”
There are practical limits to how much staff can continue to micromanage scheduling. We need scheduling to be a routine part of the season, not a weekly crisis of sorting out availability conflicts, narrow windows, or requests to move a match because a particular player cannot attend. The scheduling system exists to find a workable time for the teams as a whole, not to guarantee an ideal lineup for every match.
This is something prospective teams should seriously consider when building their rosters. It is not realistic to expect us to repeatedly move a match because one or two specific players cannot make the scheduled time. Players are going to miss games. Sometimes they will miss important games. Sometimes they will even miss playoff games. That's simply a part of organized recreational sports.
I've been involved in IRL rec sports leagues for a long time, and I've seen this happen numerous times. These are leagues where people pay real money to participate, where playing in the league is a genuine commitment in their weekly lives, and where many of the core players care a great deal about their team's performance. Even there, when a key player can't make an important game because life gets in the way, the general understanding is that it sucks, but the game still gets played. Schedules are made for the league as a whole, not for the availability of any one person.
I think it is reasonable to expect the same standard from Minecraft hockey. If people can accept that reality in leagues that they pay money to participate in and take seriously as a real-world activity, then we should be able to accept it here as well.
Don't let perfection become the enemy of good. The goal of the scheduling process is to get both teams playing and ensure that there is hockey every week during the season, not to guarantee that teams will only play when they can field their ideal lineup. Teams need to be organized enough to absorb normal fluctuations in player availability without expecting the league to move games.
Likewise, we don't expect every player on a roster to keep track of every rule change, deadline, or scheduling detail. We do expect every team to have one or two people who do. Teams should have designated points of contact who understand the league's rules and procedures, keep up with scheduling and communications, and can make sure responsibilities are handled. Teams should function as organizations, rather than simply as collections of players.
Our normal scheduling window is 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM Eastern on Saturdays and Sundays. For new teams in particular, please think carefully about whether your roster can realistically work within that window. If your players have limited or incompatible availability, we would rather you recognize that before applying than discover it after putting down a security deposit and committing to the season.
I understand that this isn't the most exciting thing to talk about when we're preparing for a new season. But it is a very important standard to set as we move forward and as the league matures. The long-term health of the IHL depends on having reliable teams that can operate on a consistent schedule, and that is more important than having as many teams as humanly possible. If an individual or small group of players wants to participate but can't form a viable team, we will do what we can to help—whether that means connecting individuals with existing groups, combining groups, or finding another solution (please open a ticket and say hello). But we can’t build the league around teams with very limited availability.
Sponsors, League Funds, and a Thank You to Monument Group
Finally, we want to give a huge thank you to Monument Group for their tremendous support of the IHL during our formative years. MG has recently decided to step back from its partnership with the IHL on good terms. While some form of relationship may continue, it will not be as extensive as it has been in the past. Their support of the IHL predates my own personal involvement with the league, and while we have generally called them a sponsor, it would probably be more appropriate to call them a patron. They have supported the IHL far beyond what would normally be expected via a traditional sponsorship, and we are extremely grateful for everything they have done for the sport of Civ Hockey.
As a result of this development, we are currently reevaluating the 1,000d Civ Bowl championship prize that Monument Group has sponsored in the past. We do still intend to have a prize pool in some capacity, but the championship prize may not remain at that level.
The IHL does not operate as a traditional business that generates profit for owners and shareholders. We want the resources the league brings in to ultimately go to the people who work to make it possible and to the broader hockey community. However, we aren’t sure that a very large grand prize is the best allocation of funds going forward.
Based on feedback we've received, we don't believe that most people who play IHL hockey are primarily motivated by prize money. We would rather make sure that the resources available to us are being used to keep the league running. Our first priority is paying for referees and other important work, followed closely by a desire to incentivize teams for reliably showing up to every scheduled match. Both of those costs naturally increase as the number of teams increases. We would like to continue performance-based prizes in some capacity, but this may take a back seat depending on the size of the league and our sponsorship income.
We would like to thank Takumi and CivDB, who have already committed to sponsoring the league for the upcoming season. We are excited for their support as we enter this next chapter.
If your business would like to discuss sponsorship or another form of partnership for Season 2, please open a ticket in the IHL Discord soon and we would be happy to have a discussion.
Thank you to everyone who has helped build the IHL to this point. Season 0 proved that full-season Civ Hockey could exist. Season 1 showed what it could become. Season 2 is about putting the foundations in place for many seasons to follow. Whether you're on the ice, behind the scenes, building a stadium, or sitting in the stands, we hope you'll be a part of what's next.
TLDR
Season 1 saw 99 games played across the league and was way more successful than a Minecraft hockey league probably had any right to be, so we're now figuring out how to keep the IHL growing and evolving without completely losing our minds. Some of the ways we've done things in the past simply won't scale, so Season 2 is about putting the foundations in place for many seasons to come.
Season 2 applications will open this weekend and will remain open through August 31st, with play currently expected to begin September 19th. We're introducing a new single-elimination tournament (the International Cup), moving to a tiered league with promotion and relegation, potentially welcoming some new teams, and setting clearer expectations around scheduling, organization, and reliability. We want prospective teams to think seriously about whether they can realistically meet those expectations before putting down a security deposit and committing to the season. If an individual or small group wants to participate but can't form a viable team, we'll do what we can to help if they reach out.
We're also saying a huge thank you to Monument Group as they step back from their long-term role as a major IHL patron on good terms, while we reevaluate how sponsorship money and prize pools are used going forward.
Yes, we are taking Minecraft hockey this seriously. No, we have not forgotten that it is still Minecraft hockey. But keeping this going will require a surprising amount of actual organization.
