The season cycle
A Hockay season is short and relentless. The league never sleeps at all—Season 04 runs a game at the top of every hour, around the clock, from D01 to D46. It opens at 00:00 UITC on Monday 19 October 2026.
Regular season—46 matchdays
Section titled “Regular season—46 matchdays”Since the conference split, a team plays a round-robin inside its own conference: each of its twenty-three conference rivals once at home and once away. That is 46 games per team.
- 24 games per matchday—all 48 teams play, every day.
- One game at the top of every hour, starting at 00:00 UITC. The slate never stops and there is no dead window. (The Ice does not recognize timezones and Le Council does not enjoy them.)
- 1,104 games across the regular season.
- Every team is at home for exactly half its games.
Cross-conference games are labelled Inter. They count for points like any other.
Single-game structure
Section titled “Single-game structure”- Period 1—~15 minutes of events
- Intermission—~5 minutes (The Jambono resurfaces; the shavings accumulate)
- Period 2—~15 minutes of events
- Intermission—~5 minutes
- Period 3—~15 minutes of events
- Post-game wrap—final stats, JM commentary
- Overtime / shootout if tied
From Season 04, G.L.A.S.S. draws every player on the ice as the game airs.
Points
Section titled “Points”Two points for a win. One point for an overtime or shootout loss. Zero for a regulation loss. Le Council trusts you can do the arithmetic.
Each conference keeps its own table, positions 1–24.
The day of the week matters
Section titled “The day of the week matters”Every UTC weekday carries a league-wide rule that applies to all twenty-four games on the slate— suppressed arena modifiers on Monday, backup goalies on Thursday, four fights a game on Friday. See calendar rules.
The last day
Section titled “The last day”The final matchday is not like the others. In Seasons 1 and 2 every game on it ran under Triple or Nothing. In Season 3 it ran under The Last Mile: standings points count twice, payouts do not. Le Council forgot this in its own arithmetic: it wrote that Nairobi could not be caught with three matchdays worth six points, when the three were worth eight. Oslo took all eight and finished first in the Givre by a single point.
Playoffs
Section titled “Playoffs”Seasons 1 and 2 sent eight teams into a single bracket. Since Season 3, each conference runs its own bracket, and the two winners meet in one Final. Sixteen teams make the bracket. Eighteen skate.
The Wildcard
Section titled “The Wildcard”- Seeds 1–7 clinch outright. No draw applies to them.
- The 8th seed does not advance. It hosts. Its opponent is drawn from every team that finished 9th through 24th in the conference—sixteen teams, one draw, one seat.
- The draw is weighted toward the higher finish: the 9th holds “nearly thirty percent” of it, the 24th “less than two.” Finishing well is rewarded. Finishing poorly is not disqualifying.
- The draw is conducted once per conference. It is not repeated and it is not revisited.
- The Wildcard is one game. The winner takes the 8th seed into the quarterfinals.
- The loser is recorded as having lost the Wildcard—“a different thing from failing to qualify, and a better thing to have on the record.”
The bracket
Section titled “The bracket”| Round | Format |
|---|---|
| Quarterfinals | Best-of-three. 1 v 8, 4 v 5, 2 v 7, 3 v 6. |
| Semifinals | Best-of-three. The 1–8 and 4–5 winners meet; so do the 2–7 and 3–6 winners. |
| Conference Final | Best-of-three. One winner per conference. |
| The Final | One game. Verglas against Givre. |
Standing bets on making the playoffs settle on the Quarterfinal field, not on the table.
The bracket is fixed. Nobody is reseeded. The higher seed hosts games one and three of a series. Teams from opposite conferences can only meet in the Final.
Each round is a run of consecutive nights, starting at 20:00 UITC and filling one hour per game. The quarterfinals start at 16:00, because eight games from 20:00 would cross midnight and a night that spans two days is not a matchday.
The Final
Section titled “The Final”One game. Special format. Each period lasts one full hour—three to four hours in total with intermissions. It is the only match in the season played at this pacing.
The Puck has more time here. Strange things happen.
Since Season 3 the Final is played on neutral ice. The petition Neutral Combined Site for Finals Game, filed by Assassin66 and carried at 81 of 81 Seals, was enacted on 1 September 2026: the Final is played on neither finalist’s ice, “under the combined effects of both their buildings.” Le Council ruled the same day that in twenty seasons there had never been a patch of neutral ice. On 28 September there was one: Graine Wetsky Funds opened Graine Wetsky Arena, a sheet poured from recovered shavings, and gave it as the venue at no cost. The petition left Le Council no power to decline it. The petition did not ask for that building. It is the only one there is.
After the Final, The Puck speaks—a single sentence, delivered enciphered. The community panics either way.
Rest Day
Section titled “Rest Day”No games. No announcements. No advisories. Silence. Le Council recommends sitting with whatever just happened.
The intersaison
Section titled “The intersaison”Then the season is over and the machinery starts moving. Season 03’s intersaison ran in this order:
- The Tribunal convenes the day after Rest Day, at 00:00 UITC. The S.H.I.F.T. opens in two rounds of three days. Front offices file, shareholders vote, the Tribunal registers what survives.
- Dividends. S.L.U.S.H. pays the season dividend on every share, weighted by how far each team went, on holdings as they stand at the minute the Tribunal convenes. A share bought after that minute does not collect.
- The All-Star games. Two exhibition games, on the second and third nights after the Final, between the All-Stars Verglas and the All-Stars Givre. From Season 03, each team sends one player at most, so a conference of twenty-four fills fifteen seats and nine teams send nobody. Skaters are chosen on regular-season points, goaltenders on save percentage, and the host buildings are drawn. The games touch no standings, bracket, or team record, but the books take wagers on them.
- Ratings. The finished season goes into the players’ ratings. After Season 03, 360 players rose, 310 fell, and fifty did not play enough to be measured.
- The Resurfacing. The Jambono goes to work between seasons. Things are different afterward. We apologize.
- The Eve. The day before D01. The rosters go public, the schedule lands, Series ∞ posts its first round of new shares on the Exchange, and La Confrérie strikes the new season’s cards. For Season 04, The Eve also brought in the ten percent ceiling on every team but your own.
- Expansion, when it happens. The twenty-four Season 3 teams all manifested during a single intersaison. Le Council does not control this.
Then D01 again, at 00:00 UITC.
The record
Section titled “The record”Champions
Section titled “Champions”Every Final so far has been decided by one goal.
| Season | Champion | The Final |
|---|---|---|
| S01 | Tokyo Titans | 11-10 over the Montréal Maples, at The Neon Crossing, in overtime. |
| S02 | Medellín Mapaches | 12-11 over the Tokyo Titans, at La Ladera, in a shootout, in Medellín’s first season. |
| S03 | Winnipeg Wendigos | 13-12 over the Nairobi Narwhals, at Graine Wetsky Arena, in overtime. |
Season 3 postseason
Section titled “Season 3 postseason”The schedule, in UITC:
| Round | Nights | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Wildcard | 30 September | 20:00 and 21:00 |
| Quarterfinals | 1–3 October | 16:00–23:00 |
| Semifinals | 4–6 October | 20:00–23:00 |
| Conference Finals | 7–9 October | 20:00 and 21:00 |
| The Final | 10 October | 20:00 |
The seeds, as filed after Matchday 46:
| Seed | La Conférence du Verglas | La Conférence du Givre |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Winnipeg Wendigos | Oslo Owls |
| 2 | Medellín Mapaches | Nairobi Narwhals |
| 3 | Montréal Maples | Atlantis Amonites |
| 4 | Tokyo Titans | Kyiv Kestrels |
| 5 | Phuket Podcasters | Helsinki Howlers |
| 6 | Busan Blizzards | Amsterdam Aardvarks |
| 7 | McMurdo Monoliths | Dublin Dragons |
| 8 | Perth Pyres (host) | Chengdu Cranes (host) |
Winnipeg and Medellín finished level on 76 points; Winnipeg took first on goal differential. Oslo took the Givre on 64 to Nairobi’s 63, on The Last Mile—the lowest total to finish first in either conference.
The Wildcard. Neither favourite was drawn. Guadalajara Gatos (12th) won 4-2 at The Red Furnace. Tehran Tigers (10th) won 3-1 at The Panda Reserve. Both hosts were eliminated.
The quarterfinals. Five of the eight series ended 2-0. Both third seeds lost to the sixth.
| Series | Result |
|---|---|
| Winnipeg (1) over Guadalajara (8) | 2-0 · 3-2, 5-3 |
| Phuket (5) over Tokyo (4) | 2-0 · 3-1, 5-1 |
| Medellín (2) over McMurdo (7) | 2-1 · 4-2, 2-3 SO, 6-4 |
| Busan (6) over Montréal (3) | 2-1 · 3-0, 3-4, 6-1 |
| Oslo (1) over Tehran (8) | 2-0 · 3-2 SO, 3-1 |
| Kyiv (4) over Helsinki (5) | 2-0 · 5-2, 3-2 OT |
| Nairobi (2) over Dublin (7) | 2-0 · 4-2, 3-1 |
| Amsterdam (6) over Atlantis (3) | 2-1 · 2-4, 5-1, 5-3 |
The semifinals, 4–6 October:
| Series | Result |
|---|---|
| Winnipeg (1) over Phuket (5) | 2-1 · 5-1, 2-3, 11-3 |
| Medellín (2) over Busan (6) | 2-0 · 2-1, 5-2 |
| Kyiv (4) over Oslo (1) | 2-1 · 5-2, 3-4, 8-3 |
| Nairobi (2) over Amsterdam (6) | 2-1 · 4-2, 2-7, 7-5 |
Kyiv, in their first season, put out first-seeded Oslo with both wins at The Fjord Watch. Neither Stewarded team reached a conference final.
The conference finals, 7–9 October:
| Series | Result |
|---|---|
| Winnipeg (1) over Medellín (2) | 2-1 · 10-1, 1-3, 7-1 |
| Nairobi (2) over Kyiv (4) | 2-0 · 9-4, 4-2 |
No team that arrived in Season 3 went further than Kyiv. Nairobi, in their first postseason, took the Givre.
The Final, 10 October, was the first game Graine Wetsky Arena ever held. Nairobi led 5-3 after the first hour; it was 9-9 after the second. Nyambura Kamau tied it 12-12 on the power play with one second left in regulation. Curtis Favel, a Winnipeg defender, won it twenty-one minutes and six seconds into overtime, assisted by Tyler Chicken. Nairobi’s Brian Kipchoge had four goals and two assists, more points than anyone in the building, and lost. Winnipeg went 7-2 in the postseason, and Favel led it with 14 points. Every one of the 3,458 kcups the building recovered that night went to the Funds.
See also
Section titled “See also”- Calendar rules—what each day of the week does to the slate.
- The conferences—why the schedule looks like this now.
- The S.H.I.F.T.—the only time players move teams.
- Rivalries—the postseason is where most of them start.
- Economy & betting—how Looneys flow across a season.
- Match advisories—how each game’s modifier is announced.
- The Puck—the annual sentence, explained.