Orixtal Hockey League

Orixtal Hockey League

Current season, competition or edition: 2034–25 OHL season
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1951
Inaugural season	1951–52
President	Nicholas Taihana
No. of teams	32
Country	Tierrador (21 teams) Alstin (6 teams) Ceylonia (2 teams) Porlos (2 teams) Istrenya (1 team)
Most recent champion(s)	Tulangia Centurions (7th title)
Most titles	Qabór Phoenix (24 titles)
TV partner(s)	Tierrador: TBS/CSPN TV5/TV6 OHL Network Orixtal+ Alstin: ABS CSPN Ceylonia: RDC/RDC2 Orixtal+ Porlos: TV9 Orixtal+ Istrenya: IstrenSport Orixtal+
International cup(s)	Cronan Hockey Cup
Official website	http://www.ohl.tw

The Orixtal Hockey League (Tierradorian: Orixhtal Leiga le Hoquí, OLH) is a professional ice hockey league in South Crona founded in 1951. It currently comprises of 32 teams; 21 in Tierrador, 6 in Alstin, 2 each in Ceylonia and Porlos, and 1 in Istrenya. It is one of the most popular sports leagues in Crona, with league and playoff matches being broadcasted in every Cronan country, along with many countries around the world.

The OHL was organized and founded at the Spitzer Hotel in Taisgol on November 26, 1951, after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the six-team South Cronan Hockey Association (SCHA), which had been founded in 1913 in Qabór. The OHL immediately took the SCHA's place as one of the leagues that contested for the THA Cup in an annual inter-league competition consisting of the OHL, the CHL (until 1966), and the original rendition of the WHL (until they merged in 1976). A long series of league mergers and foldings left the OHL as the only league left competing for the THA Cup, which had been renamed to the Watson Cup to honor hockey legend Matt Watson in 1976.

The OHL is an active member of the Tierradorian Hockey Administration (THA), which is recognized by the WAHF as the national governing body for hockey in Tierrador. The league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices in Central Square in Taisgol, while its OHL Entertainment and OHL TV studios are directed out of offices located in Qabór, Las Rozas. In Tierrador, the OHL is the second wealthiest professional sport league after the Premiership, and one of the top ice hockey leagues in the world, directly rivaling the Levantine Hockey League.

The OHL's regular season is typically held from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. Following the conclusion of the regular season, 16 teams advance to the Watson Cup playoffs, a four-round tournament that runs into June to determine the league champion. Since the OHL's incorporation in 1951, the Qabór Phoenix have won the most outright OHL titles with 24; 7 pre-merger OHL championship series before the league took full exclusivity of the Watson Cup in 1976, and 17 Watson Cups afterwards. The reigning league champions are the Tulangia Centurions, winning their seventh Watson Cup over the Wadičaq Phantoms in the 2034 Watson Cup Finals.

History

Early years

The presence of hockey in Crona, specifically the south, dates back to 1893, when Kiravian immigrants began playing the sport in Tierrador. Eventually, many organized leagues would be established in the northeastern part of the country, as the more mountainous areas consisted of the appropriate climate for that time. The Tierradorian Hockey Administration would be founded in 1910, and the first professional competition, the Tierradorian Hockey Cup, would be established three years later. The first two professional clubs, the Qabór Monarchs and the Taisgol Spires, were both established in 1913 and played the first edition of the Tierradorian Hockey Cup, with Qabór winning the best-of-five series three games to one. As the sport grew throughout the area, several short-lived clubs would be established around the Southeastern Metropolis to compete for the Cup, with league membership exceeding 35 in 1919. Despite this, many of these clubs would fold after five or so years due to a multitude of issues, the most common being from financial difficulties or lack of a permanent home rink. The THA would be reduced from 35 clubs in 1919 to just 12 around the beginning of the 1922 edition of the tournament. The THA would add three more teams—Porvaos Condors, the Naihungo Prairie Dogs, and the Caxano Titans—before the start of the 1923 season.

The 1920s and 30s were a stagnant time for the THA. Four new teams would be added from 1924 to 1933; the Prisamarina Mystics, the Arrecife Pioneers, the Ominasky Outlaws, and the Qazrogzo Wheatmen. The Tierradorian Hockey Cup would be split between Qabór and Taisgol, with the exception of 1929, where the Porvaos Condors would upset the heavily favored Phoenix in a dominant four-game sweep. In 1931, the THA would make major changes to its competition format; instead of tournament-style bracket, all of the teams competed in a quadruple round-robin, for a total of 72 games. After the regular season ended, the top eight teams would advance to a playoff round, where a team must prevail in three best-of-seven series in order to win the Tierradorian Hockey Cup. Following these changes, the league would begin to see many new champions, the most notable being the Prisamarina Mystics, who won their first three cups in 1937, 1938 and 1939. In 1940, the Caxano Titans, following many financial woes, would fold, reducing the league to just 18 teams, where it would stay at until the dissolution of the THA.

THA dissolves

The outbreak of the Second Great War in 1934 began a domino effect which would ultimately lead to the THA's demise. Despite Tierrador's neutrality in the war, many players who originated from the countries involved were called to serve their respective sides, which would end up forcing three teams to become inactive. Many of the players who left would not return for many reasons, which would cause a wave of uncertainty throughout the league during the rest of the 1940s. Eventually, many media outlets would begin to question the need for a governing body for hockey in South Crona, as the keepers of the Tierradorian Hockey Cup were considered to be the true governors of hockey. Eventually, in 1951, due to a plethora of reasons including financial woes within the organization, the Tierradorian Hockey Administration would dissolve, splitting into three member leagues; the Orixtal Hockey League, which was in eastern Tierrador, the Ceylonian Hockey League, the premier hockey league in Ceylonia, and the Western Hockey League, which encompassed all of western Tierrador, Asteria, Porlos, and for a couple of seasons, Alstin. The keepers of the Tierradorian Hockey Cup would be reorganized into the five Governors of Hockey, serving as the governing body for the three leagues.

The 1952–53 season saw only six teams competing in the OHL; the Taisgol Spires, Qabór Phoenix, Hugo Hitmen, Porvaos Condors, Arrecife Pioneers, and Prisamarina Mystics. The CHL was comprised of five; the Santa Maria Blazers, Novo Sierra Rangers, Antakee Monsters, Saqauwee Ceylonianos, and the East Sachia Sharks. The WHL had the most teams out of the three, being comprised of ten, spread across western Tierrador, Porlos, and Asteria. The WHL would remain at 10 until its merger with the OHL in 1972. The Tierradorian Hockey Cup tournament would be reorganized once again, being competed by the champion of the WHL versus the winner of a playoff series between the OHL and CHL champions. This era of hockey would be dominated by the Qabór Phoenix, where they, led by Matt Watson, the first player to score fifty goals in a singular season, would win the cup four straight years from 1951 to 1954 and six straight years from 1959 to 1964. Watson would repeat his record three more times during the Phoenix dynasty.

Despite the massive talent seen throughout the WHL, they would only account for winning two Cups throughout the league's existence; the Ominasky Outlaws in 1955–56, who finished the 72–game regular season with a W-L-T record of 61–6–5 and sweeping the WHL playoffs, and the Topaqoí Wahoo in 1964–65, led by Willy Schaefer, taking down the CHL champion Antakee Monsters in the first non-OHL Finals in Cup history. The CHL would only see one champion, the Santa Maria Blazers in 1965–66. Led by star forward Fyodor Koshchev, and goaltender/Saukhin King Apaha'enia, the Blazers would take down the Centurions in one of the greatest upsets in Cup history. In 1964, two CHL clubs; the East Sachia Sharks and the Novo Sierra Rangers, were suspended from the league for the 1964–65 season after Ceylonian state investigations found that both clubs were laundering money earned through illegal pyramid schemes. In protest, the Saqauwee Ceylonianos would sit out the second half of the season, leaving the Antakee Monsters and the Santa Maria Blazers as the remaining CHL clubs for the season. For both the 1964–65 and 1965–66 seasons, the OHL and CHL would unofficially merge. The Monsters and Blazers would still play a championship series to decide the champion of Ceylonia, with Antakee winning in 1965 in 7 games, and Santa Maria winning the next year in 5 games.

OHL-CHL merger

When it had become clear that the Sharks, Rangers, and Ceylonianos would not return to play, the only solution was to integrate the remaining CHL clubs into the OHL. This would occur prior to the start of the 1966–67 Tierradorian Hockey Cup. Lead Governor Patrick Wilson extended invites to both the Santa Maria Blazers and Antakee Monsters, however, the invite, which was sent by mail, was lost in translation and accidentally delivered to a home in rural Aracadó. Governor Wilson, confused by only receiving the Blazers' response, did not discover the blunder until halfway through the season. By the time a second invite was sent, the Monsters, believing they were excluded from the merger, had ceased operations. Following the merger, the total amount of clubs had been reduced to 17, seven in the OHL and ten in the WHL. The Tierradorian Hockey Cup would once again be reorganized into an eight-team playoff, contested by the top four teams in both leagues, as opposed to the previous format which was only contested by the top teams from each league. The Blazers would become champions of the OHL in their first official year in the league, but would immediately be stuffed in the Cup Final by the Qazrogzo Wheatmen. This would be the only Tierradorian Hockey Cup won by the Wheatmen.

The "Golden Era" of hockey

The increasing modernization of the OHL and WHL would earn the nickname "Golden Era of Hockey" for the 1970s and 80s. In 1969, the OHL would sign its first ever television broadcasting contract with TBS, the public broadcaster in Tierrador. Before the contract was signed, people were only able to listen to hockey games through the radio, or by reading their local newspaper the following day.

Teams

Overview of OHL teams

Conference	Division	Team	City	Arena	Capacity	Founded	Joined
King of Tapkoii (Eastern)	Southeast	Auqali Shockers	Ambaqwe, Auqali	Farmers Union Arena	18,850	1986
		East Sachia Tubarões	East Sachia, Ceylonia	Solaris Arena	18,150	1983
		Porvaos Condors	Novo Alsanqo, Porvaos	Veritas Sports Palace	18,000	1923	1951
		Sačia Tropics	Sačia, Aracadó	OTAC Arena	19,212	1986
		Santa Maria Blazers	Santa Maria, Ceylonia	Centro de Baía	18,150	1952	1966
		Tansher Spirit	Tuwaheekee, Tansher	Southern Airways Arena	18,433	1977
		Tawakee Hurricanes	San Cristóbal, Tawakee	Jobs.com Center	18,950	1986
		Wadičaq Phantoms	Wadičaq, Polelu	Sardan Arena	18,120	1971
	Central	Agualaría Bluewave	Holčaq, Agualaría	Songun Credit Center	18,878	1983
		Arrecife Pioneers	Puerto Rosario, Arrecife	Orixtal Center	18,810	1926	1951
		Karaba Mountaineers	Karaba, Istrenya	Istrenco Arena	18,277	1998
		Hugo Hitmen	Hugo, Qaleqa	Epsilon Center	19,140	1951
		Qabór Phoenix	Qabór, Las Rozas	Qabóri Trade Garden	21,000	1913	1951
		Taisgol Spires	Woderq, Taisgol	Woderq Center Garden	22,000	1913	1951
		Taisgol Marksmen	Eastern Bend, Taisgol	TaisLive Arena	18,515	1971
		Topaqoí Wahoo	Topaquí, Aloqál	Pasco Arena	18,550	1951	1972
Patrick Wilson (Western)	Mountain	Alcosky Prairie Dogs	Naihungo, Alcosky	Alcosky Tire Center	18,277	1923	1972
		Anloiya Blizzard	Anloiya, Ulunkheria	Tierrador West Arena	18,211	1980	1981
		Miccubo Heartlanders	Miccubo, Undursky	TierraLink Arena	18,273	1951	1972
		Ominasky Outlaws	Ominasky, Alcosky	Northwest Energy Center	18,201	1928	1972
		Prisamarina Mystics	Prisamarina, Ulunkheria	OfficeCenter Arena	19,314	1924	1951
		Qazrogzo Wheatmen	Kaligrusky, Qazrogzo	Touvala Arena	18,515	1933	1972
		Tulangia Centurions	Sevier, Tulangia	Western Mutual Arena	18,112	1950	1972
		Vernaza Titans	Vernaza, Caxano	Vernaza Sports Palace	18,215	1977
	Southwest	Alstin Sentinels	Alstin, CDA	Voxlink Center	20,430	1970
		Cuzco Beserkers	Cuzco City, Cuzco	Air Alstin Arena	18,415	2016
		Naqili Hornets	Naqili, Porlos	Coradan Arena	18,000	1993
		Pacuí Mammoth	Pacuí, Porlos	Tolisdár Center	18,415	1953	1972
		Sedem Regni Thrones	Sedem Regni, Equetus	EB&T Center	17,556	1999
		Utopia Rouges	Utopia City, Utopia	Riverton Center	18,885	1985
		Veraise Raiders	Gastineau, Veraise	ECI Arena	16,400	2011
		Wallace Clerics	Wallace, Omepra	Sparrow Limited Arena	18,117	1999

Champions

The league champion is contested by the champions of both the King of Tapkoii and Patrick Wilson Conferences, and is awarded the Watson Cup, arguably one of the most famous sports trophy, along with being one of the most difficult to win. Below is a list of every Watson Cup champion since 1951.

Year	Winning team	Coach	Games	Losing team	Coach
2034	Tulangia Centurions (46–28–8)	Barry Adriza	4–3	Wadičaq Phantoms (45–28–9)	Levar Xirótin
2033	Tulangia Centurions (47–27–8)	Barry Adriza	4–2	Taisgol Spires (52–21–9)	Petr Tolakov
2032	Prisamarina Mystics (53–25–4)	Colin Tayyis	4–3	Auqali Shockers (46–30–6)	Aphío Antonov
2031	Sedem Regni Thrones (48–20–14)	Jean-Charles Carre dePerrier	4–3	Taisgol Spires (47–29–6)	Petr Tolakov
2030	Wadičaq Phantoms (54–20–8)	Levar Xirótin	4–2	Sedem Regni Thrones (51–22–9)	Jean-Charles Carre dePerrier
2029	Tulangia Centurions (53–21–8)	Barry Adriza	4–2	Qabór Phoenix (50–23–9)	Qasperi Santonai
2028	Auqali Shockers (50–24–8)	Aphío Antonov	4–3	Tulangia Centurions (60–13–9)	Badry Adriza
2027	Naqili Hornets (39–27–16)	Jean-Yves Lazard leMonde	4–3	Tawakee Hurricanes (48–28–6)	Francisco Asonakee
2026	Tulangia Centurions (62–13–7)	Barry Adriza	4–2	Auqali Shockers (53–21–8)	Aphío Antonov
2025	Auqali Shockers (65–12–5)	Aphío Antonov	4–3	Veraise Raiders (51–23–8)	Satolo Aikala
2024	Auqali Shockers (62–16–4)	Aphío Antonov	4–2	Naqili Hornets (54–21–7)	Jean-Yves Lazard leMonde
2023	Prisamarina Mystics (50–22–10)	Colin Tayyis	4–3	Tansher Spirit (45–33–4)	Jerry Iostenari
2022	Taisgol Spires (64–13–5)	Petr Tolakov	4–2	Tulangia Centurions (58–17–7)	Barry Adriza
2021	Sačia Tropics (45–29–8)	Xavier Cristobál	4–1	Alstin Sentinels (40–33–9)	Mike DeSoto
2020	Sačia Tropics (46–31–5)	Xavier Cristobál	4–3	Anloiya Blizzard (40–35–7)	Hectór Qosnan
2019	Tawakee Hurricanes (42–32–8)	Jason Saunders	4–2	Vernaza Titans (49–27–6)	Hectór Qosnan
2018	Karaba Mountaineers (52–21–9)	Petr Tolakov	4–2	Cuzco Beserkers (55–20–7)	Pyotr Šalasi
2017	Alcosky Prairie Dogs (49–22–11)	Matthew Qabolov	4–3	Auqali Shockers (40–31–11)	Andrew Walls
2016	Alcosky Prairie Dogs (47–29–6)	Matthew Qabolov	4–2	East Sachia Tubarões (43–32–7)	Levar Xirótin
2015	Agualaría Bluewave (46–32–4)	Kil Faxanan	4–2	Alcosky Prairie Dogs (51–20–11)	Matthew Qabolov
2014	Vernaza Titans (47–21–14)	Jason Saunders	4–2	Qabór Phoenix (56–20–6)	William E. Roberts
2013	Vernaza Titans (54–19–9)	Jason Saunders	4–3	Porvaos Condors (46–25–11)	Trevor Šalasi
2012	Santa Maria Blazers (54–15–13)	Aphía Nešomi	4–2	Utopia Rouges (52–23–7)	Austin Mays
2011	Auqali Shockers (50–26–6)	Phoenix Simmons	4–2	Vernaza Titans (53–21–8)	Jason Saunders
2010	Porvaos Condors (43–28–11)	Joel Laqeim	4–3	Pacuí Mammoth (42–32–8)	Amani Ayala