Liga Magna

Liga Magna de Hockey

Current season, competition or edition: 2021–22 season
Sport	Ice Hockey
Founded	12 March 1950
Inaugural season	1950-51 season
Commissioner	Michael Opreius
No. of teams	25
Country	Latium (23 teams) Gelonia (2 teams)
Confederation	Confederation of Belisarian Ice Hockey
Most recent champion(s)	Cularo HS Carda (12th title)
Most titles	Cularo HS Carda (12 titles)
TV partner(s)	Latium LTC LTCA TVI Gelonia SK-G
Sponsor(s)	Delpha
Relegation to	Liga Latii Campionata
Domestic cup(s)	Copa Glaciei
Related competitions	Thalassan Cup

The Delpha Liga Magna de Hockey Glaciei (LMH), most commonly referred to as Liga Magna, is a professional ice hockey league headquartered in Latium composed of 25 member clubs. The LMH is considered to be one of the top professional ice hockey leagues in the world, and is second most popular professional sports leagues in Latium by attendance, television ratings, and revenue. Each season since 2001, the league's playoff champion is awarded the Delpha Cup (formerly Anicia Cup), named for league sponsor Delpha. Following each season, the league champion competes in the Thalassan Cup, an exhibition best-of-seven series against the Ghantish Hockey League champion.

The league draws many highly skilled players from all over the world and currently has players from approximately numerous different countries. However, Latins make up nearly 60% of the league's players.

LTC and LTCA will continue to hold broadcasting rights in Latium through the 2020-21 season. The new television contracts are worth a total of $550 million, the highest of any professional sports league in Latium with the exception of Liga Premier.

History

Main article: Latin hockey league system

Ice hockey was first introduced to Latium in winter of 1890 by future emperor John XIII Anicius, who had recently attended the first playing of the Vikandi Cup in Ghant. Those close to the John claim that he was immediately taken with the sport and saw to see it introduced in Latium. Today, many Latin teams honor John XIII as the Father of Latin ice hockey. After its introduction, ice hockey was mostly confined to mountain towns or near the estates of various nobles who could afford to keep sheets of ice and proper refrigeration facilities nearby, with the first such facility built just outside of Castellum in 1893. By 1911, 6 teams (of which only 1 team remains today) formed the Latin Ice Hockey Championship, which eventually grew to become the second most popular sport in Latium, behind association football and the Liga Premier. The league would grow to incorporate smaller competitors, hosting up to 20 teams by the 1944 season before the outbreak of the Social War. League operations were put on indefinite hold for the duration of the war, with the 1946-47 season being outright suspended, Many called for the league to continue, including the rebel Orestes Cotta and members of the Imperial faction.

In March 1950, 9 franchise owners from the former Latin Ice Hockey Championship were invited to Domus Agrippae by The Duke of Adrianople to discuss the possibility of restarting league operations. The meeting resulted in the formation of the Liga Magna de Hockey Glaciei or the Liga Magna. On 12 October of the same year, the first puck drop took place in Castellum during a match between HS Alba Imperialis and Regis Adrianople HS, with 5 other matches to take place that week. As a 9 team league in its inaugural season, each LMH team played a total of 48 regular season games with no postseason play. The first postseason was introduced in 1960–61 season after expansion grew the league to 12 teams. Including former Latin Ice Hockey Championship titles, Gwer Durnovaria HC holds the most top-level championships with 22 (of which 13 are pre-LMH). HS Alba Imperialis previously held the longest at championship drought at 60 years before winning their first league title since 1951-52 in the 2015-16 season – it was their first championship since the introduction of postseason play. Currently, SI Vindóbona 1918 holds the longest championship drought, having not won since their first title in 1954. The league first underwent expansion in 1953, adding 1 team; adding 5 teams from 1955 to 1963 and introducing a league playoff. Since 1996 the league has consisted of 25 clubs, and has relegated clubs to Liga Campionata since 1966. Currently the bottom three clubs are relegated each season. Since the league's inception and the re-introduction of promotion and relegation, 7 clubs have never been relegated: HS Alba Imperialis, Internationalis Utica, Cularo HS Carda, SUA Ascanium, Gwer Durnovaria HC, Ravenna AS, HSMO Leones.

Season Structure

Pre-season

Liga Magna teams play anywhere from 5 to 10 preseason games, and are free to organize their own pre-season schedule and training camps. Teams typically play a local, minor league team (most often an affiliate) as the first game of the pre-season. Teams often schedule preseason games against foreign teams. The most notable occurrence of this is by Gwer Durnovaria HC, which regularly schedules games against some of the best teams from around the world.

Most top level championships
Defunct teams not included.
Includes pre-LMH championships.

Team	Titles
HS Alba Imperialis	18a
Gwer Durnovaria HC	17b
SUA Ascanium	12c
Cularo HS Carda	12
Internationalis Utica	10d
HS Augusta Adrianopolis	9e
Sol Caesena HS	4
Aureus Folia HS	3f
Lupi LS Ariminium	3
SI Vindobona 1918	3g
Ravenna AS	3
Brennia Gotha	3
HSMO Leones	2
AS Mediolanum	2
Urbis Adrianopolis	2
Anicia HS Invicta	2
Ascanium Rubra	2
Auxilia Iuenna	1
Aurunca Equites HS	1
Sant Seoirse HC	1
Bonna AS	1
Apollos Pola HS	1
a Includes twelve additional top level championships. b Includes eight additional top level championships. c Includes five additional top level championships. d Includes five additional top level. e Includes four additional top level championship. f All championships pre-LMH. g All championships pre-LMH.

Regular season

Each LMH team plays a schedule of 60 regular season games, 30 at home and 30 on the road. Each team plays 2 games against the other 24 teams, home and away, to account for 48 games. The remaining 12 games are randomly allocated with preference given to historical rivals.

The league's regular season is based on a point system. A team is awarded three points for a victory, one point for a shootout victory, one point for an overtime loss, or no points for a regulation or shootout loss. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the regular season champion, and awarded the Duke of Adrianople Trophy. The three teams that finish the regular season with the worst records enter a promotion round robin with the teams that finish 2-4 in Liga Campionata; the teams that finish with the first and second best records earn promotion to Liga Magana, along with the champion of Liga Campionata.

Playoffs

A total of twelve teams earn a berth in the post-season playoffs for a chance at winning the Delpha Cup, featuring a first round, quarter-final, semi-final, and league final. Teams playing 1–4 in the regular season receive a first round bye. The remaining, seeds 5–12, compete in a best-of-five opening round. Each subsequent playoff round is reseeded, with the highest remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed, and so on, in a best-of-seven series.

Higher seeded teams receive home-ice advantage for the first two games of each series, followed by the lower seeded team having the next three home games (two in the first playoff round). The final is a best of seven series, with the playoff champion awarded the Delpha Cup.

Copa Glaciei

Main article: Copa Glaciei

Copa Glaciei is the national knockout domestic cup competition of the Hockey Latium. The annual tournament is the longest continuous ice hockey competition in Latium, with the first tournament hosted by Emperor John XIII and Empress Alexandra in 1899. The tournament runs from the initial qualifying rounds in October to the final round in March. All professional or semi-professional ice hockey teams in Latium participate in the tournament. While at least 10 foreign teams complete in Latin ice hockey leagues, they are not eligible to participate in Copa Glaciei.

The tournament's first round sees matches take place in the first week of October with games between all teams in Liga Auster and Liga Septentrio (division four) and all teams in Liga Nationale (division three) except the two teams relegated from division two in the season prior. Second rounds matches take place third week of October between winners of the opening round with the remaining two teams from Liga Nationale The third round sees the entrance of teams from Liga Campionata (division two); however, the reigning regular season champion of Liga Campionata does not participate until round four. Third round games generally take place in the second week of November. Liga Magna teams enter in the fourth round of the tournament. Each round sees matches randomly drawn from among the teams remaining in the tournament and continues in the single elimination format until the final which is traditionally held in late March. The final two rounds are hosted at the National Arena in Castellum, though the final has occasionally been hosted in other cities.

Prize money is awarded following victories in each round, with the tournament champion receiving as much as $2 million as of the 2020 tournament. The most recent champion is HSMO Leones of Liga Magna; it was their second consecutive and 3rd overall national championship.

Thalassan Cup

Main article: Thalassan Cup

The Thalassan Cup is an annual, preseason exhibition best-of-seven series between the Liga Magna playoff champion of the preceding season and the Ghantish Hockey League playoff champion of the preceding season. Host of the first two games of the series is determined by coin flip, with the winner hosting games 1, 2, 6 and 7; and the loser hosting games 3, 4, and 5. Due to differing rules between LMH and the GHL, rules from the hosting team's league govern any given game. The first Thalassan Cup was hosted in 1990 and saw LMH champion Gwer Durnovaria HC face GHL champion Ghish Imperials in a best-of-seven exhibition series. Gwer Durnovaria became the first LMH team to win the series in 1993 after defeating the Lorazaina Lakers. HS Alba Imperialis is the most recent Latin champion of the challenge cup, becoming the first Latin team to win back-to-back Cups, in 2016 and 2017.

Teams

A total of 22 teams compete in the LMH. Of the current teams, 9 are founding members, previously participating in the Latin Ice Hockey Championship until 1946. The remaining clubs either were elevated from another league or were newly created expansion franchises. The oldest team participating in the league as of the current 2019–20 season is Gwer Durnovaria HC, founded in 1911.

Team	City	Founded	Arena	Capacity
Aureus Folia HS	Aarhusium	1922	Olympiou Energia Arena	15,981
Lupi LS Ariminium	Ariminium	1969	Ariminium Arena	13,000
HS Augusta Adrianopolis a	Adrianople	1933	Sermo Arena	17,500
Martis Antium AS	Antium	1945	Olympiou Energia Stadium	13,281
SUA Ascanium	Ascanium	1919	Celer Arena	15,937
Arrentium HS	Arrentium	1977	Aurunca Arena	14,900
Aurunca Equites HS	Aurunca	1960	Aurunca Arena	14,147
HS Bonna	Bonna	1960	Bonna Arena	13,700
Sol Caesena HS	Caesena	1940	BaudelaireArena	15,203
HC Caetot Guerreier	Caetot	1952	Caetot Civic Arena	10,870
HS Alba Imperialis b	Castellum ab Alba	1921	National Arena	18,000
HSMO Leones	Castellum ab Alba	1952	AirLatinii Arena	14,004
Valle Aurelia LS	Castellum ab Alba	1967	National Arena	18,000
Cularo HS Carda	Cularo	1942	GA Arena	17,423
Gwer Durnovaria HC	Durnovaria	1911	Gelonia Civic Center	17,931
Entella HS	Entella	1955	Anicia Arena	14,950
Auxilia Iuenna	Iuenna	1930	Iuenna Civic Center	13,000
Juliabona HS	Juliabona	1978	Juliabona Arena	12,000
Mediolanum HS	Mediolanum	1978	Verrcosus Telecomm Arena	14,510
Parmnial Ostia	Ostia	1982	GA Arena	12,423
Sant Seoirse HC	Oxonia	1945	ULBanco Arena	14,488
Apollos Pola HS	Pola	1963	Pola Arena	13,300
AS Ravenna	Ravenna	1929	Ravenna Arena	15,870
Utica Internationalis	Utica	1930	CRG Arena	15,200
SI Vindobona 1918 c	Vindobona	1918	ULBanco Arena	16,000

• ^a Formerly named Regis Adrianople HC.
• ^b Merger of two Castellum based teams, Velia HC and Alba Athletica.
• ^c Sporting club founded in 1918; hockey club first established in 1933.

Players

The major source of players comes from Latium, with 71% of all players currently under contract being Latin born or of Latin descent. Unique among LMH teams is Gwer Durnovaria HC, which only signs players of Gelonian descent or ancestry from the northwestern region of Gelonia within Latium. Since the most recent CBA in 2012, LMH clubs are not allowed to have more than twelve foreign players under contract; however, in theory, the definition of foreign players can change from year to year depending on the teams participating in a given season. As only Latin and Gelonian-based clubs have participated in LMH, the definition of foreign-born is all players not of Latin or Gelonion-origin or citizenship.

LMH teams recruit players from the youth leagues, promoting youth players to senior teams or loaning them out to their academy or other affiliate clubs in lower leagues. Every off-season, the league holds a foreign players draft to distribute signing rights for foreign born players.

Labor Issues

The first league wide labor stoppage took place in September 1974 with the formation of the HGCPL (Hockey Glaciei Consociatio Professio Ludi), following which owners attempted to lock the players out of the arenas until they denounced the union and agreed not to take part in the organization. The players announced a strike, garnering large public support following an attempt by the owners to use replacement players in preseason games; the league owners ended the lock-out after 24 days, resulting in the regular season being pushed back a month to accommodate for the lock-out.

The second and most significant labor stoppage occurred in July 2002, when league owners allowed for the previous collective bargaining agreement to lapse. League officials would go on to claim that it would have no effect on the season, but this proved to not be the case. The league remained locked-out until early November 2002 when owners and players union officials began negotiations again. The 2002-03 season officially began on New Years Day 2003, and remains the shortest season in league history, and imposed an increased luxury tax and reduction of limits on foreign born players. The current CBA expires after the 2021–22 season.

See also

• Latin hockey league system
• Ice hockey in Ajax
• Ghantish Hockey League
• Unified Hockey Association of Ottonia