Annual Outside Debut of Culdesac Hockey

The Annual Outside Debut of Culdesac Hockey takes place on the first Monday of March. This is the half-way point of the HCHA regular season, and switches each matches' venue to be hosted outdoors rather than indoors. This creates a very unique decision to have your players be better more indoors or outdoors, which many other sports do not have.

Significance

The HCHA's regular season, which consists of 76 games per team in total, is split in half by different venues. The first half's; which takes place in late autumn and winter; matches take place in enclosed venues with a polished wood surface. The second half's matches takes place in open-roofed, or not roofed at all arenas with a pavement surface. Each club is forced to hold their own arena of both kinds. The Annual Outside Debut is exactly what you would expect following this knowledge, it marks the half-way point of the season as well as the reintroduction of a type of surface. Since this is a major change, the HCHA intentionally made this a tradition in order to showcase the alternate playstyle and to make money while they're at it.

Effects on Playstyle

There is a notable difference between playing indoors and outdoors in culdesac hockey. Visibility also can be an issue, as in an enclosed stadium the only thing holding you back are the fans in the stands, however, when it's outdoors, the sun can take its toll if the angle is just right.

The environment alone is enough to cause a change in the starting line-up, as endurance is tested when the temperature is risen. The major difference, however, is the surface, with the puck moving more jagged and unpredictable on the pavement. This requires more precision for goalkeepers and also requires better anticipation from teammates of passes. The curbs vary in material from venue to venue, but typically indoors they are made of metal and outdoors they are made of cement. This can be a huge difference if they are made of cement, as they are more slightly less likely to go out of the arena. To combat this issue, the HCHA requires a slightly lower height for concrete curbs, which helps but isn't a complete fix.

Overall, teams will not usually make any huge changes over the new venues, but one or two players might fall out of the starting line-up.

Match Traditions

Due to the debut being pulled into use on a specific day each year, fans have found a way to really get invested into the switch via traditions. This makes the sort of harsh change between venues a little easier to get used to, because if you're a fan of the sport, you will likely view all three games and will adjust your eyes to the different environment.

The debut has ranked in Hiblund as one of the highest viewership counts in all subjects, especially sports. The very first matchup included some of the better teams in the league at the time to attract major attention, and it succeeded immensely. Since then, the home teams have stayed the same each year to start giving this sporting event a form of history and tradition. Once again, they succeeded, as every game played has bought more tickets and brought in more viewers than ever before.

Match 1

The first match of each outside debut takes host in Trinalxii and their literal culdesac venue. The reasons for Trinalxii hosting the first outdoor game are few yet convincing. First of all, their stadium is an actual abandoned culdesac, unlike any other stadium, which draws attention towards its uniqueness. Secondly, the sport itself was invented not too far from this location, in fact still in the same city. These two factors have led this to be the second most viewed match of the sport on average. Since Trinalxii is usually a top half team, on top of all the crowd support from locals, the Roundtables will win most of the matches here, and their most common opponent is the Havdren Leopards with 5 appearances in this event.

Home Team	Venue	Time
Trinalxii Roundtables	Caernic Culdesac Vulnresa	12:00 PM

Match 2

Both of the second and third matches' host teams have been chosen because of their cities' ability to hold two teams in the league, these cities being Pavre and Vovilveante. Pavre, being the minority of the two by a longshot, is given the middle timeslot and hence is the most ignored of the three matches. When deciding how to choose which team should host the match originally, they (Pavre Archers + Pavre Ravens) used to alternate each year for fairness. This would confuse tradition, and with the HCHA wanting this event to be memorable, they changed the match to be the Archers vs. Ravens on a completely different venue in 1986. This would stay for a while, as at the time the two were evenly matched. However, this would not last, and the clubs would pull apart in class. In 2002, it was decided that whoever was the higher placed team at the end of last season would host the event. Since then, the Archers have hosted 15, and the Ravens would host 5.

Home Team	Venue	Time
Pavre Archers	Riliamid Culdesac Lussi	3:00 PM

Match 3

The Vovilveante match was chosen for the same reason as the Pavre match did and has been slightly more popular in its time. It also started off with alternating, and suffered the same fate with a lack of tradition. In 1986, instead of having a city rivalry, the committee knew it would be a lopsided match, with the Swordsmen always being better than the Pioneers. So, they let the Swordsmen take the time slot against any random team, and this decision has proven the test of time. Over these last 36 years, the Antres Chargers have appeared the most with 5, and in the entire history of the timeslot they tie with the Suzell Slingshots and Thres Arctics at the same value.

Home Team	Venue	Time
Vovilveante Swordsmen	Sxcairu Fredrelen	6:30 PM