Sports of Hiblund

This is a copy of the "Sports" section in the nation article of Hiblund. The reason for the separation is simply due to the navbox and its convenience.

The sporting district is easily Hiblund's most internationally known feature, with it being one of the nation's highest in priority, behind sound doctrine. The variety is strong, however football is a long way ahead in popularity. The leagues themselves weave their way through Hiblund's history as a nation, especially through the independece of Frarstizk. The players are infamously held high in their actions, sometimes more idolizing than the nation's leaders themselves to a common Hiblundiiun. The founding of Cross Baseball was the initial spark of interest in Hiblundiiun sports, truly innovating a completely new way of viewing sports, so much so that in a Hiblundiiun household desire of competition is held dearly. The interest in sports has helped in many different aspects, such as economy (autographs), health, scientific advancement (keeping players safe), along with others. I think it's safe to stay this is the reason Hiblund has a name for itself, instead of being another average nation.

Football

Football is the primary sport played in Hiblund, similar to many nations throughout Anteria. Although, it is safe to say that Hiblund takes it a step further, which shows as its broadcasting of the sport reaches extremely high viewcounts and the in-person viewing is high as well. Clubs with stadiums capable of holding over 60,000 people have been filled to the brim on countless occasions, with tickets sometimes being bid upon for very high revenue to the clubs themselves.

The major leagues to the sport are hosted within the Shodiax League System, of which the highest of all is the Shodiax Piruen Iede. This system is not in any way a completely stable organization, making the league eligable to fold in accordance to a new and unrelated system forming. Despite the looming uncertainty, due to the popularization and enjoyability of the Shodiax, it is safe to say that this league will not face a crisis anytime soon. This did come to test recently, however, where all the levels/leagues except the main chose to hold back from participating in attempt of keeping safety precautions up-to-date. After five long years of protesting, the event known as the Vaitrel Iede Protests came to a close in 2019 and all things began to go back to normal.

Before the Shodiax League came to be, Hiblund's major football league was in the Harletical Fiutvel Iede. The Harletical was a problematic league to say the least, as it did not allow for promotion or relegation of any kind, which led to some teams being notably better than others. After numerous attempts of bringing it down, it was secretly planned to fold in 1950. This would occur sooner than intended, as Frarstizk gained its independence in the 1946 offseason. The Harletical would fold, and because there was no real stability or aggreeance by the Hiblundiiun Football Association for major leagues, this would begin the Sciedfelt Stretch, where there was no major league in Hiblund for seven years until the Shodiax League was formed.

Currently, clubs' rivalries have thickened parallel to the popularity increase, and because of this has made the sport and the teams known to almost everyone. The influence has reached the youngest of children, as sports; especially football, is a surprisingly common career path with all of the minor leagues not comprised within the Shodiax System. The overall influence of this sport is not only overwhelming but is also positive, as shown in many fashions.

Culdesac Hockey

Culdesac Hockey has a quite similar popularity to football in Hiblund, with the large exception of not being internationally recognized whatsoever. The sport itself is solely inherit to Hiblund and a little bit of Frarstizk, the latter being due to close relations between the countries. It is a spin-off, yet much more interesting form of ice hockey, which gives reason to its little recognition. On top of which, the sport itself was founded in the early 1970s, so in current day, there is not a very large span of time for the sport to grow in.

The origins to the game were first introduced in the early 1960s by bored highschoolers. There was little intent to making this game an actual sport, however, after one of these cashed in a very successful stock, their dream became a reality and the Hiblundiiun Culdesac Hockey Association was formed in 1971. Reactions to this supposed rip-off of a sport varied, but the game itself actually had a surprisingly large number of differences compared to ice hockey. The organization, led by Fraetlei Lellic and Elzxair Vovliksir, began to push their game into Hiblundiiun advertising.

After begging for the sport to be hosted on a major broadcaster, people watched the very first indoor and outdoor games, and they quickly began to realize the uniqueness put into the game. In fact, the success was so great that they were able to establish actual stadiums for many of the indoor and outdoor teams. Since then, culdesac hockey has surpassed many sports, even ice hockey, in total viewership. Outside Hiblund, Frarstizk is the only nation to fully include a league for it due to the Made as One Alliance's influence. It has not gone international for various reasons, the most prominent being the looming danger of failure to popularize the sport.

Cross Baseball

Cross baseball is incredibly similar to culdesac hockey in terms of international recognition, but on top of that, the popularization even within Hiblund's borders is dramatically smaller than one's of culdesac hockey. Cross Baseball is similar to lacrosse, but a lot more fun once you start to get the hang of the fundamentals. It is yet another sport founded in Hiblund after Frarstizk's independence, this one's first major appearance being in 1979.

Unlike culdesac hockey, the origins of the game were introduced by baseball coaches, having their players throw a wiffle ball up and hitting it with a mixed bat with only one hand. Some of the players really liked this drill, and created an entirely new game from the same simple practice. Luckily for them, they didn't have to wait too long to make their game become a sport, as some investors were lenient enough to lend them some money to start their league. It started in 1976, only hosted in one province, but after being oversought by more investors, made its way up to being a national league in 1979, where the Serflunn Cross Baseball League came to play.

Progress on the popularization has been quite steady throughout Hiblund, and has respectably reached #3 for most viewership, but has not even made a scratch on any other nations, so much so that not even Frarstizk has made a major league for the sport. The future is unknown for the young sport, but with that being said, it's done well so far.

Basketball

Basketball, unlike the three above, does not bring up as large of an audience. Yet of course, with the amount of athletic ability in the nation, it is still a very respected career path and well-known across the land, even with the viewership success not being parallel with the overall popularity.

The Federal Basketball Association of Hiblund, otherwise known as the FBHA, was originally founded in 1948, and was further developed into a system that branched out into provincial leagues. These leagues were created in 1959, and they had no way of promoting or relegating, as they wished to keep the main league with the same teams every year. The league has faced some faults, however, as some teams were so underfunded that the FBAH made an exception and let them be replaced the next season. Fortunately, this was not all that common, and has only occured in the major league twice.

Basketball has casted a pretty strong influence on the youngest generation of Hiblund, and with that comes predictions about how the sport can grow into another major event producer in the near years. This spike is due to an increase in interest by other nations, which Hiblund has followed in suit. But until then, it is a long drop from cross baseball in terms of popularity.

Baseball

Baseball is the beginning of the slightly more unknown sports Hiblund is enthusiastic in some way shape or form about, well, at least from an international standpoint. Baseball still brings in plenty of viewers and ameteur players throughout the land, and although not as much as basketball, is still a very productive sport economically.

Baseball has hosted three different major leagues in the past, the first being the National Baseball League System of Hiblund (or NBLSH) founded in 1905, which notably included promotion and relegation. This league would not last very long, as baseball would open its market to private owners. The switch of major leagues would not only be because of private opening, but also rule fixings to make the game more interesting. Hiblund would switch to the Advancing Hiblundiiun Baseball Association (or AHBA) in 1918, which kept the pro/rel system. This league could also be referenced with the last name "Lerkinti" plastered infront of the name, to culturize the naming of leagues in Hiblund.

With the event we all know by now, Frarstizk's independence, it called for another new baseball league. Although there was a possibility tried to be performed to a reality by the AHBA, but was failed to the complexity. On top of this, rich business owner Terlinak Cistruine designed his own new baseball league and system, the Cistruine Baseball League, which overpowered the ABHA in many ways. Teams from the ABHA began to switch to the Cistruine because of the chaos trying to be fixed in their current league and the fact that their new league would reform some of the issues the previously faced, as well as positive similarities with pro/rel being kept. The Cistruine would see its first season in 1947.

Currently, baseball's popularity is on a steady decline in Hiblund, as all statistics reach lower every year. There is no definitive reason for this, some speculate that it's due to the mild boredom in the sport, but no one can really say what.

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey used to be the number two sport of Hiblund, but it was drastically effected by the introduction of culdesac hockey. The year with the highest effect of the league was 1979, after ice hockey fans were given the time to switch to the culdesac form.

The very first ice hockey league was the Nirumel Hockey League System, which was founded in 1920, and by name, included promotion and relegation. The league held strong throughout its existence, and there were no problems ever found with the system to make it fold into itself. This was especially relevant through the independence of Frarstizk, as unlike all other non-individual sporting leagues, it held on and kept strong with superb management. With the formation of the HCHA, the Nirumel faced strong hardships. It kept going relatively strong until 1979, and barely kept positive income through the 1980s. Finally, in 1989, the Nirumel was not able to keep afloat without making huge cutbacks, so it was announced that the league would fold.

Not too far afterwards, a group of investors would found the National Hiblundiiun Ice Hockey League (or NHIHL) in the year 1995. This league would basically go under the radar, with very little television appearance until around the year 2005. After that, interest in the sport would increase, but is currently nowhere near the success of what they had before the HCHA.

Disc Golf

Disc golf is by far the most well-known and influencial sport played by individuals, and is extremely common among ameteurs that will simply do it on a day off. Hiblund itself has led internationally for best disc golfers plenty of times depite the nation's little population. Foreigners are often shocked as to how popular this sport is, escpecially in the north, as it exhibits typical conditions for disc golf.

The nation, especially in the early to mid 1900s, only hosted minor leagues for the sport, as at the time it was only thought of as a hobby. Once there became actual full-time dedicators to the sport, the National Disc Golfing League (or NDGL) was founded, which took place in 1976. This league held bimonthly competitions for the majors, with minor competitions for ones less dedicated to the sport. The major league holds four relegation spots after each competition, which resists the need for long and slightly uneventful qualification matches.

Although Hiblund's love of the sport is high and is recognized internationally, viewership is much lower than team sports, because you really need to be in-person to enjoy watching the game.