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- May 9, 2014
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Galactic Shockball League
Description
The GSL was founded not long after the Battle of Coruscant and had gained popularity over the last few centuries. It operates as a regulatory system for the various franchises that compete every season. It’s goal is to reach the largest markets possible by delivering a form of Shockball easily watched by casual and hardcore fans alike. It does this by having many rules in place that make the sport more civilized than its pick-up-and-play origins. Although it’s franchise teams are all across the galaxy sans Old Empire, the galactic headquarters where the commissioner, the promotional staff, accountants etc. operate out of; this is also the place where the yearly GSL Draw takes place, in which players can be signed on to GSL teams for the first time
History
Decades after the Journeyman’s Shockball Federation was formed (at the time just know as the Shockball Academic Circuit) interest was high enough that many saw the next logical step as the creation of a professional league. Thus, the GSL was founded. It was created by a committee of investors who were sold on the idea by Azmur Djellan who was the face of the original league in the early days. At first the league only had 10 teams, as though the sport was very popular on a casual level, the consensus on whether it would make an entertaining sport on a galactic level was yet to be made. The League struggled through its first season, which at that time just ended with the top two teams by win/loss record facing each other. However this didn’t lead to a very epic climax most of the time, as it could be over in just a few minutes. Over time though, as the formula proved viable, more owners and sponsors came to play. Soon the number of teams quadrupled to 40. This led to a major boost to the sport’s popularity as more players of professional caliber were needed, leading to more academic institutes creating teams of their own and joining the JSF, making that league even more important now.
The League ran into more problems later on down the line as matches were so short on occasion that if left many spectators regretting their purchase. Advertisers that ran their ads often lost money because matches were too short for all the ad space paid for. This led to a major change: the quarters system. Essentially it quadrupled the play time by making each quarter its own contained game. If both teams won two quarters a fifth tiebreaker quarter was played. This very much elongated matches making it more competitive and also causing a major mixup in the way teams strategized. This solidified the sport as a spectator sport. It was the success in the face of this obstacle that would kickstart the growth of the league.
Over the next few years franchises continued to join, and the GSL began to gain a reputation of never saying no to a proposed franchise. This wreaked havoc on scheduling and the ensuing seasons were constantly in flux. At the height of this period the league had 162 teams. Hardcore fans of the sport couldn’t watch every single game and many fans could do little besides support their local team and hope they’d get to see them in the Final Eight. This also meant there were several teams that had never played each other, and probably wouldn’t before the end of the decade. Simultaneously, anti-alien sentiments were causing a wider and wider divide in the Imperial Republica. The League came to the decision to cut most of the teams they had approved, including some that had yet to play an official game. They started by cutting the teams made up of mostly alien players and teams from the Outer Rim.
This led to the founding of their rival the All Galactic Shockball Association that capitalized on this culling of teams by forming a new league that promised no discrimination and giving the cut teams a league to run to. However this rivalry has always been skewed unfairly as controversy and poor safety conditions marred the AGSA’s reputation to an irredeemable state. Its teams were caught fixing games, fraudulent franchises and the death of a player all dragged its name through the dirt. It does however still run its season concurrent with that of the GSL. Despite the competition the GSL remains the most watched league and has regulated the max number of teams to 32.
The final major change was their largest. To make the game even more strategic the game was changed from a last man standing setup, with hit players staying down until the end of the quarter, to a point system where hits counted to the quarter total and hit players were back in play after a minute. This received heavy criticism at first as many purists believed it went against the very foundation of shockball, but over the course of the century fans grew used to the new form of play. It also helped that it revitalized the strategies and tactics used by teams and would also show that Shockball could be changed, leading to future variations of the sport that help maintain its popularity to this day. In the present day Djellan lives on in the Djellan Prize, an award given to the most influential player or team staff of the year, though some years its been used to highlight a very popular player.
Most recently, with the Sith Civil War all the teams that were based in the Old Empire were banned from the league, leaving a major gap for new teams and new talent to step up and enter the league. Many investors are willing to buy in to new teams and there is still a lot of buzz as to who the new teams will be and where they will hail from. In other words, it’s a great time to be a Shockball fan and an even better time to be a hopeful franchisee.
Structure
The GSL operates as a franchise and management entity. Internally it is run by a Commissioner and has hundreds of staff to manage finances, brand deals, advertising, franchisees, and rules. This overhead entity is what keeps the thirty-two franchises in check and runs the GSL Draw every year. This organization also has an investigative department for claims of fraud, cheating or fixing arisesOutside of this entity are the franchisees who normally have an owner, a general manager, various coaching staff, promotional staff, rally dancers, and most importantly players. Each franchise has to have a name, a place to call home whether it be city, planet, system or sector. In this area they must build an arena that isn’t up to the GSL Code and can house at least 200,000 attendees. These arenas do not however need to be built from scratch and many teams use arenas that have other functions when not in use, such as concerts, operas and other sporting events. Each team has a salary cap to ensure they don’t overspend on players and go bankrupt. A team has to have at minimum 10 players on their roster in anticipation for injuries and trades, but can’t have more than 33 players on their team. No alien species taller than 9’ can play, nor can species with precognition or reflexes impossible to be matched by a human. The teams must have a copyrighted logo, a home uniform and away uniform.
Assets
Within its own umbrella the GSL has their offices on Coruscant which consists of many floors and a large conference room where the annual Draw takes place. Also on Coruscant they have Storm Field, the largest arena in the league and where every GSL Championship is held at the end of the season. This arena has equipment capable of broadcasting the event all across the galaxy on the HoloNet. It has booths for commentators of all the major languages. Shyriiwook, Huttese, Ryll, and many more. It has conference rooms for post game interviews, it has a variety of restaurants and gift shops for attendees. And most impressive of all the stadium can seat approx. 800,00 and has standing room for 300,000 more. This makes the stadium a little pocket city in Coruscant full with several modes of transportation and holograms in every corridor to ensure those not in the stands don’t miss the action. The organization also has several local offices that promote local leagues and work with charities to promote healthy childhoods all the whole making their brand more universal. The offices normally have training areas designed for casual players who need a court to play. These local offices can also serve as consultants for the local franchise for rules and scheduling.
Roster
The GSL has many affiliates since it is so prolific. Besides its franchises it is affiliated with many holonet networks and providers, several charities and schools, and it has close relations with the JSF which grooms many of its future players for the professional level. The GSL is formatted for 32 teams, though 12 franchise spots are available for new teams at the moment. Below are the current established franchises.
Team Name: Arbiters
Location: Manaan
Colors: Blue, White and Black
Notable Players/Staff: N/A
History: A middle of the road team, the Arbiters had four memorable seasons (475-479) that ended with a championship title. These seasons were characterized by the star player Alwis-Uin Rancorian and offensive coordinator Jamala Fnik, who both retired shortly after the title victory to get married and have a child
Current Roster:
(TBD)
Intent
This write-up is made in conjunction with the lore write up found here. The intent is to bring Shockball to the site, which as stated in the lore write up I believe can add another layer to several facets of the site. I think it can become a fun pvp and pve option, as well as a great role play tool for sabotage, espionage, underworld dealings and the like. I believe some good storylines can come of this and more than anything I want members to have fun with it, which is why I’ve purposely left the list of franchises nearly vacant so teams can be introduced naturally as needed for backstories or pvp or other events. Most interesting to me would be the use of professional teams backed by opposing factions giving normally explosive encounters a tense truce off the field during play.
