From The Ground Up, Part 8

A lot happening this weekend with the Icethetics fantasy hockey league — not sure if that's the name, just what I'm calling it right now. Let's outline what's what.

First, the North and Northeast Division city selection process is over. We have the five cities that will be included in each division. That will be revealed tomorrow in the post where you guys will begin submitting name nominations for those teams.

That brings is to the Pacific and Central Divisions. We are now finished with the nominations for those divisions and I've narrowed down 20 names from each city. I know this may irk some of you, but let's face it, some of those names weren't exactly spectacular to begin with. Plus, simplicity is king in my book.

The next step is you guys choosing each team's name. This will be a simple process. For each city you'll be directed to a page with all 20 name finalists. You will rate each name individually from 1 to 5 stars. The name with the highest star rating will be the team's official name. In the event of a tie, a runoff poll will be held the next week.

This process assures that you aren't forced to choose one name over another. You simply rate each name on its own merits. You like it or you don't. This should allow us to get a fair consensus of what everyone considers to be a good team name.

Here's the thing, at this point is when we start doing one division per week. It'd be an insane amount of work for me to keep up with both divisions. So this week you'll rate the names for the Pacific Division. Next week the Central. The week after that Northeast... and so on. The process of determining the names for all 30 teams will take six weeks starting today.

There are links in the Fantasy League section in the pollbar directing you to the list of names for each city in the Pacific Division. Rate as many or as few names as you want and you're done. All the results will be finalized next weekend and we'll start with the Central Division.

An important note. A few cities have the same team names available. Rush, for example, was nominated and is a finalist for both Anchorage and Los Angeles. Obviously, two teams cannot have the same name. If, by some miracle, the same name is selected for two cities, the city for which it got the higher rating gets to keep it. The other city has to give it up and go with the second place name. If there's a tie, we'll do a runoff poll.

If you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'll address them as a reply to your comment or email, or make an addition to this post.

From The Ground Up: Central Names

The five markets with the most votes, to be included in the Central Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Almost 10,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

In this post, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only.

• CHICAGO, Illinois
  Illinois | Chicago | Joliet | Rockford


• DETROIT, Michigan
  Michigan | Detroit | Troy | Dearborn


• MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin
  Wisconsin | Milwaukee


• MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota
  Minnesota | Minneapolis | St. Paul | Bloomington


• ST. LOUIS, Missouri
  Missouri | St. Louis

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. All name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

Late addition: I'll also probably be weaning out some of the more ridiculous and absurd names. I don't mind fun ones, but I think you guys know what I mean.

It was suggested that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the Pacific Division. You have until September 13.

Start submitting!

From The Ground Up: Pacific Names

The five markets with the most votes, to be included in the Pacific Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Over 11,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

In this post, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only.

• ANCHORAGE, Alaska
  Alaska | Anchorage


• LOS ANGELES, California
  California | Los Angeles | Anaheim | Long Beach


• PORTLAND, Oregon
  Oregon | Portland | Salem


• SEATTLE, Washington
  Washington | Seattle | Tacoma | Olympia


• VANCOUVER, British Columbia
  B.C. | Vancouver | Burnaby | Victoria

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. All name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

Late addition: I'll also probably be weaning out some of the more ridiculous and absurd names. I don't mind fun ones, but I think you guys know what I mean.

It was suggested by a reader (ogre39666) that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the Central Division. You have until September 13.

Start submitting!

IHA Final Art: Great Lakes

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. This week we've looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic, West, Northeast and Pacific Divisions. Today we're on to the Great Lakes to finish out the week.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.

Sigma Kappa

Roccot

Emilis Acus

Emilis Acus

Marc

Couple of changes to this division. As I mentioned before, at the request of the league operator, the Capitals and Knights have swapped colors. The Knights are now blue. Also, based on the logo that won for the Brigade, the orange was changed to red.

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated in any other way for all your work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know. However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Next week you'll vote on the Central Division logos and the following week I'll post the final designs and this project will be over. I look forward to seeing artwork from the same talented designers for the next project!

IHA Final Art: Pacific

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. This week we've looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic, West and Northeast Divisions. Today we're doing the Pacific.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.

Roccot

Bleetch

Emilis Acus

Emilis Acus

Roccot

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated in any other way for all your work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know. However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the Great Lakes Division. Then next week you'll vote on the Central Division logos and the following week I'll post the final designs and this project will officially come to an end. I look forward to seeing artwork from the same talented designers for the next project!

IHA Final Art: Northeast

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. This week we've looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic and West Divisions. Today we move on to the Northeast.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.

Marc

Brad

Roccot

Ivall

Ivall

There's a big change you may notice. At the request of the league operator, Nicolas, I've swapped colors between the Ottawa Capitals and Toronto Knights. That means the Capitals are now red and the Knights are blue.

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated in any other way for all your work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know. However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the Pacific Division.

IHA Final Art: West

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. Yesterday we looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic Division. Today we move on to the West.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.

Erroneous Art

Cartello

Roccot

Harnock

Jason New Era Usher

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated monetarily for your hard work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know.

However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the Northeast Division.

IHA Final Art: Atlantic

It's been six weeks since we began the IHA project here at Icethetics. And through all its ups and downs we've ended up with some fantastic logos, showing off the stunning talents of many artists. It's been a phenomenal exercise is graphic design and we're going to start wrapping it up this week with the unveiling of the logo sets for each team.

We'll start the week the same way we started the project — with the Atlantic Division. Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.

Roccot

Sigma Kappa

Andrew

Andrew

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated monetarily for your hard work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know.

However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the West Division.

No IHA Polls This Week

Since the Central Division was just posted last week, you still have one more week to submit your logo designs. That means there will be no polls posted for the IHA this week.

Instead, I'll use this week to get everyone caught up on the logo winners. Technically you've already seen the winners for the Atlantic Division, but you're getting them again today just for the sake of simplicity. Tomorrow you'll get the West. Wednesday will be the Northeast. Thursday the Pacific. And on Friday you'll see who won in the Great Lakes.

I'm doing it this way because unfortunately, once a poll closes the images associated with it seem to disappear into cyberspace.

From The Ground Up: Picking Cities

This past week you all have been voting on the divisional boundary alignment for the Icethetics-created fantasy hockey league. Alignment A got the most votes, taking 733 of 2,208. For a quick refresher, here's what that boundary alignment looks like.

Obviously, not all of the cities listed will be included. Last week we completed a poll in which you guys determined our league would have 30 teams. That brings us to this week. We're going to be doing two divisions at a time over the next three weeks.

This week you'll vote on the cities to be included in the Pacific and Central Divisions. One from the West, one from the East. Five cities from each division — 10 total. Yay, math.

From the 12 cities listed, you can choose to vote for as few as 1 or as many as all 12. It's entirely up to you. You just choose the cities you think should be included. However, only the five with the most votes at the end of the week will be included in the division.

LOOKING AHEAD
For reference, next week will be the North and Northeast Divisions. That'll be the weekend of September 6. After that we'll do the South and Southeast. Those polls will begin on the weekend of September 13.

My plan is to do a few things concurrently just to get through this quicker, but I reserve the right to change my mind if it becomes too much work for me. Next weekend we'll know which cities are getting teams so at that point I'd like to start taking nominations for team names.

NAMING NOMINATIONS
IMPORTANT: I will not accept name nominations until the city selection polls are finalized — no matter how many votes any city is getting!

Now, about how the naming will work. When you make a nomination, you must include locator with it. In other words, don't just submit Lightning. Submit Tampa Bay Lightning. Or Florida Lightning or St. Petersburg Lightning. Like I said before, you'll be choosing a locator that goes with your name.

When these polls are finished, I will offer a complete list of acceptable locators for each city chosen. For example, if Tampa was one of the selected cities, your locator options would be: Tampa, Tampa Bay, Florida, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Lakeland. Orlando would not be accepted because it is considered a separate market for our purposes. However, if Orlando was selected instead of Tampa, Lakeland might still be included with it because of its proximity to both cities. But if Tampa and Orlando were both selected, Lakeland would only be available to one city or the other. Make sense?

We'll do the same name nominating process the week after for the next two divisions and so on. I'll accept nominations for a week and then have you guys vote on the final name. All nominations will be included in this process provided they fit within the guidelines I set up. More on those in the next paragraph.

THE RESTRICTIONS
I know saying restrictions sounds bad but it's basically what they are. I'm just starting to work on this so don't consider this final by any means. It's just a way of letting you know what to expect. A team name nomination will NOT be accepted if it breaks any of the following rules:

• It may not use a name of any current or past NHL team.


• It may not use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.


• It may not use the name or close variation of any professional sports team currently or previously within the same market or geographical area.


• It may not use the name of any team from Project: IHA


• It may not be vulgar or in any way inappropriate. (And I'll decide what's inappropriate.)

That should cut down on any potential similarity to the NHL or any other league. I'll have another list like this for when it comes time to choose colors and create logos. But again, this is not final. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Email me or leave a comment.

Happy voting!