INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSE
High on my priority list when creating the NHLX database was to create a more interesting and full-filling simulation at the international level. You can say my aim was to create a framework similar to international football. While in real life the logistics of hockey make that an impossibility – in the NHLX universe you’ll see the following:
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INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEW
EXPANDED HOCKEY PLAYING WORLD
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72 hockey playing nations on six continents, all fully developed with baked in players and domestic and junior leagues. Of course for smaller nations these are not playable competitions but they serve the simulation as a place for generated players of different nationalities to “be born” and develop in.
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All nations have Senior and U20 national squads and regionalized names built into the database for at least somewhat authentic generated player names (there are always some funny or odds ones sprinkled in but that’s on EHM).
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International rankings, divisions and junior divisions are updated thru the end of 2021 with “new” hockey playing nations at the end of the rankings.
INTERNATIONAL BREAKS FOR ALL LEAGUES
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Two periods of “international breaks” every season during ALL professional leagues that are playable in the game to allow for participation in international play by players without interruption of league games and rosters. Includes the NHL.
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“Winter Break” – Late December into Early January around the holiday season for a couple of weeks.
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“February Break” – Mid-February around the traditional Olympics period for a couple of weeks.
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OLYMPICS
February – Every Fourth Year
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No changes to this competition - I want the Olympics to remain for only the elite.
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NHL players do still play – regardless of how it is turning out in real life. All standard schedules including the NHL includes February international breaks every year – so the Olympics will never conflict with important league games for any professional league in the game.
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I will note that in theory it is possible to take any nation all the way up to the Olympic level…you could manage Namibia, for example, dominate their Regional Championships, move up the World Championships ladder and start to accrue enough IIHF points to get into the initial rounds of Olympic qualifying. I imagine this would be one of the ultimate challenges in the game!
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Added player awards to all levels for players to burnish their achievements.
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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Late April/Early May – Every Year
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World Championships are expanded to include all 72 nations! So yes, you can, in theory, progress Kenya, Colombia, The Philippines or Andorra to the highest echelons of the tournament over time.
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Added player awards to all levels for players to burnish their achievements.
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Click on any screenshot to enlarge.
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLIES
Late December/Early January – Every Year
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International friendlies are new in NHLX. Like world football, I thought it would be interesting to schedule international friendlies for all nations. Gives more opportunities to develop national selection and tactics and gives player more opportunities to earn international “caps”.
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The 72 nations are divided into two “pots” of 36 based on ranking and all matches are random within those two pots – this ensures mostly even matches. Obviously the true hockey powers tend to dominate but at least you don’t have Russia playing a line-up that includes Kenya, Malaysia, Argentina, etc. And it allows the smaller nations to be competitive against similar levels of competition.
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There are four “cycles” of these friendlies that rotate every four years – this is as random as I can make it and ensures a wide variety of opponents for each nation over each four year span of time.
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Even with a league break, unfortunately, NHL players cannot be called up. NHL call-ups during the season are hard-coded to the Olympic competition.
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Click on any screenshot to enlarge.
REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
February – Non-Olympic Years
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I’ve gotten rid of some of the somewhat random national comps in the game (Arose Cup, Slovak Cup, etc) and replaced them all with a cohesive system of 7 regional championship tournaments that are played every year during February except on Olympic years. This allows national rivals to face off for trophies and accolades on a regular basis.
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Because teams like Canada and the USA would dominate their regions, the 9 top traditional hockey playing powers in the world are broken off into their own tournament that occurs at the same time, the Nine Nations Cup described below. This allows the Regional Championships to be much more evenly contested.
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Each of these competitions feature player awards for players to burnish their achievements.
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Click on any screenshot to enlarge.
NINE NATIONS CUP
February – Non-Olympic Years
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As mentioned above under Regional Championships, the 9 top traditional powers play in the Nine Nations Cup in lieu of their geographic regions to ensure more even playing fields in those regional events.
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Even with a league break, unfortunately, NHL players cannot be called up. NHL call-ups during the season are hard-coded to the Olympic competition. On the bright side, it creates a very competitive competition where managing the USA or Canada can be challenging. Think of it as a “non-NHL players” version of the Olympics (which, unfortunately has been the real Olympics lately – although the NHLX Olympics sill included NHL players).
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The competition feature player awards for players to burnish their achievements.
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RIVAL SERIES
June – Non-Olympic Years
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I love this history of the Summit Series between Canada and the USSR back in the day. I wanted to have some of the major nations play each other in best-on-best, one-on-one series to promote this sense of rivalry and accomplishment. So the “Rivals Series” concept was born.
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The initial line-up of Rival Series involves 9 match-ups featuring the top hockey playing nations. They each occur once every four years. Why not every year? Well, I wanted to really make these special events and make the stakes very high.
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They are not played during Olympic years (I didn’t want to make NHLers have insane playing schedules with the NHL, Olympics and these Rival Series all in a calendar year). So the other three years of each four year cycle, 3 Rivals Series competitions take place (3 x 3 = 9 comps).
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They are scheduled for June, after the Stanley Cup playoffs but before the game turns over into a new season (July 1). This does allow NHL players to play!
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Each of these competitions feature player awards for players to burnish their achievements.
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I may add more series in the future for some lesser nations – although the Regional Championships are always going to be the main way for “smaller” nations to play their rivals.
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Click on any screenshot to enlarge.
WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Late December/Early January – Every Year
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The World Juniors are a bit trickier to expand given the limited capabilities of EHM but I have increased the main WJC from 10 teams to 12 and the WJC-D1 from a limited field of 6 (the real WJC-D1A) to an expanded field of 16.
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Added player awards to both levels for players to burnish their achievements.
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Click on any screenshot to enlarge.
FOUR NATIONS U-20
Date Varies by Host – Every Year
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This comp has been kept “as is” as an in-season tournament between the U-20 squads of Russia, Sweden, Finland and Czechia that rotates between each nation as a host.
NINE NATIONS CUP U-20
June – Every Year
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This is a brand new competition that is the junior companion to the new Nine Nations Cup described above. It features the U-20 squads for each of the nine top hockey playing traditional powers.
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The competition occurs every year in June, unlike its parent competition which is in February on non-Olympic years. It is structured like the regular Nine Nations Cup (and Regionals Championships) with a simple round-robin league-style standings format.
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Reputation-wise, this one is not quite the level of the main WJC – but it’s not far off either. It offers another chance to get to see top young players square off.
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The competition feature player awards for players to burnish their achievements.
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