What’s going on, LG? It’s tdk_95 and I’m gonna do a write-up thing, hopefully the first of a few or maybe even the beginning of a weekly column. I think the forums could use a couple more general threads and I like writing them so, hereee we go. The idea behind these posts is I come up with a question I’d like to ask the community at large, give my own opinion, and then have y’all add your own voice/flame me in the responses. These are gonna be pretty damn long too so if you don’t like reading don’t read ‘em, alright? I plan on asking questions about LGNHL, the website as a whole, NHL, video games in general, I dunno man, I just started this one so let’s not limit ourselves. I can safely say I’ve been kicking this idea around for a while though… What elements of LG and the NHL community would you like to see adapted to other video games? - There’s a decent chance I’m not looking hard enough, but there’s a lot the LGNHL leagues bring to the table I haven’t found in the competitive scene for other video games. The EA NHL series itself has a super close-knit community because the player base…well, it’s not very big. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. When I hop into a club game or NHL game as a goalie, there’s a level of comfort in the fact that more often than not, I know the players I’m facing on the other team. That’s super unique to NHL, that you can randomly search for a game and know what you’re up against. We’ve all had ‘sweats’ in club, we’ve all had games where we know we’re trolling by the third. And that’s cool, but a lot of the time it’s not super intense because playing NHL centers around dexterity. You gotta have thumbs. - My love for sports games might only be matched by my love for strategy games. Madden was the first game I really picked up on as a kid and that’s just as much about stick work as it is about your ability to figure out your opponent. As an adult I’ve gravitated more and more towards strategy games. Civilization and X-COM come to mind in terms of video games but it was a few years ago I really started to take interest in poker. The issue with poker, online or in person, is that it’s difficult to create an environment that’s competitive, relaxing, and entertaining. You either know the people you’re playing against and you’re probably not taking the game too seriously, or you’re playing people you’ve never met and the stakes are either high (probably in the form of cash) or negligible (‘play money’). LG doesn’t have this problem. All at the same time, LG manages to have personality in its players while fostering a competitive environment where with enough practice, pretty much anyone can carve out their own niche. What if we could combine the familiarity, camaraderie, even the toxicity of the competitive scene of NHL and LG with the strategy elements in poker? Let me introduce you to Prominence Poker. - Prominence is a free-to-play game right now on every major gaming platform and it’s basically tailormade for a LG-style competitive league. Even if you’ve got zero experience with poker, imagine a competitive league where you could launch six-player games whenever you wanted, open to players of all ages. Games in Prominence don’t take too long, tables rarely last longer than an hour, and you could start one up during the day or into the late hours of the night; there’s no east or west connection in poker. New players could run practice games before hopping into the league, while there'd be almost no barriers for LG's experienced poker players who want to jump right on in. Everyone’s on mic but you can be as focused or talk as much shit as you wanted, it’d be encouraged even. It’d be easy to develop a ranking system based on the results of games, where your CR is determined by the strength of your finishes over the course of a month, a season, whatever. You could put together huge winner-take-all tournaments or develop an FNP-style heads-up tournament on the weekends. Imagine the streaming potential, where you got to see some of your teammates from your LG team or your PSN friends play against other LGers. Bruh, y’all want trophy points, imagine a virtual bankroll committed towards your LG earnings AND your poker winnings, maybe even other games. The possibilities here are endless. I think with a little trial and error somebody could put together an experience, either on or independent of LG, where even people with no thumbs could end up a force to be reckoned with. And if my expectations are a little too high, I’d still kill to have a shot to put together a consistent poker game with some friends. - LG has always been supportive towards start-up leagues for new games, but with next-gen right around the corner I think the concept of a Prominence Poker-centered league is probably nothing more than a pipe dream. I think it’s likely that there’s another Texas Hold’em game that will release within a year or so of the new consoles coming out, so maybe this is a topic to revisit around then. Starting a new league seems like a lot of work. I’ve always been thankful for the people who help LG run on a day-to-day basis, but it’s something I could commit to overseeing if the interest was there for something, like poker, that I was passionate about. This isn’t an idea exclusive to poker, however. Between the community, the contract/roster system, the structured schedule, there’s ideas on LG that could stretch far and wide beyond sports games and even traditional Esports. And with the Xbox Series X and PS5 looming ever large it’d be a great time for someone in LG to take a franchise people love, start up a league or a friendly competitive scene and make it their own. So, LG, let me ask you, what ideas from LG would you like to see implemented into some of your favorite video games? I know that there’s a strong following for Modern Warfare, Rainbow Six Siege, battle royales and dozens of other games on this website, so I’d love to hear what ideas you’d want to poach if you could start your own video game league. I’m stoked to hopefully get some ‘insightful’ responses in the comments. Honestly, I just wrote this thread because I don’t have nearly enough downvotes to offset all my sick forum posts from 2014. Looking forward to hearing from everyone! Until next week maybe, idk -TDK
