Revision as of 20:15, 8 August 2020

Imperial Bolo-Ball League
League Admin	Andrea Walrus
League Assistant	N/A
Founded	Year 6 Day 200
Type	Recreational Sports
Profession	Bolo-Ball Players
Total Members	10
Emblem	Lion with Imperial Emblem
Motto	It's not just a game, its a way of life.
Application Process	Contact League Admin
Website	Imperial Boloball League
Forum	Imperial Gaming Commission (CommCent)
Affiliation	Imperial Gaming Commission

The Imperial Boloball League (IBL) is an official sports league in the Galactic Empire. Renowned for the player's strength and agility on the field, the game remains one of the most popular sports to be recognized by the Imperial Gaming Commission. The IBL has had a varying number of divisions based on the number of teams in the league each season. Each season runs for approximately 3 months and includes the prestigious Emperor's Cup tournament. One league match is played each week and while the Emperor's Cup tournament is running a second game is played during each week. To accommodate for the thousands of fans wanting to watch, which saw the stadiums overflow, live broadcasts of the games are available on holoviewers.

Imperial Boloball League MarkII

The League resumed operation late in Y11 as the Imperial Boloball League. In its first two seasons of operation the league featured 1 Division and bi-weekly games. In season 3, the league schedule was revised to only play one league game per week. This freed up the second game day in a week to be available for the Emperor's Cup. Season 3 also saw the expansion to 2 levels, one 1st level division the 'Imperial Superior League' and two 2nd level divisions the 'Imperial Sub League A' and the 'Imperial Sub League B'. For season 4 the structure was revised to have 3 levels, one 1st level division the 'Imperial Superior League', one 2nd level division the 'Imperial Sub League A', and one 3rd level division the 'Imperial Sub League B'. In season 5 there was a contraction in the number of teams and the 'Imperial Sub League B' was eliminated.

Clubs

Current Season

Imperial Boloball League

Division 1

Previous Seasons

Hall of Fame

Previous Incarnations

Auvasa Imperial League

Prior to Year 11, the Imperial Bolo-Ball League was known as the Auvasa Imperial League. The tournament, named for sponsorship reasons, was one of the main sports tournaments played on various worlds throughout the Imperial region. Many planets have more than one team, however not all are at the level to compete in the league. There was not professional second tier. Teams that don't fair well in the Premier Division, due to financial or sports reasons tend to drop out and into the amateur leagues. Thus there have been many "one season" teams over the past four years, with the total number of teams having competed in the league being 43. Few teams have the support, skills and financial backing to mount multiple challenges to the title. In it's fifth season the league has been given a substantial boost in funding that it is hoped will stem the high team dropout rate and allow for a wider spectrum of teams to challenge for the title. However, during this season, the tournament abruptly stopped for unknown reasons.

Previous Winners

The tournament has so far had three teams claim the title. Vakkar BC, as it is currently known, holds two titles, winning both the first and second championship. They remain the only team to win back to back titles. The third season was won by Urawa Reds and the fourth season champions were Corellian Hotspur.

"Big 4" Dominance

Ever since the league was established in Year 5/6 four teams have always maintained a strong grip on the league, as well as the Cup, the league has been won by three of the four and the Cup has been won by three of the four also, only once has a team not from this grouping won either major trophy. The teams that make up the "Big 4" are Vakkar BC (2 League, 1 Cup), AC Coruscant (0 League, 2 Cup), Urawa Reds (1 League, 0 Cup) and Corellian Hotspur (1 League, 0 Cup). These four teams due to their success and the large fan bases have far great financial power than the others team, something that has gauranteed their longevity in a league where many teams go bust following one season. Recently however a number of teams have declared their want to break this dominance, Sublight Swoopers making the biggest push with a pre-seasoning spending spree to match that of the any of the four.

League Trophy

This new version of the league trophy was commissioned upon Auvasa Corp. being named the new sponsor. Auvasa Corp. designed the trophy itself but hired the experts at Magnagaurd to sculp and build it. The trophy is built from Durasteel and was heavily polished to get the reflective surface. The gold durasteel used in some parts of it come from the old trophy which was melted down, while its plinth is made of berubian, a semi-precious stone. The plinth has a durasteel band around its circumference, upon which the names of the title-winning clubs are engraved. berubian's green colour is also representative of the green field of play.

When a team wins the league at the end season they are presented with the real trophy which they put on display at their homegrounds for the following year. Following this the trophy, unless they defend their title, will be replaced by a replica. However the league has created a rule to reward those teams the prove to be consistant in the winning of the league by allowing teams that win the league five times to keep the real trophy.

The trophy stands at 80cm tall, 45cm wide, 25cm deep and it weighs 27 Kg. With an estimated value of 2,350,000 credits.

League Sponsorship

Following its inception in year six a sponsorship deal was signed with Cloud City for four seasons. This deal gave the League a much needed boost in revenue during its infancy stage. However with the league becoming more popular and team revenues increasing from other areas the deal with Cloud City was deemed too low and was not renewed. Instead a controversial deal was agreed with Auvasa Corp., a newly formed Communications company owned and backed by the Martin family a member of which was an Imperial Officer. The deal was frowned up by many as it was a company from outside the Imperial sphere, while the controversy grew when Auvasa Corp. took over one of the oldest teams in the league, Vakkar BC. Others however backed the deal seeing the improved income coming Auvasa Corp. and the speciality it had with broadcasting as something that could take the IBL to the next level, a truly galactic one. The deal with Auvasa Corp. is for an initial two season period but has the option of being extend for at least another four.

League Violence: Vakkar Incident

Crowd trouble and fan fighting is nothing new to the Imperial League with minor scuffles a frequent occurrence at games and following them but it reached its peak during the 8/9 Season when the reigning champions, Vakkar BC, were playing against the soon to be champions, Urawa Reds.

Vakkar had been the champions of the first two seasons and were hoping to get the third in a row. The fans had high expectations which were quickly crushed following the amazing performances of Urawa Reds that season. With the gap between the two teams 15 points with seven games to go, Vakkar knew this was a game they could not afford to lose, losing would mean they had lost the title. To make matters worse the game was being played at Vakkar's home grounds. The game started well for Vakkar but quickly went downhill as Urawa took command. The final score was 4-2 for Urawa. When the final whistle blew the Vakkar fans went wild. The barriers separating the two groups were broken and fighting broke out across the stadium. This incident soon worsened as what started as fist fights in the stadium turned into a fire fight outside as a small group of hardcore Vakkar fans had smuggled weapons to the game and began firing on the crowd of Urawa Red fans. They in turn began to hurl debris at the Auvasa fans. The situation was more than the local security could handle and the nearby Imperial Forces were called to provide assistance. Following two hours to fighting the crowd was brought under control and many arrests made. The final toll seen 1,379 injured with 167 dead including 3 Imperial troops.

This incident led to Vakkar BC being deducted 24 points in the following season, ruling the championship out once more, were fined 29,000,000 credits to cover the damage and were forced to play their home games with no fans present for 8 games. The total affect of which left Vakkar BC on the verge of collapse until they were bought by the current owners. Urawa Reds who had seen 133 fans die to this day refuse to play Auvasa BC on their home grounds and this game has been moved to a neutral location.

League Records

Most Wins in a Season: Urawa Reds
Most clean sheets in a season: Corellian Hotspur
Most goals (Team) in a season: Urawa Reds
Most goals (Player) in a season: Name Name (27) (Corellian Hotspur)
Most wins overall: Vakkar BC
Most goals overall (Team): Vakkar BC
Most goals overall (player): Drockia Teabi (83) (Vakkar BC)