PowerPlay Magazin

PPM Hockey, Canada.

End of season 7: The Mighty Oil gets relegated from I.1 to II.4.

End of season 8: The team goes back to I.1.

Season 9: The Mighty Oil is crowned I.1 playoff champion, National Cup champion, and his manager is named GM of Team Canada for a second time.

Q&A with the man behind one great comeback.

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Q. Who is that guy named themightyoil?

A. As many of you know, my name is Neill. I live in Edmonton and work all over Western Canada for an oil field services company. We have five wonderful kids that keep us busy with hockey and gymnastics. Kelowna is where I like vacation.

Q. What relationship do you have with hockey in general?

A. I played hockey growing up. I still get on the ice from time to time, but work and family keep me from commiting to playing any organized hockey. I was (still am) pretty fanatical about the Oilers. I was in the stands with my dad when the Oilers won their first Cup against the Islanders in 1984. 

Q. How did you first found out about PPM?

A. For as long as I can remember, I've had teams in drafts or pools. About 3 years ago, I searched out hockey manager games to fill the void when I had down time at work. PPM was the one found, it was still in beta phase at the time. I thought it was pretty cool that people were playing it from all corners of the earth. I never expected for it to consume me like it does. It is the only manager game that I play.

Q. You've been the GM of Canada's national hockey team for two seasons, what are your greatest memories of it?

A. Season 7 was a pretty wild ride. Many of the PPM experts were predicting a demotion for Team Canada. We won our first game against Germany and went into our second as a heavy underdog against Slovakia. I decided to play that game on Very Low to save energy, and we pulled off a huge upset. In game one of the second round, I did the same thing against a very strong Russian team and we won again. We made the playoff round with a lot of saved energy but fell to the Latvians who got us on tactics in the quarter finals. Pulling off the two improbable upsets in that tournament was very memorable.

Season 9 was tough because our opening game loss to Belarus put us behind the eight ball right away. The win against the Czechs in game 5 was the highlight, but we were already all but eliminated from the playoff round at that time.

I've enjoyed working with canucks357, saint2e, saltyanchovy, deadrick, and many others on Team canada.

Q. What do you think future will be made of for Canada in PPM?

A. The future of Team Canada in PPM is a mystery to me. We have had more success in the World Championships than any other small PPM community. I think an eventual demotion to Div. 1 is predictable, but our historical record at the World's says otherwise.

Q. Your hockey team, The Mighty Oil, got relegated from I.1 to II.4 at the end of season 7. What were you thinking at that time?

A. My goal that season was to make it to the playoffs. I was integrating some youth into my lineup and trying to save energy at the same time. The Mighty Oil ended up falling out of the playoff picture with some bad losses early in the second half. I then decided to drop down for (hopefully) a season, and then come back stronger with a younger lineup. It worked out pretty good, I got to the NC finals and won II.4 in season 8.

Q. You then went on to win the I.1 playoffs in your first season back, had you ever thought it was possible?

A. I thought it was possible, not likely, but possible.

Q. You were part of the last two National Cup finals, winning the most recent one. Knowing you also won the I.1, is it fair to say you've got the best hockey team in Canada?

A. No. I just consider my team to be one of the top 8 in Canada, with no one team being vastly superior to any of the others. I think there are a number of teams that have a chance at winning I.1 each season. Season 9 just went extremely well for The Mighty Oil. 

Q. Now that you've won pretty much everything, what keeps you in the game?

A. Another I.1 title is my goal right now. I eventually want to make a good run at either the Cup Winners Cup or Champions League but my team isn't good enough just yet. A major rebuid to The Mighty Oil is already in progress. 

Q. Are there any team or GM that you look at as a role model or that you highly respect?

A. There are lots of managers that I follow pretty closely but I'll just talk about three: Canucks357 (Royal City Redshift) is Canada's most dedicated manager. He is the one that I communicate with the most, and see's the game much like I do. 
Deadrick is Canada's most successful manager. I consider les Nicol Bolas as the team to beat each and every season.
Mikpj is Canada's most colourful manager. He says some really funny stuff on forums and has a knack for stirring things up. The Montreal Strippers are a team that you never want to lose to.

Q. What is the best advice you could give to someone starting a PPM hockey team?

A. Make it your first priority to build up your facilities, especially training. Make your best player your goalie. And ask lots of questions (the PPM community is extremely helpful).

Q. What is your opinion on the way PPM progresses?

A. I like how PPM has evolved. I really appreciate how hard the developers work at improving the game. I expect to be involved with this game for many more years.

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Special thanks to themightyoil for taking the time to answer my questions and to those who dared to read my first PPM article.

Feel free to comment or send me a message and let me know what you would like to read in my next publication.

Have a nice day!

Habs72