Now, we aren’t setting up an HLS bookie system. This is all virtual currency. We’ve joked about “Space Bucks” on the HLS pod and, well, now we’ve made it a reality.

Last season, I activated a loyalty program within Streamlabs and, if you’ve watched any HLS stream live on Twitch, you’ve been collecting points, now branded Space Bucks. When you are in our Twitch chat, you can check out how many you have with the !points or !spacebucks command.

With these Space Bucks, you’ll be able to use the !bet command to bet on spreads and totals for every virtual matchup. It works a bit different than your typical betting and details are found in the section below.

As for prizes, I am still working on them. I plan to have a store setup with prizes that can be purchased with your Space Bucks. I also plan to have raffles that you can enter with said Space Bucks as well.

Earning Space Bucks

• Every 5 minutes, live viewers earn 10 Space Bucks, 5 extra if they’ve participated in chat.
• Follow HLS Twitch: 25 Space Bucks
• Subscribe to HLS Twitch: 100 Space Bucks
• Host or Raid HLS Twitch: 50 Space Bucks
• For every $1 donated to the Feeding America Campaign: 1 Space Buck
  • I will have to do this manually, so put your Twitch user name in the donation comment.

How Betting Payouts Work

The betting system within Streamlabs is a bit different than what you’d expect from most degenerate ventures. In short, the system is designed to only generate the virtual currency through stream actions (detailed above). Betting, however, is basically a battle between users.

As an example, say the favorite in a matchup has 500 total Space Bucks bet on it, but the dog has only 100. Should the favorite win, the 100 Space Bucks bet on the dog are lost by those bettors and distributed to the bettors of the favorite. If the dog wins, the 500 Space Bucks bet on the favorite are lost by the favorite bettors and distributed to the bettors of the underdog.

I will put a hook on each side to guarantee a winner (and piss off Eddie).

Confused and clear as mud? Well, you can always use !mybet in the chat for details on exactly what your payout will be.

Disclaimer

Again, we need to reiterate that this is all supposed to be dumb fun. Prizes will be set up in such a way that you will not have to participate in virtual degeneracy of any sort. No purchase necessary to join in on the fun.

Actual betting using real American currency is strongly discouraged and this is video game football for crying out loud. If you are doing this, consider getting help.

The post HLS Sim Madness: #HAILGAMBLOR appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Before we do that, let’s make sure to explain the (limited) logic used to fill the bracket.

Seeding

Those that have read and followed us for years, know that we are very much into the #sportsmath. So why not put it to the ultimate (virtual) test?

I took the final SP+ rankings from 2019 to provide a ranking of all FBS teams. If you have any issues with how said rankings were performed, send all complaints to Bill Connelly. He loves them.

As you go down that list, you will see some teams below .500 ranked within the top 64. With that in mind, I pulled all those teams out of automatic qualifying and put them in the First Four. That left two First Four slots open, and those were given to the only two conference runner-ups, Hawaii and Central Michigan, that weren’t in the top-64.

Is this completely fair? Probably not. Does it limit the work I had to do to produce this silliness? Absolutely.

Bracket

The picture of the full bracket is below and you can use this link for the Google Sheet it will live in, which is also embedded below.

I toyed with the idea of a true bracket competition, but the ability to do that properly is a bit of a pain. Feel free to print and fill them out for bragging rights. We will have a form of a pick ’em competition that will also incorporate Twitch. Full details will be released on Monday.

Schedule

I highly advise following the official HLS Twitter for up-to-date scheduling info. Keep in mind, I have to manually start and set up all these games on my XBox and we have a ton to go through. I still have work and kids to attend to, so while I will try to keep things moving, please be patient if they don’t!

That being said, here’s the tentative schedule, created to help replicate the work distractions the lack of March Madness has deprived you of.

First Four

Tuesday, March 24 – First kickoff @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Starts with 16-seed play-in, ends with 12-seed play-in.

Round of 64

Wednesday, March 25 – Rose Bowl Division, first kick @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Thursday, March 26 – Orange Bowl Division, first kick @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Friday, March 27 – Cotton Bowl Division, first kick @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Saturday, March 28 – Fiesta Bowl Division, first kick @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Round of 32

Monday, March 30 – Rose & Orange Bowl Divisions, first kick @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Tuesday, March 31 – Cotton & Fiesta Bowl Divisions, first kick @ 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT

Sweet Sixteen

Wednesday, April 1 – Rose & Orange Bowl Divisions, first kick @ 4pm CDT / 5pm EDT

Thursday, April 2 – Cotton & Fiesta Bowl Divisions, first kick @ 4pm CDT / 5pm EDT

Elite Eight

Friday, April 3 – First kick @ 4pm CDT / 5pm EDT

Final Four

Saturday, April 4 – First kick @ 9pm CDT / 10pm EDT

Championship

Sunday, April 5 – Kickoff @ 9pm CDT / 10pm EDT

The post HLS Sim Madness: Selection Sunday appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Instead, we find ourselves deprived of these simple joys due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Lunchtime tip replaced by daily pressers from the White House. Planning for office bracket pools swapped for a juggling act of home schooling lesson plans while working from home.

Sporting events, rightfully, remain absent during these trying times; however, we still desire something to fill that void and find a path of escape. With that in mind, we here at HLS shall do what we do best: attempt to fill said void in the silliest ways possible.

Considering that both spring football and March Madness have been taken from us, we will combine our love of virtual video game football, aka the HLS Sim, with our love of dumb bracket competitions. That’s right, we are going to gather 64 68 teams from the NCAA ’14 video game and have them face off until only one remains.

If you are in the HLS Discord, you’ve already seen a sneak peak of the bracket. For everyone else, expect another post on Sunday for the bracket release as well as additional details, like the schedule for when games will air on our Twitch channel (as of now, aiming for a Tuesday First Four tip), and making sure degenerates have the ability to wager some Space Bucks (yes, a virtual currency, we ain’t your bookie) on the games to scratch that itch as well.

One detail that we will release now is that we will use this silliness for a good cause. Many of y’all are aware that I charity stream for Extra Life; however, for the month of March, I’ve been concentrating on a campaign to support Feeding America’s COVID-19 response fund. We will be promoting this effort on the streams to help support families that have already been or now find themselves struggling with food insecurity. If you are able, please consider supporting.

Let’s have some fun. Gather (virtually via chat) to watch some video game football. Wager (virtually) on things we have no control over. Laugh and have some moments of escape so we all stay sane.

The post Introducing HLS Sim Madness appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.