Earthers may not have invented Space Hockey, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to fans from the Blue Marble. When Space Hockey replaced Magnoball as humanity’s most popular sport at the dawn of the 22nd Century, Earth riders held the Sol Cup aloft eight times within a decade. The four siblings from the Mendalson family were nearly unstoppable regardless of who paired with who. Broadcast holos were filled with which musician Billy was dating, whether Friedrich was drug free, or if Melanie was going to go through with her plan to transfer her consciousness to an android body. But through it all, they kept winning.
Their offspring, however, were not quite so talented or driven. Earth has raised the Sol Cup just once in the subsequent 35 years, and have just 4 riders with Premiere Tour titles to their name during that same timeframe. The fading star of the Mendalson family can no longer shine brightly enough to illuminate the darkness that has crept into Earth’s SH Club. Earth Space Hockey fans still talk about the glory days of the Mendalsons as if it were yesterday, but the rest of the system just roll their eyes.
A new president has cleaned house, putting younger and more modern-thinking executives in place to develop and market new talent. The results haven't yet come, but some young prospects are showing well at Juniors events.
A Magnetic Anchor is a tool used by miners in Low-G environments to keep anti-grav minecarts in place while the workers load them with minerals. During one day during the late 2080’s, two miners were riding hovering extractors on the Moon trying to meet their quota for the week. In his haste, one of them accidentally slammed into the magnetic anchor, compromising its power supply. The mine carts, fully loaded with valuable minerals started drifting around the still functioning but underpowered anchor. The miners, desperate to secure their cargo, took turns bumping the floating carts back toward the anchor to try and get them to lock in place.
Their supervisor watched the entire episode in horror on her holo monitor. But when she heard her staff cheering and taking bets on the outcome of each maneuver, her creative wheels started turning. The first sanctioned Space Hockey game was played on Luna in 2097, and the game has taken off as the number one spectator sport in the entire Sol System. Lunar riders are seen as the consummate professionals, with a high attention to detail and strong fundamentals. Luna is always competitive in major events, and riders from all over the system know to respect those clad in the purple and silver.
The rivalry Mars developed with Earth in the 2110’s has cooled considerably, as neither club has fielded a consistently competitive tandem in recent memory. The Mendalsons’ torment of the Clark clan and the Radha family in the late 2100’s gave way to the dominance of the husband-and-wife duo of Emanuel Mendez and Marion Rucillo from Mars’ Acidalia Planitia colony. Finally the little brother of the system was fighting back against their bullies from the Blue Marble! But that dominance was not backed up by a strong talent pipeline in Mars’ athletic program, and by the 2120’s both Earth and Mars were seen as second class citizens of the Space Hockey world.
A recent influx of funding from the Martian government has seen some promising young riders develop. A Martian rider just won the Permiere Tour Singles title for the first time in 15 years, and a Martian pair has been on the podium at the Sol Cup the last two years. The Achilles heel of the Martian SH program has suddenly become the Venusians, who have won numerous critical games against Mars to keep them from regaining their old level of prominence. The rivalry has spilled over into the press, with each federation accusing the other of unethical practices. While most of these claims are unfounded, it has made for compelling action on the platform when they face off.
No one knows why the Jovian Athletic Conglomerate chose Io as the headquarters for Jupiter’s Space Hockey program. Not getting crushed or irradiated while mining deuterium from Jupiter holds the focus of most of those living on Io Station. Shuttle Racing is the most popular sport among those living on the various Jovian habitats, so the Space Hockey program has traditionally been underfunded and unappreciated.
That said, the few who ride professionally for Jupiter have always been talented. The Sol Cup has been draped in orange-and-brown banners three of the last ten years. A Jovian rider or team has finished in the top three of either the Singles or Doubles season each of the last five years. And anyone who steps onto the platform against a rider from Io knows they’re facing someone who’s been forged in the fires of the hardest place to live in the entire system.
The history of the Venusian Space Hockey program has mostly been one of great promise and great frustration. Apart of the multi-title run of the Jackson sisters in the late 2120’s and early 2130’s Venusian riders have always been the chic pick to win the next Sol Cup, without ever delivering such a victory. While their feuds on the platform with Martian riders have recently produced a number victories, the feuds off of it have produced scandal and spiraling costs. And all the while the riders from the outer planets sit back, laugh, and collect championships and prize money.
Since the start of the 2150’s a new rider named Juanita Pom has emerged as a generational talent. She’s won dozens of singles events, but pairing her with a capable teammate to make a serious run at the Sol Cup has proven difficult. If that search ever proved fruitful, the Sol Cup would be adorned with Venusian gold trim for a decade.
The Saturnians have been the bullies of the Space Hockey world for over a decade and a half. First it was the brother and sister pairing of Viktor and Petra Toklanov, winning three Sol Cups in seven years in the 2130’s and 40’s. More recently it’s been the Brekovic brothers; on the podium the last eight years, winning four times. Their training regimen is unparalleled in the system, and their understanding of the game goes beyond mastery. Aspiring coaches go to Titan to learn their craft. Young riders compete for apprenticeships with Titanian champions. But no one has been able to duplicate their success.
Just when the Space Hockey world thought they’d seen the end of Titan dominance, word has gotten out that Petra Toklanov’s daughter Penelope has her mother’s knack for the bike. At this time, though, she is without a worthy teammate…