An unmasked Yoshimitsu McCloud was found practicing was one of the sights one could find in San Bernardino earlier this morning.

SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA - Locals of the city are already gearing up for the fourth edition of the Friendly Cup, a tournament for charity in which hockey players trade their blades and hockey sticks for a pair of soccer cleats with all revenue generated from the event directed to the Outlungus Foundation. Although the tournament serves mostly to guarantee funds that the Foundation has since used to help with causes such as immigration and aiding the health of the poor that live in the state of California and another six nearby states, players themselves don't receive any sort of aide to participation nor do they get any prize for winning: even then, players arrived earlier to the venue of the competition with the direct interest of preparing for the tournament.

One of the first players to arrive was Irish winger for the West Kendall Platoon Yoshimitsu McCloud. McCloud has been a regular in the Friendly Cup, attending all previous three editions and being in the winning team on two occasions. The first of three to willingly put himself up as a captain for the tournament, he admitted to having arrived (on foot, per tradition) to the city mostly to practice in the facilities of a local club and have some fun before "getting serious" in the soccer field. When asked exactly why so, he shrugged and said that "more fans show up when you play seriously" and he also mentioned that he appreciates the opportunity of meeting players from other leagues in these events.

Funnily enough, the event once again draws most of its' players from the Intercontinental Hockey League (mostly from the Nagano Kitsune but also from a couple of other organizations sympathetic to the cause such as the Abidjan Elephants and the Brisbane Heat) while another four can claim themselves to be from the Victory Hockey League. "It's rather nice to see people you normally wouldn't see, even if the idea that we're meeting in a footy field makes it feel rather odd," said Yoshimitsu McCloud before blasting a ball at the back of the head of one of those "people you normally wouldn't see", more specifically his cousin-in-law Jean Louis Robotnik, another returning player from the IHL.

Other players (including fellow captains Cal Labovitch and Mitchell van der Heijden, plus other noteworthy names like Monkey D. Luffy, Emeka Valentine-Okoli and Rhys Pritchard) would arrive not too long later that very same day with a rather similar mindset... which does begs the question as to whether the tournament is indeed a friendly endeavour or just another kind of competition. The Friendly Cup's 4th edition is scheduled to start tomorrow, emanating from the Dynamo Park at the suburban part of San Bernardino, home of the American Soccer League's Dynamo SB club who has been chosen as the home venue for the tournament. Fans will be able to catch it on the radio if unable to be present while a tape-delayed version of the games will be posted to YouTube as soon as they finish.

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Former Players: Yoshimitsu McCloud (LW, #64) -
Won a Four Star Cup once, knew ninjutsu, picture editors hated him, never tried free agency
Anton Harrier (LW, #90) -
Won WJC gold, liked skateboarding a lot, went to the finals with Manhattan, kept his seat glued in LR

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