The distant future, the year 2022. Much has changed in the Simulation Hockey League, with the landscape looking nothing like it did just 365 days earlier. Gone are the days of dominance for teams like Tampa Bay, San Francisco, and Baltimore. Wait - what's that? Those teams were bad back then, too? Oh, well disregard my previous statement. When the clock strikes midnight on the morning of January 1, 2022, the New Year's celebrations are sure to be the most festive in Chicago, Illinois, where the legions of Syndicate fans are celebrating the team's second straight Challenge Cup victory, and looking ahead to making it three-in-a-row. Led by former Newfoundland Berserkers captain Lassi Suhonen and the aging-yet-somehow-ageless Corey Kennedy, the Syndicate look poised to top the Eastern Conference once again. In the west a new challenger emerges, though, in the expansion Albuquerque Turkeys and their star defenceman, Juukka Timmonen. A potential Challenge Cup clash for the ages awaits, and we'll need to wait only, oh, about 400 days to see how it pans out.