The Avs Hockey Podcast

Two Fan's Perspectives on Colorado Avalanche Hockey...and jerseys too.

About Last Night’s #AvsTwitterPsychic

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For almost seven seasons now I have (on my own time and choice) “hosted” a game called #AvsTwitterPsychic on Twitter dot com. It’s a game day tradition that many people were invested in for all of the very best reasons. I don’t hesitate at all in saying that #AvsTwitterPsychic brought out the good in social media.

Things have now became somewhat complicated though. I wanted to reach out to all of you and address this. Last night the Avalanche chose to sponsor and monetize their #AvsTwitterPsychic tweet.

Addressing the social media aspect of things. Is it possible to legally “own” a hashtag? Absolutely not. But we all know who was as close to owning the #AvsTwitterPsychic hashtag as much as it could possibly be owned. It was us, the Colorado Avalanche faithful. We built it up to be something very special. It was something which couldn’t be ignored. #AvsTwitterPsychic even trended nationally on Twitter for some games. I NEVER wanted this to be about me or to be mine. I purposefully and intentionally created it to be ours. We are the people, fans, and friends who I have always lovingly referred to through the years as #TeamAvsPodcast.

Let me make something extremely clear, I had absolutely no idea the Avalanche was going to take what we created together and do what they decided to do with it. This, in no way, feels good, right, or fair. We were left a little blindsided, frustrated, somewhat confused, and definitely disappointed.

Let me also be clear in saying that I don’t feel like I am owed any compensation for anything I’ve done over the years. I chose to do it and have absolutely no regrets. Too much good has come from it.

So, friends, I’m honestly not sure what happens from here. I don’t know if we can “fix” this, but I’m sure we’ll figure something out. What I do know though is how much I appreciate what we’ve created together. It’s obviously very special and it has been a huge sense of pride for me and us. It’s all that I hoped it would become and so much more. Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your time and passion with me and with each other. All of the tweets of support (even from fans who don’t play the game but happily follow along and appreciate all it brings to the Avalanche community on game days) were amazing to read last night. The Avalanche rave about how great their fans are and I would never disagree with that. We simply want the team to be great to us in return. I don’t think that’s too much of an ask.

Here’s to hoping this doesn’t happen again in the future.

Again, you are appreciated, #TeamAvsPodcast.

Thanks for your support and take care,

Jay

#AvsTwitterPsychic: 7,000+ Thank Yous!

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It all started with a few tweets a little over two years ago.

And then it became kind of a thing.

Let’s review a quick history of #AvsTwitterPsychic and how we’ve gotten from there to here.

Late in the 2012-2013 season I began calling goals before games.  Just having some fun and hoping things would work out.  A few of my picks ended up being correct and @AvsPodcast followers began to notice.  I can track where the hashtag started down to the actual tweet.  It was during this conversation with @MattyHernAvs in early January of 2013.

 

ATP Star

A game was born.

We went through the rest of that season playing some ATP during overtimes.  Just having some fun.

Then, at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season, we kicked it up a notch.  Choose who scores the first good hockey goal for the Avalanche and get a retweet after the game.  Simple and easy.  The game within the game.  Just a way for people to enjoy Avalanche hockey a little more (whether our team won or lost) as well as a way for Avs fans to get connected with other Avs fans.

I honestly never thought we would get to where we are.

We played for a season and things went great.  Many people played, shared, spread the word, and grew the game.  I wasn’t tracking the hashtag last season at all.  A pilot season for ATP, if you will.

Even though it took the Avalanche until their third game to score a good hockey goal this season, we still played and had a good time.  That’s what it’s all about.

And then, on December 13, 2014, just after I posted a morning tweet about playing #AvsTwitterPsychic for that night’s Avs/Blues game things got serious.

Whoa.  I never thought that would happen.  Ever.

My buddy Tedd summed things up quite well just after the tweet from the Avalanche’s Twitter feed.  

Some games later the Avs made another #AvsTwitterPsychic pick and chose Nathan Mackinnon.  29 just happened to score the first good hockey goal for the Avalanche that game.  The Avs, on their own, then contacted five other people who also chose 29 and sent them Nathan MacKinnon signed pucks.  How cool is that?

Fast forward to now.

During the 2014-2015 season the #AvsTwitterPsychic hashtag was used on Twitter almost 7,300 times.  That’s a little less than 100 posts a game.  More and more people are playing, including the Avalanche’s Twitter feed every once in a while, and more and more Avs fans are connecting with one another.  (There are some fans that know about the game and don’t play for superstitious reasons.  I get that.  They’re still connected though and that’s all that matters.)

In case you’re curious, here are the official ATP stats for the season.  I was nervous for a while that <Curse Word> (also known as a shutout) was going to be the season leader, but then Jarome Iginla heated up and got this team going on more than a few nights.

2014-15 ATP Results

 

Overall, it was an amazing season for our game.  Thanks to all of you for making #AvsTwitterPsychic a part of your Avs game day experience this season and thanks for telling other Avalanche fans you know about ATP.  Those of you that play (and spread the word) are the heart and soul of ATP.  The game wouldn’t be what it is without you.  I hope you had as much fun playing as I did seeing all your tweets each and every game.

Let’s keep things rolling next season and keep growing the game.  I’m kind of biased, but in my opinion it’s way too much fun not to.  I kind of feel like we’re just getting started.

Let’s Go Avs!