FOLKS. This is about to be a long thread. A bit of a journey. Like for so many of you, quarantine has been rough. But I'm pretty lucky. I still have my job, unlike so many others; it allows me to work from home, unlike so many others; and my cat Whiskey is the best company. 1/

(and yes, @ChattaGooner, this is the thing I was hinting at.)

Also special thanks to @phat7deuce, @JosephSlowvak, @pirmas697 @TheDukeNGS @AgainstJackie @tacoman_x86 @pinfurna_ and @providencecity_ for the help on a few elements of this (Spoilers). 2/

But the boredom bug is real. There's only so much TV you can stream or movies you can watch. And tbh there's not a ton out there that really speaks to me. Especially now, in our feels like trapped state. 3/

Two weeks ago, I saw the below tweet from @DR928. I always knew that PES existed. I even knew that option files and some customization existed. But I've played every FIFA since 10 and old habits die hard. 4/ https://twitter.com/DR928/status/1248345345173721096?s=20

It's no surprise that I'm missing @ChattanoogaFC. The rest of us are, too. And if you're not a fan of CFC but a fan of another team (strikethrough what's wrong with you), you're experiencing this too. 5/

The biggest drawback about the FIFA video game franchise, aside from the utter lack of defending shape lately (I've seen turtles track runs from midfield faster), is that there are no customization features. At least not in the last decade. How am I supposed to get my CFC fix? 6/

so Derek's tweet was a light bulb moment. Two weeks ago, I bought and downloaded PES cause it was massively on sale. Easter weekend was spent trying to learn about this game and, spoiler, there isn't an instruction manual. 7/

The last two weeks of weeknights and weekends have been mostly spent creating a fictional* lower division soccer league for US clubs.

Yeah, there's an asterisk on fictional. We'll get there. You'll see. Let's start with @ChattanoogaFC, the only reason I did this. 8/

Originally, I created forgeries of prior years kits. A home navy modeled after 2015, the 2016 away whites, the 2019 sky blues, and even the 2016 gold home jersey.

That's right. I missed CFC so much I even wanted to see us in a fictional context in a gold jersey. 9/

(Posting this group of now 10 as one so you all can join me in real time for the rest of these.)

(And so I can make notes of you who like post number 9.)

So I present the 2020 definitely not real and very fictional CFC kit concepts for PES. Navy at home, white on the road, and a sky concept (those are narrow stripes for depth) modeled off of our 2019 sky kit. 11/

But the best part and the one I may be most proud of is HOOPS. Did you know that @ChattanoogaFC has never done hoops? Like ever. We did stripes once, but never hoops. 12/

NOT ONLY DID I DO HOOPS BUT I DID GOLD HOOPS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU ALL 13/

This was mean. 14/ https://twitter.com/ChattanoogaFC/status/1253127854046547968?s=20

Honestly, I could have stopped here. And if we weren't all in quarantine, I probably would have. But CFC needs teams to play. Real teams. And PES can't exactly provide that. 15/

So..... I made the 2020 version of @DetroitCityFC. Obvious choice. Great humans. Pretty decent soccer team. Shoutout for sending me the hex codes for the team's colors. (Your keeper kit is also real, but you're gonna have to get the game for that). 16/

Okay. 17/ https://twitter.com/tacoman_x86/status/1253129048382939136?s=20

It was around about here that I learned something. Sometimes you can't find all the information you need to make a completely 100% accurate version of another club's kit. And that's OKAY. @DR928 is a graphic designer (and the stuff he does is good and go follow him) but I am not.

We're all in quarantine! Getting it 95% of the way is still pretty cool. So I decided to make a lot more.

But first I experimented with an option file for the @CPLsoccer. God bless the Canadians. You can find that one on the @northtribune site... somewhere. 19/

Long live my beloved @HFXWanderersFC. Cancelling a vacation to Nova Scotia this summer to see them for the first time kinda sucked - but also let's remember that I have it way better than a lot of people in this novel coronavirus fight. Perspective. 20/

Anyway. The experimenting was good and useful. And I went ahead and used 2019's kits to create Cal United Strikers PLUS their 2020 surf blue kit. See you guys soon. 21/

Remember that bit about perfection and how it was okay to fall short of that? Excellent. Look at Cal United Strikers' crest one more time.

Turns out google doesn't have a useable version of their new one. The more you know. Onward. 22/

CFC played our only *professional* match against @oaklandrootssc a while back. 1-1 draw, they stole it late, whatever. That was hundreds of years ago. I made them too.

Their kits are a lot cooler than what I can produce, so it's w/o the fancy multicolored sponsor & numbers 23/

Also it should be apparently obvious that these are 100% taking pictures on my phone of a television screen. Technology.... not exactly my friend. That might matter later. 24/

So it's no surprise that some of @NISALeague's clubs are really cool (shoutout to the launch of @NAFCNY, can't wait to meet y'all) and some are..... in need of a few enhancements. Like, I'm not out here making LA Force or Michigan Stars. Come on folks. 25/

BUT. I'm pretty excited about the New York Cosmos joining in the fall. Even though they already played a match in NISA in Detroit colors. 26/

I made 4 for them, the max I could. All of these should harken back to a few years ago. And I own the Navy kit (it seemed like the right thing to do when I thought y'all were dead). Also used Under Armor and the Fly Emirates logo because creative license. 27/

But this only leaves us with 5 teams. 5 teams does not make a league. So I turned to former NISA member and former @naslofficial team THE MIAMI FC (I think we're legally required to refer to them as "THE" under penalty of someone's law). 28/

Oh, you noticed? Yes, that's an NASL logo on their sleeve. It didn't feel right giving them a NISA logo since they left. But I'm not about to put a USL logo on them. (No offense guys, but y'all tried to murder my club and most of us are more bitter than me) 29/

Since we've gone down the NASL road.... my thought process turned to adding teams. So here's Miami rival and former NASL team Tampa Bay Rowdies! I tried to forge the home design and then go a little old school for the white. 30/

Also let's stop for a minute. Do you ever wonder what US lower division soccer would be like if we had a functioning ecosystem? Like, if our federation wasn't hopelessly corrupt and if leagues didn't compete against one another? 31/

or if leagues didn't try to convince clubs to join and when they refused, tried to murder them

*stares intensely*

OR if leagues weren't run by people who happened to be corrupt, criminal, and incompetent at the same time? (looking at you pre-2017 NASL)

Mercy.

33/

But since I started down this road with Miami and Tampa Bay, I figured I'd continue. So I made @IndyEleven, too.

With last year's home kit and about an 85% job on their brand new away whites.

And @NorthCarolinaFC too

by the way, and this isn't necessarily a critique on the team above, but it became readily apparent which teams use templates for their kits and which teams don't.

teams using templates was a lot easier and for that I am grateful.

remember when san antonio was in nasl? I mean, they weren't SAFC then, but they did the thing. their stuff wasn't easy and that new home checkers kit was tough to do.

So by this point I had worked my way through the pro clubs I wanted to do. some others interested me, but also an idea happened. I was going down this NASL road for some reason. Not even sure why - we didn't even ever play in the league.

But here we are. 39/

So I did @JaxArmadaFC. And why not? Pro club, been in NPSL for the last few years. About to build a stadium and come back to the pro ranks... somewhere. Also helps they've worn the same stuff since 2018 and there's a template for it. 40/

Jax is now a part of the new NPSL Gulf Coast Conference, assuming we're allowed to ever have sports again. One of their conference mates was a long time foe of ours in @NolaJesters. Nola has been rumored of going pro for a while - so I figured why not! 41/

Did I take a few creative liberties with the Jesters? yes. do I regret it? no. are the exactly the kind of club that randomly starts wearing Joma in a pro context? absolutely. 42/

But let's remember why we're here. I saw a thread from @DR928. If you didn't know, his club was the Ft Lauderdale Strikers. I say was.

They're not with us anymore. Their stadium is no longer with us. It's an American soccer tragedy that's all to real to a lot of folks. 43/

So he and some folks from @Flight_19 started up @HimmarsheeFC. Which is awesome.

Anyway, I created the @FTLStrikers. If we were going to recreate the NASL gloryish days, may as well bring a deceased club into it.

I also left off the front sponsor because.... screw them. 44/

Here's another dead club that could live on. Remember the Atlanta Silverbacks. Lived on in the shadow of United until the name cost too much to rent? Their reserve team was tough to play, their NPSL team was good, & the PK called against us in the 2015 USOC was garbage.

A combination of USSF taking the NASL out back and shooting it, a hurricane and Carmelo being absent didn't help @PuertoRicoFC survive the chaos. But they live on here. 46/

also - we've come so far but haven't even mentioned. you guys remember who won the NASL in 2017 right? a one hit wonder. THE DELTAS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 47/

yes obviously these aren't real. did you guys know that the PES Master editor doesn't an option for Inaria kits? it was news to me too.

I got them semi close to the original design and then used New Balance since I hadn't had a chance to yet (full on nerd status, achieved) 48/

your wish was my command 2 tweets ago 49/ https://twitter.com/kivlehan/status/1253145561101934592?s=20

but honestly. and I mean truly honestly. we're down this path. you know what would make this all 10000000% better? just for pure fun? 50/

no one asked for this and there's not much of a chance there are any fans actually out there that would want this but who cares I GIVE TO YOU MY GIFT OF RAYO OKC 51/

(yes I realize their alternate kits are not totally accurate. I could only get half the colors from the sash into the image. this is what happens when you get people like me doing this and not actual artists 52/)

Now that. That wraps up the NASL path we went down. And all of that still left spots for 3 clubs to go.

In case you're curious, I created these in the PLA - which I guess means Playable Latin America. a generic south american league for stuff like this. 53/

what I didn't discover until we were past the point of no return, is that if you have way too many clubs and want to do pro/rel (lmao, ussf), you can't actually transfer these teams among continents.

furthermore - the base code stays. so CFC has spanish banners now 54/

which is fine. the rest of you do, too, minus a couple of the teams created over fake Brazilian teams.

if that were to change, we'd have to start over completely. I'd take over the two divisions of english football. 55/

the work required to change all the names, crests, and whatnot is a little less than you think.

but PES' menus are actually terrible. I think they're built on DOS code. we first sent people into space on stuff like that. the players would be really hard to change. 56/

it's possible, but difficult. and tbh I'm pretty happy where we ended up. a vehicle to play with CFC (and maybe you with your team) when we're all trying to stay inside for a while. 57/

So those three clubs that are left? I wanted to help promote them. And as unluck would have it, CFC was going to play two of them this year. We'll see if that holds. 58/

I think the folks over at @lrrangers and @theredwatchlr are pretty great and are doing some awesome things. And we had a home and home set up!

So here's Little Rock with a NISA crest (would love to have y'all!). 59/

Rangers' kits are inspired by the real thing - but tbh their new front of kit sponsor doesn't have a logo that's easy to work with. so I grabbed a new sponsor of theirs for the front and had fun with some designs. 60/

I've also been paying attention to the folks at @providencecity_ for a while. I even own 1 of their kits. Since they're coming out with new stuff here and there, I wanted to have some fun and put my own twist on it.

Also I hadn't had the chance to use the Kappa silhouettes. 61/

But that’s not all. They also have a creative outlet which does their own stuff. This kit was inspired by FC Providence. 62/

And last, but not least. we were going to play them this year. and hopefully we still will. I own a couple scarves from these folks and admire them from afar. Here's @SavCloversFC! 63/

Oh, what's that you say? Those are pretty simple? And @SavCloversFC was taking input on some future kits? Okay fine.

I originally did green and gold in hoops but already did that with the Rowdies so did stripes for green and the burgundy in hoops, instead. Free idea. 64/

THAT'S IT. That's all 20 teams. This was fun.

Though to be honest, the launch of @NAFCNY got me back in the chair doing some mockups (feel free to send me hex codes and sponsors and a kit manufacture you're using) thinking about the next 20 (or 24?). 65/

If your next question is: Whiskey, how might I obtain all of these? Then..... I'm not sure.

Remember that part about being not tech savvy? It wasn't a joke! I'm not. But I shall try. Maybe those smarter than I can help. 66/

If you're interested in helping in any theoretical next round (anyone want pro/rel with more teams? We're gonna have to shift to England which means all new players and a lot more work!), get at me. 67/

If any lower division clubs out there want to send me high-res versions of their logos that are transparent with a desire of playing e-soccer this summer - hit me up! There were several that I couldn't find good stuff for (and others that we just ran out of room on). 68/

Social distancing isn't that great. But it beats spreading this novel coronavirus. It beats potentially being an asymptomatic carrier and infecting you or your loved ones, or mine. 69/

So I hope this thread and its contents will bring you some joy. I'm happy to share and even work on the next batch with you (just, someone should teach me how. get at me).

Together, we'll get through this thing. For the two of us at Whiskey HQ, happy quarantining! 70/x