Eccentric, obnoxious, beer-drinking hockey dads. Who doesn’t know a few people like that? CBC is counting on this familiarity to drive the success of the second season of The Tournament.

The comical mockumentary follows a fictional minor hockey team, The Farqueson Funeral Home Warriors, as they travel around the country to take on other youth teams. The twist with this series, however, is that the fathers of some of the kids on the team are even more rude, obnoxious, and overzealous than real hockey parents.

“My character is definitely a bore, a boob, and an ass,” said Alain Goulem, who plays Barry McConnell on the show. “But he comes from a pure place and really believes in his son.”

Christian Portenza, who plays Barry’s best buddy, Doug, described his character in similar terms: “My character is the loveable, drunken hoser hockey dad. Through drunken stupors I go from arena to arena with my son.”

The show started as a six-part miniseries last year, but will have 10 episodes to develop plotlines and characters in its second year.

“This year all the actors are more comfortable in their character’s skin,” said Goulem.

“We have definitely gone deeper into my character this year,” added Portenza. “Doug has really evolved. Last year was pretty safe, but this year we really delve into neuroses of a hockey dad.”

CBC is spending a lot more money on the show this year and is giving it a much bigger advertising push. The budget for The Tournament this year is $5 million and ads have been running during peak ratings times, including Saturday nights during Hockey Night in Canada.

The cast believes the push will help make the show one of the most-watched Canadian series’. Goulem predicted big numbers for the mockumentary this year.

“CBC has put a lot of muscle behind the show, and I would like to see double the ratings from last year,” he said. I would like to see Corner Gas numbers.”

“We’re better than them,” he added with a chuckle.

The show is hoping to generate bigger laughs this year with absurd story lines, which include a woman being married to two men, stealing an opposing team’s playbook, and Barry going to extreme lengths to make his son into the next Wayne Gretzky. McConnell and Doug are joined on the show by a rowdy cast of characters, including Dr. Singh, Stan Ryckman, and a group of hockey moms who have just as many problems as their husbands.

The cast hopes that people will get drawn into the show by scenarios that they can relate to. They also hope that once people start watching the show they won’t be able to stop.

People will say they really liked a certain episode because something similar has happened to them,” explained Portenza. There is not one person who can’t relate to this show.”

“This season is rocking,” he added. “The arcing of the storylines is addictive.”

The Tournament runs every Tuesday night at 8:30 from November 15 to January 31. Tune in to find out if it really is as good as Corner Gas.