Gustav

The very first messages in the Hounds server.
 
 
There's a gap in my message history on the forum between April 3rd and 7th, 2019--that unfortunate period of time I described in my last article where I was busy being nonexistent as a GM in the World Juniors and not having access to my computer. Having things go the way they did might lead many people, myself included, to believe that I wasn't quite cut out for a job as GM. And as justifiable as that may have been, it didn't stop me from applying for a real GM job just four days later on the 11th. Fortunately for myself and others, the league was at the start of a massive period of growth, and jobs were available. In this case, three new teams were being added to the VHLM--the Hounds, Marlins, and Kings.
 
Lots of first-timers had applied for the job, many deserving, but I'd point to a bit of unintentional campaigning as something that made the difference. I'd been into the VHL Discord server a handful of times before, but hadn't gone too deep on a leaguewide basis and didn't have a whole lot of personal interaction that would have made people outside of Houston know me and like me. That would change, though, when I opened up the server to some "getting hired" talk featuring a member named Goonie, one of the other applicants.
 
Goonie was nice. We spent some time talking about our interests in the league, what we intended to do with a team if we got one, and all that. I learned that Goonie was an alias of an older member who wanted a bit of a fresh start, and so it meant something nice to me when we agreed to promote each other in the quest for a job--in the simplest of ways by my posting #hiregoonie and his replies of #hiregustav. We were serious about it, and it's also important to note that when you're active and interacting with others in a positive way, the league will notice. In the end, both Goonie and I got a team. Goonie was hired as inaugural GM of the San Diego Marlins (and just about immediately after ditched the fake name for his old one, @InstantRockstar), and I was brought on as the one who would kick off a legacy in Mississauga.
 
There were a few things I knew I valued from the start. Every GM wants an active server, but I saw how much @Rin had tried with us in Houston and wanted to give that back to my own team. In fact, I loved the Houston server so much that the first version of the Hounds server was almost an exact carbon copy of Houston--the only channel I remember adding on my own terms was #music-sharing, an extremely minor change that just served as my outlet for dumping things I wanted to share on people. I immediately hired @Radcow, a friend of mine from Houston, as my AGM, and we went to work going over the draft lists and getting ready for our first draft in league management.
 
And what. a. draft. that was for us. We took care of goaltending right away by selecting @Rayzor_7 and Rayz Funk 3rd overall, and then turned around and picked @Hogan and his namesake player Hulk Hogan at 22nd. Both eventually spent the bulk of their careers with Seattle and made the Hall of Fame. Our third pick (33rd) featured Cody Smith and @cody73, who would turn out to be a solid VHL-level depth piece as a player and an AGM in a couple different places as a member. Way later on in the draft, too, we were fortunate enough to select Scott Greene, yet another longtime Bear, managed by one of my favorite members of all time in @DoktorFunk. Though I would only invite a few people in from elsewhere, we had way more than enough to keep our server popping, and it positively popped all season long. This didn't even stop at the draft, either--someone you may know as another-future-Seattle-Bear @Berocka joined us through the waiver wire (and I had to send a second DM to get him in our server because he thought I was a bot or something at first). Perhaps the most telling with respect to servers popping was that Seattle GM and VHLM Commissioner @Banackock had access to our server through his role--and you may have noticed a certain VHL team in common among my three most distinguished picks and my most distinguished signing. 
 
I won't act like I wasn't lucky to stumble upon such a great group of new members so early on, nor that this wasn't most of the reason our server was as active as it was. But for all Houston was, and for all we heard Philadelphia was, in S65, I like to think that Mississauga was the place to be in S66. Constantly active, overflowing with much of the league's next generation, and even free of the drama that had plagued those other two places a season before and in article #2 of this series. 
 
The first Hounds team wouldn't go too far. We were led by VHLM MVP (and S65 Bull) Callum MacElroy, had developed our picks like no one's business, and firmly established ourselves as a competitive playoff team, but just didn't have the resources to spend that teams like (ugh) Philly did and got smacked around in the playoffs. I'd accomplished something big nonetheless by leading a team--this time the right way--and served the actual purpose of the VHLM by showing people a good time and helping them make it big on the next level. And, more importantly for me, I now had people who looked up to me and I felt respected as a more "established" member of the VHL. For all intents and purposes, I'd accomplished what was on my mind for myself.
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name
#2: Can't We All Just Get Along?
#3: Who Needs Cybersecurity Anyway?

The very first messages in the Hounds server.
 
 
There's a gap in my message history on the forum between April 3rd and 7th, 2019--that unfortunate period of time I described in my last article where I was busy being nonexistent as a GM in the World Juniors and not having access to my computer. Having things go the way they did might lead many people, myself included, to believe that I wasn't quite cut out for a job as GM. And as justifiable as that may have been, it didn't stop me from applying for a real GM job just four days later on the 11th. Fortunately for myself and others, the league was at the start of a massive period of growth, and jobs were available. In this case, three new teams were being added to the VHLM--the Hounds, Marlins, and Kings.
 
Lots of first-timers had applied for the job, many deserving, but I'd point to a bit of unintentional campaigning as something that made the difference. I'd been into the VHL Discord server a handful of times before, but hadn't gone too deep on a leaguewide basis and didn't have a whole lot of personal interaction that would have made people outside of Houston know me and like me. That would change, though, when I opened up the server to some "getting hired" talk featuring a member named Goonie, one of the other applicants.
 
Goonie was nice. We spent some time talking about our interests in the league, what we intended to do with a team if we got one, and all that. I learned that Goonie was an alias of an older member who wanted a bit of a fresh start, and so it meant something nice to me when we agreed to promote each other in the quest for a job--in the simplest of ways by my posting #hiregoonie and his replies of #hiregustav. We were serious about it, and it's also important to note that when you're active and interacting with others in a positive way, the league will notice. In the end, both Goonie and I got a team. Goonie was hired as inaugural GM of the San Diego Marlins (and just about immediately after ditched the fake name for his old one, @InstantRockstar), and I was brought on as the one who would kick off a legacy in Mississauga.
 
There were a few things I knew I valued from the start. Every GM wants an active server, but I saw how much @Rin had tried with us in Houston and wanted to give that back to my own team. In fact, I loved the Houston server so much that the first version of the Hounds server was almost an exact carbon copy of Houston--the only channel I remember adding on my own terms was #music-sharing, an extremely minor change that just served as my outlet for dumping things I wanted to share on people. I immediately hired @Radcow, a friend of mine from Houston, as my AGM, and we went to work going over the draft lists and getting ready for our first draft in league management.
 
And what. a. draft. that was for us. We took care of goaltending right away by selecting @Rayzor_7 and Rayz Funk 3rd overall, and then turned around and picked @Hogan and his namesake player Hulk Hogan at 22nd. Both eventually spent the bulk of their careers with Seattle and made the Hall of Fame. Our third pick (33rd) featured Cody Smith and @cody73, who would turn out to be a solid VHL-level depth piece as a player and an AGM in a couple different places as a member. Way later on in the draft, too, we were fortunate enough to select Scott Greene, yet another longtime Bear, managed by one of my favorite members of all time in @DoktorFunk. Though I would only invite a few people in from elsewhere, we had way more than enough to keep our server popping, and it positively popped all season long. This didn't even stop at the draft, either--someone you may know as another-future-Seattle-Bear @Berocka joined us through the waiver wire (and I had to send a second DM to get him in our server because he thought I was a bot or something at first). Perhaps the most telling with respect to servers popping was that Seattle GM and VHLM Commissioner @Banackock had access to our server through his role--and you may have noticed a certain VHL team in common among my three most distinguished picks and my most distinguished signing. 
 
I won't act like I wasn't lucky to stumble upon such a great group of new members so early on, nor that this wasn't most of the reason our server was as active as it was. But for all Houston was, and for all we heard Philadelphia was, in S65, I like to think that Mississauga was the place to be in S66. Constantly active, overflowing with much of the league's next generation, and even free of the drama that had plagued those other two places a season before and in article #2 of this series. 
 
The first Hounds team wouldn't go too far. We were led by VHLM MVP (and S65 Bull) Callum MacElroy, had developed our picks like no one's business, and firmly established ourselves as a competitive playoff team, but just didn't have the resources to spend that teams like (ugh) Philly did and got smacked around in the playoffs. I'd accomplished something big nonetheless by leading a team--this time the right way--and served the actual purpose of the VHLM by showing people a good time and helping them make it big on the next level. And, more importantly for me, I now had people who looked up to me and I felt respected as a more "established" member of the VHL. For all intents and purposes, I'd accomplished what was on my mind for myself.
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name
#2: Can't We All Just Get Along?
#3: Who Needs Cybersecurity Anyway?

@AJW put out an article this week outlining some proposed changes to the VHLM. This included abolishing the VHLE and expanding the VHLM by two teams to accommodate the players from the E. I've decided to take this idea and run with it. What if this happened? What could the possible new franchises be?
Since it is a two team expansion, it makes sense for there to be one team added to each conference. I started thinking about where these new franchises could end up. I am a little biased, so I only considered Canadian locations. 
 
Without further ado, I present the first expansion team added to the Eastern Conference, the New Brunswick Tides!

I liked the idea of having the Bay of Fundy represented in a team. Since the Bay is located between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine, and Halifax already has a team, I decided on New Brunswick. The logo features rock formation from the Bay of Fundy and the tides moving in from below. The letters NB are brought in to show the team's location. I decided on a brown and blue colour palette to represent the rocks and water. The team would have two home jerseys, that would be called the "High Tide" and "Low Tide" jerseys.
 
The second team would enter the Western Conference. Saskatoon is the only western Canadian team in the M, so there were lots of locations to choose. I decided on Vancouver, only to realize there is a VHL team in Vancouver (I'm new so I forgot). This team could be a new VHLM team, or possible a rebrand of the Vancouver Wolves.
 
I present to you, the Vancouver Alpines!

The Alpines feature a simple by sharp design. The logo consists of a "V" for Vancouver, with the peak of the Rockies emerging from within. The different shades of blue and grey are featured throughout the jersey. I imagine there would be a third jersey that has an alternate word-mark logo that says "ALPS".
 
This was a ton of fun to make, if not time consuming. There are so many concepts I could have gone with, but I'm really happy with how these turned out. Maybe one day we will see @AJW's vision come to fruition, and maybe New Brunswick or Vancouver will be in the running for expansions.

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

I'm a nerd for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that I'm a little overly interested in geography. By that, I don't mean anything useful, like understanding how topographic features affect weather patterns or human migration or anything. I mean all the dumb stuff like knowing where to find any country on a map, learning the location of each of Ohio's 88 counties, or digging into the history of abnormal features like what the border used to look like between India and Bangladesh. Along the way, I've come across lots of different places that I find interesting for one dumb reason or another, and I'm going to try to match some VHL teams to those places for the purposes of rebranding.
 
Gaffney, South Carolina - the "Peach Capital of South Carolina," Gaffney is known pretty much entirely as the site of the iconic Peachoid water tower. Because of this, the Gaffney Peaches would be a super gimmicky team name. As it's very close to Spartanburg, I think @Spartan  and Moscow would be a nice target for relocation here. 
 
Kanorado, Kansas - named the way it is because of its location near the state line with Colorado, Kanorado is near Mount Sunflower, the highest point in the entire state. Although Mount Sunflower isn't at all distinguishable from the land that surrounds it, I think that's part of what makes it cool and I think the 153 people living in Kanorado could use a hockey team to make them a bit more distinguishable from the rest. The Kanorado Sunflowers make natural sense to me, and I'd move Saskatoon here because they're already in very flat territory and could get used to it pretty quickly.
 
Greensburg, Kansas - I swear I'll move out of small towns in Kansas after this one, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a place with a more compelling history. Greensburg was completely wiped out by a tornado in 2007, and since completely rebuilt. For that reason, I'd move Chicago here and keep the Phoenix nickname--it's arguably much more fitting here than there. Oh, and it's also the site of the world's largest hand-dug well!
 
Seville, Ohio - proclaiming itself as "a giant of a village" on multiple signs throughout town, I've actually visited this one and was surprised by how much they lean into their most distinguishing feature--that being the home and burial site of the world's tallest married couple. I suppose it's better to focus on that than to draw attention to being the retirement home of Jeffrey Dahmer's father, and it's for that reason that I'll suggest that they go full tacky and welcome the Seville Giants to town--relocated from New York, because New York already has a team called the Giants and I think it would be funny to get rid of a different team in favor of the name.
 
Kennebunkport, Maine - the most well-off place I've ever been to, Kennebunkport is about an hour away from Portland and is the vacation home of the Bush family (as in, both American presidents). I think this would be an interesting social experiment in that a team here could conceivably charge a whole boatload of money to people who have whole boatloads to throw around. Could they balance the budget of a team on a town with somewhat limited population? Quite possibly--and though I'm not 100% sure I love the name, perhaps the Kennebunkport Executives would have to do. I'd move (gasp) Davos here as it's a small-population, rich-people place who probably knows a thing or two.
 
Boonville, California - not in a part of the state that's commonly visited, Boonville is isolated from lots of other places out on the West Coast--which could certainly have been a factor in the development of a language entirely specific to Boonville. The name could come from any word at all in Boontling, but I like the Boonville Bootjacks a lot because the words sound similar and "Bootjacks" just means "Coyotes"--something that's already a thing in the hockey world. Out of all the teams the league has to offer, I think Ottawa, being very wildcat-ish itself and having (in my opinion) a relatively boring logo and a name that's just ripped from their defunct minor league baseball team, could benefit from placement here.
 
Amboy, California - with a population of 4, Amboy isn't the first place one would expect to have an iconic site that's come up in lots of familiar media, but Roy's Motel and Cafe is just that. The reason why both of these things are true is that the town was once a big stop on America's famed Route 66, and is one of many that serve as a memory of what once was. The Amboy Jets would be a nice fit with some of the architecture that defined the town's heyday, and it's for that reason that I'd also move New York here on the same basis as I did for the Giants above.
 
 
I hope you enjoyed my list of places and that you found them entertaining (and that you learned a thing or two about some of the more unique places the US has to offer!). Come and visit sometime.

I'm a nerd for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that I'm a little overly interested in geography. By that, I don't mean anything useful, like understanding how topographic features affect weather patterns or human migration or anything. I mean all the dumb stuff like knowing where to find any country on a map, learning the location of each of Ohio's 88 counties, or digging into the history of abnormal features like what the border used to look like between India and Bangladesh. Along the way, I've come across lots of different places that I find interesting for one dumb reason or another, and I'm going to try to match some VHL teams to those places for the purposes of rebranding.
 
Gaffney, South Carolina - the "Peach Capital of South Carolina," Gaffney is known pretty much entirely as the site of the iconic Peachoid water tower. Because of this, the Gaffney Peaches would be a super gimmicky team name. As it's very close to Spartanburg, I think @Spartan  and Moscow would be a nice target for relocation here. 
 
Kanorado, Kansas - named the way it is because of its location near the state line with Colorado, Kanorado is near Mount Sunflower, the highest point in the entire state. Although Mount Sunflower isn't at all distinguishable from the land that surrounds it, I think that's part of what makes it cool and I think the 153 people living in Kanorado could use a hockey team to make them a bit more distinguishable from the rest. The Kanorado Sunflowers make natural sense to me, and I'd move Saskatoon here because they're already in very flat territory and could get used to it pretty quickly.
 
Greensburg, Kansas - I swear I'll move out of small towns in Kansas after this one, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a place with a more compelling history. Greensburg was completely wiped out by a tornado in 2007, and since completely rebuilt. For that reason, I'd move Chicago here and keep the Phoenix nickname--it's arguably much more fitting here than there. Oh, and it's also the site of the world's largest hand-dug well!
 
Seville, Ohio - proclaiming itself as "a giant of a village" on multiple signs throughout town, I've actually visited this one and was surprised by how much they lean into their most distinguishing feature--that being the home and burial site of the world's tallest married couple. I suppose it's better to focus on that than to draw attention to being the retirement home of Jeffrey Dahmer's father, and it's for that reason that I'll suggest that they go full tacky and welcome the Seville Giants to town--relocated from New York, because New York already has a team called the Giants and I think it would be funny to get rid of a different team in favor of the name.
 
Kennebunkport, Maine - the most well-off place I've ever been to, Kennebunkport is about an hour away from Portland and is the vacation home of the Bush family (as in, both American presidents). I think this would be an interesting social experiment in that a team here could conceivably charge a whole boatload of money to people who have whole boatloads to throw around. Could they balance the budget of a team on a town with somewhat limited population? Quite possibly--and though I'm not 100% sure I love the name, perhaps the Kennebunkport Executives would have to do. I'd move (gasp) Davos here as it's a small-population, rich-people place who probably knows a thing or two.
 
Boonville, California - not in a part of the state that's commonly visited, Boonville is isolated from lots of other places out on the West Coast--which could certainly have been a factor in the development of a language entirely specific to Boonville. The name could come from any word at all in Boontling, but I like the Boonville Bootjacks a lot because the words sound similar and "Bootjacks" just means "Coyotes"--something that's already a thing in the hockey world. Out of all the teams the league has to offer, I think Ottawa, being very wildcat-ish itself and having (in my opinion) a relatively boring logo and a name that's just ripped from their defunct minor league baseball team, could benefit from placement here.
 
Amboy, California - with a population of 4, Amboy isn't the first place one would expect to have an iconic site that's come up in lots of familiar media, but Roy's Motel and Cafe is just that. The reason why both of these things are true is that the town was once a big stop on America's famed Route 66, and is one of many that serve as a memory of what once was. The Amboy Jets would be a nice fit with some of the architecture that defined the town's heyday, and it's for that reason that I'd also move New York here on the same basis as I did for the Giants above.
 
 
I hope you enjoyed my list of places and that you found them entertaining (and that you learned a thing or two about some of the more unique places the US has to offer!). Come and visit sometime.

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind
-from the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower"
 
 
As of next season, I will have spent 30 seasons in the VHL. I've always been a big fan of the VHL's 30 in 30 series for telling me lots of stories about the league from before my time. These brought up things that I wouldn't necessarily have gotten from reading through old indexes and checking out records, and that's lived experience--people giving perspectives on the things that happened, instead of just lists of those things that happened. Thanks to those articles, I learned why lots of the things I'd heard about were significant, and the views offered in them also served as a valuable time capsule for me as I learned how important some things are to the league despite never being talked about anymore.
 
So, because I hate myself, I'm doing one of my own. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive picture of league history over the past 30 seasons, nor is it a VHL 30 in 30 in its own right. I'm writing a Gustav 30 in 30, recounting not the league's history but my own and going through what's been most important to me across hopefully the next season and a half and probably a bit longer than that. And what's a better place to start than at the very beginning? It's a very good place to start, after all. Installment number one of 30, here we go
 
It was 2019, and then-18-year-old me was on the floor of my bedroom lost on Reddit. I remember fairly clearly having been "in the middle of some homework," which to me meant that the second I came across anything I couldn't do off the top of my head, I'd pick up my phone and scroll through it for an hour like the degenerate I am. Seriously, my degree probably would have come pretty easily if I could make myself stop doing that.
 
I also remember getting the sort of foggy head feeling that one gets after staring at a screen for hours on end. I'm not sure if this was from whatever I was doing, or my phone, or both, but you'd think that one little promotional post on r/sabres wouldn't tip the scales in favor of (let's be honest) a whole lot more staring at screens in that moment. I'm sure you know where this is going, because you're seeing the product of where it's gone. I joined the forum, made a few "please help me" posts, did my first press conference, and actually closed the VHL window and figured I'd seen about enough. The reason why I came back was that I was dumb enough to still sign up for things with an email address that I actually check, and later that day I got a scouting message from @Thranduil (then a long-time AGM in Halifax) in my inbox. So...yeah, whatever, maybe I'll see what happens after this "draft" people are talking about. After all, I read through the very short-lived and now entirely-nonexistent-on-the-forum VHLM newsletter (recruitment, take note!) and enjoyed it.
 
VHLM Gustav lasted until the 5th round and was taken 36th overall. I'd been scouted two or three times at the time, having joined two or three days before the draft and not earned much yet. But it's pretty safe to say that first-ever Bulls GM @Rin hit on a pick, kicking off what would be a formative first season for me (and one that you'll see talked about across the first few installments of this series). I'd been invited to join the team server and was initially really hesitant--I'd never talked to random people online before and wasn't sure I wanted to--but jumped in late at night (in the middle of some other assignment that I wasn't really doing) and had a good conversation right away about player builds and stuff. I think that sort of thing was a bit intoxicating for an 18-year-old kid whose friends were suddenly all busy moving away and having responsibilities. I suddenly had a group to hang out with whenever I wanted it again, and that really built a sort of bond with this place that I don't think I'd have if I joined today.
 
I'm not sure what I thought the VHL was when I joined. I don't remember being particularly surprised (I was never someone who thought we were a gaming community) but I also remember being mildly taken aback when I heard that our sim output was entirely text-based. I spent a few sims reading through the full play-by-play (because new people stuff; why not?) and thought it was cool anyway. In a way, I miss skimming through that and being excited to see that my player intercepted a pass or whatnot.
 
As far as earning and being part of the community went, it took me a minute. I wasn't always the word-dumper I am today. Instead, my first mark on the league was made in team-specific shitpost articles with very long titles. This extended anywhere from my teammates being detained at airports for "looking too Nordic" to Halifax secretly being a satanic cult to me running player quotes through a colloquial Scottish English translator for some aggressively Groundskeeper Willie-type energy. I was well-entrenched in writing media spots by this point, but my first serious article didn't even come out until halfway through that first season.
 
I won't give away the rest, but S65 was a great time. I learned a lot, got to know lots of people, and grew to appreciate the culture of the VHL. And if you're interested in hearing more of a deep dive into my history--stick around. It's coming just as soon as I can make it.

In perhaps the most meta image the VHL has ever seen, here's my computer with this article in progress. I've had the same laptop the whole time I've been in the VHL--so imagine how many times I've pressed the space bar you see here for your enjoyment.
 
 
There have been thirteen World Junior Championships in the VHL since I took part in my first one back in S65. And before you ask, that one was a nightmare.
 
The WJC is a big opportunity for anyone new looking to make a difference. It's true that not many people care about the tournament if they're not in it. It's also true that not many people in our tournaments care about them. But for many, it's a big deal. That's especially true when those people are very new and are finally getting a chance to get their hands on STHS. And it was true for me as well when I applied to run Team USA in hopes of GMing my player to success. I'd never touched the STHS client before and I was ready to do what I'd seen in my own locker room in terms of helping players have a good time.
 
I didn't get exactly what I asked for, but it still felt great to be picked as GM of Team Asia. That feeling didn't even change when I found that there weren't enough players eligible for my team, or that the ones I had were mostly inactive. Lots of people wanted a WJC job, and it felt really good to be important. I picked my roster, made the right complaints, and soon received notice that I could fill in those inactive spots with players that had been left off of other teams. And that helped to some extent--we still had a worse roster than most other teams, but I at least brought in a few people that helped us out. @Kuch9's Viktor Kozlov and @xsjack's Jack Lynch were wrecking the M at the time, while I always appreciated seeing "Srraxxarrakex II" (I wonder how many others can spell that!) on the play-by-play. I announced the roster and sent out the proper invites, and then I got in the business of figuring out how to run STHS.
 
And then I broke my computer.
 
Running STHS on Mac is something that's been figured out by different people, in one way or another, over the years, but no one I knew had done it and neither did anyone they knew. The STHS client is Windows software, meaning that you'll need to find a workaround if you want to get your hockey jollies with any other OS. These workarounds exist for Mac, but they're janky to say the least--I eventually came across one fully functioning, but that was after I spent $100 on Parallels (a program that drained both my battery and my storage). Before "eventually," I found out how to make it work on a very janky level with Wine. Do you enjoy not being able to see where you just put your players in your lineup and just having to remember? I've got quite the program for you if you do.
 
Many of you know that I'm not great with computer stuff, so I'm also assuming that you know how much of an accomplishment it was that I got it to work to begin with. The STHS website has two "versions" of the client, one for Windows and one that's allegedly for Mac. The thing is, the Mac "version" is the same exact .exe file as the Windows one, and the only difference is that it downloads itself in a folder with a text file that basically tells you you're shit out of luck. I don't remember this file being particularly helpful to me, and that's what led to me eventually finding my way to Wikihow trying to figure out how I could open this thing with my computer.
 
"Download Wine" seemed easy enough, so I followed the link that was on Wikihow and clicked the button to download the software. That popped up a window that wasn't clear at all as to its purpose, but had a button that said "continue" or something similar. So, I clicked that...and watched as my computer installed some random antivirus software.
 
Shit.
 
I found the actual button that got me past that window quickly enough and downloaded Wine for real. From there, it was about three straight hours of trial and error as I clicked things, first trying to get the software to open, then trying to open the client file from the index, then trying to figure out how to put players in my lines, then finally generating a lines file and emailing it to Devise. All was well and good and the world had no worries in it.
 
That was, of course, until my computer slowed to a crawl and refused to do anything I wanted it to. I really hadn't paid attention to this random thing that was sitting in my downloads folder because I didn't see anything happening with it right away, but here I was a couple days later with a nonfunctioning computer and a few searches on my phone warning me that this program (I forget what it was called) was straight-up malware that I was dumb enough to install. Deleting it didn't fix anything, so I ended up having to take it to the Apple store and hearing that they'd be happy to reset it for me, and by the way, that will be $800 (seriously), and, oh right, you have AppleCare (a 1-year policy that came with this thing and that I'm very happy I was still under the terms of at the time), so you'd better thank your lucky stars you won't have to pay that much. I didn't have a functioning computer, so it wasn't a big deal for me to just not have a computer altogether in the week or so they took to reset it (I'm also not sure why that took as long as it did either). During this time, I didn't have any real-life setbacks beyond having to convince a professor that I couldn't do the homework because my computer was broken--something that I'm sure he heard as a fake excuse all the time, because he definitely never believed me.
 
That also led to me dropping off the face of the VHL Earth for close to a week. Regardless, I'd sent in my lines and I hoped my team had done well despite me not being around Discord much (don't ask me why I never checked in on my phone, because I have no idea). I was not altogether surprised, but still disappointed, to find out that a.) Team Asia had gotten absolutely bodied in the first round of the tournament and wouldn't be progressing to the next ones, and b.) I had managed to screw up the lines (because I didn't know I had to hit "copy all") and everything past our first game was simmed with auto-generated lines. Asia did manage to pull off a win--despite the index no longer existing, comments on this thread tell us that we managed to beat Europe--but that was it. Team Asia was Team Disappointment for the rest of the games we played and had the GM to match.
 
But after the tournament, I'd learned a lot. I'd put together a team and thought about how I would hypothetically manage them had I had the means to do so, I learned that the community saw me as good enough to do something cool in an official capacity, and I learned that I really cared about those things after I had them taken away for a bit. And, for better or for worse, in my own janky way, I made STHS work on a MacBook. That's something that would set the stage for...quite a bit. And there's quite a bit more personal history, and some marginally better GM accomplishments, on the way.
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name
#2: Can't We All Just Get Along?

I'm a nerd for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that I'm a little overly interested in geography. By that, I don't mean anything useful, like understanding how topographic features affect weather patterns or human migration or anything. I mean all the dumb stuff like knowing where to find any country on a map, learning the location of each of Ohio's 88 counties, or digging into the history of abnormal features like what the border used to look like between India and Bangladesh. Along the way, I've come across lots of different places that I find interesting for one dumb reason or another, and I'm going to try to match some VHL teams to those places for the purposes of rebranding.
 
Gaffney, South Carolina - the "Peach Capital of South Carolina," Gaffney is known pretty much entirely as the site of the iconic Peachoid water tower. Because of this, the Gaffney Peaches would be a super gimmicky team name. As it's very close to Spartanburg, I think @Spartan  and Moscow would be a nice target for relocation here. 
 
Kanorado, Kansas - named the way it is because of its location near the state line with Colorado, Kanorado is near Mount Sunflower, the highest point in the entire state. Although Mount Sunflower isn't at all distinguishable from the land that surrounds it, I think that's part of what makes it cool and I think the 153 people living in Kanorado could use a hockey team to make them a bit more distinguishable from the rest. The Kanorado Sunflowers make natural sense to me, and I'd move Saskatoon here because they're already in very flat territory and could get used to it pretty quickly.
 
Greensburg, Kansas - I swear I'll move out of small towns in Kansas after this one, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a place with a more compelling history. Greensburg was completely wiped out by a tornado in 2007, and since completely rebuilt. For that reason, I'd move Chicago here and keep the Phoenix nickname--it's arguably much more fitting here than there. Oh, and it's also the site of the world's largest hand-dug well!
 
Seville, Ohio - proclaiming itself as "a giant of a village" on multiple signs throughout town, I've actually visited this one and was surprised by how much they lean into their most distinguishing feature--that being the home and burial site of the world's tallest married couple. I suppose it's better to focus on that than to draw attention to being the retirement home of Jeffrey Dahmer's father, and it's for that reason that I'll suggest that they go full tacky and welcome the Seville Giants to town--relocated from New York, because New York already has a team called the Giants and I think it would be funny to get rid of a different team in favor of the name.
 
Kennebunkport, Maine - the most well-off place I've ever been to, Kennebunkport is about an hour away from Portland and is the vacation home of the Bush family (as in, both American presidents). I think this would be an interesting social experiment in that a team here could conceivably charge a whole boatload of money to people who have whole boatloads to throw around. Could they balance the budget of a team on a town with somewhat limited population? Quite possibly--and though I'm not 100% sure I love the name, perhaps the Kennebunkport Executives would have to do. I'd move (gasp) Davos here as it's a small-population, rich-people place who probably knows a thing or two.
 
Boonville, California - not in a part of the state that's commonly visited, Boonville is isolated from lots of other places out on the West Coast--which could certainly have been a factor in the development of a language entirely specific to Boonville. The name could come from any word at all in Boontling, but I like the Boonville Bootjacks a lot because the words sound similar and "Bootjacks" just means "Coyotes"--something that's already a thing in the hockey world. Out of all the teams the league has to offer, I think Ottawa, being very wildcat-ish itself and having (in my opinion) a relatively boring logo and a name that's just ripped from their defunct minor league baseball team, could benefit from placement here.
 
Amboy, California - with a population of 4, Amboy isn't the first place one would expect to have an iconic site that's come up in lots of familiar media, but Roy's Motel and Cafe is just that. The reason why both of these things are true is that the town was once a big stop on America's famed Route 66, and is one of many that serve as a memory of what once was. The Amboy Jets would be a nice fit with some of the architecture that defined the town's heyday, and it's for that reason that I'd also move New York here on the same basis as I did for the Giants above.
 
 
I hope you enjoyed my list of places and that you found them entertaining (and that you learned a thing or two about some of the more unique places the US has to offer!). Come and visit sometime.

I'm a nerd for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that I'm a little overly interested in geography. By that, I don't mean anything useful, like understanding how topographic features affect weather patterns or human migration or anything. I mean all the dumb stuff like knowing where to find any country on a map, learning the location of each of Ohio's 88 counties, or digging into the history of abnormal features like what the border used to look like between India and Bangladesh. Along the way, I've come across lots of different places that I find interesting for one dumb reason or another, and I'm going to try to match some VHL teams to those places for the purposes of rebranding.
 
Gaffney, South Carolina - the "Peach Capital of South Carolina," Gaffney is known pretty much entirely as the site of the iconic Peachoid water tower. Because of this, the Gaffney Peaches would be a super gimmicky team name. As it's very close to Spartanburg, I think @Spartan  and Moscow would be a nice target for relocation here. 
 
Kanorado, Kansas - named the way it is because of its location near the state line with Colorado, Kanorado is near Mount Sunflower, the highest point in the entire state. Although Mount Sunflower isn't at all distinguishable from the land that surrounds it, I think that's part of what makes it cool and I think the 153 people living in Kanorado could use a hockey team to make them a bit more distinguishable from the rest. The Kanorado Sunflowers make natural sense to me, and I'd move Saskatoon here because they're already in very flat territory and could get used to it pretty quickly.
 
Greensburg, Kansas - I swear I'll move out of small towns in Kansas after this one, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a place with a more compelling history. Greensburg was completely wiped out by a tornado in 2007, and since completely rebuilt. For that reason, I'd move Chicago here and keep the Phoenix nickname--it's arguably much more fitting here than there. Oh, and it's also the site of the world's largest hand-dug well!
 
Seville, Ohio - proclaiming itself as "a giant of a village" on multiple signs throughout town, I've actually visited this one and was surprised by how much they lean into their most distinguishing feature--that being the home and burial site of the world's tallest married couple. I suppose it's better to focus on that than to draw attention to being the retirement home of Jeffrey Dahmer's father, and it's for that reason that I'll suggest that they go full tacky and welcome the Seville Giants to town--relocated from New York, because New York already has a team called the Giants and I think it would be funny to get rid of a different team in favor of the name.
 
Kennebunkport, Maine - the most well-off place I've ever been to, Kennebunkport is about an hour away from Portland and is the vacation home of the Bush family (as in, both American presidents). I think this would be an interesting social experiment in that a team here could conceivably charge a whole boatload of money to people who have whole boatloads to throw around. Could they balance the budget of a team on a town with somewhat limited population? Quite possibly--and though I'm not 100% sure I love the name, perhaps the Kennebunkport Executives would have to do. I'd move (gasp) Davos here as it's a small-population, rich-people place who probably knows a thing or two.
 
Boonville, California - not in a part of the state that's commonly visited, Boonville is isolated from lots of other places out on the West Coast--which could certainly have been a factor in the development of a language entirely specific to Boonville. The name could come from any word at all in Boontling, but I like the Boonville Bootjacks a lot because the words sound similar and "Bootjacks" just means "Coyotes"--something that's already a thing in the hockey world. Out of all the teams the league has to offer, I think Ottawa, being very wildcat-ish itself and having (in my opinion) a relatively boring logo and a name that's just ripped from their defunct minor league baseball team, could benefit from placement here.
 
Amboy, California - with a population of 4, Amboy isn't the first place one would expect to have an iconic site that's come up in lots of familiar media, but Roy's Motel and Cafe is just that. The reason why both of these things are true is that the town was once a big stop on America's famed Route 66, and is one of many that serve as a memory of what once was. The Amboy Jets would be a nice fit with some of the architecture that defined the town's heyday, and it's for that reason that I'd also move New York here on the same basis as I did for the Giants above.
 
 
I hope you enjoyed my list of places and that you found them entertaining (and that you learned a thing or two about some of the more unique places the US has to offer!). Come and visit sometime.

In perhaps the most meta image the VHL has ever seen, here's my computer with this article in progress. I've had the same laptop the whole time I've been in the VHL--so imagine how many times I've pressed the space bar you see here for your enjoyment.
 
 
There have been thirteen World Junior Championships in the VHL since I took part in my first one back in S65. And before you ask, that one was a nightmare.
 
The WJC is a big opportunity for anyone new looking to make a difference. It's true that not many people care about the tournament if they're not in it. It's also true that not many people in our tournaments care about them. But for many, it's a big deal. That's especially true when those people are very new and are finally getting a chance to get their hands on STHS. And it was true for me as well when I applied to run Team USA in hopes of GMing my player to success. I'd never touched the STHS client before and I was ready to do what I'd seen in my own locker room in terms of helping players have a good time.
 
I didn't get exactly what I asked for, but it still felt great to be picked as GM of Team Asia. That feeling didn't even change when I found that there weren't enough players eligible for my team, or that the ones I had were mostly inactive. Lots of people wanted a WJC job, and it felt really good to be important. I picked my roster, made the right complaints, and soon received notice that I could fill in those inactive spots with players that had been left off of other teams. And that helped to some extent--we still had a worse roster than most other teams, but I at least brought in a few people that helped us out. @Kuch9's Viktor Kozlov and @xsjack's Jack Lynch were wrecking the M at the time, while I always appreciated seeing "Srraxxarrakex II" (I wonder how many others can spell that!) on the play-by-play. I announced the roster and sent out the proper invites, and then I got in the business of figuring out how to run STHS.
 
And then I broke my computer.
 
Running STHS on Mac is something that's been figured out by different people, in one way or another, over the years, but no one I knew had done it and neither did anyone they knew. The STHS client is Windows software, meaning that you'll need to find a workaround if you want to get your hockey jollies with any other OS. These workarounds exist for Mac, but they're janky to say the least--I eventually came across one fully functioning, but that was after I spent $100 on Parallels (a program that drained both my battery and my storage). Before "eventually," I found out how to make it work on a very janky level with Wine. Do you enjoy not being able to see where you just put your players in your lineup and just having to remember? I've got quite the program for you if you do.
 
Many of you know that I'm not great with computer stuff, so I'm also assuming that you know how much of an accomplishment it was that I got it to work to begin with. The STHS website has two "versions" of the client, one for Windows and one that's allegedly for Mac. The thing is, the Mac "version" is the same exact .exe file as the Windows one, and the only difference is that it downloads itself in a folder with a text file that basically tells you you're shit out of luck. I don't remember this file being particularly helpful to me, and that's what led to me eventually finding my way to Wikihow trying to figure out how I could open this thing with my computer.
 
"Download Wine" seemed easy enough, so I followed the link that was on Wikihow and clicked the button to download the software. That popped up a window that wasn't clear at all as to its purpose, but had a button that said "continue" or something similar. So, I clicked that...and watched as my computer installed some random antivirus software.
 
Shit.
 
I found the actual button that got me past that window quickly enough and downloaded Wine for real. From there, it was about three straight hours of trial and error as I clicked things, first trying to get the software to open, then trying to open the client file from the index, then trying to figure out how to put players in my lines, then finally generating a lines file and emailing it to Devise. All was well and good and the world had no worries in it.
 
That was, of course, until my computer slowed to a crawl and refused to do anything I wanted it to. I really hadn't paid attention to this random thing that was sitting in my downloads folder because I didn't see anything happening with it right away, but here I was a couple days later with a nonfunctioning computer and a few searches on my phone warning me that this program (I forget what it was called) was straight-up malware that I was dumb enough to install. Deleting it didn't fix anything, so I ended up having to take it to the Apple store and hearing that they'd be happy to reset it for me, and by the way, that will be $800 (seriously), and, oh right, you have AppleCare (a 1-year policy that came with this thing and that I'm very happy I was still under the terms of at the time), so you'd better thank your lucky stars you won't have to pay that much. I didn't have a functioning computer, so it wasn't a big deal for me to just not have a computer altogether in the week or so they took to reset it (I'm also not sure why that took as long as it did either). During this time, I didn't have any real-life setbacks beyond having to convince a professor that I couldn't do the homework because my computer was broken--something that I'm sure he heard as a fake excuse all the time, because he definitely never believed me.
 
That also led to me dropping off the face of the VHL Earth for close to a week. Regardless, I'd sent in my lines and I hoped my team had done well despite me not being around Discord much (don't ask me why I never checked in on my phone, because I have no idea). I was not altogether surprised, but still disappointed, to find out that a.) Team Asia had gotten absolutely bodied in the first round of the tournament and wouldn't be progressing to the next ones, and b.) I had managed to screw up the lines (because I didn't know I had to hit "copy all") and everything past our first game was simmed with auto-generated lines. Asia did manage to pull off a win--despite the index no longer existing, comments on this thread tell us that we managed to beat Europe--but that was it. Team Asia was Team Disappointment for the rest of the games we played and had the GM to match.
 
But after the tournament, I'd learned a lot. I'd put together a team and thought about how I would hypothetically manage them had I had the means to do so, I learned that the community saw me as good enough to do something cool in an official capacity, and I learned that I really cared about those things after I had them taken away for a bit. And, for better or for worse, in my own janky way, I made STHS work on a MacBook. That's something that would set the stage for...quite a bit. And there's quite a bit more personal history, and some marginally better GM accomplishments, on the way.
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name
#2: Can't We All Just Get Along?

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

I can get along with @Gustav

My favorite instance took place like a year after after the Bulls/Reapers fallout in which [Redacted Philly GM] got into a disagreement in a random thread. Someone rushed to join the thread, adamantly defending [Redacted Philly GM] on whatever point was being made.
 
The user that rushed to their aid had literally not logged onto the VHL in 3+ months. They replied to some press conference thread, went inactive for three months, and suddenly appeared in the right thread at the right time to defend their friend.
 
I don't claim to be fully in the right about anything that happened back in those days, but holy shit... at least I didn't start an active simp cult.

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

Maybe that's why you turned out OK 😅
 
I think my perspective of being mostly on the outside of things looking in contributed to the fact that I'm still usually in popcorn mode when one drama or another fires up here. Granted, I'll still do the right things as my job calls for them. But if it's got nothing to do with that, I don't mind that sometimes there's a thread that makes me feel like I'm back in the good old days. I'll never try to start things with anyone for no reason but there was something intoxicating about being around that when it was happening. Almost like there was something new for me whenever I opened my computer after work.

For any noobs who need context, Hedge has been GM of Riga for a good bit longer than I've even been in the VHL. This guy's run at his position has been legendary.
 
To @hedgehog337: thanks for serving the VHL as long as you have. I've never had any sort of issue with you as long as I've been here and I really appreciate that. On top of that, I feel like Riga has always been a good bunch of people and I think that says a lot about your ability to build a team with a positive culture. All the best in whatever you've got going on, and I hope you have the time to drop in when you feel like it!

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

DAMN I had no idea any of this was happening behind the scenes when i first joined the VHL! I remember back then all I was worried about was my first gen having a good season in the M and getting pressers done on time, I had no idea there was a whole drama TV series happening at the same time 🤣

I can't believe how little I actually remeber from way back then. I knew we were in the same draft, I just never knew where and when you were drafted. Based on what you've become, I would have never penciled you in as going so late (especially not 10 picks after me). I always pictured you as more like a 3rd round pick, definitely not a 5th. I also don't ever remember you being on the Bulls, although that's probably because I was moved halfway through the season. At this point, S65 feels like a distant memory, and I guess five years later it kind of is. I look forward reading each installment. Our paths have crossed a fair few times, enough that there'll be plenty of shared memories within each article that I'll be happy to remember and reminisce.

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind
-from the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower"
 
 
As of next season, I will have spent 30 seasons in the VHL. I've always been a big fan of the VHL's 30 in 30 series for telling me lots of stories about the league from before my time. These brought up things that I wouldn't necessarily have gotten from reading through old indexes and checking out records, and that's lived experience--people giving perspectives on the things that happened, instead of just lists of those things that happened. Thanks to those articles, I learned why lots of the things I'd heard about were significant, and the views offered in them also served as a valuable time capsule for me as I learned how important some things are to the league despite never being talked about anymore.
 
So, because I hate myself, I'm doing one of my own. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive picture of league history over the past 30 seasons, nor is it a VHL 30 in 30 in its own right. I'm writing a Gustav 30 in 30, recounting not the league's history but my own and going through what's been most important to me across hopefully the next season and a half and probably a bit longer than that. And what's a better place to start than at the very beginning? It's a very good place to start, after all. Installment number one of 30, here we go
 
It was 2019, and then-18-year-old me was on the floor of my bedroom lost on Reddit. I remember fairly clearly having been "in the middle of some homework," which to me meant that the second I came across anything I couldn't do off the top of my head, I'd pick up my phone and scroll through it for an hour like the degenerate I am. Seriously, my degree probably would have come pretty easily if I could make myself stop doing that.
 
I also remember getting the sort of foggy head feeling that one gets after staring at a screen for hours on end. I'm not sure if this was from whatever I was doing, or my phone, or both, but you'd think that one little promotional post on r/sabres wouldn't tip the scales in favor of (let's be honest) a whole lot more staring at screens in that moment. I'm sure you know where this is going, because you're seeing the product of where it's gone. I joined the forum, made a few "please help me" posts, did my first press conference, and actually closed the VHL window and figured I'd seen about enough. The reason why I came back was that I was dumb enough to still sign up for things with an email address that I actually check, and later that day I got a scouting message from @Thranduil (then a long-time AGM in Halifax) in my inbox. So...yeah, whatever, maybe I'll see what happens after this "draft" people are talking about. After all, I read through the very short-lived and now entirely-nonexistent-on-the-forum VHLM newsletter (recruitment, take note!) and enjoyed it.
 
VHLM Gustav lasted until the 5th round and was taken 36th overall. I'd been scouted two or three times at the time, having joined two or three days before the draft and not earned much yet. But it's pretty safe to say that first-ever Bulls GM @Rin hit on a pick, kicking off what would be a formative first season for me (and one that you'll see talked about across the first few installments of this series). I'd been invited to join the team server and was initially really hesitant--I'd never talked to random people online before and wasn't sure I wanted to--but jumped in late at night (in the middle of some other assignment that I wasn't really doing) and had a good conversation right away about player builds and stuff. I think that sort of thing was a bit intoxicating for an 18-year-old kid whose friends were suddenly all busy moving away and having responsibilities. I suddenly had a group to hang out with whenever I wanted it again, and that really built a sort of bond with this place that I don't think I'd have if I joined today.
 
I'm not sure what I thought the VHL was when I joined. I don't remember being particularly surprised (I was never someone who thought we were a gaming community) but I also remember being mildly taken aback when I heard that our sim output was entirely text-based. I spent a few sims reading through the full play-by-play (because new people stuff; why not?) and thought it was cool anyway. In a way, I miss skimming through that and being excited to see that my player intercepted a pass or whatnot.
 
As far as earning and being part of the community went, it took me a minute. I wasn't always the word-dumper I am today. Instead, my first mark on the league was made in team-specific shitpost articles with very long titles. This extended anywhere from my teammates being detained at airports for "looking too Nordic" to Halifax secretly being a satanic cult to me running player quotes through a colloquial Scottish English translator for some aggressively Groundskeeper Willie-type energy. I was well-entrenched in writing media spots by this point, but my first serious article didn't even come out until halfway through that first season.
 
I won't give away the rest, but S65 was a great time. I learned a lot, got to know lots of people, and grew to appreciate the culture of the VHL. And if you're interested in hearing more of a deep dive into my history--stick around. It's coming just as soon as I can make it.

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind
-from the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower"
 
 
As of next season, I will have spent 30 seasons in the VHL. I've always been a big fan of the VHL's 30 in 30 series for telling me lots of stories about the league from before my time. These brought up things that I wouldn't necessarily have gotten from reading through old indexes and checking out records, and that's lived experience--people giving perspectives on the things that happened, instead of just lists of those things that happened. Thanks to those articles, I learned why lots of the things I'd heard about were significant, and the views offered in them also served as a valuable time capsule for me as I learned how important some things are to the league despite never being talked about anymore.
 
So, because I hate myself, I'm doing one of my own. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive picture of league history over the past 30 seasons, nor is it a VHL 30 in 30 in its own right. I'm writing a Gustav 30 in 30, recounting not the league's history but my own and going through what's been most important to me across hopefully the next season and a half and probably a bit longer than that. And what's a better place to start than at the very beginning? It's a very good place to start, after all. Installment number one of 30, here we go
 
It was 2019, and then-18-year-old me was on the floor of my bedroom lost on Reddit. I remember fairly clearly having been "in the middle of some homework," which to me meant that the second I came across anything I couldn't do off the top of my head, I'd pick up my phone and scroll through it for an hour like the degenerate I am. Seriously, my degree probably would have come pretty easily if I could make myself stop doing that.
 
I also remember getting the sort of foggy head feeling that one gets after staring at a screen for hours on end. I'm not sure if this was from whatever I was doing, or my phone, or both, but you'd think that one little promotional post on r/sabres wouldn't tip the scales in favor of (let's be honest) a whole lot more staring at screens in that moment. I'm sure you know where this is going, because you're seeing the product of where it's gone. I joined the forum, made a few "please help me" posts, did my first press conference, and actually closed the VHL window and figured I'd seen about enough. The reason why I came back was that I was dumb enough to still sign up for things with an email address that I actually check, and later that day I got a scouting message from @Thranduil (then a long-time AGM in Halifax) in my inbox. So...yeah, whatever, maybe I'll see what happens after this "draft" people are talking about. After all, I read through the very short-lived and now entirely-nonexistent-on-the-forum VHLM newsletter (recruitment, take note!) and enjoyed it.
 
VHLM Gustav lasted until the 5th round and was taken 36th overall. I'd been scouted two or three times at the time, having joined two or three days before the draft and not earned much yet. But it's pretty safe to say that first-ever Bulls GM @Rin hit on a pick, kicking off what would be a formative first season for me (and one that you'll see talked about across the first few installments of this series). I'd been invited to join the team server and was initially really hesitant--I'd never talked to random people online before and wasn't sure I wanted to--but jumped in late at night (in the middle of some other assignment that I wasn't really doing) and had a good conversation right away about player builds and stuff. I think that sort of thing was a bit intoxicating for an 18-year-old kid whose friends were suddenly all busy moving away and having responsibilities. I suddenly had a group to hang out with whenever I wanted it again, and that really built a sort of bond with this place that I don't think I'd have if I joined today.
 
I'm not sure what I thought the VHL was when I joined. I don't remember being particularly surprised (I was never someone who thought we were a gaming community) but I also remember being mildly taken aback when I heard that our sim output was entirely text-based. I spent a few sims reading through the full play-by-play (because new people stuff; why not?) and thought it was cool anyway. In a way, I miss skimming through that and being excited to see that my player intercepted a pass or whatnot.
 
As far as earning and being part of the community went, it took me a minute. I wasn't always the word-dumper I am today. Instead, my first mark on the league was made in team-specific shitpost articles with very long titles. This extended anywhere from my teammates being detained at airports for "looking too Nordic" to Halifax secretly being a satanic cult to me running player quotes through a colloquial Scottish English translator for some aggressively Groundskeeper Willie-type energy. I was well-entrenched in writing media spots by this point, but my first serious article didn't even come out until halfway through that first season.
 
I won't give away the rest, but S65 was a great time. I learned a lot, got to know lots of people, and grew to appreciate the culture of the VHL. And if you're interested in hearing more of a deep dive into my history--stick around. It's coming just as soon as I can make it.