Higgins 3,618 Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 One Year Later written by Higgins We will always remember September of 2013 as one of both the darkest and brightest times in VHL history. Little did any of us know that the VHL would permanently change forever that month only one year ago. The VHL was once only seen as a hockey sim community, but when things were at the grimmest point in the six year existence of the VHL we noticed that it was much bigger than just a hockey sim. The community had grown together for the better part of six full years, there was no way in hell it was going to die. If you don't know or if you don't remember the old VHL forum's hosting was attacked by a DDoS which basically overloaded the server prompting the forum to crash. No one panicked for the first few days because the site had gone down multiple times for 2+ days at a time. In the meantime a lot of members congregated on the VHL invisionfree site for updates from sterling. After a considerable amount of time passed without the VHL we all started to worry. Eventually sterling was told by the company that hosted our forum that they couldn't put it back online because it used so many resources while it was being DDoS'd and they didn't want to assume anymore risk. That was September 26th, 2013 when things were looking like the VHL was about to be gone forever. As I said earlier the community of the VHL was more than just a hockey sim to the members. As corny as it sounds there have been real friendships that have formed here. We all get to know other members as we join the VHL as first gens and then meet fresh faced newbies as they join. Over six years we have all gotten to know so many people who have come and gone and the back again. Even users who have left us years ago come back to check things out fully expecting the league to be still running like when they left. There have been so many different people and personalities that have passed through the VHL and we've gotten to know them all. Everyone here has a different life experience and we come from all over the world, it truly is a unique and special experience to be a part of the VHL. Over the six years there have been tons of arguments, debates, friendships, celebrations, disappointments and changes. One thing that has remained a constant is the dedication of the members. It's these members that allowed the VHL to comeback from such a devastating event. Once it was decided that we would attempt to revive the league there was no shortage of volunteers to help. Literally everyone was willing to do anything they could to help. As I look back on the thread on the invisionfree VHL forum it amazes me just how the mood changed from a somber one to one where everyone was brainstorming on how to make the VHL bigger and better than before. There was a lot of reviving of old spreadsheets on Google Docs and even more copying and pasting to the fresh VHL forum. The players were brought back to life, the history books were renewed and the new forum was taking shape. Again, looking back on that week it's crazy how many people volunteered to help, I don't think I could ever thank them enough for their time and effort. A few notables were sterling, Victor, Beketov, Smarch, Advantage, Jericho, Sandro, Kyle, fever, Devise, Jackim, METIS, Mike, Kendrick, 8O8, Corco and many, many more. As expected, we got off to a slow start once everything was in place and we attempted to rebuild our member base again. The simming continued on like nothing happened, the new forum marked the beginning of Season 35 and no doubt Jardy put in a load of work to get things in order with the sim. Now we are on the eve of Season 40, which means we have completed five more seasons since that fateful September day. Five seasons, 120,000 posts, 352 members and countless players later we arrive to present day. One year since the resurrection of the VHL as we now know it. The VHL still marches on with a member base as strong as ever. I look forward to the next year, and the next and the next with all of you here in the Victory Hockey League. Mr. Grumpy Bear, eaglesfan036, Victor and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawksFan19 89 Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 Content: 3/3 Absolutely amazing work here. Never knew that it actually happened a year ago, thought it was some time ago. Nice to see the VHL survived that obstacle! 753 words of pure amazement. I was engaged the entire time, mainly because I am new Grammar: 2/2 written = Written anymore = any more its = it's Appearance: 1/1 Logo at the top makes it so much better. Final: 6/6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,933 Posted September 29, 2014 Admin Share Posted September 29, 2014 This deserves countless retweets. Kendrick 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sterling 1,997 Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 This deserves bannins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank 5,192 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Claimed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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