The Injustice of the Madrid Thunder

[Arce 742]

 

A beautiful city with a cool name and just a sick logo, the Madrid Thunder. Who were they and what happened to them? The Madrid Thunder were founded by GM Zach Arce in S16 to replace the boring, bland and cursed Vasteras IK Iron Eagles. The Vasteras logo at the time described the team perfectly. It was plain, no sustenance, it was a complete joke! They had not been to a Continental Cup Final since their victory in Season 1! When I took over the reigns of a broken franchise, and has been for a while I knew what needed to be done. The team had to be gutted the right way and rebuilt. This included a change of scenery, a fresh brand. What upsets me is I currently do not have the Madrid Thunder logo on my current computer, so I will update once I find it. It was a badass logo, it had a god/Thor-like titan wielding a hammer with a lightning bolt behind him and then our team name.

 

The main beef with it was people did not like the association of Spain and hockey. Really? We had a team named after a MAKE BELIEVE town! Avangard is not a real place, so we are allowed to pretend a town is good enough for hockey but we can't place it in one of the most popular cities in the world? We can put a team in cities that don't even have 200k people in them, but Madrid is a problem? The most maddening thing is THEY MOVED MADRID BACK TO VASTERAS AFTER! What is the obsession with Vasteras? I have not heard one good thing about Vasteras. Our friend @Shindigsand Sweden native was very ant-Vasteras based on that city alone. Not only did they move the franchise back to Vasteras, but guess what it failed in Vasteras AGAIN. Who would have thought? Didn't work out the first time so let's move on back. Oh and the kicker is, they decided when they formed the VHLE that Vasteras would be a fit choice for one of the teams. At this point we deemed Mexico City fit for hockey but not Madrid. The Madrid Thunder should have 100% been a choice over going back to a city known for failure.

 

Madrid was also successful during it's brief phase in the VHL. After taking Vasteras and breaking them completely down, I made the proposal to the board for our relocation which to my delight was approved. We had no assets in S16 with Vasteras so I spent that whole season selling and building up assets to start making the turnaround. After acquiring draft picks for S17, I was quickly able to get VHL ready players including holding Kevin Brooks' second player hostage for a few seasons. We were able to compete in S17 but were scurried out in the first round. That off-season I was able to complete and initiate my plan. We were all in for S18, a big turnaround from zero to hero kind of run. The gamble paid off and we got to the finals. The problem? We ran into the Matt Bentz/Jardy B Calgary stocked team. Not even being the top dogs in the league could stop the insane streak Calgary went on to get into the playoffs that year and there was no doubt they would take it. I built a great team, but Matt had simply built a better one and the results showed literally in the games. We had a chance to turn the series around but Simon determined that would not happen as it always does.

 

I heard who the keys of the team were left to after I departed the league did a great job running things into the ground. Maybe that is why they were moved again, he had done such a poor job that only me being there to defend my own move could keep the team there. I do however think with all these other teams formally being brought back should put the Madrid Thunder back in the hat for the VHLE. The name, color scheme and logo would be attractive for anyone to GM/anyone to play for.

 

Words: 703

Edited April 24, 2023 by Arce