My VHL lore.

[Peace 1,527]

Truth be told... I have no idea what topic to write about. The theme is VHL lore, but I've been gone for the better part of ten or so seasons; everything in this noggin is more-or-less ancient history at this point. Sure, all that stuff is still VHL lore, yet like real history only those who care enough to open their books tend to explore what becomes forgotten. There's so many things I could cover from the era I actually enjoyed like the S69 Saskatoon Wild to meeting dozens of wonderful people [such as Elmebeck].

 

I could also cover the dark era where I loathed logging in or reading a PM here (or on Discord). I absolutely hated being Toronto's GM at the tail end of my tenure starting around S81 or so if I recall correctly; it was a stark difference from doing what I loved for ten plus seasons prior as both a VHLM and VHL GM. All the priggush and smug individuals high on themselves, the drama, the ostracism, and frankly childish behavior from adults wore me down to the point where the only thread connecting me to this community was Escape From Tarkov.

 

After Beaviss and Fong stopped playing that video game the thread finally snapped and I left completely, yet ten seasons later here I am recreating my fourth character in hopes that spark is still there. Now I intend to fan this small ember of interest because so far it has me typing away with no real plan - no structure - just mind to fingers typing... very similar to what I used to do back in the day. A direct thoughts to paper method of writing and it reminds me of greener pastures and enjoyment.

 

So what to talk about? Why not a rundown on my earlier lore. I think that is a safe bet; it is VHL lore afterall, right?  

 

THE RYLAN PEACE-ERA

 

My first player in the league was apparently Rylan Peace, though I swear I had an earlier character at some point in my history. My account is from 2013, yet the first thread created with this account was the character creation of R. Peace back in 2018. I don't know if the history there is lost, or if it just didn't happen; in my mind I joined this forum from a GM Connect league I used to play back in the day and created a character all those years ago (NHL 13/14 anyone?). Don't remember why I left, hell I can't even remember if I actually created a character, but either way a handful of years later a 'we'd like you to come back' email sparked my interest and I built myself upwards from there (only to have it crash five IRL years later).

Rylan Peace was mostly an experimental character. I was seeing how the sim engine worked, I knew the league was using Simon T's Hockey Simulator, but I certainly didn't know how the league implemented everything and how each person had their own player. I remember thinking everything was done on STHS itself and not the website, so I recall some general confusion at the start. ShawnGlade was my first GM and helped me out tremendously by explaining how the league worked despite being relatively new himself. Curiously I booted up my old broken-yet-functional red gaming laptop from 2012 (can you even say that about laptops from that era?) and found a V2 exe for STHS (along with EHM, ArmA Gold Edition, Halo and DooM 3 of all games). Yeah, I'm guessing that whole thing about creating a character back in the day was placebo now yet it feels so real.

 

Looking deeper into my account I've noticed I don't have any interaction with the league prior to R. Peace at all, which seems baffling to me unless there was a GM connected league at some point in the past that I joined and we just used Xbox Live/PSN to communicate. Posts from this account only go back to 2018, so unless there were deleted threads/conversations, 2018 must be the year I actually started contributing to the forum. Nevertheless I created Rylan Peace and eventually joined Halifax, followed by the VIKING brand. 

Whoa there's something I haven't heard of in a long ass time. Yep, the league used to have brands a player could join. The only other brand I remember was NETFLEX, but I think there were six? 

 

Anyway... I spent less than a quarter of the season on Halifax's roster before R. Peace was eventually drafted by Saskatoon under Gooning then shortly thereafter Dtayl.

 

So here's my initial advance and rapid growth into the realm of GMing!

 

I created Rylan Peace in September, and by October I was already the acting GM for the Wild when Dtayl's PC crashed on him. Not just crashed, but thoroughly died as the only means of communication between him and I came from a college library computer or whenever he had enough signal on his phone. He couldn't submit lines, couldn't react to trades, wasn't updating his player... the only reason I remember this is because I am the pre-requisite to assistant GM's getting access to the portal. I had to dig deep down into my PM's here on the website, but there it is... Will adding AGM permissions just so I can manage the Wild on November 29th, 2018 while Dtayl was out of action and I had struggled for a month to manage the team. I had to conduct all of my league affairs using PMs and DMs, going back and fourth for so long just to do trades, update lines and sign new players that it must have become annoying enough to solve.

 

It was obviously a decision on necessity versus the league being healthy enough for proper AGM privileges to naturally develop. 

 

Dtayl never returned, and by January 13th, 2019, Dtayl was removed from his position in a private message from Bana to Dtayl, myself and Quik. I was called the 'interim GM' but Bana outright stated that the position would be official if I wanted to continue managing the Wild, something that would go against me in the future (Read: Not Bana's Fault). I've found the conversations he left in 2020, but describing the situation would be akin to peeling the layers of an onion apart; it requires invading the privacy of personal messages and violates one of my core values before I can even begin to describe what happened, so let's just say I... expressed... my disappointment that there would now be additional considerations to me remaining as the Wild's GM after the "drama" and it bit me in the ass. The only reason I'm comfortable mentioning the first part is because there is a public announcement that stated the same thing with similar wording.

 

Without giving an exact date or which users it affected, I was involved with some drama that many thought I'd quit the league over after being threatened with a warning, leaving every Discord server (again) and deleting Saskatoon's 'DLR' (Discord Locker Room) in favor of using the forum from then on (which didn't last more than a few seasons). When I was told that I might be replaced I eventually went to Devise as he was the first admin online at the time, my primary contact as he's the person I was submitting lines to, and vented to him; frankly I though the difference between Admin, BoG and Commissioner back then was reversed. I just assumed Admin = Highest Ranked Individuals like every other forum I was a member of, and that the Commissioner teams just ran their respective league with no real outside power. Devise was my chance to express myself and describe what was going on in my life. He took it with stride, something I've respected him for ages for.

 

Anyway I got heated and drunk, yes... drunk Peace was a thing back then... and started saying many a things that would have seen me likely banned/suspended under the modern user conduct rules. It was nothing racist, didn't have any hate speech, etc, but I did provoke at least a half dozen users into intentional arguments after the "drama" incident. Now if you're reading along as assuming it was Peace Feet or the whole "I got a 94%" copy pasta from this era, you'd be wrong but I like you're approach. Keep in mind this event is in the past, so I think recapping this event part of the era is now over, but I appreciate you reading.

 

So why was I so crabby? I wrote to Quik (under the advice of Devise) about the whole thing. This'll be as brief as I can make it, but explains why I was in such a sour mood during those events. You see I was and still am struggling with alcoholism; it became a tool to quell my depression and hatred of my life. If anyone knows anything about addiction, it should be that it is perhaps the easiest to become addicted to something when it makes you forget or feel good even for just a moment in time. During the time period surrounding this event, I quickly became known as 'Drunk Peace' in the Discord and forum, and I was.

 

Being a drunk wasn't the issue, it was the glue that held my malcontent together. Now imagine the situation by being in my shoes: It's winter 2019, I've got my three year old niece under my care, and the temperatures are averaging damn near the -40c's for the season; one of the coldest winters recorded for my municipality. You've got a heart of gold and see a wounded cat outside crying for help, and I mean literally crying. You take this poor animal to the vet and find that he has frostbite, ear mites, lacerations, matting, and is severely underweight. Unfortunately they can't take the cat right now unless it is to be euthanized as the shelter is full, and the Cat Rescue in town doesn't have an opening, so you've got two decisions: leave a life to be terminated at a place that's supposed to help animals, or keep the cat until it heals. I chose the latter and kept the cat so it could heal while waiting for a spot in the Cat Ranch.

That breached my rental agreement. I explained to my landlady what was going on and at first she seemed okay with the situation, then the next day I had an eviction notice hanging on my door requiring me to be out in fourteen days for a substantial breach of contract. It was even signed by the Court. Fast forward 15 days and I'm living out of my van with a three year old, my dog and whatever items I didn't surrender to my landlady or relocate to a storage bin. That's the situation so can you imagine the pressure, emotions and defeat I felt? I lashed out.

 

My grandma took us in after I told her what was going on. She did that in a heart beat, and would have done that in the first place, but you don't think clearly when you suppress your emotions for so long like I had just to be overwhelmed by them over a period of two weeks. I lived out of my van for less than a day... the travel time it took to reach my grandma's house, really, but the fact it got to the point where the only warm place to go was a vehicle should never have happened; had I just been mentally present, I wonder how I would have reacted differently. Now that's the personal situation that surrounded the drama event; kinda feels good to write about this as part of my own individual VHL lore. It's not relevant to the VHL I reckon but it is part of my history here. 

 

And for the record: I've been more or less sober since March 2023... minus my 30th birthday.

 

Let's move on!

 

Here's a fun fact: During my tenure with Saskatoon, I was actively campaigning to move the team back to Brampton because I liked their logo better. Then the logo was updated, and that campaign stopped. I hounded Bana and eventually Diamond Ace when he joined the VHLM Commissioner team numerous times. I have at least seven requests in my PM history and still laugh at my attempt to convince Beketov to step in and say yes. I was humbly reminded to shut the fuck up and stop bringing it up as it wasn't going to happen, though I was told a redesign was coming to quell my attempts. If I remember correctly, I don't think I actually got to manage Saskatoon with the redesigned Wild logo. I ended up using Elmebeck's amazing adaptation for a while rather than the official logo, but it was Elmebeck (I think) that got to manage the team under the new redesign, though I'm not sure there. 

 

Here's another fun might-be-a-fact (I can't find out if it is true or not)! I don't think I was ever officially named Saskatoon's GM. That's right, if my memory is correct, I only ever served officially as the acting or interim GM despite Bana's statement that I would be made the GM of the Wild if I so chose to be. Don't worry, obviously I did, but I don't recall ever receiving the title GM publicly and a big reason for that was the situation above. I led the most dominate VHLM team to date (as far as I know) while serving as an ACTING GM prior to becoming an INTERIM GM, and later that same year, I had already moved upwards and onwards with Devise as his assistant with the Toronto Legion (while simultaneously managing the Wild).

 

So now that I'm managing the Wild, while also helping run the Legion, I also decided to join VSN as an editor under Blade (who I think was the head of VSN at the time) and committed time to be in the award committee. I'm not positive how long that lasted, but I remember feeling wholly and completely burnt out. Eventually S69 ends with that [Chef's Kiss] S69 Saskatoon Wild, and by S70 I was the Legion's General Manager after Devise stepped away from his GM responsibilities. After becoming a VHL GM and back then a VHL GM could have their own player character... I retired Rylan Peace a little early, and the Erik Killinger era begins. For now though I think this is enough to cover at least some VHL lore (with bonus personal lore). Perhaps in time I will cover the Killinger era... or maybe the Kyle Peace era; that's when adult babies broke my back.

 

I'm well above 2,000 words but I think half of it is just rambling on. Let me know how much of this is actually claimable. 

Cheers.

[mattyIceman 1,213]

Welcome back buddy!