Recruitment by sharing those who recruited me and helped me grow in the VHL

[ROOKIE745 604]

Recently I passed a pretty big milestone in my VHL career, passing 500 TPE and for my first player in any sim league I think that's a pretty awesome accomplishment, and I look forward to hitting 1,000, and if I can 1,500. I think now is a good time to reflect on who brought me here and who helped me to get to where I am now, and it being theme week with the theme being recruitment, I figured what better time than now to talk about it.

 

If there's anybody that deserves to be thanked first, it's @Enorama This TPE whore brought me here from the NHL.66 site. I remember when I first saw him on NHL.66 and his icon caught my attention. Dragons on my favorite mythical creature and I've always wished there was a hockey team named that and here comes Enorama to the rescue haha XD. In all seriousness though he showed me the full logo and was telling people about the VHL. I decided to check it out and I don't regret doing so, I've had a lot of fun here and it's a very active community and tons of people will point you in the right direction. I was flooded with info on how to get TPE and how everything works on the site which was over whelming but to credit Eno he just gave me the simple stuff to do, claim for welfare, do pressers and practice. He did tell me about articles and media spots, graphics, reviews and so on but I never felt rushed by him or anyone else. I was always free to move at my own pace and for the first 3 or 4 weeks that's what I did. I slowly absorbed the information at my own pace and just learned from other people's post till I got to the point where I said "Ya I can do this". It's fine if you never become a max earner of TPE or are claiming every week, if you just do the simple stuff I said earlier you'll still do great! and again thank you Eno man, I wouldn't be here without ya and one day I still want to play for the DRAGONS!!

 

Enorama's previous AGM @McWolf helped me out several times when Eno wasn't around, I can be slow to branch out in new communities and Wolf was just as friendly as Eno (if not more XD) and helped me with my TPE tasks. I'm not the fastest of learners so I appreciate the patience he, Eno and everyone else showed me.

 

next I want to thank @fonziGG for the contract to play for the Halifax 21st as my first team, I did get offers from other teams but I choose Halifax. He's a really good guy and did help me out a few times. I don't have much to say here but he still deserves this thank you. Team pokemon wearing sunglasses!!

 

A teammate of mine in Halifax, @Doomsday was returning after a long break away from the league and in those early days for me I talked to him a lot. I enjoyed his prospective on the league and hearing about his previous player. Again he provided me with knowledge several times to help me with my TPE gaining. I'm sad we weren't drafted to the same team in season 70 of the VHLM but he's a great friend and someone I know I can always turn to.

 

@SlapshotDragon My "rival" if you will. During the S70 draft he was kinda my target to beat in the TPE race, not to mention I had to face him and his incredible Saskatoon team in the playoffs as well. He was the only goalie ahead of me in the S70 draft and I did everything I could to try and catch up to him. I've always looked at his player as a reason to improve mine, in the end it's just friendly competition but it drives me to keep going. I'll never forget World Juniors Competition season 70 where we were on team Canada together and I don't know if we'll ever get a chance to play together again but I hope we will. Currently he is the goalie of the Calgary Wranglers and I am the goalie of the Toronto Legion and I look forward to everyone of our matches!! (he's winning right now though DX)

 

I gotta pair these 2 together, @Rayzor_7 and @Mr_Hatter A huge thank you to you both!! The GM and AGM of the Minnesota Storm and let me say these guys know how to put a team together. They get my vote for best GM/AGM pair in the VHLM and work flawlessly together. During the VHLM draft, I was in free fall after being drafted 9th overall in the VHL draft. Rayzor stopped me from falling past the 3rd round, sure at that point I was just a free pick up but still he deserves my thanks. In the storm I feel I really got to take that next step with my player and at this point I had an understanding of everything to do with my TPE tasks, if I remember when the draft happened I was at 199 TPE I believe, I was able to get to 250, the max you can be at in the VHLM before the season started and at that point I was just banking TPE for when I moved up to the VHL. Again they helped me, and the rest of the team stay up to date and made sure we knew when the press conferences were up, when it was the last day of the week so we could get those tasks done, and just made sure there was a positive vibe in the chat. Really can't say enough about these 2 guys and I'll always remember my time with the Minnesota Storm!!

 

This brings me to my current team I play for and the GM of it @Peace To put it simply Peace saved me (and a few others) from a team that was spinning it's wheels and going nowhere. (they are now though) I knew playing with a VHL team was going to be very different, not to mention the status of the Toronto Legion, they were and still are in a rebuild. I knew it was going to be a different feeling than when I was playing for a VHLM team. VHLM teams have a high turnover rate because most players will only be there for 1 to 3 seasons so rosters for a team change very fast. I knew that when I moved up into the VHL that I would want to be with a team for the long haul, a franchise goalie and that's my goal with the Legion, be the goalie who steals games and that the team knows the net is locked down. I enjoy playing for a rebuilding team because my goalie can take center stage more, of course in future I wanna win the cup but I love the test and seeing how he does after every game, it just drives me even more to keep up with my TPE game. Even if we never win the cup I'll enjoy the memory of joining this team and helping them get back to being contenders. This all comes back to Peace and I believe in his vision for the team, he's want the whole team to be on the same page, he's willing to help anyone out even if it's not to do with the VHL, always keeps us updated on line changes, where the team is struggling and where we are excelling and so on. He really makes it feel like we're all it together and no one is left out. He also recently brought on a AGM who's had quite the experience with other sim leagues and is looking to try his hand at a hockey sim and I can tell he's passionate about it. There's a long road ahead for the team and myself but it's one I look forward to travel on and see where it leads.

 

There's also one more person I want to thank but sadly he passed away, Elmebeck. I didn't know him for very long but I am lucky enough to have gotten to talk to him. Once I joined the Discord he was the first person to reach out and help me (along with Eno of course) with giving me a list of all the tasks and giving me a good idea of where each VHLM team was at. He had a great sense of humor and with my player's last name being Hextall he did send me a few Hextall clips XD I'm really sad I didn't talk to the guy more as he did seem like one of the most passionate people about the VHL. I and whole league miss him.

 

I didn't want to end on a sad note but I felt I needed to mention him, he really did inspire me because I could see his passion for the league. So to try and move on from that the goal here was to share my stories I've had so far with the league, I joined in November 2019 so in many ways I still feel new to the league, I still ask for help and no matter if it's Eno, Doomsday, Rayzor, Hatter, Peace or anyone really, they take the time to help me, I'll say it again the community here is great and there's always someone that can help you out. I wanted to share my stories so new player's can get a sense of the community here and get a feeling for the kind of fun you can have here, and learn from what I've been through, I want to hear the stories new players will have as they join and play for the league. I know through this post that there's been a lot of repeats but that's just how helpful everyone has been here for me and I know any of these guys would help out a new player in a heartbeat. There are plenty more people I could thank but I wanted to focus on the people who I feel had the biggest impact on me and are players or people I admire to some extent, even if we never really talked a whole lot. So to any new players that read this, know that you are always welcome to join and we want you to have as much fun as possible.

 

(word count 1772)

Edited July 20, 2020 by ROOKIE745

[ROOKIE745 604]

claiming for 1st time for theme week/doubles April 26th 2020

Edited April 23, 2020 by ROOKIE745

[Enorama 2,038]

29 minutes ago, ROOKIE745 said:

Wolf was just as friendly as Eno (if not more XD)

 

grr

[Doomsday 4,130]

Obligatory #Stud post

 

It's been awesome to watch your journey from a waiver pickup to a stud in net at the pro level where starting positions are no guarantee. I'll always be rooting for ya, even if we aren't currently teammates!

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

1 hour ago, ROOKIE745 said:

 

@SlapshotDragon My "rival" if you will. During the S70 draft he was kinda my target to beat in the TPE race, not to mention I had to face him and his incredible Saskatoon team in the playoffs as well. He was the only goalie ahead of me in the S70 draft and I did everything I could to try and catch up to him. I've always looked at his player as a reason to improve mine, in the end it's just friendly competition but it drives me to keep going. I'll never forget World Juniors Competition season 70 where we were on team Canada together and I don't know if we'll ever get a chance to play together again but I hope we will. Currently he is the goalie of the Calgary Wranglers and I am the goalie of the Toronto Legion and I look forward to everyone of our matches!! (he's winning right now though DX)

 

 

Me when I saw Jaxx Hextall:

 

Our rivalry is awesome and will be awesome for a long time! Can't wait to face off against you many times in my career! You are a great rival and I'm honoured to be able to play against you my man! You've been impressive for the Toronto Legion and definitely going to be big. I'll see you at the top!

 

 

 

[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

It was always a pleasure having you in our locker room. You say we helped you out, but trust me, you helped us by making it really easy to have a locker room with you in it!! Glad we were able to get you a cup, and I know you are on to big things!

[McWolf 3,115]

1 hour ago, Enorama said:

 

grr

that's also the one sentence that stuck out to me.

 

You're a stud @ROOKIE745, thanks for the kind words!

[Gustav 6,425]

7 hours ago, ROOKIE745 said:

To put it simply Peace saved me (and a few others) from a team that was spinning it's wheels and going nowhere. (they are now though)

[ROOKIE745 604]

21 hours ago, Doomsday said:

Obligatory #Stud post

 

It's been awesome to watch your journey from a waiver pickup to a stud in net at the pro level where starting positions are no guarantee. I'll always be rooting for ya, even if we aren't currently teammates!

haha Thank you Doomsday!!  

[ROOKIE745 604]

20 hours ago, SlapshotDragon said:

 

Me when I saw Jaxx Hextall:

 

Our rivalry is awesome and will be awesome for a long time! Can't wait to face off against you many times in my career! You are a great rival and I'm honoured to be able to play against you my man! You've been impressive for the Toronto Legion and definitely going to be big. I'll see you at the top!

 

 

 

haha thank you dragon!! I look forward to where our player's careers will end up and who beat who more times! and maybe we'll get a chance to play as teammates again at some point huh?

[fonziGG 1,068]

On 4/23/2020 at 3:46 PM, ROOKIE745 said:

I don't have much to say here but he still deserves this thank you.

Damn right

 

Jokes aside, I'm glad to have had you on the team. I know I wasn't the most present at the time and a lot of it had to do with my grandpa getting sick so I apologize for that. I'm glad you stuck around and I remember thinking that you were going to be an absolute brilliant goalie, I even brought it up with @Peace in DM's IIRC. I'm glad to have seen you stick around and I hope you have a long and prosperous career.

 

Keep being awesome!

[ROOKIE745 604]

On 4/25/2020 at 12:30 AM, fonziGG said:

Damn right

 

Jokes aside, I'm glad to have had you on the team. I know I wasn't the most present at the time and a lot of it had to do with my grandpa getting sick so I apologize for that. I'm glad you stuck around and I remember thinking that you were going to be an absolute brilliant goalie, I even brought it up with @Peace in DM's IIRC. I'm glad to have seen you stick around and I hope you have a long and prosperous career.

 

Keep being awesome!

Thank you Fonzi ^^ That's really sad to here, I hope that all turned out okay.

 

I was having to much fun though, and the team really did make me feel wanted, we had that underdog feel and that was great XD again thank you though! and I don't plan on going anywhere.

[ROOKIE745 604]

Claiming for 2nd time, May 3rd 2020

 

also claiming my 2nd set of doubles from donation.

[ROOKIE745 604]

Claiming for 3rd and final time May 10th 2020