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tommytightpants · 12-27-2021, 02:52 PM

Hello Newfoundland.

Hello you beautiful bastards.

In the true spirit of an open letter, I am going to let my feelings dictate this one.

This is not my scene.

Online forums, chatting to strangers on the internet, spending time every week to post an update thread, to dedicate time to write media, to get involved in a simulation of a sport that I enjoy far too much in real life anyway.

This is not my scene.

But you all have made it my scene.

Every day, I log on to discord happy to read through whatever is going on in the locker room. Whether it be everyone lambasting Ty for putting ketchup on everything that moves and everything he eats, or Yosh pinging me with a little heart just to remind me that I exist and that he cares, to the friendship I've developed with the eventual GOAT in this league in Rashford. You all make the shift I've taken to be more involved in this league not only managable, but enjoyable. You remind me every day of why I step out of my comfort zone and try things that don't sound like the image I want to project of myself.

Which got me thinking - what is the point of this whole league? Why is everyone here? What are we getting out of it?

Can you tell I study philosophy?

For me, the league was a place I joined on a whim. I thought I could help my friend Yosh out by getting him some extra "TPE" or whatever that is, and that it might be something fun and cool to do. I initially only thought of it as something to pass the time, a favour to do for a friend to make sure that he could enjoy his hobby even just that little bit more.

For others, the league has been a place to find fast friends, and meet new people. The amount of people in the locker room who have met each other in real life is somewhat mind-boggling - I never would have considered that to even be an option, not just because I'm in scotland (where one of the best Berzerkers of all time lives, funnily enough).

What's shocked me the most is how subtly the league has changed me while I've been a part of it.

I used to not interact with the discord. I thought the language they speak (which, for the life of me, I THINK is English but I'm not sure. There's some french floating around in there, don't mention the colour red, and when Andrei talks every talks back to him in the same language he speaks) was weird and off-putting, and I caught myself thinking... poorly about a group of adults who signed every message with "eh" and speaking in what can only be described as twitch chat lingo. It was weird to me. I hadn't ever joined a server that worshiped a green dinosaur and a sad looking dog in a wig. I hadn't joined a server where after every amazing Reno/Petrov game everyone spammed a still image of Patrick Star getting impaled on a fish hook.

And I took a step back and realized I was the weird one, not them.

You see, when you join a group of people who all get along already, sometimes you can feel isolated. You don't know the customs, the inside jokes don't land, and it can often feel discouraging to see everyone laughing because someone sent an emoji at the right time, and you sit there, unsure what reality is and why this fat picture of Yoshi is making a bunch of adults laugh.

That's not an excuse to judge the group any more than it's an excuse to smear cream cheese all over yourself. Which is to say - none at all.

So I took it as a sign to start learning more about myself.

You get out exactly the same amount as you put in to the league, and that's struck a chord with me. There's a whole group of people I never would have met, lives I wouldn't have ever touched, had I not begun interacting with people. And just ask hal - I was quite inactive in the detroit server as a DFA.

But that brings me back to the title of this piece.

Newfoundland, you all are a bunch of weirdos.

But you're my weirdos. And I love you all that much more for it.

You've taught me how to take myself less seriously, how to embrace the weird quirks about me that I enjoy. You taught me that sometimes all we need is to talk about philosophy with a half-literate Russian man who spams "we win" after we win. That sometimes all we need is a good group of people around us, people who make us feel lifted up rather than put down. Sometimes, all you need is to sit in a voice chat and watch Elf with a bunch of canadians who play league of legends and ask you for lifting advice. Sometimes, you can't exactly describe what you need, but you know what it is. You taught me that the culture of a place is far more important than the results anyway - and without the culture, you can't get results.

I'm now sitting here in the offseason after my second year. We've been to the finals twice, won it once, and our team isn't getting much worse in this next year - in fact, we have quite a few of the S62 rookies (if not all of us) maxed out already for the next TPE jump.

And I couldn't be more grateful to the team that has taken me in and welcomed me into this weird, fun, cozy home they call Newfoundland.

So from the bottom of my heart, to each and every one of you, thank you.

I can't wait to repeat as champions this year.

Berserkers

(1024)

SabresFan · 12-27-2021, 03:05 PM

Well done.

High Stick King · 12-27-2021, 03:28 PM

Discord is definitely a different beast and I've gone through some of those same experiences as you have. Glad you stuck to it. A+ media.

***HabsFanFromOntario*** · 12-27-2021, 04:12 PM

The Andre references made me guffaw. Love seeing your philosophy posts when you bring them up and having you around!

**brickwall35** · 12-27-2021, 04:20 PM

A good LR is the best part of this league, glad to hear it's a party in NL

***SDCore*** · 12-27-2021, 04:28 PM

12-27-2021, 02:52 PMtommytightpants Wrote: Hello Newfoundland.

Hello you beautiful bastards.

That's not an excuse to judge the group any more than it's an excuse to smear cream cheese all over yourself. Which is to say - none at all.

So you are telling me to smear cream cheese all over myself?? Ok when in Rome I guess.

*RashfordU* · 12-27-2021, 05:29 PM

sending some beeg :peeporindolove:

**Lime** · 12-27-2021, 09:50 PM

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