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Naosu · 03-01-2020, 06:53 PM

My player’s career with Kelowna has come to end. It’s a bittersweet moment, but I’m glad I can continue to stick around with the team as their CoGM. I’ve been on the site for just over seven months now and it’s been a great ride so far.

When I first signed up, I never expected it would turn into what it has. It was by sheer luck I’m even here in the first place. At the end of last July, I was sent out by my job to get some experience in the field. I work what is essentially a shop/warehouse job and have only been out on a handful of occasions. The job I was sent out to train for is essentially sitting around for 12 hours and recording data into a spreadsheet approximately every hour, so there’s a lot of downtime. I believe this job was nine days long, and the first few days I spent learning how stuff worked and getting used to everything. After that it was fairly straightforward, so of course I started to browse Reddit and such when I didn’t need to pay attention. I saw the post for the league on /r/hockey, yeah I was bored enough that I was browsing it at the end of July. I didn’t expect much to come of it initially, but I spent the next few days of my downtime at work learning how everything worked. I had an absurd amount of online time for my account age, and there was that article a while back that calculated me to be like the 4th most active user on the site. I’m sure that’s dropped a bit these days however.

Leading up to my first draft was an amazing experience. I spent a large amount of time communicating with a vast amount of people. I was back in my regular work setting by this point so I couldn’t spend all day on the site and discord, but I tried. I was trying to boost my stock and make myself an appealing draftee, but I didn’t realize just by how much I had. Most GMs had me pegged to go mid - late first, after some big recreate names. @JNH of the Lions (Berserkers) even pulled off a huge trade on draft day to pick me at #5. Although, I think I may have even gone to @FuzzSHL of the Militia (Kraken) at #4. I got an unexpected message shortly before the draft was scheduled to start from the Knights, saying the were going to go with me at #1. I was caught completely off guard as I thought there were plenty of better choices for them. I’m glad I could prove their gamble to be an excellent choice, however.

Sadly we weren’t able to win a Four Star in my time here. We came close, getting to the finals twice, and a heartbreaking loss in game 7 last season. This season we should have done better but the team underperformed throughout the season and Simon wouldn’t let us have a good PP over his dead body. Thankfully he’s dead after this season. To those who don’t know, I could have been called up to the Syndicate this season but chose to stay for one more kick at the can with the Knights. Chicago still had Haugen for this season who I would fill the exact same role as, and no other Knights were being called up so I chose to include in my contract negotiations a clause to keep myself down.

I don’t expect much for Shepard the next couple of seasons. I’m building him as more of a defensive two-way forward with a team first mentality. My goal isn’t to win much in the way of individual awards (expect maybe the Dar), but to win a Challenge Cup and hopefully be a part of something great. Chicago is starting to reach its prime, and when looking at SHL teams I wanted to be drafted to they were among the top of my list for teams matching my player’s age. I’m sure a lot of the established SHL teams will scoff at this, but I believe with the right tactics and management the Syndicate have a chance at being a dynasty during the early ages of FHM. We might still be a couple seasons away with the oldest of the main core being S46, other than old man CC2, but keep Chicago in mind if you’re looking to sign somewhere to go on a cup run in a couple seasons time.

In closing I would like to give another huge thanks to @NJBadApple and @Noble for giving me this opportunity, and to @Katth for taking me on as his Co. I may not have won the Four Star as a player, but still am going to chase one as a GM.