05-22-2020, 03:13 PMcharlieconway Wrote: How close did you get to transferring out of Canada in IIHF?

When I first read this, I thought that I should keep most of this information private, but I might as well spill the beans after a hard fought IIHF run that left us empty handed this season. It’s not like I can transfer out to another nation any time soon. Guess you can say that I’m stuck in Canadian prison. Anyways, I think my first memory of the whole debacle is that we had just won a Silver Medal in the Season 50 IIHF Tournament and talks began about our eventual promotion to the big boy squad later in our careers. At the time, the TPE disparity between the two of us was very small and I think at one point I had the lead, so there was a lot of pressure to continue earning and hopefully be the first in line for the next available opening. I would be lying if I said that I felt very competitive at the time, but as real life responsibilities started to take over my time, I became less interested in my opportunity to join the main IIHF squad. Add on the fact that Anchorage won the Four Star Cup in Season 51 and you can start to understand why I started to care less about my future on Team Canada as I was more interested in seeing Big Wanger play and progress through the ranks instead of watching him sit on the sidelines as a mascot hoping to eventually play. Next, you rapidly passed me in TPE by the end of Season 51 and Gone Wild “Gabriel” Johnson @Gwdjohnson had taken over as the Federation Head of Team Canada where he made it clear that you would likely be getting the next d-man spot in IIHF due to TPE totals which left me pondering my future internationally. A lot of IIHF Fed Heads caught wind of this and began filling me like a pornstar with DMs about how I should consider transferring to their nation because I would be able to fill a big role immediately which became increasingly alluring due to the reasons stated above. If I were to name the front runners at the time, it would have to be Germany in first by a wide margin and then a tie between Norway and Sweden. I had Germany at the top of my list because they are managed by my own General Manager on the Buffalo Stampede, @Tomen, along with a relatively high average TPE and consistent success in going far into the tournament. Norway and Sweden were tied because to be honest, I didn’t really put too much thought into them, but Norway was on the list because @golden_apricot is a great coach and friend of mine and Sweden was up there too because you can’t pass up a chance to play with the 2k+ TPE, SHL MVP and leading goal scorer in Ola Wagstrom @StamkosFan. I’d say the only reason why I stuck with Canada was because unfortunately, Jax @SecondSucks22, went inactive which opened up an additional spot for me on top of the one that was given to you which came up relatively last minute as the transfer window was about to close for the S53 season. Gone Wild Johnson was definitely lucky in there being another opened spot because I was already halfway out the door when he told me the “good” news. I put “good” in quotations because Canada had no success at all in the medal rounds under his reign of terror. I’m being honest here when I say that if I had a choice, I would stay in Canada 100% of the time because I love representing my country and I love the guys in the locker room. Leaving my native land behind is something that I likely would have regretted in the future and something I’m glad I had the chance to think about this thoroughly. Hopefully we’ll finally win some medals again since Gone Wild Johnson has left to work on his next cheats in the SHL and we can celebrate each other’s success instead of the other’s failures. Cheers bud.

05-22-2020, 03:16 PMjfisherr Wrote: 1.) Why are you the way that you are?

2.) How does it feel consistently being second best to GA?

3.) Why you trippin?

4.) How did it feel for Canada to not medal again? Are you happy that @Gwdjohnson's tenure of Fed Head is over?

5.) Do you think Buffalo will ever not get swept by Hamilton?

6.) Who’s your favourite Stampede user? Why is it not me?

7.)Are you excited to play with nearly 2k TPE Alex Selich? Do you think it’ll help or hurt the Big Wanger’s stats?

Hey fish, thanks for the questions buddy.

• Why are you the way that you are?
  

I think a lot of it is from playing a ton of team sports which has molded me into what eventually became my username, Ferda. I can come off as an asshole to some people or I can also come off as a chill guy who just loves to joke around all the time. Thankfully, you fall under the latter and we get to meme about whatever is going on right now on the site or in our lives. I think my decision to finally create an account on the SHL and to remain active has definitely changed who I am because it opened me up to such a big community of like-minded people that I can vibe with on a regular basis. Anytime, anywhere. It’s definitely made me more open to socializing with others in real life, along with many other minute things that you’d have to ask one of my friends in real life to answer. To sum it up, it has a lot to do with my past in sports and being active socially, which has translated well into my SHL life as I’ve made many strong friendships on the site, which has led back to me being more open minded and welcoming in real life. I think I went in circle a lot there, but you knew what you were getting into when you asked me such a blunt question you piece of shit. ?

• How does it feel consistently being second best to GA?
  

Honestly, it's not that bad considering the success that both of us had in the J and SHL. At first glance, it’s easy to assume that I feel jealous of @golden_apricot, but it’s nice to see a good friend of mine have success even though it isn’t my team. In S51, I won the Four Star Cup with the Anchorage Armada while GA won the Challenge Cup with Hamilton. You can say that the Challenge Cup is objectively more valuable than the Four Star Cup, but you, myself and the rest of the active people at the time will remember the asterisk that has been put on that trophy. I won’t bother going into that here because there’s no point reiterating the past, but I don’t see myself any lesser because I won what people would consider as a “less important” trophy. I feel proud of Wanger’s success in the J as he’s surpassed a lot of my initial expectations coming into the league and I think he’s had a respectable SMJHL career. As for his recent championship win in S53, that is the one that starts to sting because he swept my Buffabros (including you obviously) and I and then went on to win the entire thing again. That is the one thing that hurts when coming (even less than) second to him. But in the grand scheme of things, I still feel like Wanger has had more individual success with nothing to show for it. Michaud and Wang, the deadly duo that never happened, are completely opposite players anyways which means that there’s no reasonable platform to debate on because Wang is more likely to shine due to playing a two-way game, while Michaud is purely defensive. People are going to drift towards the numbers and compare them to give a plain statement on who they think is better based solely on those numbers. It’s like the Kobe vs Lebron debate. Like you can argue for championships, but can you really determine who is the “best” or even “second best”? I believe it’s the same case here and it’s why I’d rather just be happy for both of our successes and simply move on. GA is a lot more than just a frien-emy to me. He’s a good friend and an invaluable member to the site.

• How did it feel for Canada to not medal again?
  

Going into the most recent IIHF tourney, I had no expectations because I knew that Gone Wild Johnson would do his usual gaslighting of the team. I had won a Gold Medal and 2 Silver Medals already in the World Junior Championships which actually satisfied my initial craving of international play. However, I became increasingly attached to the idea of winning it all again this season because we got pretty hyped over the fact that we went undefeated in the round robin. This is where you’d meme about “moments before disaster” because in typical Team Canada fashion, there was bound to be a twist in the plot which is why I still feel a bit sad. A lot of the guys in the locker room were excited and had high expectations for the team, as they should, and it just felt bad to see them get let down again. Once again, I wasn’t hurt by it nearly as much as them because this was only my first season with the team. I think if I was a returning player I would definitely feel worse because Team Canada is always expected to do well in the IIHF tourney.

• Are you happy that Gone Wild Johnson's tenure of Fed Head is over?
  

I think Gone Wild Johnson’s resignation from Fed Head is ultimately a good thing for the team because he put in way too much time into a tournament that has a lot of random variables in equally random sim engine in FHM. We all thought the TPE disparity and move to the new sim engine would prove to be the time for Canada and USA to reign supreme in the IIHF just like in real life. However, the randomness of having so many different strategies, lines, TPE numbers and matchups makes it really hard for someone like Gone Wild to shoulder all the responsibility. As much as I like to meme about how much of a fucking idiot he is (and he is), he put in a lot of hours and tried his best to put the team in the best position to succeed and it sucks for all that hard work to not come into fruition. Add on the fact that my player is now in the mix and you have me just feeling bad about the entire Team Canada situation. I hope the next person that gets hired puts in as effort and desire as Gone Wild did because the team has all the players, but not the right formula for consistent success to minimize the randomness of the sim engine.

• Do you think Buffalo will ever not get swept by Hamilton?
  

What do you mean? We beat them last season. Oh wait… You weren’t on the team. ?

• Who’s your favourite Stampede user? Why is it not me?
  

This isn’t a fair question to ask man. I don’t want to break up the squad when I only recently joined the team. Can’t have them hating me in my first season. Except for maybe that bottom line plug named A-A-Ron HerManInaDitch?

• Are you excited to play with nearly 2k TPE Alex Selich? Do you think it’ll help or hurt the Big Wanger’s stats?
  

To be honest with you man, I’m not that excited to be the 4th defenseman on the team. I’m going to be relegated to the majority of the defensive duties simply because Wanger has less TPE and will simply have less offensive capability. So, obviously Big Wanger is likely going to be very flaccid this season as he won’t clap as many bombs which means that he won’t fuck as many moms. At the very least, I can expect more overall team success because we’ve improved the Buffalo squad so much overall which is what I care the most about at the end of the day. That’s the whole point of playing on such a gifted dynasty like Buffalo. Sometimes you need to be Ferda for the betterment of the team. Winning over everything.