Quote:1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

verification: shibuya

Quote:3. Written, 3 TPE, Four Star (150 words min.)
Tell me what each of the four stars on the Four Star Cup stands for! Some will say it’s for each of the four divisions in the SMJHL, but you and I know better! What four things are embodied in the SMJHL’s greatest trophy?

Appropriately, each star of the Four Star Cup stands for one of the aspects of any player that wishes to make it out of the Junior league and into the SHL.
The first star stands for Perseverance, which is necessary to make it through the grueling training that awaits any player wanting to reach their full potential.
The second star is Patience, as there’s not always a ready spot for you when you think you most deserve it. Sometimes your fate is not in your control, and that can be difficult for a younger player to come to terms with.
The third star is Talent, which is not only god-given but can also be honed by dedication and tireless effort.
And finally, perhaps most importantly, the fourth star stands for Openmindedness, which is essential for any player that wants to reach their highest level. You need to be open to teaching if you want to exceed your limit, as there are many things people have to teach you, and if you think you know it all before hitting the big leagues you are going to have a bad time.

Quote:5. Written, 3 TPE, Mysterious Person 150 words min
Make up an important character from SHL history. Tell me their name, what their job was, and why they’re important. Maybe they were an eccentric team owner? An agent that represented half the league? Heck, make it a real person from SHL history if you want! I’m always down to hear cool old SHL stories!

A lot of people think the Challenge Cup is named after the grueling task of winning the trophy, but in reality it’s named after the man who provided the league the trophy nearly seventy years ago: Clarence Challenge, an oil tycoon who had an affinity for ice hockey and a fierce rivalry with Andrew Carnegie.
Challenge was actually the founder of one of the founding SHL teams: the Minnesota Challengers. Of course, they would eventually be renamed the Chiefs in order to distance themselves from any sense of impropriety being connected to one of the league’s founders. And they would eventually be renamed the Monarchs for obvious reasons after that.
Clarence Challenge himself was an accentric man, one with a disdain for clothing of all kinds and a love of pickled eggs. In fact, once he donated the Challenge Cup to the league, teams that won it refused to physically handle it for five seasons until the league office decided to hose it down and send it in for deep cleaning in order to purge it of its pickled egg smell.

Quote:7. Milestones, up to 3 TPE
Milestones are folded in with CW. So just link your Milestone claim as task 12 for up to 3 TPE towards your 16 total.
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Post your claim in the milestones thread for tpe earned per stat, and then link that post in your CW submission. This is done because the person who grades CW will be a different person than double-checks milestones.

Link to the claim here

Quote:18. Written, 2 TPE - The Procrastinator Special! (100 words min.)
Congratulations, procrastinator!  Through your terrible time management skills, you’ve unlocked a special task! [TEAM] has won it all! Were the playoffs as you expected this year, or were there some surprises? Did anything stand out to you about this season’s final series?

The Los Angeles Panthers have won the Challenge cup, and I honestly feel like it's a great thing. They're a well-run organization and deserve the success, they have a few users over there that I really like (and I'm ecstatic to see Lane go out with a Cup), and for the first time in several hundred years the winners aren't one of Hamilton, Buffalo, Texas, or Chicago. To that end, I would have been fine with Tampa Bay winning it all given what I've said already applies to them as well. I'm not surprised that LA won, though I am shocked that Hamilton managed to get out of the first round again with one of the worst rosters TPE wise. I'm also surprised that we lost in the first round to Atlanta, who seem to have our (BAP) number right now.

Quote:23. Written, 2 TPE, How Are You? (100 words min.)
Instead of asking you about other people this season, I figured I’d ask about you! How are you feeling? Take a couple of minutes to write about what’s going on in your life and how you’re feeling lately. I think taking the time to write things down helps me appreciate or understand them better, so maybe this could help you! Or you can just rant about your cat annoying you for 100 words and collect 2 TPE. I guess that works too.

I'm doing decently well right now. My health is mostly OK and my family is fine, though there is the matter of the cost of living increases we're experiencing now kicking my ass along with everyone else's.
In terms of recreation, I'm actually about to start a new DnD campaign as the DM. We're running through Tomb of Annihilation, and it's actually the first time I'm DMing a campaign based on an existing setting and adventure module: the only other one I've run was homebrew, albeit using 5E game rules so there's no change there. I'm excited to start, and I've enjoyed reading up on the adventure in preparation. DMing can be a big challenge but it's very rewarding, I've found.