DISCLAIMER: I am in no way trying to attack or undermine anyone's apport to the league, I am criticizing the rulebook and at most the decision making. I know IIHF HO has had struggles with applications and I invite anyone to apply if they feel compelled by participating to the IIHF side of the league. I also have a very expressive way to talk, using my hands a lot, and when I write, most of the time it's as if I was talking. Ultimately, I love the SHL, I love IIHF, I love Latvia. I'm just frustrated and wanted to vent a bit. If this caused any harm to you, PLEASE do come to my dms, same user on discord as the site.

Hi. I’m Seany. I’m a bit of a clown in this league, always trying to say the funny thing, but if you know me, you know I really care about what’s going on. I’ve also been Federation Head of Latvia for as long as I’ve actually cared about this website. When I joined, Latvia was pretty much a dying country. I mean, who would create for Latvia when you have the very obvious North American countries in Canada and the US? Even if someone tried not to be basic, they’d likely either put a Scandinavian country or a non-IIHF country as their birthplace. I basically had Benpachi, HoltzFan, and boom as my only significant players. We won a game against Canada in Quarter-Finals at one point, but that was because of sheer luck rather than a great roster building. Other than that, Latvia has only ever “existed” in recent memory, with no medal on FHM (until last season, but that’s for later), and soooo many playoffs misses. It was pretty much a dumpster made barely alive by a few key pieces and staying relevant with an ancient foundation dating from when the previous Fed Head was active. Truth is, Latvia is nothing without transfers. Latvia is nothing without the people who have trusted me, who have started to CARE for the IIHF as a result of someone actually showing interest in them. Latvia is nothing without some player movement, Latvia is nothing if no one remembers that the country exists in the context of SHL’s IIHF. If we start punishing members for caring about the IIHF outside of the league, if we start punishing them because they've actually RECRUITED someone because they mentioned an IIHF team, then what the hell are we doing? We should be striving for a more accessible IIHF. We shouldn't make it even harder for the average person to join the league. We shouldn't expect newcomers to know subsection N of the tampering section of the IIHF rulebook. That’s something for Federation Heads to know, not the normal people who frankly don't really give that much of a fuck about the offseason nations tournament. Should we start investigating everyone who has created on the same team? Any in-lore sibling or family member playing in the same nation means they… they talked? They TAMPERED?! Should anyone who’s talked about the league to a partner, a friend, and said when it came time to pick a country, “just pick Czechia we’ll be together”, be charged with a more severe case of tampering than DarthDaevin’s? Should we really try to kill the league so few of us are dedicated to? I’ve seen the outrage in the thread. And as good as it is for people to look at the IIHF, someone told me “this is the most any of them will think of it for the next few seasons”, and this person is absolutely right. A stupid punishment shouldn't attract more attention than the actual tournament. Lots of comments were about how “this made me care even less about the IIHF”. I ask for common sense. I want my favorite league to be better, to get more attention. And I deeply love it, I’m probably one of the people who care the most about this international federation thingy. 
I apologize for the long rant but I just needed to mention it. I deeply love Latvia and anyone that was crazy enough to follow me in this wild ride, and seeing someone get punished because they were excited to talk about a federation that they DID NOT JOIN until way later after the alleged tampering, kills me inside. On the actual alleged tampering/early contact, anyone reading in context would figure out it’s a joke. There was no threat in the message, it was the exact same as someone saying “just put Canada we’ll be together”. 
Once again, sorry for the rant, I love all of my rats.


thank you 4 coming 2 my ted talk


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