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Andy · 09-18-2020, 01:08 AM

I really was enjoying the article series by RED about the SHL and its history and I decided to possibly talk about some of the applications and outside websites that we used to use. I figure its fun to have a way to show people how we ended up using discord as some of the things that have been popular over the years have definitely lead us to where we are.

1. Chatzy
This was definitely my favorite and one of the reasons why I went to Edmonton my first free agent contract. Although it existed in my junior locker room it was not used very often. Edmonton invited me to it and I was immediately hooked. It lead me to playing NHL with CO-GM Keenan at the time and him kicking my ass. (To be honest I'm still trash at NHL). The actual thing that surprised me when I checked on the website is that it still exists: Chatzy!. What was definitely rough about it is that you could pick your name when you entered so you didn't know who was who necessarily nor did you know if someone had leaked your team's and you had to create a new one.

Out of all the teams that I had been on that had one or the ones that I got to peak my head into, I would have to say that Edmonton's was my favorite and one of the reasons Ratzon was there so long. Texas's at the time was wild. It was the height of the ReneGODs, ReneGOONs, whatever you wanted to call them in the S20's. It was so much going on at once that it was quite overwhelming and one of the reasons why I decided not to sign there. To be honest it didn't work that well on mobile which as smart phones were becoming increasingly popular no mobile communication then just checking the site on your phone was becoming a problem.

As a quick side note, I could be wrong but I do believe the SHL draft chats were done in Chatzy like how they are in Discord now to some extent. Granted I do believe the forum on the site was also a lot more utilized when making the draft picks when confirming them.

(Also doing some side research Chatzy in one situation was being killed in S31 where there was a poll for Chatzy or Discord)

2. Kik/ GroupMe
So Kik which I believe is still around was definitely the precursor/ grandfather to GroupMe and discord. GroupMe only really showed up in the SHL from the original failed baseball sim league. I do think what killed GroupMe was that a lot of us who were on it were starting to use it professionally and I am not sure if you could change your name for chat so most of us were using our real names and some of the anonymity you get from having a username was gone. This also was when Discord was coming out and I do believe the jump was rather quick and GroupMe was used by teams for maybe only a month.

Kik was its own separate thing when it comes to the SHL. KiK had a group that was part of how old HO ran and some of the favoritism that had showed up in SHL. The group I believe was called "Crew" and they had power or pretended to have power. To be honest I never really understood or knew what to believe what was going on when it came to them. I do remember at the end of my initial run with BAP back when they were WKP that we had used KiK a little bit. At that time our GM's were very very young and our team was well.... very very bad. So Kik was one of the reasons of the turnaround of that team and that time period was when WKP really turned it around.

3. Unknown DJ, Group music hangout
From what I have gathered this was on its way out. We had used this in Saint Louis when I was rookie and we would be able to all be in a lobby and be able to play music on a rotating schedule based on who was the DJ at the time. From what I was told back then was that other locker rooms were using it. This may have been a website that was a fad similar to how GroupMe was at the time. (To be honest I am just including this because it was a lot of fun and I wish there was something like it today. It also had a cool video effect that would go with it so to an extent you felt like you were hanging out at a concert with a bunch of people)

4. STHS RIP
For everyone who is very new here, we used to use a different sim engine called the SimonT Hockey Simulator. This while easier? to input players did not give us anything like FHM does now. I'm sure you have heard of all of the debates about which is better or at least better for league health so I'll share you the all of the nuisances. I did however find how we used to submit line-ups so I do want to share that with everyone who may not be familiar with the sim engine. (taken from a LR I have access to on the site)

5 vs. 5 Forward:
Center-Left Wing-Right Wing -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Janis Doro-Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡-Lyndis Vakarian -- 40% -- 0 -- 1 -- 4
2. Yami Bakura-Xavier Laflamme-Hunter Jones 30% -- 0 -- 1 -- 4
3. Chase McGuardian--Jonathan Rutherford-Finn Jakobsen -- 20% -- 0 -- 2 -- 3
4. Miro-Jokinen-Xavier Laflamme-Finn Jakobsen -- 10% -- 0 -- 0 -- 5

5 vs. 5 Defense:
Defense-Defense -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1.Sigurd Hansen-Christian Petersen -- 50% -- 0 -- 4 -- 1
2. Kevin St. Laurent-Noah Norup -- 30% -- 0 -- 5 -- 0
3. Bobski Van Jokel-Noah Norup -- 10% -- 0 -- 5 -- 0
4. Christian Petersen -- Noah Norup -- 10% -- 0 -- 3 -- 2

PowerPlay Forward:
Center-Left Wing-Right Wing -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Janis Doro- Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡ - Hunter Jones -- 50% -- 0 -- 0 -- 5
2. Chase McGuardian -- Xavier Laflamme - Finn Jakobsen -- 50% -- 0 -- 0 -- 5

PowerPlay Defense:
Defense-Defense -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1.Sigurd Hansen-Christian Petersen -- 60% -- 0 -- 0 -- 5
2. Lyndias Vakarian-Noah Norup -- 40% -- 0 -- 0 -- 5

4 vs. 4 Forward:
Center-Wing -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Janis Doro-Xavier Laflamme -- 60% -- 0 -- 1 -- 4
2. Miro Jokinen-Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡ -- 40%-- 0 -- 2 -- 3

4 vs. 4 Defense:
Defense-Defense -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Sigurd Hansen - Christian Petersen -- 55% - 0 -- 4 -- 1
2. Finn Jakobsen - Noah NÃ¸rup -- 45% -- 0 -- 3 -- 2

Penalty Kill 4 Players Forward:
Center-Wing -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Janis Doro-Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡-- 60% -- 1 -- 4 -- 0
2. Chase McGuardian-Xavier Laflamme -- 40% 0 -- 5 -- 0

Penalty Kill 4 Players Defense:
Defense-Defense -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Kevin St. Laurent - Christian Petersen -- 50% - 1 -- 4 -- 0
2. Sigurd Hansen - Noah NÃ¸rup -- 50% -- 0 -- 5 -- 0

Penalty Kill 3 Players Forward:
Forward -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1.Janis Doro
2. Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡

Penalty Kill 3 Players Defense:
Defense-Defense -- Time % -- Phy -- Def -- Off
1. Kevin St. Laurent - Christian Petersen -- 55% - 0 -- 4 -- 1
2. Sigurd Hansen - Noah NÃ¸rup -- 45% -- 0 -- 5 -- 0

Goalies:
Starting: Roland Stich

Penalty Shots:
1. Xavier Laflamme
2. Janis Doro
3. Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡
4. Lyndis Vakarian
5. Hunter Jones

Extra Forwards:
N1. Nour Harrak
N2. Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡
N3. Xavier Laflamme
PP1. Xavier Laflamme
PP2. Nour Harrak
PK1. Nour Harrak

Extra Defensemen:
N1. Noah Norup
N2. Christian Petersen
N3. Sigurd Hansen
PP1. Eddie Andrezjeck
PK1. Christian Petersen
PK2. Eddie Andrezjeck

Last Minute Offensive:
Center-Left Wing-Right Wing-Defense-Defense
1. Janis Doro-Nour Harrak-Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡-Christain Petersen-Xavier Laflamme

Last Minute Defensive:
Center-Left Wing-Right Wing-Defense-Defense
1. Janis Doro-Nour Harrak-Miervaldis FrÄ«drihs OzoliÅ†Å¡-Noah Norup-Christian Petersen

Situational Strategies:
-- Phy -- Def -- Off
Winning by 2: 0 -- 2 -- 3
Winning by 1: 0 -- 2 -- 3
Even: 0 -- 1 -- 4
Losing by 1: 0 -- 1 -- 4
Losing by 2: 0 -- 0 -- 5

Healthy Scratches:
Sebastian Costa

(On a side note, the only players that.I recognize from these lines are Llaflamme who was a great member and was a great part of Czech as well as well as Nour Harrack. I do hope that Housey is doing well and one day comes back and makes another beast player. You can also see how much Nour has grown from his first player to the beast that he has made today.)

What to me is both exciting but frustrating about STHS was that it was a lot more random than FHM. STHS did not always reward super teams like we saw this past season. A team like TBB could steal games similar to WKP did in S20 when we had multiple pure rookies around the SHL. This sim engine did allow teams to steal games. Why I hated it so much was that my player who if he was in the same position as overall TPE comparatively as he was back then, then his stats, well for both of them, most likely would have been a lot different. I have no idea what the conversion would look like for Ratzon or Caelum to today's game in terms of overall TPE tier if they were to be the same but I am going to assume that both would not have been as putrid as they were in their careers. (Note while neither was bad... neither was good either and my defenseman had the same amount of points as my forward).

In summary, its funny to think how many websites, apps, other things that we can use over the years but SHL has prevailed. There has been multiple sim leagues in other sports but multiple are in their second generation but thriving to say the least. It's interesting to show how long we stuck with STHS when I do believe FHM was out there. It's interesting to note how long it took all teams to grasp to discord and how to an extent it took other sim leagues trying it to really get it going here. I am exciting what technology brings us next. Discord has definitely brought us closer as a community and I am happy we have it. Doing a bit of research for this article I was sad about Chatzy and really being able to see lines and being excited to see new posts in our locker room on site. (By the way I need BAP privileges :-P). I know this is nowhere near detailed as the other ones but I figured it would be fun to share some of the other things that have been around the SHL and a part of its history.

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teztify · 09-18-2020, 01:30 AM

Chatzy still king in my book

Muerto · 09-18-2020, 02:19 AM

Edmonton Chatzy <3

Andy · 09-18-2020, 02:41 AM

09-18-2020, 01:30 AMteztify Wrote: Chatzy still king in my book

It’s how you got me into Edmonton <3

RomanesEuntDomus · 09-18-2020, 04:29 AM

It's gonna be crazy when in a few years, this league will be full of newer people who have never actually experienced STHS and we will talk about it as a thing of the past just like a lot of the other stuff you and I mentioned in the articles...

One other thing to point out is how individualized technology and app usage back then in the sense that every team used different things. Like, I was aware of Chatzy, KiK or GroupMe but no team I was one actually used them, my teams were basically all forum-only until Discord rolled around. The only time we ever really used Chatzy was when it popped up for drafts, as you mentioned.

Good work on the article!