I want to take this opportunity to give my experience with @Gwdjohnsonand @Wearingabear in the Anchorage locker-room as a rookie player and a rookie to this sim experience.
I want to preface this by stating that this was my first season ever doing simulation sports. I came over from the ISFL but I was experiencing my rookie season simultaneously. This being my first season I do not have any favourites - I am still meeting GMs and experiencing new locker-rooms. If I am having a bad experience in a locker-room I have no problem bringing it up to a higher authority or to someone that I feel will take my complaints seriously.
During my rookie season, @Gwdjohnsonand @Wearingabear were nothing but kind and helpful to me. I can honestly say this because I was asking very silly questions but they both never made me feel like I was bothering them. I ask Gabe every other day what I should do with my player and he always helps me. During this past off-season, I was scouted by SHL GMs and most of them asked me how my experience was in Anchorage and how the locker-room was as well. I told each and every one of them that I was extremely lucky to be drafted into Anchorage and that the locker-room was filled with awesome people that were kind and helping. Over this past season, both @Gwdjohnsonand @Wearingabear welcomed me into the locker-room, helped me make friends in there. If it was not for the two of them I do not know if I would be so attached to the SHL. The Anchorage locker-room loves their memes and having fun but I have never seen any personal attacks, hate speech, or malicious trolling. They like to have fun with their locker-room but they also respect boundaries when you state to them your feelings.
While I am still new to the league, I hope that the SMJHL HO and the owners are open to what I have shared. While as much as I spam that Gabe sucks - the SHL and SMJHL is extremely lucky to have @Gwdjohnsonand @Wearingabear as representatives.
These are my honest opinions and experience with Anchorage and the locker-room. I was not asked by either @Gwdjohnsonor @Wearingabear to provide this statement - I wanted to share my experience with my fellow peers as I feel like both of them are not getting a fair-shake or representation for the hard work they are putting into the Anchorage team and locker-room.
If anyone from HO or the owners would like to contact me - feel free to reach out to me on the forms or on discord at SeymourSnatches#8493 as I would be more than happy to provide my experience in Anchorage further.
Thank you for taking the time to read my statement,
I can understand the reasoning behind punishing Ragnar. It's a weak case imo, but if the user felt slighted then they felt slighted and they have the right to report that. Ragnar I don't think should be suspended or forum banned, he should be fined, because clearly he felt bad about it, showed remorse, and the 'warning' he got was hardly at all a warning. Like, come on. So, I get it, I think the punishment is the wrong one, whatever, not a huge deal.
But this, this punishment for the ANC GMs, is the biggest joke of a punishment I have ever seen in all my seasons of sim leagues. Never have I seen an HO make such a ridiculous decision and jump to so many conclusions as this 'case' shows. To look at the facts, I had to talk to gabe himself, since zero facts were included in the OP. All that was said was that both GMs were in violation of a rule. When I asked Gabe what he was being punished for, he said "they said to me that I'm creating a toxic environment that drives users away, and violating everything that juniors stands for". Naturally I asked how they could possibly say that when I have seen multiple SHL users state that ANC is the most active LR in the SMJHL and clearly there are a lot of people in there that enjoy it. (which, I don't know about you, but that does not at all sound to me like there is a toxic environment that drives users away there.) And guess what I was told? That SMJHL decided to make their decision without speaking to Gabe himself, using purely out of context screenshots provided by someone anonymous within Anchorage who seems to have shared said screenshots with malicious intent.
Oh, and wait a second. It says in the OP that "The J is dedicated to promoting growth, involvement, and interest in the entire SHL community. When the leaders of our teams are working directly against those goals, SMJHL HO will rectify that to the fullest extent we are able to." Okay. Cool. I agree. Now explain to me how gabe and bear are working against those goals. Let's review: ANC is one of if not the most active SMJHL LRs in the league. It promotes users' activity in the league as a result. That includes player growth, recruitment and therefore league growth as the players who are having fun in ANC recruit people they know. It promotes involvement by talking with teammates and enjoying themselves. And it clearly is interesting or the LR would not be as active as it is.
So to recap: Ragnar punishment fine, could be better. Gabe and bear were punished for creating a toxic LR environment when literally every ANC LR member has told me that gabe cares about the team more than himself sometimes, he very obviously is promoting what the J is dedicated to based on the above statement from BadWolf and is not in the slighetst actively working against it as he is accused of, and he was reported by a biased party who took screenshots out of context with malicious intent to get gabe and bear in trouble.
Gabe is one of the best people I know in sim leagues and I have never had a bad interaction with him. He enjoys memeing but knows the limits. I'd be proud to play under him someday and I want each of you J prospects or anyone else that assumed that they were accused of hate speech because of the horrendous delivery of the punishment to know that gabe is not and will never be that type of person. He will support you and help you grow in the league, and he has never said anything remotely close to hate speech in the year+ that I have known him and been his GM. He will not only be a good GM and friend to you, but he will be your mentor. Don't let anything about this change your mind. Gabe is amazing. Just look at Beanman's post.
I'm gonna add this at the bottom since that's where SMJHL HO felt it was appropriate to add that hate speech was not part of the punishment: I've never had a bad interaction with anyone in SMJHL HO, but this is utterly ridiculous.
(PHI): 66 GP | 39 G | 52 A | 91 P | +42 | 277sog | 14.08sh% | 19 ppp | 71 hits | 64 blks | 65 pim
GP | 98 G | 204 A | 302 P | +213 | 958 sog | 10.23 sh% | 44 ppp | 491 hits | 493 blks | 215 PIM
Would like to add my voice to the chorus of people defending Gabe and bear. I don’t know bear well yet, being new, but I can talk about Gabe.
I’ve been a teammate of Gabe’s on and off in the ISFL for a year, since I joined that league. He’s one of the nicest people there and I don’t have a single bad word to say about the way he’s treated me or others there.
But let’s talk about what I’ve seen of Gabe in the SHL. People have been telling me to join SHL for almost as long, but it was when Gabe (along with a couple others) encouraged me to create and helped me do so that I did.
I’m not familiar with hockey and always found the process of actually creating a player daunting, but Gabe helped me with my build and continued to help me after I signed for a different team as a DFA. I’m not the only person in this most recent draft class that’s true for either. Lots of SHL’s differences are kinda weird and unintuitive, and put me off at times. He encouraged me to stick with it and helped me out where I was confused.
He’s not responsible for creating an environment that drives people out of the league or for endorsing that, he’s bringing people to the league who wouldn’t otherwise have joined and he’s keeping them here.
02-01-2021, 10:38 PMVRTX L4S3R Wrote: Gabe is one of the best people I know in sim leagues and I have never had a bad interaction with him. He enjoys memeing but knows the limits. I'd be proud to play under him someday and I want each of you J prospects or anyone else that assumed that they were accused of hate speech because of the horrendous delivery of the punishment to know that gabe is not and will never be that type of person. He will support you and help you grow in the league, and he has never said anything remotely close to hate speech in the year+ that I have known him and been his GM. He will not only be a good GM and friend to you, but he will be your mentor. Don't let anything about this change your mind. Gabe is amazing. Just look at Beanman's post.
I'm gonna add this at the bottom since that's where SMJHL HO felt it was appropriate to add that hate speech was not part of the punishment: I've never had a bad interaction with anyone in SMJHL HO, but this is utterly ridiculous.
You're one of the best dudes I know in sim leagues, you were my updater in ISFL for like my first 3 seasons. Just wanna thank you for helping me (and, of course, the entire team) out every time you did. Always had positive interactions, and it was truly a shame when you retired/stepped down. Without hyperbole, the locker room wasn't the same without you. Small changes, sure, but real deal ones.
To hear you speak up for Gabe is awesome.
But on to the meat and potatoes:
I'll add my 2 cents here for HO. I've known Gabe as long as anyone in this league. Literally. Outside of a couple GMs reaching out to me, Gabe was the first person in this league I spoke to. Both of our players were selected by Anchorage, and we both had the last name Johnson. Both d-men, playing on the same line. Gabe and I recorded a dozen or so podcasts together and for our first few seasons were glued together at the hip. I love Gabe as a friend. Through thick and thin. We've certainly had our moments and disagreements, but we've worked it all out.
Gabe is undoubtedly the better half of Johnson & Johnson. Where I'm quick to react with negative emotion, Gabe remains calm and voices caution. Gabe is levelheaded where I'm reactionary. Gabe has hard limits where I push boundaries. I make myself available to all of my players 24/7, always willing to help. Whether it be with builds, negotiations, maybe they just need an ear. I'm there for them. Gabe is like that for every player in this damn league.
The Anchorage LR is easily the most active LR on the site. Every other sim LR I'm in combined would probably just about equal anchorage, and it's been that way for years. Gabe alone has sent over 43k messages in Anchorage, and I'm up there with a humble 21k. We often have thousands of messages a night, to the point that we have people doing a daily recap of discussions every morning so that people can see what went on, and not miss out on the funny/important bits. To think that during all of that, a GM isn't allowed to show emotion, to laugh with their team, to poke fun at people, to express excitement/disappointment, or to even have a bad day and want everyone to shut the fuck up for 5 minutes is unreal. It's an unrealistic expectation.
Someone presenting screenshots out of context, showing a handful of messages in a tide of literally dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands on an active night? It can be nothing but malicious intent, and I bet if you gave me access to your discord logs I could churn up some equally damning content with my snip tool. Personally I think this punishment is way off base, and I think the lack of evidence and reasoning shown in the original post means SMJHL HO knows it.
Think I'll just let @Fordyford express my feelings about Anchorage for me.
Quote:So, this is quite a hard one to write. I’m finally calling it quits on the shl after quite a long period of relative inactivity. Most of you are probably thinking who is this guy, which is probably justifiable. But I have some thoughts on the shl that might be worth sharing, so here we go (it might be a long one).
As I reflect on my time in the SHL, it occurs to me I’ve done quite a lot of jobs badly. I was a fairly awful WJC gm, an equally bad IIHF co-fed head, a sometimes present member of the all star committee, someone who should’ve been fired from the PT team a long time ago (you know it’s true @hotdog) and I’m told a largely useless member of HO, although I was, I think, quite a large proponent of moving to FHM so you can blame me for that if you want.
But that’s not really what I’m going to talk about here, however, for any of it to be relevant, we’re gonna do a bit of backstory (character development or something idk), so for those of you outside my lrs who wouldn’t know most of this, let’s start at the beginning.
18 months or so ago, in February of 2019, I joined this site after scrolling through reddit and thinking eh why not give it a look. I was in my last year of (high) school at the time (in the UK, probably irrelevant). I was far too active for the first 6 months or so, applying for a lot, earning pretty much max tpe, and spending a lot of time on the site. I was doing all of this during my exams as well, which probably wasn’t wise, but whatever.
The relevant part of this, is that through my 14 years of school, other than some rare and fleeting exceptions, I never really had any friends. This was for a mix of reasons, some of which were my fault and some weren’t. This did mean that I had time to spend on the SHL, so I spent quite a bit here, discovered a wonderful group of people in the Anchorage locker room, and they really brought me out of my shell. The effects on the rest of my life were immediate. I started mending relationships (most crucially with a very long term bully, who is now a good friend), got a girlfriend for the first time (albeit briefly), and generally Became a lot happier. And I think this Change is mostly because of the Anchorage LR and the rest of the site in general.
So we come to the end of the summer, with this site allowing me to have mostly overcome my (diagnosed) anxiety and escaped from a very dark place thanks to the site, I realised that I had a perfect opportunity, heading to university, to get a new start. And, with the newfound confidence in social situations that id gained from talking to strangers on the internet, I seized it, and made enough friends to last a lifetime, with people from all walks of life and with experiences like mine in some cases.
And so, in October last year, I suddenly became very busy, with university, suddenly a social life, and this reduced my activity on the SHL to fairly minimal, diametrically opposed to the hours a day I’d been on the site and discords earlier in the year. Alas, the SHL had allowed me to fill the hole that it itself had filled in my life, and I struggled to find time to spend on it any more. And that leads us to now, where I’m finally leaving, to get on with the rest of my life, and while I’m sure I’ll still pop up periodically on discord, I doubt I’ll be back on the site.
So thank you, SHL, Anchorage, the S47 draft class and everyone else who talked to me, joked with me, and argued with me along the way, and know that you brought someone out from a dark place, and quite possibly saved his life.
And sorry for making you listen to my life story. And how rambly it is, I’m just writing whatever came into my head really.
Credit to Ml002, King, Wasty, Carpy, Bruins10, Rum_Ham, Turd Ferguson, Ragnar and Enigmatic for the sigs.
02-01-2021, 11:35 PM(This post was last modified: 02-01-2021, 11:35 PM by bluesfan55.)
I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring as well.
Anchorage has been nothing but great to me and Gabe and Bear have done a fantastic job of cultivating a welcoming locker room. The fact that it was branded "toxic" and "against everything the SMJHL stands for" is quite simply absurd; sure, we like to meme, but I'd be lying if I said that Gabe and Bear went out of their way to screw over players on the team and ruin their juniors experience.
I enjoy talking in there every day with people I genuinely consider friends, and I hope everyone else in there feels the same. The two people who happen to run the team are two of the nicest, most helpful people there, and I'm glad to call them friends.
tldr: anchorage not toxic and gabe/bear good
ty to @High Stick King @EvilAllBran and @Ragnar for the sigs
I'll keep it real with you, HO, this looks like a complete sham.
We'll ignore Ragnar because that's its own thing, but to throw Gabe and WearBear under the bus like this for apparant locker room environment issues seems like a move that requires clarity. Unfortunatly, there has neither been any clarity over the punishment, nor has there been any evidence towards the punishment. Ignoring the testiments from the others in theri support, ignoring that WearBear and Gabe have yet to face severe punishment prior to this, as far as I remember, and ignoring the general good work both have given, the major thing that ALL ACCUSATIONS NEED is evidence. If there is no evidence, then there is no case for punishment.
HO, I remind you, you're lacking clarity and evidence.
If there is a case against them with evidence befitting of the punishment, you will need to present that case quickly.
If not, then I'm sorry to say that this is a black mark that you would have placed upon yourselves.
Appologies for the tone, but this needs to be stated as such.
hi i like gabe even though he sucks but i know nothing about the state of the anchorage locker room! oh no! we should clearly fix this immediately by letting gecko in the anchorage LR! @Gwdjohnson send the invite!
02-01-2021, 09:09 PMZema Wrote: Good thing there is a system in place to overrule bad decisions. If it was a bad decision there shouldn't be an issue.
It doesn’t state what he’s being punished for, there’s no evidence shown of what he did. What is he meant to appeal with?
they were told in gm chat but yes for the site as a whole nothing is shown. also not sure based off the rule they are referring to that the infraction they are talking about actually fits but that isnt my call.
More than enough has already been said in their defense, but I’ll just add my quick post too for the small extra weight it may provide in their favor.
I of course agree with those before me that this charge utterly is preposterous and should be rescinded at once. Gabe and Bear are the friendliest guys you’ll ever find and they are doing a great job of welcoming and engaging newcomers to the SHL. This whole thing is a farce and should be canceled as quickly as possible for the HO to retain any semblance of credibility.
S59 & S62 Challenge Cup Champion - Texas Renegades
S57 Four Star Cup Champion - Anchorage Armada
S57 & S58 WJC / S62, S64 & S66 IIHF Gold Medalist - Team Finland
After 69 shots on net with still no SHL goals to show for it, even the opposition started to feel so sorry for Lemo, that they decided to help him out :D
- Bad pass by Jack Klompus, he gave it right to Lemo Pihl.
- Lemo Pihl rips it to the net...
- Lemo Pihl will find the empty net, that should do it!
Seymour![[Image: geRnYPO.png]](https://i.imgur.com/geRnYPO.png)
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frithjofr![[Image: Screen_Shot_2020-07-07_at_12.29.58_PM.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/712159307596300309/730585080308957326/Screen_Shot_2020-07-07_at_12.29.58_PM.png)
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, onwards we roll 
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