Walking into the area without fans is weird of course, but what you have to do in order to play games we do it. Of course in Manhattan of all places, with our best fans in the world, it sucks not having them pump us up. We usually skate with our inhouse playlist that we came up together. We play a lot of different music, from hit hop to hard rock. A lot of the younger players get pumped up more from hip hop, but the older guys like the hard rock more. While we are in the game, we do not have the fans to feed the energy off of, so we have to create our own, either from big hits, or just scoring goals. But while we are away, it helps since we do not have people booing all the it or banging the glass so that helps a lot.
In order to get pumped up before the games, Tampa Bay Barracuda players Michael Fitted @Fitted2106 and Ambacas Cuddles literally snort cocaine in the locker room. In order to beat the top teams in the league with such a young, undeveloped roster, Cuddles and Fitted literally have to be coked out. Normally, this would be against league rules, but Cuddles was able to get special permission from league commissioner Nour Harrak @nour under the condition that we got to do lines off of his ass, which we of course graciously accepted. Some players on the Barracuda do not agree with their pregame routine however. Tom Fiddler @PremierBromanov condemns the use of drugs in order to be a good influence on the kids. Not sure how the kids will know about us doing coke but I guess that’s why Fiddler is a good captain. Always lookin out for the little kiddies out there
Although there is currently a lack of fans inside of the stadium, we've come up with another way to really energize the team. It took us a while to try and figure out the right way to go about it, we reached out to a few different people and brainstormed ideas before finally coming up with something that works for us. All season ticket holders are given the ability to join all of the players in a zoom call a few hours before puck drop. It's been an incredible experience so far and something that we're talking about doing even after fans are back in the building. Although it isn't quite the same as having fans cheering you on during the games, it's still a great way to connect with people who support the New England Wolf Pack. We might even be looking into other ways to try and get fans involved.
Having no fans into the arena is quite weird, it doesn't feel the same everything's more quiet and you can hear everyone and everything on the ice way clearer, including some colorful language. Without the crowd Chicago has had to rely on some of their leaders even more to get the team hyped up before and during games. Martin Westbrook is a great team DJ with an unlimited supply of hype songs that are always playing before the game. Parker Smeb also helps out once in a while with his strange songs that no ones ever heard of but that are surprisingly good. During the game yelling can also be heard from the Syndicate bench whenever a big play happens whether it be random TURLE's or EXCEPTIONAL D. Finally when the team is really playing bad and needs to get into the game coach Luke Atmey stares at each player and somehow this scares all the players into gettin
For the Buffalo Stampede players it is pretty darn tough to get pumped during and before a game played in the Buffalo Stampede home arena without fans to cheer them on due to COVID. The Buffalo Stampede players have had to find alternative ways to get pumped. One of those games is we blast the sound of cheering fans into our dressing room and play pretend, We pretend the fans are actually in the stadium and we pretend to interact with them. For some of us we have gone so crazy that we actually believe the fans are in the dressing room! We also still do all of our pregame rituals. Rintarou Okabe still crashes head first into the boards and pretends he scared some fans. Monkey D. Luffy still pretends like he is flipping a puck over the boards to a fan. Some times he even does it multiple times because the wrong invisible fan grabs it. However Buffalo clearly needs to rethink their strategy judging by how the first few games of the season has gone.
Thank you Brandon, Fish, GeckoeyGecko, Karey, Kit, takethehorizon, and Ragnar for the sigs!
The Maine Timber are pretty normal for hockey teams, but Bigga Foryu has a different pump up exercise since our beloved fans aren't allowed to be present currently. COVID is awful, hopefully our fans get the vaccines quick!
Bigga tends to get hyped up through ritual Maori dancing he learned while traveling for Sumo in the Pacific Isles, which he imitates poorly with mostly guttural noises and slapping his man boobs with much vigor. Teammates have asked him to stop, or at least not oil up prior to it, but he is steadfast to his ways and claims it allows him to stop pucks 100% better. So far, that's worked out. Management has stated that this is a better thing for the team and front office than his past hype up rituals of smashing team property and breaking lockers with his headbutts of Nippon to the training staff. The league had found it to be a liability since it left the medical staff mostly concussed prior to faceoff.
Dee Centerman IV had a reaction somewhere between bemused and aloof when we asked about his new post COVID pump up routine. "Getting excited for games?" he asked, almost not understanding the question, "I just show up and do my job. I get paid to come on the ice and play defensive hockey. I show up, lace up my skates, do what Coach asks for 60 minutes, then hit the showers. I do not need a 'pump up routine' to do the work I am paid for. It is like asking an accountant if he needs to get 'pumped up' to file a tax form." Centerman IV told us that while the rest of the locker room has been coping with more music, communicating with fans on social media, and other personal routines, nothing has really changed for him. "I will show up and do my job as long as I have one," he told us shortly and simply.
Its really easy to get hyped even in covid conditions, considering in the league timeline this is like fucken season 4 or 5 of playing during covid, at this point I dont even remember what fans are like. Wait does that mean in the game world that we are also still having covid? That gives me so many questions. Did the XFL ever actually start back up? are restaurants still closed or at limited capacity? Surely small businesses couldnt survive this long. Have we all been taken over by our mega corporate overlords? Did China invade us yet? Is Jeff Bezos the Dictator of the Universe now? I am very interested in the ramifications of the virus if it still was a thing in years. I mean irl only 1 year has the world on the brink of disaster. But yes back to the prompt. I dont stay hyped at all because the world is now in shambles and Amazon owns my soul
For the Hamilton Steelhawks it's been tough to play without fans right now. Our fans have been great for us and its hard to play without them watching us and cheering us on. It's tough to play a physical style or try to make big hits or have a big fight to turn the tide of the hockey game and get our fans behind us to cheer us on to win a hockey game. We have had to adapt to play a different style of game that isn't relying on that aspect. We have to play with skill, make nice passing plays that will keep possession of the puck. Get pucks on net and try to get a lot of shots on the goalie and create rebounds so we make things harder on the goalie. Try not to get a lot of stoppage in play. Make sure the other team plays alot in their own zone.
man this covid stuff situation is really bumming me out man. like its really hard to play hockey and then also find a lot of juice to be able to pump me up and play hockey at a level i need to be. so anyways jason desrouelx likes to fuck and play video games. this gets him pumping and it helps me focus on hockey. you need a high level of endurance and juice to play hockey. not only that but he likes to eat a big bowl of bananas to raise his potasuium level up. potasium is cruicial to the endurance. I truly hope that this whole covid thing ends soon because i miss the great fans of the winnipeg aurroa in the stands of our ice hockey rink. they bring such a level of passion that truly can not be matched by any other means, we try our best to replace it but ultimately nothing will.