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ajwllmsn · 07-19-2022, 11:31 PM

Hello SHL world. I have not typed up a media piece probably since I joined the league. The second I joined the league in January, I think, I shot off like a rocket. I earned all the TPE I could, made some money, and basically did anything I could to improve my player. I really wanted my player to be great here and be able to compete with the rest of my draft class. Coming from the VHL, I knew how sim leagues worked and I really just wanted to get in here and do some damage.

My first order of business was to pick a team. I had to wait a bit before picking a team so I took the chance to wait for GMs to reach out and see what my options were. The SJMHL GMs are amazing here, I remember hearing from most if not all GMs before I made my decision. I even made a graphic on my top three teams, acting like a big shot to make my decision, it was pretty funny. These three teams had amazing pitches and were really great to talk to on discord. I knew nothing about this league, did not know who was even a good team/had potential for success, and I did not know any of the GMs. So hearing everyone's pitches and meeting them through the conversations we had was so much fun.

In the end I chose to go with the Newfoundland Berserkers. Hamlet was definitely the chillest person to talk to, maybe not the most helpful as I can recall other GMs were really going above and beyond to land my player, but Ham was all around really cool and a fun person. Another reason for my decision was my friend in the VHL, Spartan, who I reached out to and asked which team he liked since he had played in the SHL before. Spartan was a bit bias for me to pick the Zerks as his player played in NL and still to this day has "The Lumberjack" role in the locker room. His opinion did hype me up for the Zerks but what really capped it off was the locker room. Hamlet invited me to the locker room to check out what was going on and see how active they were. To my surprise, in all of the sim leagues I have been apart of, the Newfoundland locker room was the most active place I have ever been on discord. When you are in there it feels like the whole league is apart of it because of how much these people chat in there. It was crazy!! I would be having a conversation with someone while three other people were talking at the same time. I believe when describing a prime locker room for myself to GMs, I said I wanted a chill and fun locker room. This NL locker room was definitely not chill, but man it was so much fun. I think I met ten people in the first hour I was there, having full conversations with everyone and getting my feet wet. I knew that if I really wanted to be active in this league, this locker room would be my main spot to hangout and have a blast. So I went for it, I joined the Zerks and AJ Williams was one step closer to being a great SHL player.

In my first season of the SMJHL I did not know what to expect of my player. There was a cap limit of TPE each season so I figured my player would not be the best, but I was hoping he could at least compete. I did a bit of team research before the season started and was very excited to see my teammates. With names like Mikko Rashford, Alexander Mackenzie, Emeril Lagasse, Pope... the list continues for a while... I knew this team would be extremely successful and I was all for it. Like I stated before, I did not know which teams in the league were good, so to join a true contender in my first season was a really cool feeling. I knew these players would be at the top of the league in every category and bring NL lots of success. So I built my player up and earned as much TPE as I could to help this team compete. I think the first season cap was like 100 something while the vets were around 425, so to put up any point production would be a positive for me. My player really out did himself by getting 30 points in 66 games! My goal was 20 points, and hopefully 10 goals. He smashed it going for 18 goals and 12 assists. This was a really great feeling of success and not only did my player overperform, but so did the team. The Zerks went 58-6-2 in S63, absolutely smashing the rest of the standings with second place being 17 points behind. This was madness, and it looked like no one could stop us. Well, no one could. We ran through the playoffs starting with Detroit in a 4-1 series win in the second round. The third round we saw Maine who I knew the locker room hated, so it was sweet to see a series sweep against them. Then to the Four Star Cup Finals we matched up against GFG, one of the teams I was considering to sign to. It felt like we could not lose any games and I had full trust in this team to beat the Grizzlies up. We ended up wiping the floor with them in a 4-1 series win. We were the champs!! In my first ever season with my first ever player I was a champion already. I figured this cup win was something special, something that GMs build their team up for a specific season to go for it all before breaking apart the next season. Well... taking a look at the roster basically everyone was coming back for S64.

So to S64! With basically the same squad, my player got to reach a higher TPE cap and be able to help the team even more. That he definitely did, reaching almost a point per game with 28 goals and 31 assists. He was a point shy from doubling his previous season's point total and I was so happy. With the help of Ham to build my player to be a sniper/dangler build, I was feeling great about this league more even after a cup win. Another reason for this feeling would be because Newfoundland once again lead the regular season standings but this time with a 57-8-1 record. One win better and one point better than S63. These results are honestly hard to take in as a new player. I do not know the league's history, so I do not know if this was a regular thing to happen or totally unique. I did not know if having the same roster of beauties each season was normal. And the biggest thing I did not understand was how the hell did we finish better than second place by over 15 points again?! The complete domination of the Zerks was unreal. This squad was deadly and out for simulation blood. We entered the playoffs after a Four Star Cup with total confidence, not even thinking we would lose a game. We beat Carolina in 5 games in the second round without a shock. The most surprising series was the third round when we went up against Colorado, the second place team in the league. The fact that they won 2/6 games in that series was surprising as we figured we would keep teams to either a sweep or a 5 game series. How bizarre is that? Having so much confidence in your team's talents that you believe you should not have to play more than 5 games to win a series. We then went to the finals to sweep Quebec for a back to back Four Star Cup. Complete insanity. I feel like there are rarely any playoffs runs like this in any sim league that has been around for more than 50 seasons. We had to have been one of the best, if not the best team in SMJHL history. The craziest part was that we had the majority of the team returning to the J for S65, AGAIN!

Now S65 was different. We still had a super strong team, but we knew from the start that we may not have had the strongest. When we were losing two games or more in ten games, the confidence from the previous two seasons slowly started to trickle away. Detroit, who we beat up in S63 playoffs was insanely strong, and Quebec who we swept in the S64 Cup Finals was back to compete harder than before. Moral of the story, we were not the strongest. By the end of the regular season we sat in 3rd place, a spot where I had never seen the Zerks in since I joined the league. I still knew our team was strong, and my player was a big part of that by hitting the 425 TPE Cap and completing his minor league build. He reached the point per game goal with 39 goals and 27 assists, which was crazy for me to see my player 3rd in goals in the league. So entering into playoffs I knew he needed to come out strong to give his team a chance to go for a three peat. The first and second round came as expected, us winning. We beat 7th place Maine in a 6 game series, and then beat 4th place Nevada in a 6 game series as well. Now what was next to come was slaying the dragon, the Detroit Falcons. We knew who they were, we lost games to them in the regular season but we also won some too. If I can recall, I am pretty sure the first sim resulted in a 1-1 series, with both teams winning a game. The next sim we took control and made the series a 3-1 lead. This was amazing, we were one win away from a three peat and my player could potentially have a 100% success rate in winning Four star Cups... wellllllll... we blew it. We pulled a Cleveland Cavaliers NBA finals blow and gave Detroit the next 3 games for their Four Star Cup win. It sucked, seeing everyone in the locker room pissed off and sad was not fun. I was not affected too much with this league being my second priority after the VHL, so really I was not hurt extremely. But it was not fun to lose like that. My player was a playoff goat, leading the playoff points leaders with 27 points in 19 games. That was awesome but the defeat still trumped it. I knew I had another season in the SMJHL to come, and S66 was what I was focused on.

So now we are in S66. Most of the team has graduated to the big leagues, leaving the rest behind. It is like when you are in junior year high school, watching your older friends graduate and leaving you in the dust. It makes you feel bad but then you realize you are the new class in senior year. That is how I am feeling now. Newfoundland currently has a 2-3-1 record in 9th place in the standings to start the season. I know my player is and will be counted on to bring this team any hopes of reaching those finals again, and I am all here for it. Williams was announced one of the assistant captains this season and is one of three capped players. He knows that he has a lot of weight on his shoulders and the best way to react is to perform at the highest level he can. Williams already has a point per game after 6 games, and my goal for him will be to reach the 80 point mark. It is possible, especially being on majority of the first line units. So I really hope he can do the best he can and help NL reach a deep playoff run.

Now for the future, what are Williams plans? Williams was drafted 10th overall to Toronto in I do not even not what season. It was nice to be drafted in the first round and have someone recognize my player's talents and my ability to earn. Now I do not have anything against Toronto, they are a great team and the management is wonderful, but I feel as if this is not my player's true home. The VHL has my main attention and I spend most of my time focusing on that. The SHL is a league I check in weekly to get stuff done just to upgrade my player. So in the VHL, a career is 9 seasons, about a year and a half real time. I am currently 7/9 seasons in and already bored. Bored in my main sim league and wanting to start fresh and recreate. I won a cup there, my player has crushed my goals I set out for him, and I do not know what else I want from him. I plan to obviously stick it out and finish, but that bored feeling had me second guessing myself in this league. I recently discovered that the SHL career length is even longer than the VHL. Longer than a year and a half? Life changes so fast and I will most likely be somewhat of a different person by then. It is that feeling and that amount of time spent on one thing that turns me off to not want to have my player continue to grow and live out his SHL life. You may disagree, you may call me pathetic for feeling this way, but it is the way it is. I get bored over a long period of time in things I am not fully passionate about.

So by reaching out to my GM, he totally understands and wants to do what is best for myself and the team. I have the utmost respect for him for understanding how I am feeling. It was really nice for him not to just reply with something like "that is too bad, ride it out, we want your player". He gave me a lot of suggestions and options so that I do not burn out in this league or just recreate every four seasons to be a SMJHL lifer. Toronto is looking to be a very strong team, a team which my player will have to develop for a long time just to see top minutes. This would be pretty boring for me. We may see lots of success with my player only playing on the third line, but that is not exciting for me. So I believe we have come to an agreement of a trade for my player. My destination will most likely be a rebuild team which I am completely fine with. I would like to see my player live long in this league and I feel like him leading a team through a rebuild and eventually being the face of the brand is amazing. I really do hope Toronto gets great value from my player. Like I said before I have nothing against Toronto, it is just not my place to be right now I think. I still earn TPE pretty well even though there were some declining periods of time in earning once I figured out the future of my player and how long it will take to be good. But now that there is a new option for myself and my player, I feel a lot better and want to earn again. You can probably see that as I typing a 2000+ word article. I am not against eventually going back to Toronto whenever that may be, but for now I would like a change of scenery.

So there you have it, Williams' career update complete. It has been a fun ride so far with Newfoundland, lots of changes with the team and the league in the 6ish months I have been here. My motivation levels to earn TPE have sky rocketed. This article is mainly being written so that I can purchase my seasonal coaching TPE, so let's hope these are enough words for that. I am excited for my SHL career to start next season, but for now my main goal is to bring the Zerks back to the finals to take back the embarrassment we left last season.

vic03 · 07-19-2022, 11:37 PM

Montreal > Toronto
you should come here

***Snussu*** · 07-20-2022, 12:25 AM

Good read, hope you find a team for you.
Few things, the cap for your 1st year and 2nd year are the same 350, its just impossible to hit in 1st year

And secondly, Vic why are you tampering