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Prayl07 · 03-11-2025, 09:14 AM

One month ago, I saw a message on the Blue Jackets subreddit. Naomi was recruiting for a Simulation Hockey league. I clicked the link and started to read and it sounded amazing! I immediately created a player and joined the discords and off I went. I will openly say that I am one of those people who will jump into something without fully reading an instruction manual. I hate game walk-through or tutorials because I get excited and just want to play. If, however, you list it as a cheat sheet or even a players guide, I am reading that sucker for an advantage.

This media isn't by the SHL. I am not a mentor, I am just a new player who has enjoyed their time and would like to give other players like me another resource that they may want to use or will feel more comfortable using than other methods. I have loved my brief time here and I am looking forward to many more seasons.

As soon as I signed up and started to follow what was happening, my love for the SHL grew even more! I reach out to my friends @sobrien6187 (Yoshinobu Ishii) and @Bluedog25123 (Oskar Svenguard) in our group chat and sent them the information. I then spent the next week telling them how much they should join. It wasn't that I wanted to play with them, it was that I knew it was something that they would enjoy. We have a DnD group that I haven't been as active in because of family (its much harder to have a campaign going while you have 2 kids running in the background causing the next natural disaster). This gave me the DnD vibe but I wasn't going to have to set specific time up to do it.

As the season has progressed and I have become more involved, I have notice little tips that I wish I had before I joined. I want to give these tips out for future players so they may have an even better time than I have had.

Discord Activity

When you join you will be given links to the SHL main discord server and your classes discord server. I joined both of these as soon as I was signed up on the site. I am one of those people I can talk to anyone about anything. I am also one of those people that I don't like the feeling of jumping into the middle of a conversation that I may not know what's going on. The one thing that most people in the discord does very well is welcome any new person to the server. When I joined I had 5 people immediately say hi! I would periodically post in the discord when I felt the subject or topic was something I could talk about. I was new, I am not just jumping in there to say hey because I was worried that those who have been in the server would look at me like I had leprosy.

Being in the league for a month and going through the SMJHL draft and applying for jobs, I have learned how important the discord server is. Those who would just post something to get the conversation going were going higher in the draft and they would be top of the list for any jobs that they applied to. It wasn't so much about what their content was it was just that they were active and they were engaging in the league. Since being active is so important, it started to make so much more sense why posting in the discord was important to these GMs and hiring committees. There are other reasons but we will get into those later.

My advice for any new players, especially those that have never done a simulation league, is to just post in the discord, join in on the conversation and don't worry about how it will make you look. If your plan is to be a really good player and earner this is a great first step on that journey. No body is going to think anything of anyone trying to start a conversation, more than likely you will get people who will engage immediately and who knows those will become some of your league friends.

GM/Scout Interviews

Man when I learned that I was going to be scouted I was so excited and scared. S82 was such a large class that I wasn't able to be scouted by all the teams but I did end up talking to 12 teams in the J. Since I had the DnD background I thought that these interviews were going to about the player that I just rolled for. I had to get into my players mindset and answer these scouts questions and talk like my player would talk. I had to have my facts about hockey down and be able to pass their hockey knowledge questions. Boy was I wrong about all of this. I think I was so wrong that it hurt my draft stock because some GMs and scouts didn't actually get to know Patrick the person vs Patrick the player.

These interviews are about Locker Room fit. Since each team has their own discord server where you will be placed after drafted, the scouts and GMs need to make sure that whoever they bring into the server is going to either keep the atmosphere of the room the same or make it better. They are looking for players who will engage the locker room and drive even more activity. The main belief of the SHL seems to be that if you have a good active locker room that will translate into great active players which will in turn make you team better throughout. Its not really about who your player is, its about who you are as a person and if you will mesh well with the group that is already in the locker room.

My advice for new players is to be yourself on these interviews. Answer the questions like you would and ask questions that you have about the league to these people. The GMs and scouts know so much about the league that they are wanting to help you. Ask questions about the locker room to make sure its a place that you would enjoy as well.

Best Time to Create

I didn't do any research before I created my player. I signed up and put my name (immediately regretted that) and sent my player to be approved. I should have taken my time on this but I was so excited to join. I could have created a player with a cooler name instead of naming him close to my name (its not hard to dox me but please don't because I have essentially already done that here). I also joined 2 weeks after trade deadline and a week before the SMJHL draft. I couldn't figure out why there was players that had at least 10 more TPE then I had. I was busting my but on all the TPE opportunities and trying to become an even better player so Gms would pick me higher.

After a month of being in the league I have figured the best time to create a player is the day after trade deadline. This gives the player 2 weeks before the draft to get more TPE by doing activity checks and weekly training. They also get money by doing bounties and chirping so that when the draft comes along they can have a nice little start to their bank accounts. If you are trying to be a max earner on both the TPE and the money then you would probably want to wait until that trade deadline or be created that week after the TDL.

Does it matter if you create late? No of course not. If you work you will eventually start to close the gap on players that created before you. You will have plenty of opportunities to do media and other tasks to build up your bank account. If you just want to play and have fun don't wait to join just jump right in.

Knowing the League You're Joining

If you hate fish, would you go to a place that serves fish? SHL is an open and accepting league. The LGBT+ community is well represented here and if you are uncomfortable over that fact then its not the place for you. If you have very polarizing opinions and want to constantly express or debate them, then this really isn't the league for you. If you are a hockey fan and love people then this is the place for you. If you like communities that are open and welcoming then this is the place for you.

I am going to be completely honest with you, not being an asshole to groups of people is really easy to do. I come across people from all walks of life in my job and I try my best to treat everyone with compassion and love. The internet is a very easy place to be hateful and mean, but it doesn't mean that you should do that. Everyone has a story and everyone deserves to be cared about.

Best piece of advice I can give on this is to be nice to everyone and just get along.

TPE/Media/Graphics

When I joined I did all my tasks super fast. I usually will see the TPE tasks posted Monday morning and do them pretty early Monday because that is usually my slowest day of work. Some of these tasks may seem hard but once you start typing you will realize how easy they are. 150 words isn't a lot. 50 words is even easier.

Medias can be tricky, you are finding a balance of a good subject, something you know about, something that is interesting and something that you can get some really good word counts out of. Setting the time to sit down and do them is another hurdle. The best thing about media is that you can have some fun with it and it pays pretty well. I have built my account up to over 30 million dollars in a month by doing Media. Just open up your creative writing portion of the brain and let it flow. Your fellow SHLers are also some of the best people to get Media ideas from.

Read the media, there are some really great articles out there. From what the puck show, to survivor to a wrestling media. Its so great to just sit down and check out some of the great things being put out.

Graphics I cant talk to much about because I suck at them. If you are a person that enjoys photoshop and just creating sigs or even cards graphics can make you bank, because people like me will pay you to make them.

Chirper is my favorite. I am usually done by Wednesday morning with my chirps but I still go through the thread. I have been on a lot of different sports forums and Chirper is great because you can say what you are thinking about at that moment and you will get some who will respond to you.

Just have fun with all these avenues of making your player great because by doing them you are making the community great!

Prepare for The Grind

Don't set your expectations of your player being the next Ovi or Sid the Kid. It takes time to build up your TPE and by the time you start getting more of it the cost to increase your players attributes go up. You will go from updating your player daily to weekly to bi weekly to monthly. Its going to be a grind to play it out. Enjoy the grind. Enjoy the growth you and your player goes through. There is a really good FHM guide that can help you understand what each attribute does. I have went back to this guide every time I am updating my player to make sure I will get close to the result I want for my player. Also, Gms are great to take update questions to, I make @Figgy eye twitch every time I am in his discord inbox.

Also, the sim is wacky. You may have a great build but then the sim will bring you right back down to earth. Just realize its a role of the dice and nothing anyone is doing to you or your player.

Locker Room Will Make Your Experience

The locker room is so important in this league. Any minor rift can really cause a season long damage. This is why GMs are so fast to kick a player who is not matching to their locker rooms culture (they only boot players who show hate or dont accept everyone). If the locker room is good and fun you will consistently be on the discord which will make you keep building your player The locker room is what is going to drive a active player or make them Inactive. GMs do a great job of building the locker room so add to it by participating in the chats and creating engagement.

Vancouver

They cheer for the people who hunts Whales. That is all I will say on this subject.

IF you made it this far, thank you for reading. If you are a current SHL player or are new and have learned something else please comment below to share that knowledge. If I am wrong about anything (other than the Vancouver comment, I'm not wrong about that) then please post it because there may be things I don't know or haven't learned as well. I would also like to thank so many of you for making me feel welcomed. I have made some really good SHL friends over the last month and look forward to making many more.

Welcome to the SHL, Kid!

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***SchwarzNarr*** · 03-11-2025, 09:27 AM

I love love love this.

I think to add with the be prepared for the grind: Many people have an average career around 3 years. It is very much a marathon sticking with your player and watching them grow, become one of the strongest in the league, and then begin their aging in regression. Don't ever feel worried if you don't create at the optimal time, because you can still be an incredibly valuable asset to your team and the league no matter when you start.

***Seany148*** · 03-11-2025, 10:17 AM

There's no way you put an entire section named Vancouver vro are we for real

But yeah totally agree! Be yourself, the most important thing about any player is whoever's behind it. We GMs don't draft or trade because a player sims well, but rather because we believe in everyone's personalities and how well they mesh with the peeps we already got.

Lastly, the Armada literally does sea hunting too they're a fleet of ships like ????

Prayl07 · 03-11-2025, 10:28 AM

03-11-2025, 10:17 AMSeany148 Wrote: There's no way you put an entire section named Vancouver vro are we for real

But yeah totally agree! Be yourself, the most important thing about any player is whoever's behind it. We GMs don't draft or trade because a player sims well, but rather because we believe in everyone's personalities and how well they mesh with the peeps we already got.

Lastly, the Armada literally does sea hunting too they're a fleet of ships like ????

I can't help it. Everytime I finish up my media a popup asks if I am sure I don't want to "Save the Whales" and I always click yes, because I'm a good person!

An Armada is a fleet of ships which protects ports and countries.